The Savannah morning news., 1903-06-21
$14o,oOo,ooO WORTH OF EGGS.
That's the Business the American
Hen Is Doing Every Year.
From the Chicago News.


From the Chicago News.
George Fayette Thompson of the Ag
ricultural Department has written
treatise upon the modern hen which
contains information of interest. In
the first place Mr.. Thompson declares
that the average get rich-quick con-
Germ stands in about the same rela-
ton to an up-to-date hen as does an
ice wagon to an automobile. AS
rapid accumulation of financial re-
sources the hen is in the same class
as oil wells and gold mines. The thor
oughly modern hen no longer wastes
her time Matching eggs. She leaves
that work entirely to the incubator,
while she devotes the time thus gained
to the more profitable labor of produc-
ing eggs.
Consequently, Prof. Thompson has
discovered that there is a proportion
ately smaller number of fowls but by
the adoption of labor and time saving
machines the lesser number has been
able to produce constantly increasing
output of eggs. The treatise contains
so much interesting information about
the hen and her product that Secre-
tary Wilson has determined to incor-
porate it in the forthcoming year book
of the Department of Agriculture.
Prof Thompson, who is also a sta
tistician of reputation, has discovered
that in the city of New York each
family of Ave persons consumes on an
average four eggs a day. In Chicago,
If it is accepted that the city has
reached population of 1000 900, the
ratio of egg consuming is higher and
every person in the city manages to
consume one whole egg each day in
the year
The production Of poultry and eggs
is the most profitable of all industries
Mr.. Thompson estimates that a thor
oughly modernized hen can realize 400
per cent. profit for her owner In
thirty-three states and territories the
value Of eggs exceeds the value of the
poultry product. The egg product in
the United States amounts to more
when measured by dollars and cents,
than the combined gold and silver
production. This does not take the
poultry into account at all
The value of the combined poultry
and egg product would be nearly double
that Of the precious metals The value
Of the industry is just six times that
Of the wool product. Still eggs have
taken only an inconspicuous place In
tariff debates. Protectionists and tar
IF reformers are in a perpetual row
over wool, but the hen makes no clam
or for protection from Congress.
Neither has there been any protest
against the introduction of machinery
Prices did not fall with the introduc-
ton of the incubator. Instead, the
poultry raisers of the country devoted
themselves to the education of the hen
so that she would lay eggs during the
time the old-fashioned fowl spent IN
sitting and tending to her brood of
chickens.
The grand total value of the annual
output of eggs is now $145, 100000, while
that of poultry aggregates $139. 900, 600
Iowa leads the states in the production
OF eggs, the yearly product of that state
being 100,000,000 dozen. Ohio comes
next with 91.0000O0 dozen. Illinois Is
third with S6,000.000 dozen and AfissouI
FORTH with IS, 100000 dozen With the
exception Of Alaska and Hawaii, Mon
tana pays the highest price for eggs,
the average price being 20 cents doz-
en-. They are cheapest in Texas, wht r.
the average price last year was IA
cents dozen. The average price in
the United States last year was IL IA
cents a dozen.
Prof. Thompson resorts to the rail-
way illustration as a means of i'm
pressing upon the mind the enormous
proportions Of the egg industry. The
annual output fills 43.f27,272 crates
holding thirty dozens each. An ordi.
nary refrigerator car. which has ar
average length OF 42.5 feet, holds 400
crates. lie maintains that a train OF
these cars sufficient 10 carry the annua'
product would be 500 miles long or Ions
enough 70 reach from Washington n
Chicago and have several miles tc
spare.
~ closing Prof. Thompson sayq
The majority ~ the fowls Of tbii
country are found 10 eomnarativeis
small numbers On a very large mum
Der - farms. where they gather thefl
0Nn subsistence and receive practical
" - care. The consequence ~ fhis Il
thht Gigs SIRE produced "a little cost
The Developments ~ tbis Industry =,
~ eHteHt Incredibly larger than n q
~ ihf present time n among fhe rae.
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