POULTRY PRODUCTION AND POULTRY INDUSTRY 31 



have been made to go beyond this and specialize on a certain 

 sort of product, and through the nineties, broiler, egg, and 

 roaster farms were frequently heard of and much exploited 

 by the press. 



Today the farm of any considerable size that has devoted 

 its entire attention to poultry production (aside from duck 

 raising) and has been a business success for a period of ten 

 years is a great exception and generally due to specially 

 advantageous conditions of production or market, not gen- 

 erally available. While there are no reliable statistics cover- 

 ing the point, the vast majority of producers are general 

 farmers whose poultry raising is carried on as a subordinate 

 line in a system of diversified farming. 



Hastings,^ who has had every opportunity to observe, 

 thinks that "more than 98 per cent, of the poultry and eggs 

 are produced on the general farm," while Robinson^ hazards 

 the opinion that "the greater part, probably over 90 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." 



In the extreme eastern and western states and in the 

 vicinity of certain of the large cities in the central states, 

 there are sections containing numerous small tracts given 

 jjVer to the production of eggs and poultry out of season. 

 4*ossibly the best known of these is the Petaluma district 

 of California, which specializes in white eggs and broilers 

 for the winter tourist trade. The Vineland district in New 

 Jersey, as described by Lewis,' furnishes new-laid white 

 eggs for. the fancy New York market. The Little Compton 

 district of Rhode Island produces brown eggs for the New 

 England markets. In the well-known South Shore district 

 of Massachusetts a specialty is made of the so-called "soft 

 roaster" for the city markets of the East, though the 



■ Formerly with the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 

 'Principles and Practice of Poultry Culture. 

 ' Productive Poultry Husbandry. 



