CHAPTER III 
THE POULTRY PRODUCING COMMUNITY 
The builder of air castles in Poultrydom invariably starts 
out with a resumé of the specialization of the world’s work 
and the wonderful advances in the economy of production of 
the large corporate organization, compared with the individual 
producer. 
The lone blacksmith hammering out a horseshoe nail is con- 
trasted with the mills of the American Steel Company. The 
fond dreamer looks upon the steel trust, the oil trust, the de- 
partment store, the packing house, the chain groceries, the 
theatrical trust, and the colossal enterprises that dominate 
every field of industry save agriculture. Here, then, lies the 
neglected opportunity for the industrial dreamer to hop over 
the fence, awaken the sleeping farmer, and fill his own purse 
with the wealth to be made by applying modern business 
methods to agriculture. 
The knowing smile—the farmer may be asleep and he may 
not be. Suppose that he is, does the fond dreamer dream that 
he is the first man from the industrial kingdom of great 
things to look with hungry eyes at the rich field of agricul- 
tural opportunity, basking in last century’s sun? Alas, fond 
dreamer, your name is legion. Every farmer who has sent a 
son to college has known you and the Hon. William Jennings 
Bryan has met you, called you an agriculturist and defined 
you as a man who makes his money in town and spends it 
in the country. - 
But the dreamer is right in his first premise—great econo- 
mies in production are the result of specialization and com- 
bination. Why not then in agriculture? I'll tell you why. 
There is a touch of nature in the living thing that calls for 
a closer interest on the part of the laborer than the industrial 
system of the mine and factory can give. 
Why is combined and specialized production more economi- 
cal? It may be because it gets more efficient work out of 
labor, it may be that larger operations make feasible the em- 
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