THE STATE FARMER SECTION PAGE FIVE Demonttration flock of purebred White Leghorn* in Kerchaw Coun ty, S. C, Southland Offers Many Poultry Possibilities By A. B. BRYAN Editor s Note: The possihilitics in fin intelligent development of the poultry industry throughout the South is pictured in this thoughtfid analysis of the situation in South Carolina. Although X5 per cent of the farms of South Carolina produce sonic iwiiiltry, poultry prochiction has tior kept pace with the increase in population atui egg prodtK'tioji 34, when rliere ap pears to have been a decrease. A study of egg production in South Carolina, on the basis of population, shows the state far below the average for the remainder of the country. For the entire country, the average egg pro duction per person in 1929 was 262 eggs. In South Carolina, only eggs per person were produced, or less than 42 per cent of the average for the coimtry. South Carolina is considerably short on This 200*egg Barred Plymouth Rock it rightly considered an ideal type of heavy layer. A flock of high-laying White Wyandottes, which averaged 152 egps. One bird, in the center, laid 242. producing the amount of eggs her |x>pu- lation might be expected to consume. I'w-o or less eggs per week prr person can hardly he accepted as a standard foi proper nourishment and health. M ore than 2,0(>(>.o(x> dozen eggs were brought into South Carolina by freight and e.\pr<‘ss in 1929, according to fig ures on yearly ini|Toits and exports. It is believed an equal or greater number of eggs is brought in by trucks. Egg exjMirts are insignificant, Farm Flocks Inefficient The average farm Hock in South Car olina is not only small but inefficient in production. The average number of chickens per farm in South Carolina Is only 19 birds compared with an average of 6(1 birds per farm in the United States. I'he average number of eggs yearly per chicken is 63 in South C:ir.> lina against 85 in the Lnited States. I'he average number of eggs produced yearly |M‘r person in South Carolina is 109 against an average of 262 per per son in the nation. The cause of this inefficiency in egg production may be in the form of hens. 'I'o produce the eggs shipped into the state by freight and express would re quire an addition of more than i7S,tHKi laying hens of similar egg production quality as the average of demonstration flock hens. To produce the additional number of eggs brought into the state by truck would double this number of hens. Reduced to a county basis this would mean approximately 75 additional KKi-bird flocks per county. Professor Morgan thinks that iii a state so largely agricultural as South Carolina it seems logical that sufficient eggs and poultry products should be pro duced to meet the needs of the pfipu- lation. True In Other States “An adjustment in poultry production in this direction with high-quality stock aiul proper feeding and management methods is not only highly desirable fnmi a food standpoint, but should prove eco nomically profitable to those engaged in the busint*ss.” The general facts and conditions pre sented hew must be true also of North Carolina and other Southern states, so that in those states there knocks the same opjiortunity for profitable poultry production. An excellent example of profitable poultry is found in the experience of John E. Jackson, York County. Twenty-five years in the poultry busi ness, Mr. Jackson has increased his poul try enterprise 'from a start with "six red hens and a rooster” to where his annual production is from 2,000 to 3,000 Rhode Island Reds and White Wyandottes, his main source of cash from the 70-acre farms. The 1935 output was 2,200. Sales of eggs and chickens fon eight years have been chiefly to a special trade in (lastonia, N. C. That iioultry raising as a chief money crop has not been a failure for Mr. Jackson is clear from the fact that he continues to stake his main chances on hens. For over two decades there al ways have been some profit. Careful breeding and good sanitation arc at the bottom of Mr. Jackson’s poul try success. After trying nearly a score of different pure breeds he believes most strongly in Rhode Island Reds and keeps usually around 6cxi hens of this breed along with about 3(X> White Wyan dottes. ,Hoth sell well on any market, he finds, and his strain of Reds lays par ticularly well, some hens running to 250 eggs per year. By close attention to selection, mating and breeding, he has improved the strain with only a little new blood since 1921. The result is a fine demand for breeding stock. At poul try shows the Jackson stock has always taken a lion’s share of blue ribbons. In flf)ck management, sanitation comes first with Mr. Jackson, proper feeding next. He has learned through close at tention to prevent most poultry troubles and to check outbreaks promptly. Simple, Efficient Layout A simple, but sufficient and I'fficient layout of housing and equipment makes it practicable for Mr. Jackson to do his own incubating and brooding and fatten ing as well as to carry on his breeding Hock. A i4(X)-egg incubator in the base ment of a laying house docs the hatching, ^'wo brooder hou.ses of four and five rooms each will care for 3,ixx) more chicks. The layers are housed neatly in second-story quarters, while the breeders are all on the ground in small plots. While there is some range foi laying hens, those in upstairs quarters do not get out at all. Poultry feeds are largely home-grown —corn, wheat, and oats for grain feed ing, and oats, rye and barley for graz ing. Wheat and cracked corn arc used as a scratch feed. That Mr. Jackson finds chickens a safer deiiendence than cotton is shown by the fact he now plants no cotton on his farm. His other sources of income from the farm are a purebred Berkshire herd of hogs and a small herd of (iuernsey cows. Sanitation comes first in flock man agement with many successful poultry