ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF POULTRY CULTURE 27 



Trend of development. The natural tendency of the poultry in- 

 dustry is not to develop production on a large scale but to extend 

 and improve ordinary small operations as far as possible without 

 changing the position that they occupy as subordinate to the other 

 interests of the poultry keeper and to other uses of his land. The 

 general development of productive poultry culture proceeds accord- 

 ing to this tendency, with exceptions when local or temporary con- 

 ditions stimulate to specialization in poultry. In the distribution of 

 poultry products the natural tendency is toward concentration of 

 collections and trade and the building up of large businesses. 



The natural division of the poultry industry. Trade conditions 

 separate the masses of producers and distributors (including collec- 

 tors), though a considerable number of individuals may combine 

 both functions. It is noteworthy that the greater number of " mid- 

 dlemen," as well as of producers of poultry, handle poultry with 

 other lines, for this point is vital in plans for cooperative market- 

 ing of poultry produce. It should also be observed that, both in the 

 combination of poultry production or selling with the production 

 or selling of other lines of produce, and in the division of labor 

 which makes one man a producer (of a variety of articles) and 

 another a dealer (in perhaps a similar variety of articles), economic 

 tendencies and laws operate to give individuals generally the 

 kind of work and the combination of lines which each can pur- 

 sue to the best advantage. 



Limitations on development. The peculiar advantage of poultry 

 culture as an occupation for persons with small capital lies in its 

 limitations, — in the usual impossibility of developing productive 

 plants on a large scale. This is a line of production in which most 

 of the advantages are with the small operator, with whom it is an 

 avocation. It is a branch of agriculture requiring so little capital 

 for a beginning that even the poorest may make a start in it, 

 giving returns quickly and regularly, and capable of rapid exten- 

 sion within the limits favorable to economic production. Occasion- 

 ally these limits admit of the development of a poultry business, 

 but even then a business is developed only by those able to use the 

 opportunity. Many who do well with poultry on a small scale can- 

 not handle a large stock of poultry profitably, and so cannot use an 

 opportunity to build up a business when open to them. Usually 



