CHAPTER LIV 



THE BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY 



The poultry industry is correctly termed the "bil- 

 lion dollar industry" of this country. In dollars 

 and cents it far exceeds the combined value of the 

 wheat and oats crops, and these figures, compiled 

 by Uncle Sam, only take into consideration the out- 

 put of poultry on the farms, not giving any data 

 on the output of poultry farms and back-yard poul- 

 try plants. It is hard to estimate definitely how 

 much in round numbers these nonconsidered sources 

 of supply would add to the grand total, but from 

 observations the figures at hand would be greatly 

 increased. 



Quoting from government reports, seven states 

 raised more than 20,000,000 fowls in 1909 — namely, 

 Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, and 

 Indiana. The combined production from these 

 states was more than 89 per cent of the poultry pro- 

 duced in the United States. Four states produced 

 more than 100,000,000 dozen eggs — Missouri, Iowa, 

 Ohio, and Illinois, which figures 26 per cent of the 

 total production from the figures at hand. 



Illinois is in the lead for fowls raised in 1909. 

 The farms of this rich prairie state produced 

 32,352,888 fowls in that year, with a total valua- 



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