POULTRY PRODUCTION AND POULTRY INDUSTRY 19 



The popularity of the chicken is due to the fact that it 

 furnishes a convenient source of fresh meat on the farm, 

 and at the same time is, generally speaking, a greater egg 

 producer than are other sorts of poultry. 



Magnitude of the Poultry Industry. — ^The 1911 report of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture places the national annual 

 income from poultry products at $750,000,000, or approxi- 

 mately the combined value of the gold, silver, iron, and coal 

 mined the same year. It exceeds the value of the wheat 

 crop reported in the last census. While this is only an esti- 

 mate, it far more nearly approximates the truth than does 

 the report of the 1910 census, which places the national 

 annual income from eggs and carcasses sold at a little over 

 $256,000,000. (See Table XLIV, Appendix.) The latter 

 figures take no account of poultry and eggs produced in 

 towns or villages, or consumed on the farm, or of birds under 

 three months of age, all of which are highly important 

 items, and which account somewhat for the discrepancy. 



At average market values the carcasses and eggs produced 

 on farms, as shown in Table XLIV (Appendix), would 

 bring the poultry income of the nation up to $509,195,332, 

 leaving the production of the villages, towns, and cities 

 unaccounted for. On this basis, however, poultry products 

 represent 16.9 per cent, of the value of all products of animal 

 origin, including wool and mohair, as well as the food 

 products. The census figures for the different states, while 

 incomplete,' are fairly comparable, because of the fact that 

 the same method was used in securing them in every state. 

 The first ten states in point of income from poultry are 

 shown in Table II. 



Farm Incomes from Poultry. — The importance of a state 

 to an industry and the importance' of an industry to a state 

 may be, and in the case of poultry production are two very 

 different matters. While Missouri, for instance, ranks 



' Information secured from the packing houses of the state indicates 

 that the annual production of poultry in Kansas approximates $30,000,000. 

 Commissioner John T. Fitzpatrick, of the Missouri Bureau of Labor Sta- 

 tistics, reports that poultry and eggs to the amount of $48,678,240 were 

 produced by the poultry raisers of that statb during 1912. — Egg Reporter, 

 November 6, 1913. 



