The Dollar Hen written by Milo M. Hastings
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Milo M. Hastings >> The Dollar Hen
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18 [Transcriber's Note: This printing had more than its share of typographical
errors. Obvious typos, like "tim" for "time", have been corrected.]
THE DOLLAR HEN
BY
MILO M. HASTINGS
FORMERLY POULTRYMAN AT
KANSAS EXPERIMENT STATION;
LATER IN CHARGE OF THE COMMERCIAL
POULTRY INVESTIGATION
OF THE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
SYRACUSE
NATIONAL POULTRY MAGAZINE
1911
COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY
NATIONAL POULTRY PUBLISHING COMPANY
WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN
Twenty-five years ago there were in print hundreds of complete
treatises on human diseases and the practice of medicine.
Notwithstanding the size of the book-shelves or the high standing of
the authorities, one might have read the entire medical library of
that day and still have remained in ignorance of the fact that
out-door life is a better cure for consumption than the contents of
a drug store. The medical professor of 1885 may have gone
prematurely to his grave because of ignorance of facts which are
to-day the property of every intelligent man.
There are to-day on the book-shelves of agricultural colleges and
public libraries, scores of complete works on "Poultry" and hundreds
of minor writings on various phases of the industry. Let the
would-be poultryman master this entire collection of literature and
he is still in ignorance of facts and principles, a knowledge of
which in better developed industries would be considered prime
necessities for carrying on the business.
As a concrete illustration of the above statement, I want to point
to a young man, intelligent, enterprising, industrious, and a
graduate of the best known agricultural college poultry course in
the country. This lad invested some $18,000 of his own and his
friends' money in a poultry plant. The plant was built and the
business conducted in accordance with the plans and principles of
the recognized poultry authorities. To-day the young man is bravely
facing the proposition of working on a salary in another business,
to pay back the debts of honor resulting from his attempt to apply
in practice the teaching of our agricultural colleges and our
poultry bookshelves.
The experience just related did not prove disastrous from some
single item of ignorance or oversight; the difficulty was that the
cost of growing and marketing the product amounted to more than the
receipts from its sale. This poultry farm, like the surgeon's
operation, "was successful, but the patient died."
The writer's belief in the reality of the situation as above
portrayed warrants him in publishing the present volume. Whether his
criticism of poultry literature is founded on fact or fancy may,
five years after the copyright date of this book, be told by any
unbiased observer.
I have written this book for the purpose of assisting in placing the
poultry business on a sound scientific and economic basis. The book
does not pretend to be a complete encyclopedia of information
concerning poultry, but treats only of those phases of poultry
production and marketing upon which the financial success of the
business depends.
The reader who is looking for information concerning fancy breeds,
poultry shows, patent processes, patent foods, or patent methods,
will be disappointed, for the object of this book is to help the
poultryman to make money, not to spend it.
HOW TO READ THIS BOOK
Unless the reader has picked up this volume out of idle curiosity,
he will be one of the following individuals:
1. A farmer or would-be farmer, who is interested in poultry
production as a portion of the work of general farming.
2. A poultryman or would-be poultryman, who wishes to make a
business of producing poultry or eggs for sale as a food product or
as breeding stock.
3. A person interested in poultry as a diversion and who enjoys
losing a dollar on his chickens almost as well as earning one.
4. A man interested in poultry in the capacity of an editor, teacher
or some one engaged as a manufacturer or dealer in merchandise the
sale of which is dependent upon the welfare of the poultry industry.
To the reader of the fourth class I have no suggestions to make save
such as he will find in the suggestions made to others.
To the reader of the third class I wish to say that if you are a
shoe salesman, who has spent your evenings in a Brooklyn flat,
drawing up plans for a poultry plant, I have only to apologize for
any interference that this book may cause with your highly
fascinating amusement.
To the poultryman already in the business, or to the man who is
planning to engage in the business for reasons equivalent to those
which would justify his entering other occupations of the
semi-technical class, such as dairying, fruit growing or the
manufacture of washing machines, I wish to say it is for you that
"The Dollar Hen" is primarily written.
