The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-13
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Have you been to the Southern Poul-
 try and Pet Stock associations exhibit
 at 212l-a2 Second avenue If not.
 do not miss the chance for it runs until
 Saturday night.
 No one need turn up their nose at
 chicken shows, for the poultry business
 is now in the billion dollar class In dollars and cents it far exceeds the 1 wheat and oat crops, and ten years back ] the eggs produced. brought more than
 the product of all our mines of gold and silver.
 i .Remember.i too that these figures.
 compiled by Uncle Sam. only took into
 consideration the output of poultry on the farms, not giving any date on the output of poultry farms and backyard
 showed an average of sS fowls to the farm. It was also shown that practically
 90 per cent of the farms had flocks of poultry. b
 1 Now I wish I had at hand the figures
 which will come out of the present cen
 sus, but as it will be some time before they are available I will have to use
 those gathered in the last one. Seven
 states raised more than ao,oooooo fowls in
 1909, namely, Missouri Iowa, Ohio and Illinois, 2e per cent of the total produc-
 ton. But the chicken raising game was
 just beginning to get it's momentum ten years back. l Illinois, much to my surprise, led the other states, for it's farms produced
 around sS.Ooo,ooo fowls in 1909, with total valuation then of more than s15,-
 ooo,ooc, calculated at 4s cents per fowl The same number would easily net at
 present prices in the neighborhood of
 s50,ooo,ooo. Its 100. 100000 dozen of eggs se 1s cents brought nearly s1s,ooo.ooo. but the way they have sold here around ! Christmas they would have realized
 nearly 100000
 It can be easily seen from these figures that in the United States tho rearing of fowls for their meat and eggs
 is in the class of big business and has
 long since passed out of the pin money stage. A chicken is a small thing, but
 taken in the aggregate chickens form a large part of our national wealth. am | giving these figures to let those who speak of raising them as fad see just how far wrong they are It is true that
 the chicken business, like all other occu-. pations. finds in it's ranks faddists but l it is rapidly being put on a scientific basis. If you doubt this just take a peep in l our own exhibit here in Birmingham and you will be surprised not only at | the variety of the breeds but the num- Der of the side lines which have grown
 up around the industry. The old days when flock of chickens were turned aloose, to scratch for a living without any attention from the owners are rapidly becoming thing of the past, for even farmers wives have learned that it pays to attend to their needs. At last the hen is being taken seriously, for she has more than made good, by proving beyond cavii that, when care fully selected and properly cared for she is about the surest and best dividend payer on the farm. In the poultry busi- takes patience and knowledge to get the best results. It is not necessary to swal- low whole all the things you read in poultry journals or in the glowing ad- vertiscments that you see in the great weeklies and dailies about the vast profits to be gained.
 But you will on the other hand miss a chance to make some ready money or save household expenses if you have a plaice to raise a small flock and do not make the attempt. Poultry raising offers pleasure, fascination and profit to any one who likes to fool with chickens, few keep them for pets. something to look at. but the vast majority keep them because it pays. If the figures were at hand to show the number of families not listed as farmers. who keep poul- try. they would be amazing. It means fresh yard eggs at all seasons end a rice frier, tempting broiler, good roaster or fat hen for the table every now and then, am speaking of the backyard tribe of chicken fanciers.
 Why is 1t that America has come to the front as the greatest poultry market in, the world? It is not merely on ac- count on it's size. but can be accounted for on the ground that whenever the citizens of this great nation go in for anything they are sports and willing 10 try it out on big scale. Tn 1879 the number of ''barnyard fowl was just fraction over 1oo. .oOo. .coo; in 1889 there was a jump to 250,oo0,ooo stop here. for what is the use of talking about the past The record for 1918 is going to be an eye-opener to the world.
 Ten years back there were over fifty poultry journals published in the United States. More than thls came into existence, but some no doubt fell by the wayside. Some of them had circulations running up into the thousands In ad- dition to the regular poultry papers, nearly ali live stock and agricultural journals conduct poultry departments. In 1890 q 5oO-hen poultry farm was l wonder. while 2 few years back I saw with my own eyes 1000 White Leghorns in one pen, and today poultry farm with several thousand or more chickens would not attract any special attention.
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