Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1914 — COMMENDS PLAN FOR POULTRY CLUBS [ARTICLE]

COMMENDS PLAN FOR POULTRY CLUBS

J. W. King Quotes Figure* to Show That Poultry Raising Pays If Diligently Followed. I see in a late issue of your paper that County Superintendent Ernest Lamson and County Agent Barrett have formulated plans and are ready now to proceed with the organization of a boys’ corn club and girls’ poultry club for Jasper county and I am surely glad to learn of this movement and I would like through the columns of your paper to give its readers What ‘Mrs. A A Berry, of lowa, who runs a large poultry farm there, has to say about poultry raising. This question she says is often asked her: “Will it pay?” This question first arises to one contemplating the poultry business; “Does it pay? Can Imake a living or make money in the poultry (business?” We would emphatically say yes. You can both make a living and lay up money. WeK are backed in our answer by the hundreds of profitable poultry plants devoted to the raising of broilers tor early market, by mammoth farms devoted to. the production of eggs, by the large plants where the “soft roasters” are produced, by the mammoth establishments devoted to pure bred fowls and thousands of smaller poultry farms which produce both eggs and chickens for the markets, and by the magnificent pure bred breeding plants that are scattered all over the country. Thousands of farmers (often their wives) are raising enough chickens, tihe profit on which pays the grocers’ bill as well as the dry goods and clothing bills and meets all incidental expenses. There is nothing on the farm that will make the good clear money that poultry will and there are thousands of poultry raisers who will testify to the truth Of this assertion. There is no greater money maker in the world today than the patient American hen. Nearly for-ty-five million crates of eggs are sold yearly, according to'the government report. Eggs and poultry earnings for one year over $645,000,000. Such gigantic figures are riot readily understood only by comparing them with other industries. Study this illustration: (How Uncle Sam’s largest industry compares with others.) This diagram shows the poultry and egg output of the United States in comparison with seven other industries. Their value is given as follows: Poultry and eggs $645,421,216 Gold, silver, sheep, wool ..391,564,432 Cotton .362,863,456 Wheat • .329,734,862 Hogs 2,89,673,213 -Oats 120,466,004 Potatoes ...91,300,000 Tobacco 60,290,000 In view of the above facts, we are warranted in the statement that the fanner who gives his poultry the same care and attention that he does the other domestic animals and other departments of his farm, will soon wake up to the fact that there is nothing else on the farm that gives as good returns from a financial point of view for the capital invested and time spent as the poultry. Will it last? Is there not danger in over-doing the chicken business No, it is the most likely business in Ameica today. The consumption of eggs and poultry is something enormous. The United States cannot supply the great demand and we are compelled to import from other pattons at the rate of thousands of cases of eggs per year. There is a great demand for better bred poultry, as P ure stock of all kinds will pay better and be more satisfactory in every way. Pure breeds lay more eggs, are more uniform and of better quality, demanding a much better price. They will make more weight, thus being worth more when sold. By all means raise the best. Don’t be content with mixed breeds just because they are cheap. Get some pure breeds, either by procuring some eggs, a few birds of ‘both sexes, or some good males to head your flocks. There is no danger of overdoing the poultry business. We simply cannot supply the demand even at the high price that has prevailed tor the past few years, in many states the farmer obtaining from 20c to 40c per dozen in the spring and summer and double that price in the winter time. It costs no more to raise a hen that will lay 250 eggs per year than it does to raise one that lays only 60 j' W. KING.

Nine men were caught Tuesday and killed by a gas explosion in caseion No. 5 of the new Harahan (bridge, under construction across the Mississippi river at Memphis. The men, all of whom were white, had just gone to work, relieving a shift of ten negroes.