Antique Poultry Magazine

The American Poultry Advocate issue of August, 1912 is one of the three donated by Lester Markham to SPPA. These images are of the front and back covers. It sold for five cents a copy, fifty cents for a year's subscription.

The contents list articles on: The Farm Flock of One Hundred Hens (Part VI); The How and Why of Poultry Profits (Part IV); Profits in Pure Bred Poultry; Editorial and Editorial Jottings (more a compendium of news and announcements than an opinion); The American Dominique and Black Java; Some Good Poultry Yarns (which include the story of an egg that was heated to hatch early, and resulted in a chick that matured so fast it died of old age in one day, stimulating chicks with electrical current to make them reach broiler size in half the usual time, and a turkey who got lost in a haystack but kept herself alive by laying an egg each day for 42 days and eating it);Making a Profit Out of the Back-Yard Poultry Plant: The Care of Exhibition Stock; National Egg Laying Contest; and Annual Field Meeting of the Connecticut Poultry Association.

The advertisements on the back cover are as interesting as the articles inside. The headline, "Ready to Win in September" reflects how significant poultry shows were at that time. That was the era of the Stringman, who would travel from show to show, sometimes occupying an entire railroad car with his cages, earning enough by winning to make a living.

Stringmen performed valuable service by exchanging stock along the way, invigorating local lines with their birds.

It's past time for a historical review of that era. Craig Russell tells me he has a copy of the only book written about stringmen. I look forward to borrowing it some day, and using it as a starting point for another book. It's a project I'm eager to take on.