208 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
period of three weeks, and a skilled operator must be employed to 
feed, pluck and shape the birds. In order to make such a station 
remunerative sufficient birds should be available to keep the expert 
fully employed, for it is obvious that the greater the amount of 
trade done the smaller will be the expenses in proportion to the 
turnover. 
A co-operative egg and poultry society may also find it ad- 
vantageous to extend the business to other branches of trade. 
The committee could buy, for example, poultry appliances and 
food at wholesale rates for the members of the society. 
The area covered by an egg and poultry society will vary in 
accordance with local conditions. It is essential that the area 
should not be so large that freshness is lost by collecting the eggs 
from long distances. A society can be formed for two or three 
adjacent villages, or for a still larger district. In the latter case, 
to minimise the cost of collection, sub-collecting stations should 
be established in conjunction with a central packing depot. As 
a rule, one central packing depot will make for economy and 
efficiency, and where preservation of eggs is part of the scheme it 
is then possible to establish a fully equipped plant. 
An agricultural co-operative society which has been established 
for the purchase of manures, seeds, etc., may often undertake 
with advantage the sale of eggs for its members in the same way 
as a co-operative society established purely for that purpose, and 
it may be able to utilise to some extent the buildings it already 
possesses as an egg depot. 
Industrial co-operative societies also might materially assist 
in the development of the egg industry by purchasing direct from 
their members and others in the vicinity instead of obtaining their 
supplies from wholesale dealers. This is particularly the case 
with co-operative societies in small country towns, many of whose 
members are poultry-keepers. 
A successful instance of this is afforded by the Wickham Market 
Industrial Co-operative Society, which at the beginning of 1906 
undertook the collection of eggs, a branch of business for which it 
had special facilities, as its carts were regularly engaged in deliver- 
