TEN CENT POCKET SERIES NO. 430
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
Poultry for Profit
R. A. Power
B. S. in Agriculture
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1923,
Haldeman-Julius Company.
POULTRY FOR PROFIT
CHAPTER I.
THE OUTLOOK
When a business reaches the billion dollar mark per year, it is
generally looked into by thinking people who like to know the facts of
the case, and who want to know just why the business has reached such
large proportions. In this little booklet I will endeavor to explain
not only why the poultry business has grown so rapidly, but will also
reveal the most important secrets that have contributed largely to
its rapid growth, so that whether the reader is a farmer, a town lot
fancier, or a student of economics, he or she will gain much by the
reading and the studying of the principles involved.
The high cost of living has forced many people to economize to the
limit, and reduce the family budget to the minimum. People in the small
towns and villages, especially, have sought various ways of increasing
their earnings, and one of the most popular methods resorted to has
been to raise a few chickens, thus utilizing the table scraps, and odds
and ends, so that there will be no waste. It has been proved beyond a
shadow of a doubt that chickens can be raised profitably by the person
living in town, as well as by the farmer with his vast acres, providing
the townsman knows a few essential principles in regard to the proper
handling of the birds.
Poultry products are becoming popular more than ever before. This
is due in part to the increased price of beef and pork. Eggs are an
established part of the nation’s menu, while the meat of the chicken is
now within the means of most American families. Since these facts are
recognized, there has been a revolution in the poultry industry itself
to cope with the increased demand for eggs, meat, and breeding stock.
Many city people have taken advantage of the opportunity of raising
chickens, and many an old packing box, or piano box has been relieved
of its original purpose of encasing furniture, or other articles, and
has done its bit to act as part of a shelter for housing some back-yard
lot of chickens. What has been done, can be done, and inasmuch as the
value of the egg, or the carcass of the bird still maintains its high
standard on the market, it stands to reason that the poultry industry
is still in its infancy. Much more will be done in the future than has
been done in the past.
Consequently, there is still one industry that is not overcrowded,
despite the great number who have taken it up, either as a vocation, or
as an avocation. When it is considered that New York City alone cannot
get enough eggs to supply the demand during the fall and winter months,
and is willing to pay, and pay dearly for breakfast eggs, and that the
vicinity of Pataluma, Cal., finds it profitable to ship its eggs across
the continent to put them on the New York market, it can be seen quite
clearly that there are excellent possibilities in poultry, even in just
a small back yard flock.
The remainder of this booklet will be devoted to showing the ordinary
layman, who has had no previous knowledge or experience, how he can
take a small flock, or a large flock, and turn it into pleasure and
profit. However, one word of caution is necessary. Let no one attempt
to venture upon a poultry enterprise on a big scale at first. History
has shown countless failures in such attempts, and history has a way of
repeating itself. It is always wiser to start moderately, and work into
it gradually. This method always proves successful if common sense and
moderation are exhibited.