1922.] Californian Poultry Eaising and Marketing. 



This organisation has its centre at Petaluma, a town of some 

 6,000 inhabitants, situated near the northern extremity of San 

 Francisco Bay. It is the headquarters of the small district 

 which, as already stated, produced over 22 million dozen eggs 

 in 1920, and although apparently the largest poultry raismg 

 community in the world, may be taken as typical of many 

 similar centres throughout the United States. 



Poultry Hatcheries.— The poultry-raiser of Petaluma 

 usually obtains his stock from one of the "Hatcheries" of 

 which there are several in the town. One of these, which may 

 be taken as typical, hatched out one million chicks in 1921. 

 The eggs are bought at about 10 cents above current prices by 

 the hatchery, which is a business concern, and in no sense 

 co-operative. The resultant chicks are sold at about three 

 times the price of the original eggs. Eggs for hatching are 

 bought from specially selected ranches known to the hatchery 

 as possessors of highly productive strains; in some cases the 

 hatcheries themselves supply cockerels, and are thus in very 

 close touch with the pedigrees of the birds whose eggs they 

 hatch. The incubators are arranged in tiers on racks in a large 

 room and are heated by gas or electric appliances regulated by 

 thermostats, of which there is one in each chamber. The air 

 is kept comparatively moist by leaving the ground beneath the 

 racks exposed, only the alleyways between being paved. This 

 is scarcely sufficient for the upper ranges of incubators, and 

 where necessary further moistening is provided by means of 

 pans in the incubators. The eggs are turned by hand, the 

 trays being grooved to make this task easy. The owners of 

 the hatchery in question prefer this method to mechanical 

 turning, as their experience shows that the mechanical method 

 is productive of a considerable percentage of abnormal chicks. 

 By the hand-turning method, combined, of course, with careful 

 tending throughout the hatching period, an average hatch of 

 80 good chicks in every 100 is obtained. 



When the newly-hatched chicks have been dried off they are 

 placed in ventilated boxes containing 4 sections of 25 chicks 

 each for delivery. Frequently, of course, local poultry farmers 

 arrange to receive back the chicks hatched from eggs supplied 

 by themselves, but large numbers of day-old chicks are sent 

 considerable distances to the hatchery's customers. Tt is found 

 possible to send day-old chicks on a 72-hour journey without 

 injury or prejudice to their subsequent growth. 



An interesting feature of the organisation of the hatcherv 

 under notice is that one of the partners, who is a qualified 



