334 POULTRY CULTURE 



but the individual production comparatively small, it will usually be 

 to the advantage of a poultry keeper to sell his poultry alive to per- 

 sons making a specialty of preparing it for market and selling it, 

 rather than to undertake to dress and market it himself. A poultry 

 keeper anywhere must dress his own poultry for a private trade or 

 for small, irregular orders. But wherever there is poultry enough to 

 run a special killing plant, such a plant, in the hands of persons who 

 will deal fairly with the producers, can dress poultry cheaper and 

 sell it better than the producers can, and make more money for 

 both producer and dealer. A poultry keeper outside of the area 

 tributary to such a plant will usually find it more profitable to dress 

 his own poultry, provided he prepares it properly and has it 

 disposed of before shipment. Otherwise he may get no more for 

 dressed than he would for live poultry. If the poultry arrives in 

 bad condition he may even get less, and besides, he has had the 

 trouble of dressing it. There are times, too, — mostly at Jewish 

 holiday seasons, — when poultry (particularly fowls) may sell for 

 more money alive than dressed. In general, the small producer 

 can dress his poultry to advantage only for private trade and when 

 the quality is choice. Small, odd lots and inferior birds will usually 

 net him more if sold alive to a home buyer than if shipped dressed 

 to a distant market. Selling at home, he rarely fails to get, on the 

 spot, all that the stock is worth, and he has no further risks in con- 

 nection with it. A great deal of misunderstanding in regard to 

 this point comes from comparisons of prices for unassorted, ordi- 

 nary, or inferior stock at the producing point with prices of the best 

 stock in a distant retail market. Such comparisons, when fairly 

 made, are serviceable, showing the advantage of producing good 

 poultry and marketing it in first-class condition. As statements of 

 conditions, with the inference that the producer selling his birds alive 

 loses the greater part of the difference between the price that he 

 received and the price that the consumer paid, they are misleading. 

 Feathers. Buyers of poultry sometimes collect feathers, but in 

 many places there is no local buyer. In that case the best way to 

 dispose of them is to get the addresses of feather buyers from 

 provision-trade papers and communicate with them in regard to 

 prices and instructions for shipping. These houses will buy feathers 

 of all kinds and in any quantity. 



