ty, with but slight loss in
quality. To produce broilers in the season of scarcity, necessitates
the consumption of a product (eggs) which cannot be so successfully
stored, with a lesser quantity of that same product in its season of
plenty. We will give the production of broilers no further attention
save as a by-product of egg production.

South Shore Roaster.

The production of South Shore soft roasters in a local section of
Massachusetts, offers a successful contrast with the broiler
business and is, so far as the writer knows, the only case in the
United States where pullets are profitably diverted from egg
production. The process of roaster production is essentially as
follows:

The incubators are set in the fall or early winter, and the chicks
reared in brooder houses. As soon as the tender age is past, the
chickens are put in simple colony houses where, with hopper fed
corn, beef scrap and rye on the range, they grow throughout the
winter and spring. They are sold from May 1st to July 1st and bring
such prices that the cockerels are caponized yet not sold as capons,
showing them to be the highest priced chicken flesh in the market
save small broilers. Now, the income of roasters is two to five
times as much per head as that of broilers. The added expense is
only a matter of feed, which bears about the same ratio to weight as
with broilers. The great advantage of the roaster business over that
of the broiler business comes in the following points:

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