The principal breeds of sheep in Illinois are the Shropshire, Hamp shire, Southdown, and Oxford.
Poultry.—The rais ing of poultry and the production of eggs is an important branch of Illinois agriculture re ported from 94 per cent of all the farms of the state. Chickens constitute 96 per cent of the total number of fowls. Other fowls reported were turkeys, ducks, geese, guinea fowls, pigeons, peafowls, and pheasants. The value of the poultry raised and the eggs produced during the year 1909 was $34,000,000, one-fourth the value of all domestic animals sold and slaughtered in Illinois, five times the value of the entire potato crop of the state, 90 per cent of the value of the wheat crop, and nine times the value of the orchard fruits of the state. The map on page 1S7 shows that poultry are rather evenly dis tributed throughout Illinois with a slight increase in density in a belt extending across the south-central part of the state.
Numerous breeds of chickens are found in Illinois, among them the White Wyandotte, Speckled Wyandotte, Barred Plymouth Rock, White Plymouth Rock, Buff Cochin, White Orpington, Buff Orpington, and White Brahma. The Pekin duck, Indian Runner duck, and White Toulouse goose arc favorite breeds of ducks and geese.
Production by counties.—A comparison of farm crops and domestic animals by counties does not give a correct idea of the relative importance of the products within the counties, because of the varying sizes of counties. The largest county of the
state has an area more than six times as large as the smallest. The larger counties appear in such lists oftener than the importance of the product in that county warrants, and the smaller counties do not appear at all, although the proportion of land devoted to the product and the yield per acre or per square mile may be very large. Such a list is of interest, how ever. The counties are given in the foregoing table in the order of the number of animals on farms according to the census returns of 1910. The table also gives a summary for the state, including the animals on farms and not on farms.
Summary.—The distribution of the animal industries of Illinois is a response to topography, soil, climate, crops, and distance to markets. The fact that topography, soil, and climate favor development of general farming throughout the state leads to a state-wide production of staple crops. This in turn requires the raising of domestic animals for the purpose of both the production and the consumption of these crops. This again leads to an evenness of distribution of all the domestic animals not to be found in a state with great con trasts of topography, rainfall, and temperature. Distance from the great market at Chicago for crops, animals, and animal products leads to interesting variations in the distribu tion of live stock and live-stock products which have already been pointed out.