WHAT BRANCH OF THE BUSINESS? 
throw away his butter fat, we would have an analogous case 
to the broiler raiser who does not keep his pullets for egg pro- 
duction. 
The young cockerel, like skim milk, is a by-product and may 
pay over the cost of feeding, or some other specific item, but 
that he does not pay the whole cost, including wages for the 
manager is proven by two facts: First, every large broiler 
plant yet started has either failed flatly or shifted its main 
line to other things; second, egg farmers would be only too 
glad to buy pullets at the price for which they sell the cock- 
erels—a confession that it costs more to produce broilers than 
they will bring. 
The conception of the broiler business when it was boomed 
twenty years ago was to produce broilers in early spring. 
when other folks had none. It was, like the early watermelon, 
or the early strawberry business—to make its profits in ex- 
treme prices. 
This idea received several severe blows from the hands of 
modern progress. One is the development of poultry fattening 
and crate feeding in this country. This has resulted in supply- 
ing the consumer with choice chicken-flesh that can be pro- 
duced more economically than broilers. Formerly it was a 
case of eating old hen—rooster, age unknown, or broilers— 
now we have capon, roaster, crate-fattened chickens and green 
ducks, all rivals for the place formerly occupied exclusively 
by. the_broiler. 
Again, the improvement of shipping and dressing facilities, 
the universal introduction of the refrigerator car and the in- 
troduction into the central west of the American breeds, has 
flooded the eastern market with a large amount of spring 
chickens—by-products of the egg business on the farm—which 
are almost equal in quality to the down-eastern product. 
The most prominent reason of the lessened profit in broilers 
is the development of the cold storage industry. Cold storage 
destroys the element of season, and allows only that margin 
of profit that the consumer is willing to pay for a fresh killed 
broiler from a Jersey broiler plant, as compared with last 
summer’s product from the Iowa farms. From a summer copy 
of Farm Poultry, I quote the Boston market: 
Fresh killed Northern and Eastern: 
Fowls, choice..... oe: Shute ages abe RS aaiwees 15¢ 
Broilers, choice to fancy .............. 28-25¢ 
Western, ice packed: 
Fowls, choice ............ ian Re blancs 14¢ 
Broilers, choice ..........cecseeeaeees 20-22¢ 
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