Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1916-08-18

may arrange with hotels and restau-
rants, boarding houses, clubs or private
families to take given quantity of any
line of produce. Many successful rails
| ers Of ducks, geese, chickens and tur-
keys have their private customers and
obtain top notch prices.
So long as the market stands on its
present high level no farmer can claim
that he cannot sell a we'll fattened
goose for $3.50. The plain truth is that
| all winter long every city and most OF
the villages consume these meat fowls
at prices ranging upward of 1S cents q
pound. Where farmer ships in a
haphazard way to dealers whose only
object is to pay the lowest and receive
the highest prices possible there is no
certainty of profitable returns. Neither
is there a chance for fair profits where
geese do not have a reasonable amount
of clean range. They are birds which
require pasturage just as much as cat
tie do. 1t is one of the strong points
In favor of goose raising that they
grow their fifteen pounds or more of
excellent flesh on a grass diet, the
cheapest food used by any domestic
creature.
Where geese, ducks and turkeys are
raised without suitable range their
worth in market will little more than
equallze the cost of the grain or mill
stuff which they consume, but In my
estimate of profits it is assumed that
the feeding will be along natural lines,
with only a small proportion of the
market value Of the fowls taken up in
the consumption of expensive feeds.
Geese require an extremely small per-
centage Of grain products. Geese are
the hardest of domestic fowls, and
as they grow and thrive on cheap for
! age, picking up in the fields and
around the creeks and ponds a large
part Of their living, the proportion of
loss is lighter than with other birds.
In view of these incontrovertible
facts it is growing wonder that more
farmers do not raise geese. and then
1t is equally wonder that they do
not more generally establish parcel
post shipping direct to town families
that would be glad to buy their sup
plies fresh from the country. Too
many farmers are still committed to
old fashioned methods of raising big
crops and neglecting the smaller side
lines. All over the west there are
thrifty villages and cities which make
good markets for poultry. In Mime
sofa, as in other well settled states.
the parcel post can be used to good
advantage in shipping supplies of all
kinds to the large cities within req
sonable distance. Until producers over
stock these markets, they are not liv-
ing up to their best opportunities in
money making.
AS to the best types Of geese, ducks.
turkeys and chickens for a farmer to
handle, just wish to emphasize my
belief that all the common or standard
breeds are good. For purely meat
production it is wise to select the
larger types, as they keep just as cas-
lily as the others and bring a larger
price in market. Farmers who have
not heretofore made much of their
poultry, but who desire to establish
this industry as a prominent feature,
should correspond with hotel and
restaurant keepers, or with private
families In town and endeavor to Sc
cure definite orders for such poultry as
they wish to raise.