Extent and Importance of the Poultry Industry.— Poultry husbandry is an old art and a comparatively new science for it is only within the present century that special atten tion has been given to raising poultry as a com mercial enterprise and only within the past generation has any real effort been made to classify the information on the subject into anything like a science. The explanation of this recent advance may be found, first, in the fact that this class of domestic animals sup plies human food that is second only in im portance and value to dairy products. The egg offers the most digestible form of meat known and one which can be cooked in the greatest number of attractive ways, and the flesh forms an article of diet universally prized for its attractive flavor, which is distinctly different with each kind of poultry. In addition to and perhaps of greater importance than the nutritive value of eggs is the vitamine value which eggs possess in large degree and which are essential to growth. The fact that eggs contain all of the nutritive qualities and also the life-giving vitamine principle complete and in proper proportions to sustain the developing embryo chick makes the egg superior even to milk in sustaining human life. The second reason is found in the fact that poultry, particularly fowls and pigeons, are variable and plastic in the hands of the breeder and can be rapidly and skilfully made to ac quire new forms and colors. In no branch of animal husbandry have so striking results been accomplished as in poultry breeding. Ob serve the large number of varieties at the present time and note the contrast between the mammoth Brahma, weighing 12 pounds, and the diminutive bantam of the same name, weighing 20 ounces; the brilliantly spangled Hamburg and the sombre Orpin4ton; the long tail of the Yokohama and the inconspicuous, cushion tail of the Cochin; the clean, close feath ering of the Indian game and the abundant, fluffy feathering of the Asiatics; the smooth shanks of the Plymouth Rock and the feathered shanks of the Langshan; the great prolificacy of the sprightly Leghorn and the large, solid muscle of the unproductive, clumsy Indian Game. Also note the great variety of
plumage, both in color, color pattern and form of feather in the different breeds and varieties of the domestic fowl. For example, the spangled, laced, penciled, striped barred pat tern and the solid-colored feather, including red, buff, black, white and blue; and in feather forms — ragged in the Frizzles and downy in the Silky; varieties of fowls with eyes varying in color from black to pearl, bay or gray; fowls with rose combs, leaf combs, single or pea combs, spike combs; fowls with or without beards and crests and showing in their plumage every color of the spectrum.
Equal in variability to the domestic fowl is the pigeon with its vastly different types of colors, sizes, shapes and physical characteristics. Then realize that all of these have been pro duced within the history of man ; in the case of the fowl from a single or, at most, a few wild species of jungle fowl, and in the case of pigeons, from the single rock pigeon; more over, domestic fowls, including several hundred varieties, breed reasonably true.
Poultry Statistics 1910 and 1900 in the United States.— The tables on following page give the number of the various kinds of poultry reported in 1910 and 1900, together with their value, and the number of farms reporting each kind in 1910; the number and value of poultry by States, value of products, etc.
The summary on poultry shows that the total number of farms reporting the different kinds in 1910 was 5,585,012, the total number of fowls being 295,876,176, and the total value $153,394, 000. Of the total number of farms reporting, nearly all, or 5,577,218, reported chickens, num bering 280,340,643, valued at $140,193,000. The number of farms in the United States report ing poultry increased 489,732, or 9.6 per cent, during the decade. The total number of fowls increased 18.1 per cent; while the relative in crease in their value was considerably over four times as great, amounting to 78.9 per cent. The average number of fowls per farm reporting increased from 49 to 53.