Milford chronicle., 1957-03-15
Giant In Our Midst
The Poultry Industry
CONTINUED from first page)


houses for other services and ma
terials.
Over a third of a billion dollars
are invested in broiler houses,
feed mills, processing plants and
the other facilities needed to grow,
process and market The broiler
crop. So great is the scope of the
industry that it Overshadows the
giant U. S. Air Force Base near
Dover where nearly 10000 airmen
and civilians work 1t dwarfs the
huge DUPONT nylon plant in Sea-
ford-by far the biggest manufac-
turing establishment on the Shore.
1t is far ahead of commercial fish
ing and numbering, the other in
dustries, which, along with manu-
featuring, round out the Shores
basic economy.
Some of what might be called
the "details" of the industry are
themselves astonishing in their
size and Importance. Each year,
growers require $15-milion worth
of baby chicks, 100000 carloads of
coal and liquid fuel, millions of
dollars value of utilities, and 25,-
900 tons of materials for clean
poultry house bedding. More than
33, 900 carloads of feed ingredients
went into close to 1-million tons
of total feed ration last year. The
industry uses nearly 19-million
bushels of corn grown on the
Shore worth s25 to $30-million.
According to Census Bureau rec
ords, Sussex Comfy, Delaware,
not only is the foremost broiler
county in the entire nation, but it's
broiler income also makes it the
| first poultry county of any kind in
/ the nation and one of the top 25
counties in all agriculture. Wicomi-
co County in Maryland ranks
fourth on the list nationally in
broiler income, and Worcester
County, eighth. So important is
poultry in Sussex County that it
ranks nearly twice as high as the
second leading poultry county in
the United States, Los Angeles
County, California, and has a pOul-
| try income more than twice as
great as famed Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania.
Consider these figures and then
imagine, if you will, the lessening
jingle of cash registers all the
way from Dover to OnancOck, if,
for one week, some blight struck
down all the 30-million birds on
feed that week in Delmarva brOil-
er houses.
Stretch the Imagination a little
further and suppose that the 10
million people of New York City
the 215 million of Philadelphia and
the other millions who buy Del
marva chicken regularly should
for some unforeseeable reason
suddenly decide to forego eating
chicken for a timel Just how
much would that slow down the
bank clearings, the sale of shoes
the purchase of cars, trucks and
tires, and the general flow of money
on Delmarva?
Extreme examples that these are
they nevertheless throw spot
light on what healthy brOiler in
dustry means to the Shore. A pro-
longed broiler price slump-One
that lowers prices 5 cents a pound
from the average of an ordinary
good year-can mean that there is
! 25-million less of those basic dol
| lars that keen the money circula-
ting all over Delmarva.
Most amazing aspect of this
giant in our midst is that it has
grown from the tiniest of infants
in scarcely more than a genera
ton. Even today, the patterns Oi
agriculture change rather slowly
as a rule. But the broiler industry
which started with few thousand
birds on this Peninsula scarcely
more than 80 years ago, now has
far Out-paced the growth of any
other segment of agriculture, moi
only on the Peninsula, but any.
where in the nation.
Birthplace of the brOiler indus
try, Delmarva has seen its fiedge.
ling grow to more than billion
dollar-a-year business nationally
in a score of other areas which
have copied it's methods. In doing
so, however, it has managed tC
hold its position as the most con
centrated brOiler area of them all
Even Georgia, the JOhnny-come-
/ lately in brOiler ranks, cannot
match Delmarva's concentration OF
growing, processing and marketing
facilities, although, by sheer geo
graphic size and number of farm
ers, it has at last outstripped the
Shore in total birds produced.
There are many reasons advanc-
ed as to why Delmarva has gained
it's unmatched position in the