POULTRY PRODUCTION AND POULTRY INDUSTRY 27 



Table VIII. — Showinq the Comparative Rank of the First Ten 



States with Regard to the Number of Poultry Kept, 



AND Their Total Value.' 



Rank. Numbers kept. Rank. Total value. 



1- Iowa 428,.352,515 1. Iowa $27,779,603 



2. Illinois 25,864,558 2. Missouri 25,470,023 



3. Missouri 25,610,515 3. Illinois - . . 25,234,061 



4. Ohio 20,604,103 4. Ohio 20,693,940 

 5- Texas , 19,024,124 5. Pennsylvania 18,639,535 



6. Kansas . 17,298.041 0. Indiana 16,757,365 



7. Indiana 17,147,576 7. Texas 10,674,947 



8. Pennsylvania 15,226,961 8. Kansas 15,453,-540 



9. Minnesota 13,663,443 0. New York 15,348,600 

 10. Nebraska 11,932,243 10. California 15,293,570 



The rank of these states with reference to numbers and 

 vakie differs somewhat. The causes for this difference usually 

 lie in the quality of the poultry, the distance from market, 

 or both. The first ten states with reference to the value of 

 their poultry at the time of the census are also listed accord- 

 ing to their rank in Table VIII. Nearly 55 per cent of the 

 total valuation of poultry in the United States is found in 

 these ten states. It will be noted that the same states are 

 found in each list, except that Minnesota, which stands 

 ninth in the number of poultry kept, is replaced by New York 

 in the list of states whose poultry shows the greatest value, 

 and Nebraska is similarly replaced by California. 



POULTRY PRODUCTION. 



Poultry production includes those operations incident 

 to breeding and rearing domestic birds for food i)urposes 

 and for pleasure and in preparing their products' for market. 

 These are the activities of the breeder, the producer, and 

 the packer. 



Early History of Poultry Production. — Poultry raising is 

 essentially a home industry. It appeared in this country 

 at least as soon as the first homes were made in Jamestown 

 in 1607. The entire product of the flock, including the 

 feathers, was used at home. It has, however, never been a 

 frontier occupation in the sense that beef production and, 



' For complete statistics of all the states, see Table LII, Appendix. 



2 The by-products of poultry production are feathers, fertilizer, gizzard 

 linings as a source of commercial pepsin, and egg-shells as a source of pow- 

 dered calcium carbonate for infant feeding. Of these, feathers are by far 

 the most important being in the case of the ostrich the primary product. 



