The San Juan County index. (Aztec, N.M.) 1890-19??, 1902-05-02


The town OF petaluma Is ruled by
100000 Eens. But for these half mil
lion of hens the town would never have
been what k now is, and The egg and
poultry raising industry Of petaluma
would never have batched. SO 10 speak,
and reached It's present immense pro
portions. The items know it. and hence
there Is no spot in the place that is for
hidden 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 60 into the poultry business I'M this
favorable spot. which many finally do.
Twenty-three years ago there were not
more than q hundred or two chickens
to be found IN or around Petaluma.
Now more eggs and poultry are ship
ped from that point than from all the
other towns Of the state combined, and
the poultry ranches vary in size from
a back yard to a hundred acres or
more. No person having n scrap of
land to spare Is without n flock of hens.
The few figures following make the
egg business appear a very much more
diguided occupation than 1t Is pOpu-
larly supposed to be;
The shipments from Petalnma last
year were 100000 dozen eggs and 80,
600 dozen Of poultry. AS high as a.,
600 dozen eggs have been shipped out
In one day from the Petaluma market
alone,
The poultry industpN has been the
means of making much otherwise
worthless land much more valuable.
The big C0tati rancho Of 10000 acres
has recently been subAiyided and sold
out in small holdings. 10 drive through
it now is to find a veritable 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.
1t is a pretty sight at the feeding
time of 5000 or 1000 hens on a many.
acred ranch. Perhaps the chicken
houses, each with its nearby colony of
100 or $50 chickens, are scattered over.
many acres. sometimes amid the green
of a foothill orchard.
There is a rush and q futter Of a liv-
ing cloud of white as the man starts
out from the feed house with horse and
sled and makes the round of the tiers
of houses, scattering feed and gather
ing 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 q
circuit Of a mile.
The hens are fed generally only once
a 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 a 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 6 a.. m.
until IL o'clock to complete the feeding
and watering and a sufficient quantity
is put out to last twenty-hours. Sew
enty-ive hens are roasted in each
house, and the houses are built on
runners.
An interesting feature of this open
colony system Is that each fowl knows
and goes unerringiy 10 It's own par
ticular colony house for roosfing az
night.
III 1900 420.0o0 W.is spent with the
merchants az The town for chicken
feed. Ihis was outside and above the
feed stuff which some of the large
poultry raisers import from San Fran
cisco. Small oyster shells are bought
in this town Of hens by the schooner
load to furnish the biddies with the
lime wherewith to produce a proper
eggshell. The cost Of feeding n hen
well. and strike the haDDy medium of
per year-from that to 81. The average
profit per hen is 81 to S15O net per an
mum. One mar about three miles from
Petaluma has succeeded by special
care, neatness and good selection of
fowls, in making his hens pay a trihe
over 81 each per annum.-FrOm the
San Francisco Cali.