Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-04-10
BACKYARD FLOCKS
ARE STILL NEEDED
Only Mild Winter Saved Country
From Serious Egg Famine
No Reserve StOcks-By-PrOd-
uct Hen Is Mainstay of Bill
liOn-Dollar Poultry Industry
tBy II. Armstrong Roberts)

ter that is without parallel, made 1
, possible for the housewife to have eggs
during the last few months. We wer,
on the verge of an egg famine com
pared to which the sugar scarcity ant
other shortages were as nothing. And
the weather alone got us out of III,
predicament.
Those unacquaintcd with the technica
side of the production of eggs ma,
wonder at these seemingly strange state
ments few will appreciate their fulles
significance But they are all too true
If this winter had been normal one
if it had been anything like as severe a.
the winter of 19l7-19lS, with the greater
part of the country showed under ant
zero temperatures prevailing for weeks
on end, precious few hen houses woult
have turned out eggs. The hens would
have been too busy combating the cold
II is the way with fowls. Thereupon W,
| should have been forced to depend upoi
the reserve stocks in cold storage almos
exclusively.
But with an abnormally short crop o
| eggs in the refrigerators, these demand
could not have been met. AS it hap
pened we cleared the freezers of eggs
We scraped the bottoms of the bins, a
overseas. which was our duty, of course
leaving home larders to get along a
best they could. Thousands upon thou
sands of cases of the best eggs wen
! abroad. All things considered, we wer
fortunate in being able to send what w
did
MILD WINTER HELPED EGGS
Except for the mild winter, which ha
held sway in most sections of thu
country, which encouraged the winte
production of eggs, in volume hitherto
unknown, we should have been com
pletely destitute of eggs by the first Of
| February, when the cold storage stock
were exhausted.
Except for the strenuous campaign
for increased poultry production amonl
farmers and backyard enterprises car
| ried on a year ago in anticipation of thi
| very shortage. it is doubtful if our egt
supplies would have lasted until Christ
mas.
The weather gods saved the situation
of this there can be no doubt. We were
lucky, indeed, to get by without serious
Inconvenience, because while eggs wer,
high in price, at least they were obtain
able, which is the main consideration.
Thanks to the mild weather, also t.
the hens which responded to it so ably
fresh supplies came into thu marke
just at the time when refrigerator
stocks were gone. AS the records show
these supplies came in earlier and il
larger quantities than ever before
During the first half of February tn,
daily receipts in the New York marke
averaged more than 20,0o0 cases, wherea
in other years these receipts amounted
to a few thousand cases for the sam,
period.
WE MUST BUILD A RESERVE
The escape from an egg famine wa.
very narrowly missed and it SHOULD
teach us Il valuable lesson. We mus
never again allow our reserve stocks tc
run so low. Because we got through thi.
time is no saying that we shall be sc
fortunate another year. We cannot de-
pend upon the weather. 1t is too uncer.
tain. Fifty years may pass before we
shall have another winter such as this
We must play safe and store away sufi.
cient eggs to meet the country's demands
from the end of the heaviest season
which is in July, to the beginning Of the
succeeding laying season, which is ir
March. Anything short of this provision
is to invite a famine in one of our most
useful and valuable sources of protein
food
Needless to say, we must first produce
the eggs before we can store them. This
brings us to the cruX of the situation
Have we the fowls to restock our cold
storage rooms with eggs and build ur
our customary margin of reserve? Yes
and no.
INDUSTRY HARD HIT
1t is common knowledge that the poul.
try industry was dealt a heavy blow by
wartime conditions and that thousands
of ilocks We're killed off or greatly re-
duced in size to escape the ever-rising
cost and scarcity of feed. Carloads upon
carloads of laying hens were slaugh-
tered in all sections of the country
Packing houses fairly bulged with frozen
poultry. 1t is estimated that the mature
stock was reduced 40 to so per cent. of
normal. The situation became so grave
a year ago that an embargo was placed
on the killing of hens by the food ad-
ministratlon.
Fortunately fowls are prolific: they
can be made to come back" quicker
than any other form of livestock. There
fore, if the farmers. commercial poul-
trymen and backyard growers set about
their poultry work with the old-time
energy, as they seem likely to do, we
shall be able to restore the industry, II
not in single season, at least in two
years. 1t will require this season to
produce the hens and another season for
these hens to yield the eggs.
1t is scarcely probable that there will
be an oversupply of eggs this spring
large enough to Ill the refrgerators
as fun as we would like. The hens are
not available. We are likely to face en-
other short crop of eggs. with corre-
spondngly high prices for some time to
come.
STILL NEED LIBERTY FLOCKS
In short. the conditions which urged
last years campaign for increased poul-
try production still exist If not under
the pressure of helping to win the war,
then because of the necessity of clean
ing up after the war and helping to
restore the world to a peace basis
There was general relaxation as
soon as the armistice was signed. The
desire to take a holiday was a perfectly
natural attitude, At the same time, we
cannot acquit ourselves of war respon-
sibilties until all traces of the struggle
have been cleared away. We must finish
the job. And in this connection there is
much work to be done. Witness the
million and half men still overseas
The bulk of these troops may continue
there for six months. II year or longer
who can say? The peace treaty Is still
unsigned. We have another huge Vic
tory Loan to be floated RECOMMENDATION