The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-28
POULTRY RAISING
 BENEFITS SOUTH Can Be Carried On ProftabIy In Many Localities A VALUABLE SIDE LINE Instances of Success Cited From Wide ly Separated Places-Where
 Product May Be
 Sold.
From the Southern Field.

From the Southern Field
 The hen, some one says, ought to be established as our national bird. She is certainly the bird which contributes most to the welfare and enjoyment of our people, and as wealth producer to the farmers of the country she is as fine an asset as they possess. The figures show well, no matter what they show; the es- timated value of the annual production of poultry and eggs In the United States Is simply stupendous. It would build a double track railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific
 Every portion of the country contrib utes something to the vast aggregate. No portion is so admirably adapted to profit able poultry raising as the south, and no other region should lead 1t in the sum total of the product of the poultry farms and poultry yards. Wherever attention has been given to the development of the poultry business in the southern states it has had pronounced success.
 VIII Pay on Any Farm.
 The opportunity lies in many .yImmuni- ties for the establishment cs1 poultry farms and for paying the closest attention to the chicken as a side issue on all the farms. The south itself is the best mar ket for poultry. It's great consuming cen ters are all too poorly supplied. Some southern poultry and eggs now find a market in the north, but the amount Is not large enough to offset the shipments which steadily go from northern states to southern states.
 There is demand in the north, espe- cially in the winter months, which would take largely increased shipments from the south. The market of the West Indies and of Mexico makes a steady demand upon the ports of Mobile. New Orleans, and others which must be supplied in great part from the northern states. This is not because the south Is not the best poultry raising section, but because the industry has not been developed as it should.
 Rhode Island may have the honor of supplying the White House table each Thanksgiving with an especially grown turkey, but the finest turkeys which reach the Washington market are from Virginia and Tennessee; and the Caro- linas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida produce just as fine turkeys and
 
 supplying in part many northern markets with their poultry products.
 Success In Alabama.
 Just outside Mobile, Ala, MT R. L. Mcbride, a merchant in the city, has a poultry farm. He has, as a rule about 800 grown chickens, which he keeps for their eggs alone. For the past five years his daily average sale of eggs has run from 19 to 23 dozen, at from 25 to 45 cents ryjfh rlAr hQY fa fbn average price. This means a daily income from the eggs of about $6
 As the poultry farm Is looked after by hired help, 1t receives no special atten- tion. He has an inclosure of about five acres for the chickens, but allows them to roam at large and feed in his barnyard and on other lands near by. He feeds but once a day, late in the afternoon. He has found that section splendid one in which to carry on the poultry business, and has never suffered loss nor had trouble from disease in his flock.
 In northwestern Alabama along the Northern Alabama railway, poultry buy CTS have worked up @ considerable bus mess, and are now shipping live poultry and eggs to various sections of the coun- try. From the stations along that road in distance of 50 miles probably $250 900 worth of poultry and eggs each year are shipped. Birmingham and the industrial and mining regions surroundings 1t fur nish a great market for poultry and eggs, which cannot be supplied from nearby points, though the country Is most favor- able for the industry.
 Profitable In Mississippi.
 The little town of Eupora, Miss, has worked up a poultry business with the delta section of the state amounting to about t6,o00 . year, Here, as in the northern Alabama section, the supply all comes from the barnyards of tho farms, no extra attention being given to the raising of chickens.
 A trip over the Norwood branch of the Southern railway recently developed the fact that steady business in live poul- try existed from two or three towns on that short line. shipments going to near centers and to Florida points. The az gregate amounts to $2000o0 or $300,000 a year. This development, too, has been reached without any special efforts to en- large the business. Like conditions may be found in . great many communities in the southern states. showing that the advantages for the industry are very pronounced. The testimony of every one who has paid careful attention to poultry growing is that tho south is preeminently adapted for 1t, and that the profits from 1t are very large.
 In Shenandoah Valley.
 In tho valley country of Virginia are some very large poultry farms, where tur- keys, geese and ducks, as we'll as chick ems, are raised in great quantities, and which have their well established mar kets in the eastern cities There Is a very largo poultry farm near Richmond, with as many as 5000 chickens and ducks, In several other places in the south are soms specially large farms all of which are proving very profitable. Tho oppor- tunity in the poultry business is so good that in large number of different com munities very few acres. which may be purchased at few dollars an acre, will enable ono to keep from 400 to 1000 chick ems, from which the returns will give family a gocd income. one sufficient to pay all expenses and to make good an- nual savings.
 Experiment In Tennessee.