1st:  The initial expense of eggs, incubation and brooding are distributed over a much larger final valuation.

2nd:  The incubation period, while perhaps in as difficult a season, can be distributed over a longer period of time.

With 8 pound roasters at 30 cents, we have an expense account about as follows:  cost of production to broiler stage, 30 cents as previously given.  An additional food cost of 10 cents per pound of chicken flesh would still leave a margin of $1.40, so, for an income of $1,200, only about 860 birds need be raised, a proposition not beyond the capacity of one man to handle.

Allowing a spread of five hatching periods, the number of eggs required at once would be one-twelfth that demanded by the broiler farm.  As it is, the roaster grower finds trouble in getting good eggs and is obliged to pay 50 cents a dozen for them, but his want is within the region of possibility.

The South Shore roaster district is an example of an industry built up by specialization and co-operation.  But in this sense I do not mean co-operation in production, but that the product is handled by a few dealers and has become well known so that the brand sells readily at an advanced price.  To a beginner in the South Shore district, the numerous successes and failures around him cannot help but be of great benefit.  The South Shore roaster district of Massachusetts is the best example of specialized community production of poultry flesh that we have in the United States.  It is only rivaled by the districts in the south of England and in France.

In Chapter III the writer takes up fully the community production of eggs.  The reason I have gone into this matter in regard to eggs rather than roasters, is because the egg production is much the greater industry, and, whereas the soft roaster is at a premium only in a few Boston shops, high grade eggs are universally recognized and in demand.  Many of the economies, especially concerning incubation, would apply equally well in both communities.  I expect to see the time when chicken flesh shall be produced with these more advanced methods in many “South Shore” communities.

Too Much Competition in Fancy Poultry.

The various types of chicken farming are classified by what is made the leading sales product.  This will depend wholly upon what is done with the female chicks that are hatched.  If they are sold as broilers it is a broiler plant; if as roasters, it is a roaster plant; if as stock, it is a fancy or breeding stock business, but if kept for laying the proposition is an egg farm, and all other products are by-products.  These by-products are to be carefully considered, and sold at the greatest possible price, but their production is incidental to the production of the main crop.