Omaha daily bee., 1917-07-01
Poultry Men Volunteer.

Poultry men throughout the state
of Nebraska are volunteering ag-
gressively in meeting the food prob
lem. A letter recently received from
one of the largest, if not the largest,
hatcheries in Nebraska reads as fol-
lows:
I'VE have no definite plan to offer
you in extending our services except
to say that we are ready to cooper
ate aggressively III meeting this one
phase of the food problem. We are
in the heart of the best poultry-pro-
ducing territory Uncle Sam has. and
we have established reputation for
sending out strong, healthy chicks.
You might have some plan you would
like to start in operation to cooper
ate with US in keeping the plant 60
ing at full capacity until the very end
OF the season.
I'VE understand that there is a
strong attempt to get people to raise
large number of chickens to meet
the meat shortage. As you no doubt
know, the average city or town fam
lily could easily rear dozen or twen-
ty-fve chickens on the garden and
lawn greens, together with table
scraps, and at little or no expense for
grain. These chicks could be brooded
in simple stove box, with no other
heat than an ordinary lamp. | my
self am brooding 100 chicks in this
way and am not using the more elab-
orate equipment-hard-coal brood
ers. People in the cities, particularly
those of the working classes, need
not invest money in brooding ap-
paratus if they care to brood them
as | am doing, and il properly ham
died in ten weeks time should weigh
two pounds. By keeping our plant
in full operation until late October
we could aid, we believe, in a very
material way in the production and
distribution of thousands of chicks"
1t is this type of men that are 60
ing to effect good in increasing the
food supply of this country. At a re-
cent meeting of the American Poul-
try Association held in Chicago a slo-
gan was adopted which read as fol-
lows: Produce l00,000,000 more
pounds of poultry this year." the OBJ
ject being to produce one pound more
of poultry for every citizen of the
United States than has ever been pro-
duced before. These figures are far
too small. In one county alone in
New Hampshire the farmers are at
tempting to increase their production
100000 pounds.
Our president has called for in
creased food supplies that we may
feed not only our boys in the
trenches, but also those of our al
lies. The above figures, instead of be-
ing l0O,000,000 pounds, ought to be
100000 tons. When one stops to
think that every farmer raises chick
ems and then realizes how many
farmers there are in the United
States, and figures from this that
should each farmer produce ten more
chickens, weighing five pounds each,
this year than he produced last year
this amount would increase the pro-
duction fifty pounds per farm, and il
calculated for the United States
would run into millions of tons.
Ten chickens can be hatched from
one setting of fifteen eggs when the
fertility is running good. Let every
producer of poultry set a hen and
raise another brood of chicks.
Poultry production offers the
quickest returns in meat of all the
various sources of our meat supply.
Let us raise chickens that they may
turn the succulents, bugs and worms
into meat, and in so doing do our bit.