This book does not assume you to be a graduate of a technical
school, but it does bring up discussions and use methods of
illustration that may be unfamiliar to many readers. That such
matter is introduced is because the subject requires it; and if it
is confusing to the student he will do better to master it than to
dodge it. Especially would I call your attention to the diagrams
used in illustrating various statistics. Such diagrams are
technically called "curves." They may at first seem mere crooked
lines, if so I suggest that you get a series of figures in which you
are interested, such as the daily egg yields of your own flock or
your monthly food bills, and "plot" a few curves of your own. After
you catch on you will be surprised at the greater ease with which
the true meaning of a series of figures can be recognized when this
graphic method is used.
I wish to call the farmer's attention to the fact that poultry
keeping as an adjunct to general farming, especially to general
farming in the Mississippi Valley, is quite a different proposition
from poultry production as a regular business. Poultry keeping as a
part of farm life and farm enterprise is a thing well worth while in
any section of the United States, whereas poultry keeping, a
separate occupation, requires special location and special
conditions to make it profitable. I would suggest the farmer first
read Chapter XVI, which is devoted to his special conditions. Later
he may read the remainder of the book, but should again consult the
part on farm poultry production before attempting to apply the more
complicated methods to his own needs.
Chapter XVI, while written primarily for the farmer, is, because of
the simplicity of its directions, the best general guide for the
beginner in poultry keeping wherever he may be.
To the reader in general, I want to say, that the table of contents,
a part of the book which most people never read, is in this volume
so placed and so arranged that it cannot well be avoided. Read it
before you begin the rest of the book, and use it then and
thereafter in guiding you toward the facts that you at the time
particularly want to know. Many people in starting to read a book
find something in the first chapter which does not interest them and
cast aside the work, often missing just the information they are
seeking. The conspicuous arrangement of the contents is for the
purpose of preventing such an occurrence in this case.
WHAT IS IN THIS VOLUME
CHAPTER I
IS THERE MONEY IN THE POULTRY BUSINESS?
A Big Business; Growing Bigger
Less Ham and More Eggs
Who Gets the Hen Money?
CHAPTER II
WHAT BRANCH OF THE POULTRY BUSINESS?
Various Poultry Products
The Duck Business
Squabs Have Been Overdone
Turkeys not Adapted to Commercial Growing
Guinea Growing a New Venture
Geese, the Fame of Watertown
The Ill-omened Broiler Business
South Shore Roasters
Too Much Competition in Fancy Poultry
Egg Farming the Most Certain and Profitable
CHAPTER III
THE POULTRY PRODUCING COMMUNITY
Established Poultry Communities
Developing Poultry Communities
Will Co-operation Work?
Co-operative Egg Marketing in Denmark
Corporation or Co-operation
CHAPTER IV
WHERE TO LOCATE
Some Poultry Geography
Chicken Climate
Suitable Soil
Marketing--Transportation
Availability of Water
A Few Statistics
CHAPTER V
THE DOLLAR HEN FARM
The Plan of Housing
The Feeding System
Water Systems
Out-door Accommodations
Equipment for Chick Rearing
Twenty-five Acre Poultry Farms
Five Acre Poultry Farms
CHAPTER VI
INCUBATION
Fertility of Eggs
The Wisdom of the Egyptians
Principles of Incubation
Moisture and Evaporation
Ventilation--Carbon Dioxide
Turning Eggs
Cooling Eggs
Searching for the "Open Sesame" of Incubation
The Box Type of Incubator in Actual Use
The Future of Incubation
CHAPTER VII
FEEDING
Conventional Food Chemistry
How the Hen Unbalances Balanced Rations
CHAPTER VIII
DISEASES
Don't Doctor Chickens
The Causes of Poultry Diseases
Chicken Cholera
Roup
Chicken-pox, Gapes, Limber-neck
Lice and Mites
CHAPTER IX
POULTRY FLESH AND POULTRY FATTENING
Crate Fattening
Caponizing
CHAPTER X
MARKETING POULTRY CARCASSES
Farm Grown Chickens
The Special Poultry Plant
Suggestions From Other Countries
Cold Storage of Poultry
Drawn or Undrawn Fowls
Poultry Inspection
CHAPTER XI
QUALITY IN EGGS
Grading Eggs
How Eggs are Spoiled
Egg Size Table
The Loss Due to Carelessness
Requisites of Producing High Grade Eggs
CHAPTER XII
HOW EGGS ARE MARKETED
The Country Merchant
The Huckster
The Produce Buyer
The City Distribution of Eggs
Cold Storage of Eggs
Preserving Eggs Out of Cold Storage
Improved Methods of Marketing Farm-Grown Eggs
The High Grade Egg Business
Buying Eggs by Weight
The Retailing of Eggs by the Producer
The Price of Eggs
N.Y. Mercantile Exchange, Official Quotations
CHAPTER XIII
BREEDS OF CHICKENS
Breed Tests
The Hen's Ancestors
What Breed?
