MARKET POULTRY AND EGGS 



pound for roasting fowls and others that are sold by weight, 

 being paid as a premium. Some of the most successful poultry- 

 men with private markets place each bird or pair of birds in 

 pasteboard boxes made for the purpose, and sell the chickens 

 "by the box"— not by weight— at $1, $1.50 or multiples of 50, 

 according to the kind of stock. For those who must depend on 

 the open market the best plan is to write to the commission 

 merchant or dealer and secure from him a list of the average 

 prices per month paid for all kinds of stock, and then arrange 

 to have the birds ready for sale in the month when prices aver- 

 age highest. 



Heavy roasting fowls, capons, turkeys, geese and ducks are 

 in greatest demand and fetch the highest prices from November 

 to February not so much of this class of poultry being consumed 

 during warm weather. In the summer, too, it is difficult to 

 ship dressed poultry because of the trouble of icing it, and for 

 this reason most of the stock from April to October is shipped 

 alive. 



The great increase in the price of poultry during recent 

 years may be shown from the following quotations for turkeys. 



From time to time these reports contain special instruc 

 tions for killing, dressing, packing and shipping poultry, and 

 we have drawn on this source for a portion of the information 

 given in this article. 



In the best eastern markets, New York and Boston, and 

 on the Pacific coast, dry picked poultry has the preference and 

 commands the best prices. In the middle west and western 

 markets as well as in some southern ones scalded poultry is 

 required and is in greatest demand. This we believe to be 

 due chiefly to the fact that dry picked poultry to present an 

 attractive appearance requires the services of an experienced 

 picker. The west and south is still comparatively new country 

 in the production of high-class market poultry and outside of 

 some of the large packing houses, experienced dry pickers are 

 few in number and hard to find. 



In the east where high-grade dry picked poultry is in 

 greatest demand and scalded stock almost "goes begging" for 

 a customer, there are many experienced men who make killing 

 and dressing market poultry a profession. The prices paid 

 for their services vary in different sections of the country. 



January 



February 



March 



April 



May... 



June 



July 



August 



September- - 



October. 



November... 

 December... 



