38 POULTRY PRODUCTION 



disposes of them to the jobber in quite large quantities, 

 who in turn distributes them among the various retailing 

 agencies, which include the retail markets, bakeries, confec- 

 tioneries, hotels, clubs, restaurants, dining cars, the steam- 

 ship dining service, and the like, which deal directly with the 

 consumer. 



There are numerous modifications of this route. One or 

 more of these steps in distribution may be eliminated, as 

 would be the case if a cooperative marketing association 

 dealt directly with a jobber or a retailer, or the packer sold 

 to a hotel; but the great bulk of the goods at present passes 

 through the several steps indicated at the left of Fig. 7. ■ 



Reasons for Generalized Production. — The reasons for 

 the widespread production of poultry are mainly as follows: 



1. The first consideration in keeping poultry is often not 

 the securing of products for sale, but for home consumption. 

 Chickens on the general farm or the city lot furnish eggs 

 at less cost, and because of their high perishability, of better 

 quality, than may usually be secured from the stores. The 

 cheapness of production lies, as Robinson^ points out, in 

 the fact that chickens as well as most other poultry "may 

 be fed largely on food wasted by man (in manufacture as 

 well as in consumption) and on foods wasted by or not 

 available for the larger domestic animals." At the same time, 

 all kinds of poultry furnish a constant and convenient form 

 of highly palatable fresh meat and they thrive nearly every- 

 where that man can live. 



2. "Very little poultry is kept profitably in this country 

 except on farms where it is in the strictest sense a non- 

 competing crop. Where it is kept in small quantities, it 

 forages for itself, consuming mainly waste products besides 

 destroying insects, and does not exhaust the soil at all, 

 but tends rather to enrich it. Again it does not compete 

 for the farmers' time, being cared for mainly by the 

 labor of women and children. This may help to explain 

 how difficult it is for anyone to make a living raising 

 poultry alone in competition with farm poultry, unless one 



' Principles and Practice of Poultry Culture. 