CHAPTER XIV
PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC BREEDING
Breeding as an Art
Scientific Theories of Breeding
Breeding for Egg Production
CHAPTER XV
EXPERIMENT STATION WORK
The Stations Leading in Poultry Work
The Story of the "Big Coon"
Important Experimental Results at the Illinois Station
Experimental Bias
The Egg Breeding Work at the Maine Station
CHAPTER XVI
POULTRY ON THE GENERAL FARM
Best Breeds for the Farm
Keep Only Workers
Hatching Chicks with Hens
Incubators on the Farm
Rearing Chicks
Feeding Laying Hens
Cleanliness
Farm Chicken Houses
THE DOLLAR HEN
CHAPTER I
IS THERE MONEY IN THE POULTRY BUSINESS?
The chicken business is big. No one knows how big it is and no one
can find out. The reason it is hard to find out is because so many
people are engaged in it and because the chicken crop is sold, not
once a year, but a hundred times a year.
Statistics are guesses. True statistics are the sum of little
guesses, but often figures published as statistics are big guesses
by a guesser who is big enough to have his guess accepted.
A Big Business; Growing Bigger
The only real statistics for the poultry crop of the United States
are those of the Federal Census. At this writing these statistics
are nine years old and somewhat out of date. The value of poultry
and eggs in 1899, according to the census figures, was $291,000,000.
Is this too big or too little? I don't know. If the reader wishes to
know let him imagine the census enumerator asking a farmer the value
of the poultry and eggs which he has produced the previous year.
Would the farmer's guess be too big or too small?
From these census figures as a base, estimates have been made for
later years. The Secretary of Agriculture, or, speaking more
accurately, a clerk in the Statistical Bureau of the Department of
Agriculture, says the poultry and egg crop for 1907 was over
$600,000,000.
The best two sources of information known to the writer by which
this estimate may be checked are the receipts of the New York market
and the annual "Value of Poultry and Eggs Sold," as given by the
Kansas State Board of Agriculture.
[Illustration: Plate I. Page 14. Graph - Is There Money in Poultry?]
In plate I the top curve a-a gives the average spring price of
Western first eggs in the New York market. The curve b-b gives the
annual receipts of eggs at New York in millions of cases. Now, since
value equals quantity multiplied by price, and since the quantity
and values of poultry are closely correlated to those of eggs, the
product of these two figures is a fair means of showing the rate of
increase in the value of the poultry crop. Starting with the census
value of $291,000,000 for the year 1899, we thus find that by 1907
the amount is very close to $700,000,000. This is represented by the
lower line.
The value of the poultry and eggs sold in Kansas have increased as
follows:
Year Value
1903 $ 6,498,856
1904 7,551,871
1905 8,541,153
1906 9,085,896
1907 10,300,082
The dotted line e-e represents the increase in the national poultry
and egg crop estimated from the Kansas figures. Evidently the
estimate given in Secretary Wilson's report was not excessive.
Now, I want to call the reader's attention to some relations about
which there can be no doubt and which are even more significant. The
straight line c-c in Plate 1 represents the rate of increase of
population in this country. The line b-b represents the rate of
increase in egg receipts at New York. As the country data backs up
the New York figures, the conclusion is inevitable that the
production of poultry and eggs is increasing much more rapidly than
is our population.
"Over-production," I hear the pessimist cry, but unfortunately for
Friend Pessimist, we have a gauge on the over-production idea that
lays all fears to rest. When the supply of any commodity increases
faster than the demand, we have over-production and falling prices.
