The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-30
EGGS BY WHOLESALE
CALIFORNIA TOWN COMPLETE.
 LY GIVEN THE BUSINEss.
The Product is Shipped by the Mil lions of Dozens-Much Worth less Land Brought
 Into Use.
San Francisco Call.

Into Use.
 San Francisco Call.
 The town of Petaluma is ruled by five hundred thousand hens. They rule as long as they produce eggs. When they are past that stage of usefulness, they are put out qf the way somehow, perhaps sent to San Francisco boarding-houses. and younger generation of rulers takes their places.
 But for these half a million of hens the town would never have been what it now is. and the egg and poultry raising industry of Petaluma would never have matched. so to speak, and reached its present immense proportions. The hens know 1t. and hence there is no spot in the place that Is forbidden to them
 They greet the visitor as he steps from the train and they cluck at him as he departs. That Is, If he doesn't stay and go in the poultry business in this favora- ble spot, which many finally do. Twenty three years ago there were not more than a hundred or two chickens to be found in or around Petaluma. Now more eggs and poultry are shipped from that point than from all the other towns of the State combined, and the poultry ranches vary in size from backyard to hun dred acres or more. No person having d scrap of land to spare Is without flock of hens.
 The few figures following make the egg business appear very much more dig nified occupation than 1t Is popularly sup posed to be:
 The shipments from Petaluma last year were 100000 dozen eggs, 300O dozen Of poultry. As high as 14,000 dozen eggs have been shipped out in one day from the Petaluma market alone. More than one-half of the eggs and poultry uesd in SanFrancisco yearly come from this town of breeders and incubators. For the motherly hen does not belong here. and 1t Is as much as her life is worth to show any inclination to set.
 Petaluma's proud position as the egg rcenter of the Pacific coast is not the re- suit of accident, but is due to combi- nation, viz: Right soil, cool summers and favorable location. Nearneas to the San Francisco market and the extremely low freight rates afforded by reason of the competition between water and rail transportation are other important fac tors in Its development.
 Feeding the Hens.
 The poultry industry has been the means of making much otherwise worth less land much more valuable. The big Cotati rancho of lo.0oo acres has recently been subdivided and sold but in small holdings To drive through 1t now is to lind veritabie poultry city.
 The white Leghorn fowls. among the best layers known, are kept to nearly the entire exclusion of other breeds, for the egg business is really more promis- ing here than the poultry side of the industry.
 It Is pretty sight at the feeding time of 5000 or 1000 hens on a many-acred ranch. Perhaps the chicken house, each with Its nearby colony of 100 or 150 chickens. are scattered over many acres. sometimes amidst the green of foot hill orchard.
 There is a rush and fiutter of living cloud of white as the man starts out from the feedhouse with horse and sled and makes the round of the tiers of houses, scattering feed and gathering the harvest of eggs as he goes. The length of this trip varies, of course, with the amount of land occupied but the feeding sled sometimes makes circuit of mile.
 The hens are generally fed only once day, with the addition of a lunch of green feed at night. The sled is loaded with four barrels of water. five sacks of wheat and mash composed of three sacks of coarse middlings and forty pounds of either cut green bone or ground fresh meat. which Is mixed with skim milk that has been allowed to sour. On a big ranch 1t takes from a. m. until Il o'clock to complete the feeding and watering, and a sufficient quantity is put out to last twenty-four hours. Seventy five hens are roasted in each house. and the houses are built on runners.
 The colonies are from 400 to 800 feet apart, and the hens, being well supplied with feed, are content and do not wander tp anOthar
 An interesting feature of this open colony system is that each fowl knows and goes unerringly to it's own particular colony house for roosting at night.
 Every Fowl Knows Its Nest.
 No man is considered profesisopal poultry raiser about Petaluma unless he keeps at least a thousand hens. Another way of keeping the fowls Is in con tinuous row of houses with wire inclosed runyaFds attached but the scattered colony system seems to be the favorite and is also the most healthful and gives the best results in fertility and vigor.
 Many of the women of Petaluma are kept busy feeding the chickens, In 1900 1000 was spent with the merchants of the town for chicken feed. This was out side and above the e1dstuf which some of the large poultry raisers import from San Francisco. Small oyster shells are bought fin this town of hens by the schooner load to furnish the bddies with ths lime whercwith to produce a proper eggshel. The cost of feeding one hen we'll and strike the happy medium of success in feeding. Is about 65 cents per year-from that to s1. A man will go into d store in Petaluma and buy s5oo worth of chicken feed and pay cash for it as readily and perhaps more so than he would buy his wife silk gown
 Spot cash is the basis on which trading Is done in Petaluma. and the hens have made it so. The local merchants pay out to small producers on an average of S. 00o per day for eggs and poultry.
 Producers get cash almost daily for their products and can sell one bird or A dozen GEES to lively lot of competitors for cash at the same rate that thousand birds or a thousand dozen eggs would be bought for.
 How Business is Transacted.
 The Petaiuma poultryman sells his eggs; he don't consign them. In the spring season San Francisco and other dealers send to the town, and their agents may be often found out on the country roads trying to induce the incom- ing poultrymen to sign contracts to sel! their products to them for the entire