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Show U. S. to Be Host First Time to World's Poultry Congress Cleveland Is Site of Exposition in 1939; Expect Attendance of 500,000. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY FOR the first time, the United States, world's largest raiser of poultry, will be host to the World's Poultry Congress and Exposition. Plans are already well under way for the seventh triennial meeting of the big show, to take place in Cleveland, July 28 to August 7, inclusive, in 1939. There will be three days of preliminary meetings in Washington, D. C. Just how great an interest the event is likely to create is easy to see, when it is considered that there are 5,500,000 farmers raising poultry poul-try in this country. Of these, some 400,000 have flocks averaging 200 or more hens and pullets. American poultry-raising, as an Industry, long ago broke into the I"'' LA . d ' - - " -v - A Meet His Majesty, the Sultan! Sultan is the name of this breed of chicken, to be exhibited at the World's Poultry Congress. All Sultans Sul-tans have crest, beard, muffs and divided comb. billion-dollar class. For the last twelve years, according to the Department De-partment of Agriculture reports, the gross income to farmers has averaged aver-aged approximately $1,000,000,000. More farmers are engaged in raising poultry than are engaged in raising any other farm commodity. But the poultry business by no means ends with the farmers. There are 12,000 commercial and breeder baby chick hatcheries. There are many thousand agencies buying eggs and poultry from farmers, farm-ers, processing and packing these products, and distributing to the various retail, hotel and restaurant outlets. Estimates of these marketing mar-keting agencies, exclusive of small buyers and hucksters, vary from 30,000 to 60,000. Thousands Engaged in Distribution. There are several hundred cold storage warehouses handling poultry poul-try products, hundreds of feed manufacturers man-ufacturers and dealers, and a large number of equipment, incubator and remedy manufacturing concerns. con-cerns. There are thousands of agencies such as retail stores, dairy and poultry stores, restaurants, hotels ho-tels and cafes. Membershios of numerous trade associations use in one way or another an-other the products of the poultry Industry. , There are more than 400 state, regional and national poultry organizations. In addition to the regular poultry and agricultural press, there is scarcely a daily or weekly newspaper in the United States which does not print, regularly regu-larly or occasionally, columns or items having to do with poultry-raising. poultry-raising. r" All of these factors, combined with the holding of two world's fairs in the United States in 1939, one in New York and one in San Francisco, to attract foreign visitors, seem to point to an attendance at the Seventh Sev-enth World's Poultry Congress and Exposition that will shatter all previous pre-vious records. The Department of Agriculture's own estimate is a gate total of 500,000, with 50,000 visitors participating in the activity and staying over two or three days. Canada is expected to send 2,000 visitors and it is believed there will be at least another thousand from other foreign countries. Before getting into the details of the program, which should certainly certain-ly keep the time of the visitors well occupied, it might be in order to sketch roughly the" background of the congress. It was 25 years ago that James E. Rice, then head of the poultry department of Cornell university, and Sir Edward Brown, of England, organized the International Association Associa-tion of Investigators and Instructors of Poultry Husbandry, later renamed re-named the World's Poultry Science association. They conceived an International In-ternational Poultry congress at which poultry people of the world could assemble to discuss the aspects as-pects and problems of the industry. indus-try. The World war halted their plans temporarily, but in 1921 the first World's Poultry congress was held in The Hague, Netherlands. Results Re-sults were so satisfactory that a congress has been conducted every third year since, with many countries coun-tries participating. Congress Attendance Records. Barcelona was host to the congress con-gress in 1924; 37 countries took part and the gate clicked off 175,000 admissions. ad-missions. Forty-two nations took part at Ottawa, Canada, in 1927, and 150,000 attended. International Interest reached its peak in London In 1930, when 60 coim tries were represented, rep-resented, but attendance fell off to 80,000. No attendance records were kept at Rome in 1933, but the Sixth congress, at Leipzig, Germany, in 1936, drew 41 countries and an attendance at-tendance of 70,000. It is expected that the holding of the next congress con-gress in the United States, as unanimously unan-imously decided at Leipzig, will awaken a tremendous revival of interest and attendance. The congress has ever been a colorful affair. Dignitaries of the host nations have served as patrons. Kings, queens, princes and dictators dicta-tors have paid homage to the humble hum-ble hen by opening the congresses and participating in their functions. In addition to holding the scientific scien-tific sessions and exposition, it has been customary for the host nation and host city to entertain official delegates and visitors with receptions, recep-tions, banquets, concerts and short tours to nearby points of interest. The congress itself has never included in-cluded all of the events which attract the nucleus or stimulus for a great many outside activities. Following the congress there are usually tours to points of interest, such as experiment experi-ment stations, egg-laying contests, poultry farms and marketing establishments estab-lishments and agencies, as well as tours of general scenic and historic interest. How Show Is Sponsored. In other countries the congress has been sponsored by the national governments, but here so many interests in-terests are at stake that the show will be put on by a general committee commit-tee co-ordinating the sponsorship of the poultry industry, the federal government, the host