New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1904-06-11
THE HEN.

THE HEN.
Probably the. principal Interest
felt in the egg industry by the
average American citizen lies u!
the fact that Within the last SIN
weeks eggs have been working W
from about Is cents dozen for the
best quality Ia close To 20 cents it
the purchasing consumer. lhiS,
however, is 10. paying he Amer
can hen the respect that Is bel
due She Is not onl y an lmpor-
tant. hnt wonderfully potential
factor of the agricultural lndustr,
| of the United States. Yet even the
average farmer considers her al
most beneath his noiicr Tie leaves
her to he women aud children. aud
| h,rtudyr~ her most everything
| thar ,uakrN even the slightest Irr"a'l
uJ"u his urdInar, crop produce.
10 her Is assigned the ">1nnt
Of providing her own living, and
she must do that by cleaning he
hind every regular harvest. After
be has dug aud garnered aud
thrashed and closed his account
with each particular item OF pro
ductiou-provided he keeps such
an accountable hen can find her
Subsistence in what he has over-
looked
In other words, the poultry yard i,
to a great extent, is somewhat con
temptiously regarded as a mere in
cident Of his general business.
Sometimes his wife or one OF the
children will take hold Of that neg
lected branch and puts him to
shame by making it the most
profitable feature of the whole es-
Enlistment. Yet deliver in cen
sus retarns working for the Brook
Ign Eagle informs us that last year
the poultry and eggs produced and
eaten in the United States were
worth more than all the gold and
silver mined in the world during
the same year Except for the year
1900, the egg product of this coun-
try has exceeded in value that of
its combined gold and silver out
put for every year since 1850,
which takes in the entire bonanza
period of our history That, with
the poultry product, also exceeds
in value the wheat crop of twenty
eight of the most fruitful States
and Territories.
Reduced to concrete terms in
1899 the egg record Of this coun-
try was 100000, 900 dozen.
There are thirty dozen to a crate,
and 400 crates to car, so a train
Of cars sufficient to accommodate the
of all these crates
would reach from Chicago to Wash
ington, distance Of 868 miles, and
then there would remain several
cars of eggs to spare. 10 1900 |
Iowa produced $1,000, 900 dozen
and Ohio 81, 900, 900, having
value of over $40, 1000, 900 for each
State. OF course, the incubator
has considerable to do with poul-
try production, but incnbators do
not lay eggs. Ia single year the
value of the eggs anu ponltry of the
country has been as high a $780,
900, 900.
Think what a hullobaIOo has been
raised over threatened ruin to the
beet sugar and wool How much
burning breath has been expended
by the lobbyist and the political
spellbinder in appeals for higher
ariffs and protests against recipro-
,ity propositions. Yet in 1902 our
whole sugar production amounted
o only abont 500, 900, 900, while
he wool industry is only about n
bird as important as the egg and
poultry industry. its only in quite
ecent years that we have thought
worth while to impose duty on
oreign eggs. and when it did come /.
was rather to make the schedule !
then because of any {
Onviction that it was necessary. 9
here is no danger of.glntting the !
larket. Farmers are neglecting +
great opportunity. In sum a
lary Of recent reports to the State /
Oard Of Agriculture they general
I confessed it;yet, acknowledging
he expedient, the inexpedient
I,rsue. Boston transcript