The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-22
CHICKENS FOR PROFIT.
An Open Question Wh,ther They Are
Worth While.

There are some people who believe
that raising chickens for market on a
large scale can be made a profitable in
dustry. The question is involved in so
much doubt, as the Sun has already
said. an agricultural journal has re-
Gently offered money prize to anyone
who can cOnclusively show that this is
possible. No one will dispute that white
Pekin ducks and turkeys can be raised
with profit on large scale, the first be-
cause they are marketable six weeks
after being Matched, and the second be-
cause If they have sufficiently extern
siye range they find their own subsist-
ence from spring until late autumn, and
rear their young without supervision or
expense to the owner. All of these can
be disposed of at a clear profit, as the
feathers pay the cost of picking. Chick
ems are different They must be Kept
within enclosures and fed throughout
the year. Moreover, the chicks mature
slowly, and the percentage of loss from
various causes is larger. The only prof
il is in the eggs, provided they can be
sold by the grower at not less than 20
cents a dozen. The only country in the
world where chicken raising for market
is indisputably profitable is Russia, and
from there in 1898 $37 900, 900 of live
poultry and S17000000 worth of eggs
were exported to various Continental
states and to Great Britain. Yet in Rus
STA there is not a single farm devoted
exclusively to the rearing ofChickensfor
market They are all bred by the peas
ants. each of whom keeps but a small
number, only so many as can be fed and
cor fa1 For wit mr.
ion. The Russian does this by housing
the fowls with him under his own roof.
They are. in fact, members of the fam
lily. and share with it not only its shell
ter but also its warmth and food. They
roost upon the cross beams of the roof
and forage about upon the earthen floor
of the cabin of their owners. AS they
are warmly housed and fed on scraps
from the family table, and damaged
wheat. they repay this care in winter
eggs and early chicks, which are dis
posed of at a season when they COM
mand the highest price. Poultry and
eggs are collected in Russia from the
peasants in small lots by itinerant deal
ers. who go the rounds of the villages
and detached farms. They pay either
i'm cash or in such articles as the peas
~
a wholesale merchant established near
a railway station, who ships them to st.
Petersburg to a company which dis
poses of them to Continental dealers,
who fatten the fowls and dispose OF
them to retailers and market men all
over Europe. Germany and Austria get
the larger amount of Russian poultry;
England the greater number of eggs.
OF all the hands through which the
fowls pass before reaching the consum-
er. the Russian peasant reaps the larger
percentage of profit, simply because he
rears his stock at the minimum of cost
We cannot do that here. Public sentl-
ment would revolt at ones turning his
residence into a oultry house. There
fore in order to raise chickens for mar
ket. we are confronted with the expense
for shelter. food and care that wives out
the profit Of the grower. The wholesale
dealer. jobber and retailer harvest all
of that New York Sun.