Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1902-03-14

exact figures for the Department OF
Agriculture in 1900 are 10000, 524. 3S4.
This doesn't count those consumed be-
fore getting to market.
IL everybody in the United States,
under Il radical system of communis'
tic distribution. were to get his fair
share of chickens. each person would
get three of the birds and u lions
share Of the fourth. He would get
3.72 chickens. In the whole of the
year. did you eat 1873 eggs? That was
the figure for the average American.
Tie lowest figure for eggs vas 1917
ents a dozen in 1900. That was the
minimum market price for exports.
Eggs are light affairs. weighing only
about an ounce and a half. MinOrca
& & are the heaviest. being about five
to the pound. While Wyandotte and
Brahma eggs run seven or eight to the
pound. Probably all the eggs laid in the
United States last year weighed about
$4,000 tons. This is about four times
the total tonnage of the American navy.
counting in even older ships.
Could Smash the Navy.
Naval ships are tremendously heavy
for their bulk, while eggs are uncom-
monty light. Perhaps battleships weigh
fifty or sixty times as much per cubic
inch as eggs. So it can easily be seen
that If all the eggs of the country were
rolled together into n it would make
n fairly sizable affair. Say. an egg
about $50 miles long and proportioned
like other eggs.
together. would make a fine. handsome
bird weighing just about a million tons.
Hens average about eight pounds
apiece. The figure varies both with the
individual and the breed, which weigh
rs follows:
Pounds. Pounds.
Wyandottes ....Gla Cochins ........ ISL.
Plymouth Rocks. ~. Minorcas ...... .Gls
Jersey Blues....S Hamburgs .... .Uih
Brahmas .......9h
Brahmas and Plymouth Rocks are the
most profitable and the most plentiful.
Full-grown hens are supposed to stand
two feet high. BOOSTERS grow a little
more
Brahmas. besides having the heaviest
eggs and being equally with the Plym-
outh Rocks the most profitable. and
therefore the most popular breed. are
also the biggest. Their standard meas
urement is twenty-six inches. and some
of them get much bigger. A few look
like turkeys. with their heads three feet
from the ground. .
The Faithful Hen.
On account of the %faithfulness and in
dustry of the American hens during the
last decade. the American egg peril ia
threatening Europe. In 1890 the eggs
exported from this country were Lot
noticeable from the point Of view of .he
quantity. though their beauty and gen
eral excellence was. of course. the same.
And in that year the people of this
country were forced to import 9i,0UO.-
600 eggs for their breakfast tables.
Ten years later the imports had drop
ped off 94.5OO,O 10000 down to l.5OO.OOO.
Those came in almost entirely across
the Canadian and Mexican borders
when there happened to he a temporary
scarcity on the American side.
The exports. on the other hand.
Jumped from n trace in 1890 to 10000.
600 in 1900. The change is largely due
to the perfecting of the cold-storage
process for eggs. and took place almost
entirely In the last half Of the decade.
lS90-190O. Another tremendous gain up.
pears probable for the current decade.
The American hen is q bird.