94 



Marketing of Poultry. 



[may, 



fostered and made a success, there is no doubt that many 

 districts, where produce cannot under present conditions 

 be satisfactorily marketed, would become flourishing and 

 prosperous, to the advantage not only of the occupier and the 

 county, but also of the nation as a whole. 



THE MARKETING OF POULTRY* 



In continuation of the information as to the prices and 

 supplies of poultry at the principal provincial markets in Great 

 Britain, which was published earlier in the year, the Board think 

 that the following notes, which have been furnished by their 

 Inspectors and Market Reporters, will be of service. 



Liverpool. — The supplies may be classed under the following 

 heads : — Home-reared, Irish, Russian, American, Canadian, 

 Hungarian, Servian, Italian and French. 



Home-reared Poultry. — The home-reared supply is very 

 limited, and includes those reared on farms in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and those artificially fed or crammed, but bought 

 alive in Ireland. The former are unimportant, and have 

 little bearing on the trade taken as a whole. The latter are 

 worthy of note from the fact that the largest cramming estab- 

 lishment in the neighbourhood, and perhaps in England, 

 sends a large proportion of its chickens to Paris, and the 

 remainder are sold to the large passenger steamship companies. 

 There is no local demand for crammed birds, as retailers cannot 

 afford to pay the high prices, the average retail price being 

 Tod. per lb., whereas the steamship companies pay nd. per lb. 

 for birds from 5 to 7 lb., and is. per lb. is obtainable in Paris. 



Irish Poultry. — Irish poultry generally form the chief source 

 of supply. Chickens arrive both alive and dead, those alive 

 going to the cramming establishments, but by far the greater 

 number come plucked and drawn and packed in boxes, the 

 supply being plentiful from June to January. The quality of the 

 chickens is said to be falling off from the fact that Irish breeders 

 go in largely for the production of eggs, and the best egg- 

 producing varieties are not suitable for table purposes. On 

 the other hand the ducks and turkeys, especially the latter, 



* See "The Marketing of Poultry, "Journal, Vol. XIV, No. n, February, 1908, 

 p. 641. 



