The High-Stakes Poultry Trade

I just received an order for one dozen pure-bred chickens, said J. L. Smith, as he smilingly folded a good crisp check and put it in his pocket. John MacDonald, of Colville, Wash., bought them. Orders for the White Plymouth Rocks are coming in rapidly and from all over the country. From New York the other day we got an order for 50 pullets, but we couldn't spare them. Felch told me last winter that they would be blamed glad to send out here for chickens before long, and we can beat them, too, on scoring. There is no part of the United States where finer chickens can be raised than right here. We had two pullets last winter scoring 96 1/2 and a cockerel 95 1/2, and a hen 95 1/2. That's getting away up in G. Our worst trouble, continued Mr. Smith, is the wily coyote. You see we live six miles west of Spokane and they thrive wonderfully. I think that we have lost $350 worth of birds from the ravages of these fellows. Our own breeding beat anything we ever got from the east and we bought from the crack poultrymen, too. You see, we have the advantage in a superb climate and then, they use so much corn that it makes the plumage and quills yellow.