Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-01-31
FARM
SELLING
By GLENN C. HAYES
Women Are Organizing in
the Egg Business.
OSNOlSOOS2OOEOGS( sNOSNSVSSOSS)0OGN
20. 1924. Western Newspaper Union.)

TT ALL the chickens raised in the
United States last year were lined
up tail to tail in one continuous row
they would extend around the world
four times with 99,48O hens left over.
If all the eggs laid by this great
American flock were loaded into cars
they would extend from Boston to
Chicago, 1885 cars in all.
In 1923 there were 543,OOO,OOO
chickens raised in American poultry
yards. Their farm value totaled 1884,
10000. The total value of poultry
products in the United States in 1922
was 1884, 100000, which exceeds by
$2O,00O,OO0 the total value of the 1922
wheat crop. And this report doesn't
include chickens and eggs produced
on town and city lots, with the excep-
ton of few large commercial flocks.
1t is safe to say that the poultry In
dustry is a billion-dollar business.
Its owners are the wives Of American
farmers
Ninety per cent of the American
which are not devoted to poultry as
a speciality.
When Aaron Sapiro came over the
border of California and began preach
ing the doctrine Of cooperation he did
his talking to the men. And when
they tried cooperative marketing
they tried it on wheat and cotton, to-
bacco, dairy products-the crops they
considered important. Of course there
were a few commercial poultrymen
scattered in the East and in the West
who were making cooperative egg
marketing q success, but that was
different situation; commercial poul-
trymen were concentrated in certain
sections and their daily output was
large enough to be worth considering.
How Women Managed.
What interests the farmer interests
the farmers wife. Naturally enough,
she was interested in cooperative
marketing. She watched the outcome
OF local ventures in cooperative live
stock shipping in cooperative grain
elevators. Enormous losses were be
ing avoided by orderly marketing. It
worked for every other commodity
why not poultry? There was money
In the hen but not as much as there
should be. BY poor marketing meth
DDS the women had been cheating
themselves out of half Of their poultry
dollar
. For fifty years the farmers wife has
bartered her eggs, a few dozen at
time, at the crossroads grocery. She
took what the merchant was willing
to give, not knowing the true value of
what she traded nor the value Of what
she received in exchange. That's the
farm side Of the story. What did The
crossroads grocer do with the eggs?
This is where the city dealer stepped
in. He saw a chance for a fortune in
the egg industry; so did the big pack
ing concerns Of the Middle West
These dealers and packers sent out
buyers to the little towns to buy up
ton season They bought these eggs
ungraded, uncandled, big and little,
dirty and clean-all mixed together
just as the housewife bad brought
them into town. They bought them
cheap. In the first place the grocer
paid as little as he could and he was
glad TO sell them for only a few cents
profit. Eggs don't mean money to the
grocer; they are simply a necessary
nuisance of exchange.
The dealers shipped the eggs into
the packing houses. They were sorted
as to size and color and they were
graded and candled. Part Of them
were sold Immediately to the city con-
sumers at special prices as strictly
fresh Gags. The remainder were proc
essed or packed in cold storage to
await the winter scarcity, when they
were sold at a handsome profit. So
the egg business continued year after
year until in 1922 the egg and poultry
divisions of the packing business were
producing huge profits. Dealers had
turned pin money into stickpin cash.
Then the women decided to clean
house in their markets. Now they
are going to have their own sales de-
partment and establish their own
great national cooperative marketing
machine. This marks woman'S first
ventura into the economic field of farm
marketing. Through the standard
type of collective selling they declare
they can treble their profits as poul-
trywomen and at the same time sell
carefully graded, standardized, guar
anteed eggs at a saving of a nickel
to dime per dozen to the con-
sumner. The American Farm Bureau
federation was asked to help. The
federation responded by calling a ma
tional egg marketing conference in
Chicago early last spring. Seventeen
states were represented and a large
percentage of the official delegates
were women.
Plan Is Not New.
Cooperative marketing Of eggs is
not altogether a new venture, for COM
mercial poultrymen have had their
own marketing organizations since
around 1916
In the Petaluma valley, only few
miles from San Francisco, are located
most of the commercial poultry farms
of central California. Here the farm
ers raise chickens, not to sell hens, but
to sell eggs. Around 1908 they began
- 1919 ~aaI v,oonov naIIItrE farm