The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-30
GOSSIP FOR HOME PEOPLE.
CURTIS LATEST WRITE Up.
Continued from Ninth Page.))

|
and creameries have been springing up all
owe rthe state, until the total value of
dairy products in 1897 was 1928, 1872, and in
1898 increased Is per cent TO $6,049,552. From
| the estimates of the state agricultural de-
| partment the increase for 1899 will be still
| greater.
But it is from "the helpful hem that the
| people of Kansas have received the great
est amount of encouragement and conso-
| lation during hard times. The annual re-
port of the States Agricultural Society
says:
while everything else was going TO
rack and ruin she increased and multi
piled: she supported herself and her fam
lily, too. The very insects which would
| have despoiled the farm she fattened upon,
and laid her daily egg-the blessed egg
| that took the place of beef and milk NUT
ton and portland in good time, after all
| these services, surrendered her toothsome
body to the cause of humanity"
The value of poultry and eggs sold by
| Kansas in 1897 was s., $50 997, and in 1898 it
was S4,145, 733 Millions of eggs and chick
ems are shipped 10 the eastern markets
every year. They are bought up by local
commission men in the villages and towns
and forwarded by the fast freights every
day to Kansas City, Leavenworth and 9TH
er centers, where they are packed for the
eastern and export markets, and are held
in cold storage houses to await the de-
mand. 1t costs little labor and money to
raise eggs and poultry. 1t is usually the
pleasant duty Of the housewives and farm
ers' daughters, and many of them clothe
themselves and buy their books, music and
newspapers with the proceeds.
Many a Kansas girl has been educated
by the helpful hen Many an aspiring
youth has been aided in obtaining start
toward the goal of fame at the law school,
the medical school or the theological sem
mary by the poultry yard. behind his faith
er's barn, and there was never a more just
and deserving tribute paid to humble use
funess than that have quoted above.
One of the big firms handling poultry in
this state has its headquarters at Wichita
and ships 500 cars of poultry and eggs
every year to New York, Philadelphia and
many other cities in the far east, where It
has contracts to supply steamship COM
panies, hotels and market men. 1t makes
contracts with farmers TO supply so many
eggs and so many chickens for the season,
delivered at certain central points, where
there are cold storage facilities. There the
eggs are inspected and packed, the chick
ems are killed, dressed and stored until
there is a carload. This Wichita firm
ships a good deal to Mexico, San Fran
cisco and Denver and the mining towns OF
Colorado and Arizona, where eggs and
-;o hon u, Ioa
east, but the demand is comparatively
limited
Very few chickens are raised by arti-
fetal processes. The incubator is not
popular The farmers say it "costs more
than it comes to- and that Gods plan of
creating poultry is the best.
This morning we visited a big packing
house at the pretty town of Winfield,
which by the way, is the most attractive
we have seen in Kansas, and Mr.. Baden,
proprietor told US that he handled $4,000
cases of eggs last year, thirty dozen TO
the case, which, you can ascertain by
simple calculation, means ?, 900 dozen, or
2S, 100000 eggs.
Every one of those eggs was carefully
inspected in dark room, where rows Of
holes in the wall just big enough to admit
the end of an egg. 1t looked like an extern
sive exhibition of chiaro-scuro, but was
the busiest and most important portion of
the establishment. Taking up two eggs
in each hand with a dexterity due to long
experience, the testers would turn them
quickly toward the light for an instant,
and then drop them into different boxes
and stood at their sides. In one box went
the perfect eggs; in another those that
were dirty or doubtful, and IN the third
those which the late Bill Nye would de-
scribe as having insufficient ventilation.
The ''firsts" were packed in boxes and
piled up in the refrigerators; the sec
onds' were packed and shipped immedi-
ately to market, and the 'thirds'-I
couldn't find out what becomes of them,
although 1 asked several times. Perhaps
they are sold to the hatcheries.
Every spring Mr.. Baden packs away in
regular temperature of 80 degrees, 600, 900
dozens of eggs to await the high prices of
the following winter. At this season of the
year he can buy eggs for 6. S and 10 cents
dozen. He has bought them as low as
4 and 5 cents when the hens were par
ticularly industrious, and he has paid as
high as % cents when they were lazy and
the weather was bad. At present they are
selling in the whole sale markets of the
cities for 10, 70 and 10 cents; in the winter
at 20 and % cents a dozen. Mr.. Baden says
he has sold eggs as high as 80 cents
dozen wholesale.
Every grocery man within a radius OF
SC III +oly
from the farmers wives in trade, pack
them in boxes which ne furnishes and chip
them daily to his place at Winfield. He
has buyers with wagons cons family travel
ing from house to house along the coun-
try roads. who deliver their purchases at
the nearest railroad point and are paid
commissions for what they bring in.
There are few large hanerieS. I hear1 Of
a man WAC rad 1000 hens, but have not
been able 10 ind him. anl conclude that
he must be d myth. The average farmer
keeps not more than 100 or 30 hens. and
can furnish from five TO SIX dozen eggs
daily during the season. As the cold
weather comes on the supply diminishes,
for no means have been found 20 make
hen work when she doesn't want TO.
In the same way Mr.. Baden picks UP his
supply OF butter and chickens. He handles
about a million pounds OF butter a year,
and lcl0G10 pounds Of poultry. The chick
ems are brought IN alive, and average four
pounds in weight. They are killed, dressed
and packed in a large building. with ma
chinery Four men can do up 100
day.
TIE feathers are practically worthless,
although they are saved and sold 70 up
dols,e-ers. The price averages . cents
-,o,,-5 hut tbA entire rro5uct last ves-