The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-17

iOl those SauSageS ana the HuHuItu hxings" that are exported as the re- suit of the mad hustle, hustle hustle. across the continents of locomotive and car, and exported by q hundred differ ent lines of ships. do not come within lSO'OOO tons of the weight of the eggs lald during the year in the United States. For the weight of all those animal pre- ducts is sonly'' s46S60 tons. and the weight of the one and a quarter billion dozens of eggs at the average weight of eight to the pound. is 9l0.33 tons.
 That would extnguish the entire Unit. cd States navy from kearsarge to Ala bama down 10 the tiniest torpedo boat. If all the yolx were to be hurled down on it at once there wouldn't be rivet left
 And in dollars those eggs equal 57 per cent of the entire income produced by all the exports of all the meat products, from the pigs tail to the sirloin steak. Add the value of the poultry 10 the eggs' and the meat products are beaten.
 Now throw in the remote animal pro ducts that are exported annually-hoofs. horns, bristles. bones and even glue; add wool and things made out of wool then add every kind of leather; pile on it all even the exported boots and shoes-and with all those allies the mass can beat the poultry and poultry products by only $15,00O,000
 -sOol Sn III It,
 Not so many years ago in the midst of battle over tariffs the whole country was shaken by the fight over wool and it was well worth while for the wool pro duct amounts to si5,75O0eo annually.
 But the poultry sold in a year beats that by s91 .O00,00U and the eggs beat il by S9S,50e 00e.
 And all the worlds animal products that have in turn. come to these shores, from goats herded in Morocco and Switzerland to leather from every place where leath- CT can be obtained. including. too, all The eheeses from every land. even China they aggregate 9.553 in value. less than half the value of chicken and egg. It is almost sad to think of the argo- nauts and all their strivings and battles and passions; and of the Alaskan adven- turers. with their Klondkes and Nomes, their ripping open of the frozen north Itself. their war against ice ard blizzard and wilderness for gold when we study the little en-pound hen and discover that all the gold and silver that enginee,s and miners and sluces and dynamite and laundering stamp mills have wrested from a whole continent do not equal in com bined value. year by year the value of the tiny white oval that is gathered aprons and baskets every morning in ev- cry hamlet, without a single adventure that 1t worth the telling
 
 cords were kept by the government has 1t happened that the American mines could beat the hen. In that exceptional year the precious metals were ahead by 80 50O GOO.
 Galleon and the Chicken.
 Even in the ages of gold, when galleon after galeon bore it from Africa and the golden Americas, when buccaneers built pirate cities from the spells, when the rich of the earth counted their wealth not by ounces but by ingots and bars even than all the gold and silver that the whole world could produce from hemi- sphere to hemisphere never came up in value to the combined value of the poul- try and eggs of the United States in the year past
 Since America was discovered, there have been only two years-l69S and 1S99- when the poultry and the poultry prod ucts fell below the work of all the mines of all the world combined. In the for mer, the mines outdid the hen by almost $C,001,0O0. In the latter year a perfect won der of year for gold and silver out put. almost $26,O000OO marked the excess over the value of the poultry products.
 Of course the hen could pay for I whole war with her peaceful industry in q year More than that, she helped to feed an army throughout one recent bit ter war that shook the continent That was in South Africa. Newspapers and magazines and books were full of the battles; but nobody mentioned that all the time the chickens of Missouri were feeding the British army where 1t lay in battle array. They fed it with crystalized eggs, and the more Tommy Atkins ate, | the more the Missouri hen laid. | And yet the state of Missouri holds only sixth place among the American states in point of egg production. Ohio is first m | I.t.e M de in, alaf | Ohio has taken third place in that re spect.
 Ohos leadership in eggs is in point of value in dollars. In the number of dozens. Iowa is the leader of them all. but she holds only second place in num- Der of chickens owned.
 Nevada. truculent old Nevada hasn't quite gotten down to the chicken yet. She has less than any other state.
 But she got the highest price for her eggs for during the year her average was 20 S-10 cents dozen. Scarcity of eggs does not explain high prices always for Montana leads eleven other states in egg production. and yet got the second highest average price, 20 6-10 cents a | dozen
 Eggs were cheapest in Texas. where they cost 7-10 cents dozen on an aver age.
 A Puzzle for Egg Eaters.
 And now comes a puzzle for the house wife.
 Uncle Sam has figured out exactly what the average price a dozen has been for a year and he finds that it was ii 15-l00 cents a dozen. Then why, oh, why are eggs so high when you buy them to eat?
 Uncle Sam and all his men respectfully decline to answer. The census bureau and the treasury department and the secretary | of the interior all give it I'D.
 And now to wind up the big wonder story of the American hen and her true blue American egg, here is little won der story. 1t is about Alaska.
 The census man went into Alaska and found all the hens. It was a hard job to find them, but not a bit hard to count the | total for there were only 176 fowls in all Alaska on June l. 1900.
 A man could have put all the hens of that country into cart and carried them with ease. Their combined value was Sl6G But that little pocket edition of hennery. with it's little toy shop capital. produced total income in one year of S5S9-ss60 for eggs and $179 for chickens.
 Eggs were high there. They avera ged 43 cents a dozen. The chickens that were matched and sold averaged $101 each. It was a nice little business beating most banks in point of percentage of income The rabbit is the great Easter beast of poets and artists. but the American hen has made good her claim 10 be consider ed the Easter bird of the world
 
 How He Placed 1t.