32 POULTRY PRODUCTION 



The Producer. — By a "producer," reference is made to a 

 person who raises poultry primarily fur liiimaii consumption. 



During tiie last twenty-live years a great many attemi^ts 

 have been made to operate farms which had as their principal 

 market crops, poultrx- and eggs. In fact, numerous attempts 

 have been made to go beyond this and siiecializc on a cert:nn 

 sort of product, and through the nineties, broiler, egg, and 

 roaster farms were frequently heard of and much cxjihiitcil 

 by the press. 



Today farms of an>' consiilcrablc size that lia\'e dc\X)ted 

 their entire attention to ])oultry pi-oduction (aside from duck 

 raising) and have been a business >uci-ess for a jxriod <if ten 

 years arc exceptions and gciicr;illy due to cspn-ially a(l\'an- 

 ta.geous conditions of jiroductiim or m:n-kct, not generally 

 availal)lc. While there are no reliable statistics co\ering 

 the point, the \'ast majority of ])rodurers are general farmers 

 whose ])oultry raising is carried on as a sul)ordinate line in a 

 system of diwrsificd farming. 



Hastings,' who has had e\'cry i>p])((rtunity to obser\'e, 

 thinks that "more than OS per (/ent nF the jioultry and eggs 

 are produced on the general farm," wfiile Uobinson- hazards 

 the opinion that "the greater part, probably o\'er 00 per 

 cent, of all the poultry sold in the ['nitiMl States is produced 

 by poultry keepers who clo not make a business of potdtr\' 

 culture, Init keep ])oultry on a small scale while gi\ ing their 

 attention chiefly to some other occupation, iisually general 

 farming." 



In the extreme eastern and western states and in the 

 \icinity of certain of the large cities in the central states, 

 there are sections containing nuniero\is small tracts ui\"en 

 o\er to the i)roduetion of eggs and ]ioultry for spccialtrades. 

 Possibly the best known of these is the I'etaluma district 

 of California, which si)ecializes in white eggs and broilers 

 for the winter tourist trade. The Mncland district in New 

 •lersey, as described by Lewis,'' furnishes new-laitl white 



' Formerly with tlie Burt.Tu uf Animal Industry. United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



-■ Principles and Practice nl Poultry Cullure. 

 ■' Productive Poultry Husbandrw 



