:ij, PROFITABLE POULTRY PRODUCTION 



reasonable supply of eggs at this season and all 

 the eggs they produce are sold at extreme prices 

 without the slightest difficulty. Such methods are 

 easy to apply in many districts. The only thing is 

 that people have not thought them out. 



Eggs which reach the New York market labeled 

 " fresh gathered " are generally of very uneven 

 quality, because shippers have forwarded stock just 

 as collected from the farms. Much of this stock 

 has been held in farm cellars or country stores, 

 sometimes for weeks, in the hope of higher prices. 

 'It arrives in the market shrunken and so inferior 

 that it is of slow sale even at low prices. For his 

 own protection the city commission merchant 

 grades very thoroughly. The system, or rather 

 lack of system, in the country is to blame. When 

 •fowls are properly managed and eggs are sold as 

 soon as possible after being laid, there are few 

 ■complaints of poor quality on the part of buyers or 

 low prices on the producer's part. Owing to an- 

 nually increasing demand they have all stocks 

 cleaned up before the advent of the spring egg 

 freshet. 



Only a small proportion of the eggs received are 

 of " strictly fresh " quality. All such are snapped 

 up immediately. This should prove a great en- 

 touragement to the producer. Most of the " freshly 

 ■gathered " eggs come from the South ; not many 

 irom the West. The Southern stock is very mixed. 

 : Hennery eggs are in a class by themselves. They 

 are white-shelled eggs in the New York market, 

 , brown-shelled in New England, produced on com- 

 paratively near-by farms. Always scarce and ai- 

 rways superior because hurried to market, they 

 command wholesale prices usually about 40 cents 



