Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-24
THE OUTLOOK FOR THE
POULTRY BUSINESS

AS the population of our country in
creases the large ranches for cattle
and sheep raising become more and
more scarce, and the cost Of stock
raised on more expensive food Keeps
the price of meat going up. This. with
the agitation of the questionable sur
roundings of the meat products put
up at the packing houses, all causes
an increased interest in the production
of poultry and eggs.
In this part of our good home
country we can have little hope of a
large increase in the cattle industry
as there are no large areas of country
suitable to that business tributary to
our section, except such as will give
a much larger return If devoted to
other uses. The Imperial valley to its
first settlers seemed to give partial
solution of the problem, but when the
great variety of products which that
valley will produce are taken into con-
sideration, we soon see that much bet
ter profit can be realized there than
could be secured from live stock.
Transportation enters into the ques-
ton both as to bulk and cost, also the
demands of our tourist trade for choice
food products point to poultry raising
on a rapidly increasing scale as a
very important subject.
Anyone conversant with the signs OF
the times and the general trend of
thought knows well that we have a
great many business men and women
of long residence in and around Los
Angeles. as well as the increasing host
of homeseekers from the east, who
are studying the. poultry question with
a view to going into the business in
the near future with the intention of
making living from it. None Of
these people need have any thought of
overproduction. When incubators first
became commercial article of proved
success it was freely predicted in the
poultry centers which supplied the
market of Boston and New York that
the business would soon be so much
overdone that the profits would be
very small, and the prices necessarily
low, and yet the facts show that the
supply has been tagging farther and
farther behind the demand for the last
twenty years. The high price of eggs
and poultry here is not simply local
matter, the advance is worldwide 1t
costs about cents a dozen to get
Kansas and Missouri eggs to this
market, and If they could be bought
there as they used to be, at 4, or
cents a dozen, or even 10 or IL cents,
we would not be compelled to pay the
prices we do here now for eggs and
"A Iudil ITOII IeAdS last WcCh
told us that eggs could be bought
there for cents a dozen. We asked
him how long ago that time was.
Well, I reckon I've been here eight
years." he remarked. We very much
doubt If there will ever be any more
Scent eggs in this country for any
length OF time except in very small
and remote section.
All this is a preamble to the question
of entering the poultry industry as a
business proposition. We are asked
for pointers on this subject very
often, and we say to the inexperienced,
go very slowly, spend carefully, prove
your ability by actual results, and
then go on as rapidly as possible. If
you cannot make one pen of birds pay,
or a small flock of chicks grow and
thrive, you surely cannot make hun
dred or a thousand produce good
profit BY the term "a good profit" we
mean that every hen you keep should
yield you an income of two dollars
over and above what It costs to keep
her year. The male birds sold from
your flock Matched each year should
provide for the raising of the pullets
to laying age. The money received for