26 



POULTRY CULTURE 



Fig. 1. Back-yard poultry keeping 

 (Photograph from A. T. Grosvenor) 



The poultry industry. The production (for home use or sale) and 

 the sale of poultry products constitute the poultry industry. " The 

 poultry business " is a term applied to poultry keeping on a scale 



large enough to make it the busi- 

 ness of one or more persons. The 

 greater part, probably over ninety 

 per cent, of all the poultry sold in 

 the United States is produced by 

 poultry keepers who do not make a 

 business of poultry culture but keep 

 poultry on a small scale while giving 

 their attention chiefly to some other 

 occupation, usually general farming. 

 As the figures of the early census 

 show, there was a poultry industry 

 of considerable proportions before the idea of developing poultry 

 culture as a business began to be entertained. 



While the magnitude of the totals of volume and value of poul- 

 try products naturally suggests opportunity for the development of 

 poultry production on a large scale, with correspondingly large 

 profits, the fact that the 

 demand is so nearly met 

 by the produce of the 

 millions of small flocks 

 should be far more signif- 

 icant to those engaging 

 in large poultry-producing 

 enterprises. The poultry 

 industry as a whole is per- 

 manent. It includes (as 

 long as the business lasts) 

 every poultry business. 

 The stable factor in pro- 

 duction is the farm flock, 

 the produce of which is 



largely profit. The spectacular large enterprises rarely last long, 

 and their nominal contributions to poultry production often repre- 

 sent only a waste and loss of money earned in other occupations. 



Fig. 2. A back-yard poultry plant. House con- 

 struction conforming to that of residence 



