The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-03-01
Poultry in the South.

Most all of the eggs and dressed chick
ems sold in southern cities are the
products of the northern states. With
the perpetual warm weather, the care
of poultry becomes nominal. At all
times of the year they can have the
benefit of green vegetation and fresh
foods. Particularly across the Gulf
border or belt, of Florida, Georgia, AL
ALBANIA, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Texas, will the poultry business prove
exceedingly profitable. Almost any
where in this belt, the climatic condi-
tons would not necesSitate the "hOus-
ing up of poultry for even one day in
the year. A man with a few hundred
dollars, can establish a business of
rapid growth and development Dur
ing the summer of 1898 eggs were rs
cents a dozen, and small fries IS to As
cents each, and over half the time the
demand could not be supplied at these
prices. A 3-pound broiler will bring
SO to 60 cents. A 1O-pound capon will
sell at 80 cents pound. During the
winter season, eggs go up to 40 and 50
cents a dozen, and sometimes cannot
be bought at these high prices.
People in this district who have not
an established business in gardening
or fruit farming should turn their at.
tention to the poultry industry. At this
time hundreds of northern farmers are
preparing to go south, and if going
near the territory we have mentioned,
we believe it will be to their profit to
go prepared to engage in the poultry
business Farming, Indi-
annapolis, Ind.
We publish the above to show our
Southern Ruralist readers what stuff
is palmed off in some northern agricul-
tural papers in regard to the South.
Scarcely a single statement in the
above article has a semblance of truth.
Thousands of people in poor health
have come to the South fortified by
sundry northern poultry journals to
go into the poultry business, but to
meet failure. There is a lack of the
perennial succulent grasses in all the
pine sandy lands of the South, and
vegetable foods have to be grown with
great care and expense during the
season they are most needful.
All the advantages the southern
poultry raiser has over his northern
competitor in the absence of extreme
cold, is offset by the extreme heat OF
summer, at which time the chicken
flea and other vermin, without the
most assiduous care and watchfulness
on the part of the raiser, will destroy
whole f1Oclzs before their presence is
discovered, while the chicken hawk
opossum, polecat, owls and rats, are
more destructive than in northern
climes. Cholera and other chicken dis
eases are as prevalent South as North
Difficulties encountered in successfully
raising poultry in the South have
made prices little higher in the
South than in the North, but we are
buying both eggs and poultry in Flor
ida at less prices than we could have
a month ago in Ohio.
Few embarking in poultry raising in
the South as a business, have made it
successful. These have commenced
with a few fowls, studied their hab-
it's, their needs, their diseases, the
gradually increased their f1Ocks as
they obtained experience. These usu-
ally also have choice breeds, and sell
both eggs and breeders at fancy prices
The above is in reference to poultry
raising as a business in the South
With the farmer, a small flock of
fowls where a large range furnishes
abundance of insect life, they forage
about the barn and pig pen, and care
mostly for themselves, living largely