The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-08-01
POULTRY IN NORTHWEST

The farmers of the Pacific North
west are overlooking one of their
greatest opportunities in neglecting to
develop the poultry business to
greater extent This is the opinion
of number of the best poultry ex-
perts in the United States, who claim
that the Pacific Northwest is the ideal
poultry country of the world.
The average farmer of the Pacific
slope overlooks poultry entirely. He
claims he is too busy to pay any at
tention to the hen. He works at rails
ing fruit and wheat, mutton, pork and
beef, and neglects the poultry end of
the business, which could be profit
ably conducted in conjunction with
the other branches of his farm, mere
ly because he looks upon it as a hobby
and pastime for women and a thing
which is a waste of time for men.
But such an attitude really speaks of
dense ignorance of the subject. No
farmer who has looked into the mat
ter fully would ever make such claims,
for actual experience of certain farm
ers in raising poultry has proved be-
yond all question Of doubt that it can
D0 mdu0 one Ol IDS uOSC plOlIdulO
branches of farming.
1t has been claimed that poultry is
not adapted to the Puget Sound and
Pacific slope climate. But this is
merely the claim of those who have
overlooked the business and have not
taken the trouble to go into it deeply
enough. With some of the biggest
and most expert poultry men of the
United States, men with ranches in
every section of the country, come to
the state of Washington, and after
making scientific study of the mat
ter, decide to locate large poultry
farms in this section of the country
and invest tens of thousands of dol
lars in the business, it would look as
though they believed that this country
is not only adapted to poultry raising,
but peculiarly adapted to it to such
an extent that the business can be
made more profitable here than any
where else in the United States.
There are only few conditions
these men have to consider and they
find that these conditions are remark
ably favorable. They find, or in
stance, that not only are climatic con-
ditions just righI for the raising of
poultry, but that Ian! is cheap, feed
can be obtained cheaply, and most
important of all, the best market, in5
the world are right at their door.
A representative of The Ranch re-
Gently visited the different railroad
companies in an effort to obtain some
statistics on the extent OF shipments
into this country of poultry and eggs,
in order to give the Pacific northwest
farmers some COMPREHENSION of the
enormous markets. The information
we found out concerning the Seattle
market was almost astounding. We
have it direct from railroad officials
who know conditions all over the Uni
ted States that the city of Seattle is
the best average priced market for
poultry and eggs in the United States
today. The shipments to Seattle at
the present time come from every
state in the Union lying between the
Mississippi rive and the Rocky noun
tains, and the farmers of Montana
and Idaho are also very heavy ship
pers Think of it; the farmers of
the middle west are able to raise
poultry in large quantities, pay the
heavy freight charges to Puget Sound,
and then sell their poultry on the
Seattle market at a good substantial
profit. And the farmers of the Pacific
northwest are letting them do this;
letting them capture the markets
right under their noses and take the
money out of the Pacific northwest,
which should remain here. And all
this is happening because the farmers
of this section are not alive to their
own opportunities; because as far as
poultry is concerned, they don't know
what can be done. They are asleep,
and they sit up in their sleep and