THE SOFT ROASTER INDUSTRY -123 



the soft-roaster industry pays large profits. It is hard for 

 one who is unacquainted with the details to understand how 

 chickens raised at an unnatural time, with all the extxa 

 expense incident to such raising, can pay as well as do chick- 

 ens raised at a natural time and with comparatively little 

 expense and effort. 



There are two answers to this question. The first is 

 that the expense is not so much greater as might be supposed; 

 the second is that these chickens bring a price that no other 

 chickens of mature size in the world can command. 



A prominent market man of Boston who handles as much 

 fine poultry as any competitor, if not more, in a recent con- 

 versation, said that no chicken compared with a South Shore 

 roaster in quality. 



The Retail Price. 



These roasters bring, in the height of the season, at retail, 

 thirty to thirty-eight cents a pound. The limit seems to be 

 about thirty-eight cents. As soon as the retail market men 

 demand more, people shift to broilers and green ducks. 

 Soft roasters bring the highest prices about the middle of 

 June, but they are high from the first of April to the last of 

 June. After that they are superseded by the broilers. 

 There is but one form of chicken on the market that brings a 

 larger, price per pound than the soft roaster and that is the 

 early broiler. These occasionally sell for fifty cents per 

 pound and weigh three fourths of a pound to two pounds 

 each. They do not pay as well as the roasters at that be- 

 cause the producer and the seller reap a profit on two pounds 

 instead of seven to ten pounds, the usual range of weight in a 

 soft roaster. 



These are the retail prices and not the prices that the pro- 

 ducers get. As a rule the raisers get six to eight cents a 

 pound less than the retail price. The difference is divided 

 between the jobber as he may be called, that is that man 

 who collects, kills and ships to the dealers and the retailer. 

 In some cases the wholesaler has to be counted in, for while 

 some of these chickens go direct from the jobber to the dealer, 

 a great many are handled by wholesalers. 



South Shore roasters in December and January bring 

 about twenty-two cents per pound at wholesale. The price 