1906 



to IS 

 to 19 

 to 17 



12i 



to 12} 



to 12i 



tol2i 



to 18 



to 16 



to 16 



16i to 21 



1905 



17 to 19 

 19 to 20 

 19 

 14 to 15 

 14 to 15 

 13i to 15 



14 to 15 



15 



15 to 16 

 13 to 17 



16 to 18 

 16 to 17i 



16 tol7i 



16 to 17* 



16 to 17 



11 to 12 



11 to 12 

 10 to 12 

 10 to 114 



12 to 17 

 12 to 14 



12 



15 to 18 



14 to 17 



1903 



to 18 

 18 

 to 18 

 to 13 

 to 12 

 to 12 

 toll 

 11 

 toll 

 to 14 

 to 18 

 15 to nj 



1902 



8i to 12 

 9i to 14i 

 10 to 15 

 9 to 12i 

 9i to 12i 



10 to 12 

 114 to 12 



12 to 124 



13 



11 to 13 

 10 to 16 



13 to 18 



1901 



74 to 9 

 74 to 94 

 7 to 12 

 64 to 8 

 6 to 84 

 54 to 74 

 6 to 74 



6 to 8 



7 to 9 

 7 to 84 

 7 to 10 

 9 to 114 



9 to 10 

 84 to 10 

 8 to 12 

 74 to 10 

 6 to 9 



5 to 7 

 54 to 7 



6 to 74 



7 to 8 

 6 to 9 

 6 to 104 



8 to 94 



1899 



8 toll 

 8 toll 

 8 to 13 

 8 to 10 

 7 to 10 



6 to 9 



7 to 84 

 74 to 10 



8 to 12 

 84 to 10 



9 to 11 

 9 to 104 



1898 



10 to 114 

 94 to 12 

 94 to 124 

 8 to 12 

 6 to 3 



5 to 8 



6 to 8 



6 to 10 



7 to 11 



7 to 11 



8 to 114 

 8 to 11 



1897 



8 to 124 

 8 to 124 

 8 to 13 

 9 

 fi to 9 



5 to 7 



6 to 10 



7 to 10 

 74 to 10 



8 to 10 

 8 to 104 

 8 to 12 



8 to 12 



9 to 134 



13 

 8 to 12 

 7 to 10 



6 to 9 



7 to 10 



8 to 11 



8 toll 

 74 to 94 



9 to 114 

 104 to 114 



These are for ordinary birds and when two prices are given the 

 bulk of the stock was sold at the higher figure. Prices quoted 

 for January, February, March, November and December are 

 for dressed birds, and for the rest of the year, for live turkeys. 

 The figures are those paid to the country shippers; and not those 

 which the stock brought when bought by the butchers. Fancy 

 turkeys were disposed of, as a rule, at 5 cents or more per pound 

 above these figures, which were supplied by Howard, Bartels 

 & Co., ofiicial statisticians for the Chicago butter and egg board. 

 Broilers should be marketed as early in the year as possible, 

 before the market is flooded with them. A dollar apiece often 

 is brought for the best stock. Roasters find a good market 

 throughout the year, except in the hottest part of the summer, 

 and specialties, such as ducklings, young geese, "baby" turkeys, 

 crate-fed poultry, or machine fatted fowls, are always in demand 

 at high figures. 



KILLING AND DRESSING MARKET 

 POULTRY 



DRY PICKED POULTRY IS PREFERRED IN 

 EASTERN MARKETS — HOW TO KILL AND 

 DRY PICK— SOME ADVICE ON SHIPMENTS— 

 WHERE SCALDED POULTRY IS IN DEMAND- 

 REQUIREMENTS OF VARIOUS MARKETS 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 



Methods of killing and dressing market poultry vary in 

 different sections of the country and it is necessary for the 

 poultrjrman to make himself familiar with the existing condi- 

 tions and the requirements of his particiilar market center. 

 This is easily done if he will obtain the regular market bulletins 

 from one or more of the commission dealers in the city in which 

 he intends to dispose of his output. 



In nearly all cases they are paid on the piece-work plan, receiv- 

 ing a certain amount per bird for all that are dressed, the prices 

 ranging from 3 to 6 cents per head for chickens and from 4 to 

 8 cents per head for ducks. 



In the vicinity of New York City and Philadelphia there 

 are a number of famlies who devote the greater part of their 

 time to dry picking market poultry and they derive a very 

 comfortable income from this source. At Vineland, New Jersey, 

 which is in the heart of a broiler, roaster and duck raising section, 

 there is a family consisting of father, mother, two daughters, 

 a son and wife, who make a busiiiess of travelHng about the 

 country dressing poultry for the growers in that section. These . 

 pickers visit different plants at regular intervals, the men doing 

 the killing and rough picking and the women serving as pin- 

 featherers and finishers. It is no uncommon thing for one of 

 these pickers to rough pick 200 broilers in a day without tear- 

 ing the skin, and it should be remembered that broilers are 

 very easily torn. When dressing full grown birds that are 

 reasonably free from pinfeathers these pickers will finish a 

 considerably larger number. 



EARNINGS OF A SKILLED PICKER 



In the July 1905 issue of the Reliable PotrLTRY Journal 

 we told the story of an expert picker who picks South Shore 

 Soft Roasters and made the remarkable record of earning 

 $23.00 one week, $33.40 the second week, $34.80 the third 

 week, $36.44 the fourth week and $38.56 the fifth week, in 

 five successive weeks' work dry picking soft roasting chickens 

 at 4 cents each. The record is all the more remarkable because 

 in this case the picker finished the birds,_removing all pinfeathers, 

 cooled them in the water tank, hung them up to dry, and cleaned 

 up his part of the picking room at the close of each day's work 

 besides helping weigh up the finished product when the same 

 were packed for shipment, and he worked no longer hours than 

 the average working man. This is an exceptional case but there 

 are many good pickers in the east who regularly earn from 

 $15.00 to $25.00 per week. 



163 



