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Show Poultry Records Show the Highest Prices in Autumn Pcultry records kept by Professor Byron Alder and Carl Frischkne.;ht extension poultrymen of the Utah fotate Agricultural college, show that 'October and November eggs for the past three years bring the highest prxes during the year, while Janu-lary Janu-lary and February eggs bring the lowest prices. In Oc-.ber of 1931, eggs climbed io 43 cjnts per dozen; in November ii3, they sold for 38 cents and in November 1933, the average was 34 cents. In January of 1931-32-33 ieggs brought 18, 16 and 13 cents respectively; re-spectively; while in February of this year they sold for 17.5 cents per dozen, do-zen, the records show. What the peak-price for the year will be is, of coruse, a conjecture. The reduced purchasing power of the consumer and the low price of competitive food products have, in 'a large measure, been responsible for lower egg prices during the winter win-ter months, the extension poultry-'men poultry-'men point out. Fewer eggs were produced in the United States hi 1933 than in 1932, but in spite of this, the cold storage holdings of eggs at the peak in 1933 were considerably con-siderably greater than they were in 1932. In order, therefore, to encourage encour-age consumption and prevent too many eggs from going to cold storage, stor-age, egg prices in 1933 were not as high as they were in 1932 or in 1931. While eggs did not go as high in price this winter as they did in 1932, they have not gone as low as they did last winter. There are some conditions which indicate that the poultry business will improve the next year and ether factors that are not so encouraging. Market reports received from the bureau of agricultural economics of the United States department of agriculture ag-riculture indicate that there are fewer few-er laying hens today than a year ago and considerably less than the five-year average (February 1); that the orders for baby chicks in the United States for February cf later delivery this year are 13.7 per cent less than they were in February of last year; that the shell eggs in cold storage February 1 were 30 per cent less than they were in 1933; that the prices for live poultry today are three to four cents higher per pound than they were a year ag: and that commodity prices in general gener-al are rising. |