The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-27
THE EASTER BIRD
OF THE WORID
The Whole Standing Army Of the United States
Couldn't Color the Country's Easter Egg

The mightiest Easter gift of the lot
is the Easter gift that the American
hen has presented to the United
States.
II the government were to decide to
color up all the eggs that are being
laid by her in one day, to present to
the children of the country, the whole
regular army couldn't do the work
unless each soldier could manage to
color seven hundred eggs, which is d
pretty big contract.
AS the country will consume not
one DAYS but several days. laying of
eggs, the standing army would be
literally overwhelmed, hidden. crush
ed by the work of the hen.
Her work produces enough eggs in
human being from Alaska to Porto
Rico, not leaving out the Eskimos of
Bering Straits.
Forty-two and one-half millions of
eggs a day is her average now. That
gigantic one days work weighs 1858
tcns-almost as much as the tonnage
of a United States cruiser like the At
Ianta.
While industrial combinations and
financial operations have filled the air
with their clsmorous processes. the
hen has scratched along in humble
privacy. and she has beaten even the
record of King Wheat: for the value
0f her F11nHAaf cVArfa1fU has fI1rnAA mt
to be greater than the whole value OF
the whole wheat crop of twenty EIGHT
states and territories in one year.
The gold and silver mines of the
country aren't worth mentioning in
comparison with the simple bird. Only
once in fifty years has the value of the
gold and silver of the United States
beaten the value of it's eggs.
Figures cannot give any idea of the
enormous value of this American citi-
zen, for the figures are too big TO
bring delight or understanding to any
one except a benighted and violent
statistician. For instance, what docs
S.598,005 mean? Yet that is the
number of chickens of laying age in
the United States. according to the
last census which enumerated them as
we'll as the rest of US.
The value in dollars of that noble
aggregation of laying talent was $7O,-
900, 900.
a Marvel of Eggs.
The wonderful flock of birds laid
more than one and one-quarter bill
lions dozens of eggs in one year. This
isn't a dream-not even that kind Of
a dream which begins ut is esti-
mated" For these figures are not
estimated" They sfe exact statistics
collected through the various depart
ments of the government day by day
as the eggs were put on the market.
That would entitle every man, wom-
an and child in the country, from
the Pacific to the Atlantic and from
Canada to Mexico, to 203 eggs in the
year.
Uncle Sam has figured up not only
all the hens of laying eggs, but all the
poultry of all ages in the country, not
scorning either the broilers or the
MethusaIehs that pour into the market
after a well-spent and long life to
pose on the stalls as spring chickens.
AS the result of his count, he finds
that the poultry of the United States
numbers more than quarter of bill
lion-250, ,6S1, ,593 to be exact. And the
value is $S5,S00, ,000-enough to give
every inhabitant of this country a lit
tie more than SLIP as his share if they
were sold for the account of the
public.
Going back to the hens of egg-lay-
ing age alone, and leaving out the ten
der infants that are only consumers
and not producers, Uncle Sans men
find that these Industrious and nom
striking workers have produced al
most $137 900, 900 in the form of market
able progeny and a little more than
$144, 100000 worth Of eggs. The exact
total of their production in dollars is
1921, 8,247.
And that, on the original valuation
of the plant of seventy millions of
dollars means that the American hen
has simply knocked into a cooked hat
the income producing capacity of
trusts, mines, manufacturing combina-
tions, Wall street and any except the
widest freaks of speculative stock, for
the income produced by the hen is 400
per cent. on the original investment,
with little bagatelle of $1,17S,247 left
over for pin money.
The Beast and the Hen.
II person could get a birds eye
view of the shipping ports of this
country at any day in the year he
would see droves Of cattle, horses and
mules go laundering up gangplanks
and being hauled in slings up the
sides of ships. Steers and cows by the
thousands stream into ships at
wharves in Boston, New York and
Baltimore. Mules and horses in un-
ending procession day after day go in
to ships in all the ports clean around
the coast from Portland. Maine, to
Galveston. Texas. And still more herds
go into still more ships on the Pacific
shores.
Criss- crossing each other. north,
east, west, and south, all over the
continent, rush trains filled with them,
not only day after day. but unending-
ly through the day and the night, with