The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-02-13
POULTRY OF MISSOURI

Missouri is one of the leading States
of our union in every way. 1t is fifth
in population and material sources.
1t ranks first in the production of
mules, second in hogs and fifth in live
stock of all kinds. 1t. is third in the
production of corn, and one-tenth of
all the corn raised in the world is
raised in Missouri. We rank we'll to-
wards the front in wheat and grains
and grasses of all kinds. Our manu-
lectures are extensive and varied
This is the land Of the "Big Red Ap-
plc," and we have the largest or
chards and the largest nurseries in
tho world. We have the largest zine
producing mines and some of the
greatest lead mines in the United
States. But we lead every State in
the Union in the production of poul-
try, and the cackle of the Missouri
len is heard around the world.
The Missouri hen lays % eggs for
cacn man, woman and child in the
United States. The output of the
Missouri hen is $50,00O,0O0 a year,
which exceeds the wheat crop in the
whole of Arkansas for any given year,
the entire cotton crop of the States
of Florida, Tennessee and Louisiana,
and the gold produced from the earth
of Arizona, Colorado and California
If the eggs laid annually by the
Missouri hen were placed end to end
t!,cy would reach around the world
four times, If the Missouri hen cack-
led every time she laid an egg
Judging by all the laws of science
that her cackle would be heard 100
ycrdG end that each hen in turn took
Up the ecno) the announcement would
reach $3.50 times around the world
and that is going some.
1t has always been England's proud
boast that the beat of her drum could
be heard round the world, but the
cackle of the Missouri hen browns the
beat of the British drum.
In tire egg-laying contest the Mis-
souri, hen took the prize by scoring
Il believe) 281 eggs in one year. If
this same Eon-this Missouri hen
could be placed in proper file and
taught to scratch Systematically, she
would have dug the Panama Canal
while the Federal Government was
breGkfasting over the proposition.
Missouri ranks among the best win
ter wheat States of the Union-our
annual contribution to the worlds
breed basket being from twenty-five
to thirty-fve million bushels, and it
requires two million acres Of our best
farm lands to produce this crop.
The little red hen, getting her sus-
tcnance largely from insects, weed
seeds and the waste of the barnyard,
brings to the spin money bank ac-
count" of our farmers wives double
the amount Of our wheat crop.
Few people on first thought will
credit the statement that the poultry
industry Of Missouri has a greater
value than the wheat and oats crops
combined But it is true.
The total value of all domestic ami
mails sold off our farms, including
those slaughtered for home use,
amounted to the magnificent sum of
$159, $780, 22. For every dollar
brought into the farmers bank ac-
count by all the animals sold, includ-
ing also all that were consumed a.
home, the farmers wife put away
one-third as much from the proceeds
of the poultry yard.
| Missouri's greatest cereal crop is
corn, the value Of which is exceeded
by the crop Of only two other States
In tie Union-the value of single
years crop being one hundred million
dollars. Vast as this sum is, the little
red hen and her product for two years
would buy the great corn crop in any
one State.
But few States excel Missouri in
the production Of cattle, and our an
nual surplus amounting to forty mil
lions of dollars. The little red hen
looks small and insignificant beside
a big beef animal. Yet her bank ac-
count is ten million dollars more than
that produced by the beef cattle of
the State.
Missouri has more than $4,000 acres
of coal area and also great fields of
lead, zinc, iron and other minerals,
supplying manufacturers more than
thirty million dollars a year in these
materials, but the modest little hen
brings more wealth to the State, by
$16,000,000, than do all our mineral
products combined.
If all the chickens in Missouri were
one rooster and that rooster were
"swatted" a single drumstick would
make the "big stick" of politics look
like splinter on saw log.
The cackle of the Missouri hen is
sweet music to nearly three hundra ed
thousand good mothers and more than
a half million country-bred boys and
girls. Many little feet are clad in
shoes paid for with the products of
the poultry yard, and many pupils in
t,1c country schools get their daily
lessons from books paid for in the
same good way. We fear the burden
of better country schools and good
country roads because of greater tax
alton, but if we will set aside the pro.
ducts of the poultry yard for the mex;
ten years it will macadamize every
mile of public road in the State.
Great is the Missouri hen.
You have read of Maud on summer
day
Who raked, barefooted, in new-mowc
| hav.