American Agriculturist, December 20 , 1924 _ 
Shipping Holiday Poultry 
What, When, How and Where to Ship 
T HE Christmas and New Year holi¬ 
days mark what we may consider 
the last of the “specials” in live poultry 
shipping circles for sometime to come. 
There will be no more special occasions 
to cater to until March when the Jewish 
holiday, Purim, will be celebrated and 
when fat fowls and hen turkeys are most 
in demand. It is a long time until 
March and after that holiday we have 
a full month elapsing until the next 
special occasion comes when those of 
the Jewish faith celebrate the Passover. 
What Is Wanted 
The other day we called up a few 
men in the market to find out whether 
there were any indications that the trade 
would demand something special, in 
order that we could tell our readers 
what kind of live poultry would sell the 
best. The unanimous answer was, 
“Anything, as long as it was fancy. ’ It 
looks as though the market is going to 
be the same as on previous holiday occa¬ 
sions. Fancy poultry will bring a good 
. price. Common stock and under grades 
will drag. This holiday' season is not 
a good time to try to unload a lot. of 
culls. Many shippers tried it during 
the Jewish holiday period and found 
their mistake. At holiday time consum¬ 
ers seem to forget their close watch on 
the purse strings and “open up ’ as the 
saying goes. They are willing to pay a 
few cents more but they want fancy and 
quality poultry in return. 
When It Is Wanted 
Timing of shipments is very import¬ 
ant. In our territory all poultry sent 
into the live poultry market travels via 
express. That makes it a very simple 
manner to time shipments almost to the 
hour, especially if you are on a direct or 
trunk line. Even if you are on a feeder 
line, a perishable product gets very 
prompt handling. You can almost count 
on the hour your live poultry will arrive 
in the New York market.. If you. are 
not acquainted with shipping practices, 
the best man to go to is your local 
express agent. He will tell you the most 
direct route and the best trains. There 
are some trains that delay along the line 
■while others go right through. Some 
make better connections than others. 
Above all, avoid late shipments. It is 
to no one’s advantage to shop poultry 
that will arrive on the market on the 
24 th. Tuesday, the 23 rd, should really 
be the last day for poultry arrivals. Re¬ 
tail dealers do their buying early so that 
they can take care of their local trade 
on the last rush day, which is the 24 th. 
In fact, if we were shipping, we would 
try our best to have our poultry reach 
New York on Monday afternoon at the 
latest. Shipments that come into the 
market too late will have to be held over 
Christmas in the crates and naturally 
they are going to suffer a lot of shrink¬ 
age. It is almost as bad to ship too 
early, because if the birds are held over 
Sunday they suffer a great deal. 
How It Is Wanted 
Now we come to the point of “How 
poultry is wanted” to get the best re¬ 
turns. In the first place, grading has a 
great deal to do with the price a shipper 
receives. Those who have been ship¬ 
ping for some time know that it pays 
them to grade according to breed or 
color and then as to size. If a man has 
a lot of Rhode Island Reds to send in, 
he will find it to his advantage to make 
two lots of them, one to consist of large 
fancy birds and the. other to consist of 
the under sizes. His gross returns will 
be much better than if he were to mix 
the whole lot in one crate. They will also 
return more than if he were to throw 
in a couple of Rocks or white birds, 
even though these latter be fancy. Just 
picture yourself in the buyer’s position. 
If you look at a crate of fowls that are 
uniform as to color, size and finish—real 
fancy—you will be immediately attracted 
to them. Now take half of those birds 
and mix them with a lot of small, 
scrawny, average looking individuals and 
see how the value of that crate is pulled 
down. The way this mixing works on 
the market is that a mixed crate such as 
this brings little, if anything better than 
if the whole crate contained small com¬ 
mon stock. Nine times out of ten the 
poorer individuals in the lot make the 
"nee on the whole and that holds true 
whether the commodity being sold con¬ 
sists of poultry or potatoes. If the. flock 
going to market is of good size, it will 
pay to crate them into 3 sizes, fancy, 
mediums and culls. If there are only a 
few culls, it is best to keep them home 
and save on the meat bill. 
Do Not Crowd Birds In Crates 
Another detail to watch in shipping is 
the attention that must be paid to the 
number of birds in a crate. It is bad. 
business to crowd, for crowding has a 
number of serious detrimental effects. 
Live poultry at the best does not meet 
any too gentle handling in transit and 
if there are too many fowls in a crate, 
there is likelihood of one or more being 
trampled on and killed. A couple of 
dead birds have a decided psychological 
effect on the buyer when he is examin¬ 
ing crates. One glance at such a condi¬ 
tion mars what might have been a perfect 
top. In addition to that crowded birds 
can never show themselves off to the 
best advantage. 
There is considerable amount of 
shrinkage suffered by poultry in transit. 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture 
has conducted several investigations 
along this line and has found that on the 
average there is a loss of about 11% in 
weight suffered by birds in transit. This 
is under average conditions. Where 
poultry is crowded this percentage of 
shrinkage is a great deal larger. As 
a matter of fact a large, proportion of 
the heavy recent losses in the express 
receipts in the live poultry market have 
been traceable directly to overcrowding 
in the crates rather than the presence, of 
any mysterious disease that has the live 
poultry market so upset. Where poultry 
is real fancy, it suffers not only from this 
heavy shrinkage but from the lack of 
ability to show itself off and does not 
do itself juctice when placed before a 
buyer. As is always the case the fanciest 
seem to suffer the most. 
Last but not least, overcrowding often 
over-taxes the crate with the result that 
slats become broken and the birds es¬ 
cape. The additional expressage on an 
extra case is a good insurance .on con¬ 
signments reaching the market in a bet¬ 
ter condition. Incidentally, if you make 
your own crates, allow for plenty of 
ventilation* 
Where To Send It 
Now we come to the last detail—where 
to ship. There are a number of receiv¬ 
ers of live poultry in the New York 
market. Some are good and some are 
bad. About the safest guide there is to 
follow, especially where the shipper is 
not acquainted with the market, is to 
deal with the licensed and bonded com¬ 
mission merchants. There are a few of 
these who may be guilty of slight irreg¬ 
ularities but they are few and far be¬ 
tween and are soon detected. The old 
reliables are only too well known and 
the farmer who does business with them 
can feel pretty certain of getting a square 
deal. They will get about all there is 
in the market. These men are not in 
business for a year. In the issue of De¬ 
cember 6 American Agriculturist pub¬ 
lished a list of these dealers. It is a 
good plan to get in communication with 
the man you are shipping to, first, to see 
if he is in a position to handle your 
consignment. 
Keep Shipping Receipt 
The last detail to bear in mind is to 
keep all correspondence and shipping 
receipts. In case your poultry is lost in 
transit or goes astray you then have a 
record of what you sent and the ack¬ 
nowledgement on the part of the carrier 
of what the shipment consisted of. Re¬ 
covery with such a loss, is a great deal 
easier where these receipts are in hand. 
If you meet the right train schedules 
you should have no difficulty in getting 
your bbdi, ./ s-..*. ... time. 
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PITTSBURGH, PA. 
Price 
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1000 chick size 
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/?/tv rufis, Gs/vse/vG, ere. ^ 
J47 West 24*ST. /VeivYorE 
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