Lester Markham of Amite, Louisiana received three antique poultry magazines from a friend and donated them to SPPA. Thank you, Lester!
They are all in excellent condition. This issue of Commercial Poultry is dated April 1910. It was a monthly magazine that sold for 50 cents a year.
The ads are as interesting as the articles in these magazines. Many of the farms were sold complete with animals and equipment. The ads for poultry equipment reflect a time when most people kept poultry and every farmer raised at least some. Breeds that are now rare were competitively advertised: Houdans, Wyandottes, Langshans, Minorcas and Orpingtons were popular. Many breeders advertised Barred Rocks and the magazine has several pictures of them.
Does anyone know what happened to Commercial Poultry magazine? When this issue was published, its circulation was 50,000 and the masthead states that it is "The only Poultry Paper in the United States occupying its own building and operating its own printing press." It had 13 ad reps in major cities around the country.
It wasn't that long ago. Perhaps under the pressure of high fuel prices and overwhelming pollution and infection in industrial poultry-raising, raising poultry in small flocks will regain that popularity.
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