The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-05-16
Poultry for Profit.
Jonathan Periam, in Chicago Breeders
Gazette.

Jonathan PeIiam, in Chicago Breeders
Gazette.
1t seems strange that in the West
and South, where poultry may be SO
easily and cheaply kept, the average
farmer and stock breeder regards the
industry as a small business. 1t is no
less singular that we who are able to
feed the world on low priced beef and
pork should view calmly the fact that
We are spending millions Of dollars
yearly for imported eggs. With the
production of poultry and eggs syste-
matically carried on, as is the breeding
and fattening of cattle, swine and
sheep, there is fully % per cent. more
profit in chickens and eggs than in
cattle and hogs, according to the invest
ment. There is still greater profit in
ducks and geese, for the simple reason
that greater number offarmers refuse
to have anything to do with domestic
water fowl than with land birds.
Hence these latter always bring two
| or three cents per pound more than
| chickens, and the markets are seldom
glutted as they sometimes are at the
| holidays with chickens and turkeys.
| The reason is that unbuslness-llke
people at such times seem inclined to
rush to market every fowl that by
| hook or crook can be sent away. The
consequence is at such times there is a
| glut, and prices are knocked down
two to three cents per pound, as was
the case last Thanksgiving day.
| To show the meaning more fully, on
Nov. Goth the range for cattle was
s275 to s6.25 per 100 lbs; the latter
for the very best cattle. Hogs, from
53.50 to 81 90 per 100 lbs; the latter
price for the very best. On the same
day prices for live fowls were: turkeys
CD cents chickens-hens, S cents; old
BOOSTERS, t cents spring chickens, 81
cents ducks, y cents geese, "a to st
per doZ. Dressed turkeys, 5 to
cents hens, 81 cents spring chickens
Il cents ROSTERS, 5 cents ; ducks. II
cents; and geese, 9 cents per pound
Extra fat. well dressed fowls o
improved breeds would easily brin!
one to two cents more per pound
Now i'll the Chicago market dressed
fowls mean those without the feathers
but with the entrails in-virtually live
weight. Hence it pays in the winter
to carefully dress and pack fowls fol
the market. BY the middle of Januar.
carefully fattened and nicely packe,
poultry should sell higher.
1t costs no more to raise and sell {
ton of fowls than ii ton Of beef or pork
both placed in the same condition o
fairness. Eggs, fresh, sold on the same
day as mentioned above at twenty-ont
cents for those fresh. All the value:
given are jobber and commission house
prices. BY the time they reached The
consumer from 80 to 40 per cent. would
have been added to the price. 1t i:
the fact that the raiser of poultry gets
much nearer the price which the con
sumner pays than is the case will
cattle, hogs, and sheep. The sooner
the farmer comes to know all this
that poultry raising is not an insigniti
cant business, but one of the creates
i'll its aggregate value Of any depart
mcnt of live stOck-the sooner will he
be able to make it a most importan
factor in his yearly profits. Take thu
simple item of eggs, properly looked
after: Of the better breeds, they will
lay from 100 to $50 eggs yearly for tn
larre breeds, and from 100 to 24O fO