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Show B COMMERCIAL POULTRY. B CHAPTER III. Bt C. S. Gorlinc. l Pct-nlunm is not alone in her glory m of commercial poultry; far from it. B Away to the south a small matter m of some five or six hundred' miles B lies tho village of Los Angeles (pcr-B (pcr-B fectly snfc in this announcement as H there is something like eight hundred B miles cf mountain and desert between B us and the ire of any resentful dwells dwel-ls ler of the little town) and for miles B Mirrouuding, may be seen ranches of K front one to ten acres in extent, from H of them devoted to the strictly fancy, B hut by far the greater number given B over wholly to commercial poultry H pure and simple. Here, too, is lo-H' lo-H' catcd the largest plant in the world B devoted to the raising of ssuabs. H Thousands upon thousands of pigeons B filing about unconfmed, until one is almost tempted to Relieve that all of the pigeons in the world have left their homes and come here to winter in this place. Then, as one goes north, on the Coast or in the interior, numerous ranches, both small and great meet the eye on every hand, the Leghorns and Minorcas predominating, predomi-nating, showing that egg production is the result sought. Of late years, the Orpingtons and Wyandottcs arc becoming much more numerous, and because of the profit derived therefrom, there-from, milk-fed roasters arc becoming the fashion. When one reaches the Santa Clara Valley, sonvc seventy miles south of Frisco, the large egg ranches again come into view, but nearly always in connection with fruit raising; ten, twenty and forty acre in fruit and White Leghorns, the runs laid out amongst the trees, indicate that here something more than nicru pleasure is derived from poultry cul-turt. cul-turt. Most of these plants are operated oper-ated by nun who arc in the business for the profit realized, but quite a number arc owned and operated by women, notably, one near Los Angeles, An-geles, owned by we will say Mrs. Smith. Eight or nine years ago this lady purchased a single sitting of Duff Orpington eggs. She says, even now, it almost takes her breath away to think of the price she paid, but she wanted the best and she knew she would have to pay the price, so she made the effort, and was successful success-ful in getting a start, and! she states that at no time since she began breeding breed-ing these birds has she been able to fill all of her orders for stock and eggs. She raises many hundreds each year and states that she has never sold a bird for less than three dollars, and that from their sale, she is making mak-ing a good living and is enabled to bank a neat sum each year. The lady is a widow, and before beginning with poultry, was trying to eke out an existence by keeping a few cows. Between Sacramento and' San Francisco Fran-cisco is another lady engaged in producing pro-ducing eggs for market, and high-class cockerels for exhibition, thus combining com-bining market productions and the strictly fancy. Before beginning with poultry, she was a school teacher, and a good one, but her health, always al-ways delicate, did not thrive under the close confinement of the schoolroom school-room and she determined to engage in some occupation that would enable en-able her to 1jc out of doors. Having been left a little home and) few acres by her father, she decided on an egg ranch and after getting fairly well started began exhibiting some of her best birds and with a considerable degree of success from the start. Besides Be-sides her living, she claims to cam from fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars per annum from her poultry plant. Another lady in southern California Cali-fornia took up poultry culture as a fad 'because she was weary of the irksome irk-some duties of society, and she engaged en-gaged in the strictly fancy with such marked success that for several years her annual earnings have been several sev-eral thousand dollars. Leaving the State of California and traveling north, many large egg ranches and smaller ones greet the eye all along the Oregon coast to Portland, many of them in combination combina-tion with fruit or fruit and dairying. The coast country of central Oregon is ideal for dairying and it is to be wondered at that more of the dairymen dairy-men do not includ'e -egg ranching with their business, but some'of them have lemarked that the dairy business is - - - well enough without any side line and judging from the many fine residences residenc-es and barns that have been built with the proceeds of old Bossic, and the nice bank accounts claimed for these fortunate coast dwellers, it is more than likely that this is true. Farther up the coast country is located tho bustling city of Seattle with her increasing in-creasing population of two hundred thousand busy people from every country and every clinic known. In what was a great forest wilderness twenty years ago is a handsome modem mod-em city and within the last ten years the poultry industry in and about this I great seaport has grown by leaps m and bounds. Thousands of people in ' the State of Washington are engaged wholly or in part in supplying the great hungry demand of the city for poultry and eggs. Twenty miles south of the city some enterprising young men have established- a plant for the production of eggs for market mar-ket with a total investment in buildings build-ings and stock of something over twenty thousand dollars. Leaving Seattle to the south, the same interest inter-est in poultry culture is observed as far north as Vancouver, B. C. Every where the people seem to be awakening awaken-ing to the importance of the industry and to the profit to be derived therefrom. there-from. These are only instances of what is being done in the far West. In Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska the interest is just as general and in good Old) Missouri, 1 Iowa, Illinois and Indiana the song of the hen