The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1904-01-15
THE AMERICAN z
Importance of the Barnyard Bird IS Y
Factor In American Life.

actor In American Life.
Boston Transcript: Probably the
principal interest felt in the eggsindus-
try by the average American citizen
lies in the fact that within the past
six weeks egg have been working up
from about so cents adozen for the best
quality to close onto 40 cents, to the
purchasing This, however,
Is not paging the American hen the res
spect that is her due. Sheis not anly
an important but aSsWonderfully po-
tential factor of the agricultural indus
stryao of thesUnited States. Yet even the
average farmer considers her almost
beneath his notice. He leaves her to-
women and children and begrudges
her almost everything that makes even
the slightest tnroad upon his ordinary
crop products. TO her is assigned the
of providing her own living,
and she must do that by cleaning be-
hind every regular harvest. After he
has dug and garnered and threshed3
and closed$Sis account with each par-I
2ticular item ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS he
keeps such an accountable hen can
find her subsistence in what he has
overlooked.
In@other words, b poultrySyard, to
q great extent, is somewhat contemp-
tuously regarded a S a. mere incident Of
his general business. Sometimes his
wife or II Of his children will take,
hold OF that neglected branch ana put
him to shame by making at the most
profitable feature of the whole estab-
lishment. Yet a deliver in census re-
turns, working for the Brooklyn Eagle,
informs us that last year the poultry
and eggs produced and eaten in the
United EtafegsWere worth more than all
The gOlN and silver mined in the world
during y same lei Except for the
year 1900, the egg product Of this coun-.
try ha exceeded In value that of it's
combined gold and silver output for;
every year since 1880, which takes in
the entire bonanza peTiods#ef our HIS
tory. That. with the poultry product
also exceeds in value the wheat crop
sof tw~enty-eight of the most fruitful
states n territories.
Reduced to concrete terms, In 1885
the egg record OF this country was H.
29o, 900 dozen. There are thirty
dozen to a crate, and 400 crates TO a car,
SO train of5cars sufficient to accom-
MEDIATE the transportationzof all these
crates would reach from Chicago to
Washington, distance Of 1858 miles,
and then there would remain several
cars Of eggs TO pare. In 1900 Iowa pro-
dueed SO, 100000 dozen and Ohio 91,000,-s
1000, having avalue of over $40, 00O, 900
each state. OF course the incubator:
has considerable to do with poultry
production, but incubators dc not lay.
eggs and poultry Of the country has
been as highsas $3.50, 100000.
Think what hullabalo has been
raised over threatened ruin to beet sug-
Egar and wool. How much burning
breath has been expended by the lobby
LIST and the political spellbinder In app
peaIs for higher tariffs and protests;
against reciprocity propositions. Yet
In 1902 our whole sugar production
amounted to only about $40, 900. 900,
while the wool industry is only about d
third as important as 1.-The egg and.
poultry industry. 1T is only in quite
recent years that We have thossght 1T
worth while to impose duty on for.
eign eggs, and when 1T did come it was
rather to make the schedule SYM
metrical than because Of any agita-.
tion or any conviction that 1T was
necessary. There Isl no danger of g1ut-
ting the market. Farmers are neglect
ing a great opportunity. In a summary
3of recent reports to h state board OF
agriculture they generally confessed 1T,
yet, acknowledging the expedient, they
still the i~nexpedient pursue.