IS THERE MONEY IN POULTRY? 
proves the growing demand for poultry and eggs to be a real 
growing demand, not a turning to poultry products because 
of the high price of other foods, as is sometimes stated. 
Less Ham and More Eggs. 
Certainly we, as a nation, are rapidly becoming eaters of 
hens and of hen fruit. Reasons are not hard to find. Poultry 
and eggs are the most palatable, most wholesome, most con- 
venient of foods. Our demands for the products of the poultry 
yard grows because we are learning to like them, and because 
our prosperity has grown and we can afford them. 
Another reason that the consumption of eggs is growing 
is because the condition in which they reach the consumer is 
improving. The writer may say some pretty hard things in 
this work about the condition of poultry and eggs as they are 
now marketed, but any old-timer in the business will tell you 
stories of things as they used to be that will easily explain 
why our fathers ate more ham and less eggs. 
Yet another reason why the per capita consumption of hens 
as Measured in pounds or dollars increases, is that the hen 
herself has increased in size; whereas John when he was 
Johnnie ate a two-ounce drumstick, now Johnnie eats an 
analogous piece that weighs three ounces. Perhaps, also, we 
have a growing respect for the law of Moses, or may be vege- 
tarians who think that eggs grow on egg plants are becoming 
more numerous. 
Our consumption of pork per capita has, in the last half 
century, diminished by half, our consumption of beef has re- 
mained stationary, but our consumption of poultry and eggs 
has doubled itself, we know not how many times, for a half 
century ago the ancestor of the industrious hen of this age 
serenely scratched up grandmother’s geraniums and was un- 
molested by the statisticians. 3 
Who Gets the Hen Money? 
Seven hundred millions of dollars is a lot of money. Who 
gets it? There are no Rockefellers or Armours in the hen 
business. It is the people’s business. Why? Because the 
nature of the business is such that it cannot be centralized. 
Land and intelligent labor, prompted by the spirit of owner- 
ship, is necesary to succeed in the hen business. Land the 
captains of industry have not monopolized, and labor imbued 
with the spirit of ownership they cannot monopolize. The 
chicken business is, in dollars, one of the biggest industries 
in the country. In numbers of those engaged in it, the chicken 
business is the biggest industry in the world—I bar none. 
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