Morning journal and courier., 1884-02-12
The Industrious Hen.

Turning Out 500, ,OOO, 900 Dozens of EEgs 1 and 6OO,OOO,OOO Chickens Year. | From the New York Sum- | 'If I owned all the hens in this country, , said the marketman, as he counted out doz- en eggs and put them in a customers basket,
 and had place to pasture them in, all I | would ask would be ten years in business, and would make it very warm for Wander | biIt"
 s'How's that P" asked the reporter. "Row's that ? Why, easy, that's how. Maybe you don't know, young man, that over 26. 900, GOO cackes, announcing the birth of the same number of eggs, kept the farmer boys busy every day last year gather ing in the efforts of over 36, 900, 900 hens l But they did. We'll, those efforts for 3G5 l days resulted in g. 600 GOO, GOO separate aud distinct eggs or 800, 900, 900 dozen, near as -1u calculate. Now, it took just 75O, GOO. 600 dozen of those eggs to supply tn e demand for Tom and ferries, puddings, har d and soft-boiled eggs. egg nog and ham an d | eggs in this country last year, and eggs was | eggs at that I figure that thirty cents a | dozen, for 1883, was about the average price, | Thirty cents dozen for 75O, GOO GOO dozen 1 climbs plumb up to the comfortable little l purse of $225, ,OOO, 0OO There's nothing mean about me, and if had the handling of | those offerings of the nations hens, I'd be | satisfied with profit of two cents on dog l en.
 .sWhat would be my little divvy9 Well, | if I haven't forgotten what old Daboll l drummed into me, I make it out that when 1 the old year died I would lug home some thing like $15, ,O0O, 900, clean and slick, ahead 1 of the game Ten years of that, and I think 1 I could sit down with the boys and stay with | as heavy jack pot as any of em." ssWhat would become of the other fifty 1 million dozen 2" asked the reporter. | .tThere you are again T" replied the mar ketman. Eff I owned all the hens, there's l another little item that would help me to keep from worrying abo it the punctuality of the rent and the infaIlibility of the gas meter. Last year must have been good one for | people visiting in the country, for folks l broiled, fricasseed and roasted something like l six hundred million chickens, young and old. | That used up tho little balance of fifty nail- | lion dozen eggs That fifty million dozen of | eggs were turned into chickens that gobbled 1 up $500, 900, GOO of the baEd-earned coin of | this realm, ciphering the thing down close at | fifty cents 8 chicken I don't deal in poul- | try, but from the size of the diamond pins of the ones that do don't hesitate minute l to say that there can't be less than five cents profit on every chicken they sell Old DsboIl comes up again and lays 1t down for Q nickel plated fact that if.I owned all the hens in
 
 home from the shop at the end of the year. for here I would have $15 900, GOO more piled in the till to be carried away and stuffed in the stocking and $16, 0OO, 900 is plenty for one man to carry at one time.
 'So you see wbat nice nest egg I'd have at the end of ten years And you'd hardly believe that New York city would chip in about one-thirtieth of the whole pot every year, would you? But sha would. Last year it took 25,000,0 ,0GA dozens of eggs to satisfy her, and she paid S9, GOO, GOO to get them. Now, New York State only keeps hens enough to lay about 5000 UOO dozen, and so, of course, we have to go knocking around all over the country and part of Can. ada to keep up with the cry for eggs It would take all the eggs that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts hens are responsible for to supply this city with all the eggs it wants. The B. GOO, GOO eggs used here last year, if laid in single line, one af- ter another, without hairs space between them, would reach from Boston to San Fran cisco tell you there's big thing waiting for some one who can get corner on hens."