Vice-versa, under-production is shown by a rising price. That prices
of poultry and eggs have risen and risen rapidly, has already been
shown.
"But prices of all products have risen," says one. Very true, but by
statistics with which I will not burden the reader, I find that
prices of poultry products have risen more rapidly than the average
rise in values of all commodities. This shows that poultry products
are really more in demand and more valuable, not apparently so.
Moreover, the rise in the price of poultry products has been much
more pronounced than the average rise in the price of all food
products, which proves the growing demand for poultry and eggs to be
a real growing demand, not a turning to poultry products because of
the high price of other foods, as is sometimes stated.
Less Ham and More Eggs.
Certainly we, as a nation, are rapidly becoming eaters of hens and
of hen fruit. Reasons are not hard to find. Poultry and eggs are the
most palatable, most wholesome, most convenient of foods. Our
demands for the products of the poultry yard grows because we are
learning to like them, and because our prosperity has grown and we
can afford them.
Another reason that the consumption of eggs is growing is because
the condition in which they reach the consumer is improving. The
writer may say some pretty hard things in this work about the
condition of poultry and eggs as they are now marketed, but any
old-timer in the business will tell you stories of things as they
used to be that will easily explain why our fathers ate more ham and
less eggs.
Yet another reason why the per capita consumption of hens as
measured in pounds or dollars increases, is that the hen herself has
increased in size; whereas John when he was Johnnie ate a two-ounce
drumstick, now Johnnie eats an analogous piece that weighs three
ounces. Perhaps, also, we have a growing respect for the law of
Moses, or may be vegetarians who think that eggs grow on egg plants
are becoming more numerous.
Our consumption of pork per capita has, in the last half century,
diminished by half, our consumption of beef has remained stationary,
but our consumption of poultry and eggs has doubled itself, we know
not how many times, for a half century ago the ancestor of the
industrious hen of this age serenely scratched up grandmother's
geraniums and was unmolested by the statisticians.
Who Gets the Hen Money?
Seven hundred millions of dollars is a lot of money. Who gets it?
There are no Rockefellers or Armours in the hen business. It is the
people's business. Why? Because the nature of the business is such
that it cannot be centralized. Land and intelligent labor, prompted
by the spirit of ownership, is necessary to succeed in the hen
business. Land the captains of industry have not monopolized, and
labor imbued with the spirit of ownership they cannot monopolize.
The chicken business is, in dollars, one of the biggest industries
in the country. In numbers of those engaged in it, the chicken
business is the biggest industry in the world--I bar none. Why is
this true? Primarily because the hen is a natural part of the
equipment of every farm and of many village homes as well. It is
these millions of small flocks that count up in dollars and men and
give such an immense aggregate.
More than ninety-eight per cent. of the poultry and eggs of the
country are produced on the general farm. The remaining one or two
per cent. are produced on farms or plants where chicken culture is
the cash crop or chief business of the farmer. It is this business,
relatively small, though actually a matter of millions, that is
commonly spoken of as the poultry business, and about which our
chief interest centers. A farmer can disregard all knowledge and all
progress and still keep chickens, but the man who has no other means
of a livelihood must produce chicken products efficiently, or fail
altogether--hence the greater interest in this portion of the
industry.
The poultry business as a business to occupy a man's time and earn
him a livelihood, is a thing of recent origin and was little heard
of before 1890. Since that time it has undergone a somewhat painful,
though steady growth. Many people have lost money in the business
and have given it up in disgust, but on a whole the business has
progressed wonderfully, and now shows features of development that
are clearly beyond the experimental stage and are undoubtedly here
to stay.
The suggestion has been made by those who have failed or have seen
others fail in the poultry business, that success was impossible
because of the destructive competition of the farmer, whose expense
of production is small. Herein lies a great truth and a great error.
The farmer's cost of production is small, much smaller than that on
most of the book-made poultry farms--but the inference that the
poultryman's cost of production cannot be lowered below that of the
farmer is a different statement.