city and state, and the various participating state committees. All will contribute to the financing. James E. Rice, of Trumansburg, N. Y., co-author, of the congress idea, is chairman of the national poultry industry committee. Dr. C. W. Warburton, director of the agricultural extension service of the Department of Agriculture, leads the federal committee of ten members from the State, Agriculture and Commerce departments, Glenn H. Campbell is chairman of the Cleveland host city committee, with Mayor Burton as honorary chair- The bearded white Polish female will be another exhibit at the Congress. Con-gress. man. A temporary state committee, commit-tee, shortly to be reorganized, is already functioning in Ohio. An executive board, made up of members of these four committees, will actually direct the destinies of the Seventh' World's Poultry Congress Con-gress and Exposition. Although the big event is nearly two years away, state poultry congress con-gress committees or councils have been reported organized in California, Califor-nia, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missis-sippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington, a total to-tal of 19 states. State organizations are expected to be completed by the first of the year. Government Contributes $100,000. The federal government will enter the exposition in a big way. Congress has authorized and the President has approved an appropriation of $100,000 for federal participation. This provides for an exhibit, for entertaining' delegates at Washington, Washing-ton, for printing, and for translators transla-tors and interpreters. From requests now being made, it appears that at least 40 states will have exhibits and that the average av-erage appropriation will be $7,000. Foremost on the program of the congress itself is the triennial racA-ing racA-ing of the World's Poultry Science association, and a series of Eve or six sectional scientific meetings. The "everyday" poultry raiser will be interested in the large daily open sessions which will be devoted to practical talks of a general nature. na-ture. As it is planned, one day may be for poultrymen (farmer and commercial), and another day for poultry breeders, another for hatch-erymen hatch-erymen and .another for marketers. Provisions are being made for meetings of any national, regional or state poultry organizations or allied al-lied groups which desire them. Many more, and colorful, events are still, of necessity, in the planning plan-ning stags. A national convention r ; i I i t i I i , ; ! j III1" One of the strange sights at the World's Poultry Congress in Cleveland Cleve-land in 1939 will be the Yokohama fowl of Japn, which sometimes has a tail 20 feet long. of 4-H club boys and girls and Future Fu-ture Farmers' poultry clubs may be held, and in connection with it a national demonstration team contest. con-test. There may be judging contests con-tests (live poultry, eggs, dressed poultry and baby chicks) for college students and boys' and girls' club teams. There will be a moving picture pic-ture theater, showing educational films prepared by state and federal workers and commercial agencies. Tentative plans call for a Hall of Youth building to house these activities. ac-tivities. Activities for Consumer, Too. After all, it is the consumer who keeps the poultry industry alive, and he will not be forgotten. There will probably be a series of discussions by leading nutritional workers, home economics specialists and chefs, in addition to cooking demonstrations dem-onstrations showing methods for the use of the industry's products. We'll see if they can show Mrs. American Housewife anything new about the use of eggs! At least 25 countries other than the United States are expected to have exhibits. These will be housed with the federal and state exhibits in a Hall of Nations and States. The Hall of Industry will display the commercial aspects of the poultry poul-try industry. Here will be shown the products and work of hatcheries, manufacturers, marketing agencies, press and radio. Many commercial firms doing educational ed-ucational or research work will exhibit. ex-hibit. Others will show the history his-tory and development of their product. prod-uct. Exhibits of processes of the industry will include hatching, grading and sexing chicks; battery raising of broilers and hens; killing, dressing, grading and packing of chickens; eviscerating fowl; and breakimg, canning and drying of eggs. On nearby railroad tracks the various types of railroad cars used in transporting the industry's products will be exhibited. Large Live Bird Exhibits. n-aucaiionai ana progress exniD-its exniD-its throughout the Hall of Industry will break the monotony of a purely trade show. Here, also, booths wild be provided for the World's Poultry Science association and the Poultry Science Association of America. Most fascinating for virtually every ev-ery visitor will be the Hall of Poultry, Poul-try, which will house the live bird exhibits. It may take the form oi national government displays of a non-competitive nature, with possibly pos-sibly 15 or 20 countries showing live birds. Consideration is being given giv-en to the holding of a competitive live bird exhibit of standard breed poultry. Utility live bird exhibits by Record Rec-ord of Performance breeders are another possibility. With increas- t v , . s ' f y- ?v f i f t, I ' " 1 L j " " f . -, v rf i - . Visitors to Cleveland in 1939 will see the Silky Chato of Japan, as siiown above. ing attention being given to the maintenance of our wild game birds and the desirability of displaying various ornamental fowl, this branch of the industry will likely receive c.nsi'J'jrable attention. An lnLempMonal dressed poultry exhibit, particularly to show the various va-rious me'.hoc's o.' jacking poultry, can be provided for in the Hall of Refrigeration, which will be set up in a cold storase warehouse. A competitive t? show and a baby chick show will help to round out the exposition. Any concerns contacting consumer' or various marketing trade assoi -a'.ions will be afforded the opportunity tn partici-pa'.e partici-pa'.e in educational exhibits. Western Newspuper Union, |