The Prescott daily news., 1915-12-31

lot of feathered skeletons and be sold as mere chickens. Nelson puts all on the scales, and the man who has the big fat chickens is the man who gets the big fat price. And the policy Is showing results in breeding and feeding for size and weight. Rec ently he bought bunch of hens from a farm woman at at an average price of 60 cents apiece, by weight-pure bred Plymouth Rocks into which she had put the size, knowing that they would sell by the pound. Such an in- fluence is the policy having increasing the size and value of chickens that he has lately paid as much as S5 cents apiece, by weight, for hens at prevail ing commercial prices.
 Well, then, getting back to our story, the farmer, having been as sured that the market price would be furnished, got busy forthwith on the production end of the business, as far mers always do when they know they have market-a market that is safe strong and always on the job. The business has grown like Jonah's gourd Five years ago a few dozens of eggs of questionable character and a few scrawny, scarecrow, dunghill chickens were exchanged with merchants in nearby towns for snuff, tobacco, laun- dry soap, baking powder, etc.; this season, up to December 1, MT. Nelson had 14,370 dozens of eggs at a price of nearly $3,000; and by January 1 the figure will be very near $3,500. The car of turkeys added nearly $1,- 200 to this, and the chicken business will probably add about $6,000 more a total of not less than $10,000 for pol try and eggs shipped from the village of Blevins. This is more than twice the volume of last years business, so rapidly is the industry growing.
 Yes, the farmers are making mon- ey. We do not have any figures before us on any mans poultry receipts for the year, but we saw a list of Thank sgiving turkey shippers and the am- cunts paid them at the shipping stat ion. One man received for his lot $97.- ST; another $6S.08; another $62, and others $5S.S7, $55.25, and $54.06, re- spectively. The total receipts for all kinds of poultry and for eggs-some- thing like ,000-distribute large ly through the ordinarily non-income months, has given the farmers of this community big, substantial lift. The business has probably brought in as much clear profit as 800 bales of cotton would have brought, and, at the same time, it has not reduced cot ton production in the slightest degree
 All this business has been built up in five years time. Yet there has been nothing scientific or new fangled a. bout it-just the old-time chickens until lately, the time people and the old-time conditions. The only new things are the opening of a market as broad as the good states of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, and the get ting on the jbo of sizzling hot, wide awake poultry enthusiast-the kind of man you will find at the bottom of nearly every big thing that has been accomplished His enthusiasm may be selfish, in a measure-it gen erally is, perhaps-but it gets results, and we need a few such live wires in every community in the land.
 But this is only the beginning. Big ger things are coming. People are go- ing to wonder, if they can pay grocery bills and buy clothing and do a lot of things with the products of disrep- utable native mongrels, what they may not be able to do when they get big flock of fne-stock chickens that have been bred and pampered with a view singular to meat and egg pro- duction. Those, therefore, who fancy the egg side of the business most are putting in pure-bred Leghorns, both white and brown; and those who go in more for chicken raising are stock ing up with pure-bred Barred Ply mouth Rocks. Moreover, number of the leading poultry producers have begun the production of infertile eggs the "swat-the-rooster" slogan is be- coming quite general, and the improv- ement in this resptct is going to add very largely to the volume and the