Fig. 226. Fattening chickens in crates at a poultry buyer's warehouse.[25] (Photograph from the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture)
[25] If the farmer sells his chickens without fattening, the buyer can fatten them in this way and so make an extra profit.
In nearly all farming sections, even those most remote from city markets, there is a short period in the spring when there is a large surplus of eggs and sometimes a period in the fall when there is more poultry ready for market than can be sold; but the people in those places rarely make any effort to increase their production, and to extend the seasons when they have more than enough for themselves, until they have good facilities for shipping eggs and poultry and the demands from outside cause a marked increase in the local prices of these products.
Fig. 227. Driving turkeys to market. (Photograph from Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture)
So from the city and the country, almost simultaneously, but with the demand from the city most active and pressing, the modern system of collecting and distributing poultry products has grown. At first poultry products were nearly all handled by men who dealt in all kinds of country produce. As the business increased, many firms gave their attention exclusively to poultry products. Then, when creameries were established in many places, the creamery was found a convenient place for the collection of eggs. The large packing houses which handle other kinds of meat also entered this field and became a very important factor in the development of poultry culture in the West.
