144 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



Taking up the first problems — that of distributing eggs 

 and poultry: One poultryman ships to one middleman and 

 his neighbor ships to another. How much better would it 

 be if everyone shipped to one central house which supplied 

 the trade. 



The unbusinesslike method of distributing eggs is closely 

 seconded by the unbusinesslike methods employed in buying 

 poultry feeds. In a small city where I was recently there 

 were ten or more large dealers in poultry feeds. These 

 places were situated within a few blocks of one another. Each 

 firm had a large amount of capital invested in land; each 

 had its large warehouses, its machinery for grinding grains, 

 etc.; each employed experts to handle the feeds; each firm 

 did considerable unnecessary advertising and some employed 

 unnecessary solicitors and traveling agents to obtain trade. 

 Now one large dealer could supply this district as well as 

 the ten men engaged in doing so, and by dispensing with 

 nine buildings, land, etc., and the surplus stock of food kept 

 on hand, a great saving could be effected. The concentrating 

 of this business under one head would result in the economy 

 that goes with the best business methods. 



The third problem — that of controlling the cold storage 

 plants — is, if anything, greater than the other two. When 

 your hens are laying an abundance of eggs in the spring 

 there are too many eggs produced for the market, eggs 

 begin to accumulate rapidly, and as the supply is greater 

 than the demand prices drop rapidly. If the market is not 

 relieved, the price will go down to a point at which it costs 

 more to produce eggs than you can get for them. If the 

 poultrymen were properly organized and controlled the cold 

 storage business, they could, when the prices of eggs reached 

 a certain low point, put the eggs in cold storage and prevent 

 the price from going any lower. They continue, however, 



