AMERICAN POULTRY INDUSTRY 



and this should calm the tremors of those who fear overpro- 

 duction. 



GROWTH OF THE MARKET 



The growth of the modern "market/' as an institution, is 

 an interesting study. It has been identical with the develop- 

 ment of the great centers of population called cities. During the 

 past quarter of a century there has been a somewhat alarming 

 concentration of population in these centers, for we are con- 

 fronted with a serious social problem when we contemplate the 

 helplessness of these collections of thousands, tens of thousands 

 and hundreds of thousands of people within an area that could 

 not possibly feed a few hundred of them if they were to become 

 dependent solely on the corporate Umits of the different cities. 

 Shut off the food supply from their numerous markets only 

 forty-eight to ninety-six hours and they would become panic- 

 stricken. To deny them coal is bad enough, but if they were 

 deprived of their food supply even for a few hours, distress would 

 be common, bringing terror to the hearts of milUons. 



Nothing now in sight gives any promise of retarding the 

 concentration of the people into cities, either in this hemisphere 

 or in the old world. Increase of population and its concentra- 

 tion in cities involves the future and indicates the possibiUties 

 of the poultry business on practical lines. To conclude that 

 population will increase and that cities wiU grow in size, is to 

 concede that the market for poultry and eggs is to be a permanent 

 affair" that will increase with the population and grow with the 

 cities. 



AN AGE OF SPECIALIZING 



Naturally, as poultry production became a distinct and 

 ' important industry, it was divided into branches representing 

 special hues of effort. Mankind had entered upon an age of 

 specialties and the poultry industry did not prove an exception. 

 First, the growers of poultry were merely poultry keepers; how 

 we have fanciers, duck growers, egg farmers, broiler raisers, etc. 

 The development of these branches has been rapid, but not un- 

 naturally so. It was natural that this development should re- 

 sult from special attention, special effort and singleness of pur- 

 pose. The practical result has been that we now have thou- 

 sands of fanciers, including hundreds of specialty breeders, and 

 more than one hundred separate and distinct varieties; where 

 twenty-five and thirty years ago the common puddleduck, 

 weighing three to four pounds, was the best this country pro- 

 duced, we now have the Imperial Peldn, weighing ten pounds 

 to the pair at ten weeks old, and ten to fourteen pounds each as 

 adults, and have numerous "ranchers" who produce from five 

 to fifty thousand duckUngs annually and find for them a ready 

 and profitable market; where three or four decades ago a flock 

 of one hundred or more hens was a curiosity and the egg basket 

 was seldom larger than a man's hat, we now b'>ve egg farms ^hat 

 each carry five, six and seven thousand laying hens, and the 

 eggs are gathered in bushel baskets, five to ten baskets being 

 required to gather the average daily yield, and when only a few 

 years ago broilers, squab broilers, roasters, winter chickens and 

 capons were strange words because seldom used, they are now 

 common expressions, while tons upon tons of expertly produced 

 poultry meat are consumed daily, and we have made only a 

 fair start. 



The fancier, first and last, despite his "fuss'' and "feathers," 

 has been our good friend. What we have wanted, and asked 

 for, he has supplied. We asked for a "general purpose" fowl, 

 and he gave us the Plymouth Rocks. We asked for more eggs, 

 and he has given us the "200-eggs per year hen" of several 

 varieties. We asked for better squab-broilers, broilers and 

 roasters, and he gave us the Wyandotte. We asked for more 



meat and this demand was soon suppUed by increasing the 

 weights of the Asiatics, by deepening the keels of Pekin ducks 

 and the production of Mammoth Bronze Turkeys and Toulouse 

 geese that tip the scales at twenty to forty pounds each — too 

 large, by half, for the average family or bake-oven. 



AS AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS 



Admittedly our equipment of tools at present is by no 

 means complete and we have mastered only the first principles 

 of the production of poultry and eggs in large quantities as an 

 independent enterprise. The improvement of the utility breeds, 

 the invention of popular sized, portable incubators and brooders 

 and the designing of suitable brooding houses have given us a 

 fair start, and we may look forward with confidence that great 

 progress will be made during the next few years. No man can 

 safely set a limit to what will be accomplished in this direction 

 within the next decade. Ten years ago the poultry business in 

 this country, as an independent business, was insignificant as 

 compared with present achievements, but there is good reason to 

 believe that the next ten years will show still greater progress. 

 It cannot well be otherwise. Where one man was interested in 

 the problem and trying to achieve results ten years ago, one 

 hundred or more are now employed at the same task. These 

 later comers include the men with years of experience who now 

 are profiting by their reverses and successes, and the outcome 

 cannot fail to be desirable. Today America leads the world in 

 the knowledge and employment of successful methods of poultry 

 produption on a large scale, and probably it will maintain this 

 position. Other countries are adopting our methods, but we 

 have secured a lead that will be hard to overcome. The financial 

 risk is being eUminated from the business until it is not greater 

 now than that involved in other business enterprises, and men 

 of means and brains are taking up the work in rapidly increasing 

 numbers. Nevertheless, it still remains a fact that nine out of 

 ten, if not nineteen out of twenty of the "average well-informed 

 men of this and other foremost poultry growing countries have 

 but slight conception of what actually is taking place in the 

 poultry world. So much the better for those of us who have 

 become interested in the subject, who have a correct idea of its 

 importance and recognize the unmistakable signs of its rapid 

 development and splendid possibilities. Snug fortunes are being 

 made at the present time in different branches of the poultry 

 business where ten and twenty years ago this would have been 

 utterly impossible, and today is but a promise of the superior 

 conditions that will exist five, ten and twenty years hence. 



GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME INTERESTED 



No one realizes the truth of the foregoing more than the 

 United States government and the varioiis state governments. 

 This came about largely as a result of the facts disclosed by the 

 census returns of 1880 and 1890. The Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry took up the question eight or ten years ago and now 

 regularly issues valuable bulletins for free distribution, giving 

 detailed instruction and advice for use in the production of an 

 increased amount of better poultry and the obtaining of a larger 

 egg yield per hen. Probably twenty states of the Union are now 

 conducting poultry plants on their state experiment stations in 

 connection with the state agricultural colleges. At half a 

 dozen or more of these colleges regular poultry classes have been 

 instituted, the members ranging from twenty to thirty each 

 term and including, as students, men and women who are above 

 the average in intelligence, some of them being well educated. 

 These students, as grp,duates, are finding positions as managers 

 of poultry plants, as lecturers at Farmers' Institutes, or are 

 entering the business themselves. Numerous other pubhc and 

 semi-public institutions, are conducting poultry plants and in- 