and the lusty crow of the cock is heard in ever increasing mini- bcrs, and we want to say here that the J largest poultry plants are not con- fined to the Coast country by any means. While Petalumn and' vicinity I have some of the largest and while f there arc more people dependent sole- j1 ly upon poultry products in her en- I vironments than in any other section of the world, we know of a plant in central Illinois owned by a man that was fond of poultry boy. Call him Billy Jones for short. Billy went to school in a log school house out in the edge of a praire that we well remember and always like- fried chicken chick-en or hard boiled eggs for his lunch J which he would bring in u gallon tin bucket with molasses cup on the lid and a bottle of milk in the bucket f and in season, a few green onions in f the spring and apples in the fall and Winter, Doubtless many will remenini- ' 90 bcr having seen such a buffet that was so common in those days and they may also wonder what all this I has to do with raising chickens. I Nothing whatever; it will simply give an idea of how Billy grew up work-1 work-1 ing on the farmi all summer and go- ing to school after the corn was gath-m gath-m ereO and heli ng to feed the stock after school, getting up before day- light in the winter to make the fire and helping to feed before breakfast. m Billy's father was considered well to I do in those days and when he died I he left Billy a fine, large farm which V the young man continued to manage I until he became interested in poul-I poul-I try culture as a money making pro- )osition, then it was all off with the I pigs and the sheep and the cows. Bil-I Bil-I ly rented the larger portion of the farm and devoted himself 'entirely to his poultry and as fast as his income in-come was able to meet the expenses of living and improvements, it was laid aside with the proceeds of his rentals and when sufficient had accumulated, accu-mulated, more land was purchased, new poultry buildings were .erected and a model plant laid out. Todhy the annual sales of fancy and utility poultry run into the thousands and Billy is the owner of sixteen hundred acres of as fine farming land as the State of Illinois has' ever produced. His specialty is Darred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds, and) while he disposes dis-poses of the finest specimens for exhibition ex-hibition purposes, the great iulk the culls and ordinary birds and surplus sur-plus eggs go to the Chicago market. Hilly has no hesitation in stating that the few hundred acres devoted to poultry culture 1 ay him much better returns than general farming and that he is putting all of his net earnings into additional farm lands simply as an investment. Some six'cn years ago a young man was engaged in handling freight J for one of the railroads in a good sized town in southern Massachusetts at the magnificent salary of forty dollars per month, and while thus employed, had the nerve to get married. mar-ried. ITc soon discovered that while his salary was ample for the wants of a young fellow with no expensive habits, who could obtain a pretty good room and board for four dollars per week, it was a ycry different matter when it came to paying rent and keeping house, even though with only Kvo in the family and he began to cast about for some side issue with which to cam enough to help out and he decided that broiler raising was the thing. An incubator and some brooders were purchased and with the aid of the young wife the business busi-ness began in a small way and as experience ex-perience came to their aid, was enlarged. en-larged. When the wife saw that there was money in the venture, she became be-came as interested as he and' together they worked and saved for a few years. The little rented home was bought with their earnings and savings, sav-ings, for the young man's salary had been increased to fifty per month and they figured that their profits from broilers for half the year was fully as much. Houses and runs had been built on the town lots where they lived and the young man became anxious at about this time to try his hand at exhibiting. A few of his earliest hatched bird's were put in training and were finally entered at a poultry show in an adjoining town and were fortunate enough to capture two or three prizes. That settled it. With fear and trembling, our young man inserted a one-inch ad. in a fanciers' fan-ciers' journal of "Eggs for Hatching I won so and so at such a show A few birds for sale, etc." He says when the first order came for a sitting sit-ting of -eggs it was only a dollar and a half he and his wife were so excited they were unable to sleep and lay awake and talked for hours ot what they meant to do in the strictly strict-ly fancy. They worked harder than ever now and took the utmost care of their birds, continuing the broiler business, but keeping the most likely birds for exhibition and stock-birds for sale. His wife became -enthusiastic and as good, or even a better judge of the merits of a bird, than he. She attended the brooders and to feeding and caring for the fowls, getting get-ting both pleasure and health from her out-of-doors occupation, while he slaved away in the freight house. For the first three years, his sales oi stock and eggs hardly paid for the advertising, but he continued to show and win, and his business increased t6 such an extent that lie gave up the railroad employment and rented a small farm. The little home place in town was sold and the proceeds applied ap-plied as part payment in the purchase of the farm, and finally, when the farm was paid for out of the proceeds pro-ceeds of poultry, there was no happier hap-pier little family any where than that of the man and woman who had worked so faithfully out of corporation corpora-tion slavery into farm independence. This man now estimates his annual sales of stock and eggs at fifteen thousand dollars, and the business is still growing. (To be continued ) |