The Florida agriculturist., 1906-04-04

way the country around Petaluma
looks. Everywhere you look you see
white chickens, and the further you
look the more white you see, until just
as the horizon comes to your relief
the dots seem to merge into a white.
snow-like covering 1t is all white for
the chicken raisers in and around
Petaluma have followed their leader
most Loyalty, and the white leghOrn
is the prime favorite. If you ask
why. you will be told that it is the
best layer and the quickest grower.
There is tradition that people have
gone to Petaluma for the purpose of
entering into other branches of agri-
culture. but all have succumbed to the
charm and all man needs to make
comfortable living, according to the
belief i'm that vicinity. is few acres
of ground and a little money to start
his chickens to growing.
The big poultry raiser buys his feed
at wholesale. 1t takes a ton of mid
dlings and a ton of wheat each month
to feed 1000 chickens up to a profit
able laying point. When a man has
a thousand or more chickens he pur-
chases his feed for his flock by the car
load. and he sells the stray feathers,
the egg shells, the guano, and all odds
and ends about the place which or
dinarily go into the dump. The egg
shells alone are worth S1.6O bushel.
When the hundreds of incubatOrS on
the poultry ranches near and i'm Petal
una give out their little chicks there
is an immense lot of shells to dispose
of, and these are now part of the pro-
fit of the poultry raiser.
Some idea of the amount of the busi-
ness at Petaluma may be had when
it is known that there are nine estab-
lishments which make business of
paIking eggs and chilling dressed
poultry so that it may be shipped a
long distance.
The duties of maternity in and
around Petaluma, so far as it pertains
to chickens. are performed by incu-
baturs and brooders, and on some
of the big poultry ranches near that
city one will find half a dozen incu-
bators and brOoder houses, all filled
with chicks-little balls of down just
from the shell. or little white chirping
creatures that swarm to the other
side of the brooder house in wild af-
fright the moment they hear the sound
of strange voice.
Inc Ol 1eldIuIlid dDpedIS W
be especially suited to the vigorous
growth of chickens, and ordinary fowl
ailments are almost unknown on a
well conducted ranch in that vicinity.
There are some peculiarities about
these chicken ranches that will appear
strange to the Easterner. For in
stance some of the ranches have no
thing but incubators and broOders. |
They raise chickens to sell within |
three days of the time they leave the
shell. These chicks are in constant |
demand and sell ordinarily at the rate |
of five cents each when they are three |
days old
Another or rather several other |
ranches raise chickens simply to sell
as brolers. They raise the chicks |
until they are ten or twelve weeks old |
and then send them to the city mar
kets This they continue all the year
round These brOilerS are supplied to |
the hotels. restaurants and private
dealers, going mostly to the city of
San Francisco. Other ranches raise
the young chickens to supply other
ranches who have no time to devote
to the raising of chickens. The man
with four or five thousand laying hens
prefers to buy his pullets when he is
ready to sell off the old hens, and he
does not care to attend to the detail |
of raising little ones. To meet this de-
mand some ranchers do nothing but