The farm of our grandfather was a very diversified institution. It
contained in miniature a woolen mill, a packing house, a cheese
factory, perhaps a shoe factory and a blacksmith shop. One by one
these industries have been withdrawn from general farm-life, and
established as independent businesses. Likewise our dairy farms, our
fruit farms, and our market gardens have been segregated from the
general farm. This simply means that manufacturing cloth, or cheese,
or producing milk, or tomatoes can be done at less cost in separate
establishments than upon a general farm.
The general farm will always grow poultry for home consumption, and
will always have some surplus to sell. With the surplus, the
poultryman must compete. His only hope of successful competition is
production at lower cost. Can this be done? It is being done, and
the numbers of people who are doing it are increasing, but they
spend little money at poultry shows, or with the advertisers of
poultry papers, and hence are little heard of in the poultry world.
The people whose names and faces are in the poultry papers are
frequently there only while their money lasts. They write long
articles and show pictures of many houses and yards to prove that
there is money in the poultry business, but if one should keep their
names and put the question to them five years hence, a great many
could say, "Yes, there is money in the poultry business; mine is in
it."
Such people and such plants do not get the cost of production down
below the farmer's level. Between these two classes of poultry
plants, the writer hopes in this work to show the distinction.
CHAPTER II
WHAT BRANCH OF THE POULTRY BUSINESS?
The chicken business is especially prone to failure from a disregard
of the common essential relation of cost and selling price necessary
to the success of any business. That this should be more true of the
poultry business than of any other undertakings is to be explained
by the facts that as a business, it is new, that many of those who
engage in it are inexperienced, but most particularly because
practically all the literature published on the subject has been
written by or written in the interest of those who had something to
sell to the poultryman. As a result the figures of production are
generally given higher than the facts warrant. The investor, be he
ever so shrewd a man, builds upon these promises and when he finds
his production lower, is caught with an excessive investment and a
complicated system on his hands, which make all profits impossible
and which cannot readily be adapted to the new conditions.
Estimates of poultry profits are quite common, but there are few
published figures showing the results that are actually obtained
under practical working conditions. In this volume I will try to
give the facts of what is being and can be actually accomplished.
Various Poultry Products.
In considering the poultry industry we must first get some idea of
the various articles produced for sale.
It is common knowledge that the large meat packer can undersell the
small packer because the by-products, such as bristles, which are
wasted by the local killer, are a source of income to the large
packer. Now, this does not infer that the small packer is shiftless
and neglects to save his bristles, but that on the scale on which he
operates it would cost him more to save the bristles than he could
realize on them.
So it is with poultry farming. For illustration: A visionary writer
in a leading poultry paper, not long ago, advised poultrymen to
store eggs. In reality this would be the height of folly, unless the
poultryman had his own retail store. In the first place profit on
cold storage eggs, when all expenses are paid, will not average a
half a cent a dozen; in the second place, the small lot would be
relatively troublesome and expensive to handle, and in the third
place, small lots of cold storage eggs are looked upon with
suspicion and do not find ready sale. So we see that cold storage
eggs are not a suitable product for the small poultryman to handle.
A second illustration of an ill-chosen combination might be taken in
the case of a duck farmer who attempts to produce broilers. The
principal difficulty of the duck business is that of getting
sufficient intelligent labor in the rush season. The chief expense
of investment is for incubators and brooder houses. If the duck
farmer now tries to add broilers, he will find that the labor comes
at the same time of the year, that the chief equipment required is
that which is already crowded by the duck business, and that of the
men who have succeeded moderately well in caring for ducks will fail
altogether with the young chicks, which do not thrive under the same
machine-like methods.
On the other hand, let us take the example of an egg farm man who
has resolved to combine his attention wholly to the production of
market eggs. He succeeds well in his work and is visited by the
poultry editors. His picture, the picture of his chickens and of his
chicken houses, are printed in the poultry papers. For a reasonable
sum invested in advertising and in exhibition at the shows, this man
could now double his income by going into the breeding stock
business. To refuse to spread out in this case would certainly be
foolish.
The following classification of the sales products of the poultry
industry is given as a basis for farther consideration.
CHICKENS.
For food purposes:
Eggs.
Hens, after laying has been finished.
Cockerels, necessarily hatched in hatching pullets for layers.
(Sold as squab broilers, regular broilers, springs,
roasters or capons.)
Both sexes as squab broilers, broilers or roasters.
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