The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-11-19
IMPROBABLE POULTRY.
a Review Of Various Conditions, and the
Way to Better Results.

SfNf W.
a Review of Various Conditions, and the
| Way to Better Results.
A man, whose wide business asso-
Citations afford him fullest opportunity
! for such information upon the subject
as is enviable, asserts most positively
| that, leaving out of the account those
+, establishments devoted more exclu-
sively to production of eggs and fowls
for sale at fancy prices for breeding
/ purposes, yarded poultry as a whole
4, doesn't pay. He divides the yarded-
poultry industry into three classes
the breeding class; the class devoted
to production of eggs and fowls for
the regular or periodical supply of in
dividuals, hotels and restaurants at
long retail prices; and -he class which
+; depends upon the general or open
market for the sale of its products.
The first is the paying class par excel
lence. But there are. nevertheless.
scores of persons who embark in that
specially who do not succeed, and
! drop out of the business the poorer for
the venture. The second class, and in
the neighborhood of the large cities
much the most numerous class, and
! among whom are included many of the
first class, are generally able to make
very fair profits, and may be set down
as successful as whole. though much
depends upon their individual entee-
prise in disposing of their products.
Their success, however, depends
as much upon their ability to
sell as upon their merit as
| producers. The third class includes
the greater part of villagers and coun-
try people. who, with very rarely an
| exception. sell their products for less
than the actual cost of production.
! The exceptions are mainly those who
keep small focks and depend chiefly
upon kitchen remnants for their sup
port. and very few who strictly be-
| long to the second class in having Sc
/ cured a select list of customers who
prefer to pay an extra price for a reg
ular supply of eggs and fowls which
they know are fresh and choice to TAX
ing their chances at the stores and
market places.
OF these he asserts that he has
never been able to find one. outside of
| those excepted, who was able to show
a balance on the profit side of the ac-
count Moreover, he asserts that he
chou tho tom of
these establishments that have not
survived five years to one that has.
He is confident that the losses of this
class more than counterbalance the
gains of the second class, thus estab-
fishing, as he believes, the correct
ness of the proposition enunciated.
The reason he assigns for this discour-
aging condition of the poultry bust
ness as speciality is that immensely
the larger proportion of both eggs
and fowls come from the farms where
the fowls run at large and
gather the greater part of their own
food at no known expense to the own
er, and the products are picked up by
buyers at their own very low prices,
and. either as fresh. ''old-store" or
preserved stock, supplemented by heavy
importations of the same from Cana
da and Europe, keep the general mar
kets so fully supplied at low cost that
there is no sale for the more expen-
sively produced yard stock at remu-
nerative prices. If this be fair pre-
sentation of the situation-which, in
the absence of any contravening tes-
timony, appears probable-the rene
dy is also suggested for such as have
the tact and enterprise to seek out
retail market for their products. And
for the encouragement of such, it may
be added that there are few villages
OF any size in which there are not
men who make a profitable business
of buying up eggs and poultry at farm
ers' doors TO retail in the villages,
who might easily, and with perfect
fairness. be supplanted by the pro-
ducers themselves as entitled to the
business, on the theory of the sur
vival of the fittest- The only alter
native for them seems to be to sue
cumb TO the force of circumstances
and abandon the business of produc-
tion.-O. S. Bliss, in n. Y. Tribune.