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| Vol. 18, No. 11 | Nov. 12, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 11 | Nov. 12, 1998 |
In a photo from the book, hatchery owner Ed McIlvaine shows off a Delmarva chicken.
In his newly published book, Delmarva's Chicken Industry: 75 Years of Progress, William H. Williams, parallel program, writes that in the first part of the century, marketing chickens for eating was simply a by-product of egg production. The only chickens eaten were tough old hens whose laying days had ended or cockerels (young male chickens).
According to Williams, "Far more significant to farm family incomes than the sale of cockerels were the table eggs brought to town by farm wives to be bartered for store goods or to be sold to egg brokers for urban markets."
As a side note, Williams tells of a railroad agent named Arthur Perdue, in Salisbury, who, observing the profitability of the egg business as they were being shipped to cities, left his job to establish a commercial egg farm in 1920.
Commissioned by the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., a growers' and proceessors' association, the book is divided into five chapters outlining the life cycle of the industry-from birth to maturity. The book is filled with anecdotes, photographs and vignettes of the people who were involved in the poultry industry's development.
For the book, Williams conducted 35 interviews on tape and talked to 25 other people informally.
The first chapter is an overview of agriculture in southern Delaware in the first quarter of the century, a time when peaches, strawberries, sweet potatoes and tomatoes were among the cash crops raised by farmers. Period photographs show wagonloads of produce being loaded onto boats or being taken to canning factories and early chicken farms.
The broiler industry got its start by accident. In 1923, when Cecile Steele of Ocean View ordered 50 new chickens for her flock of laying hens, she received 500 instead. She housed them in a piano box until a shed was built and sold the 387 survivors 18 months later to the New York restaurant market. It was a profitable transaction. By 1926, the Steeles had 10,000 birds, and the broiler industry was born. A plaque honoring her was erected in 1989 in her hometown.
In the chapter entitled "Institutions, Science and Technology," Williams wrote about UD's role in the poultry industry. In the 1920s, county extension agencies were established and housed in land-grant colleges and universities. By 1925, UD supplied a full-time poultry specialist, Hoke Palmer, for southern Delaware. His son, Dan, followed in his father's footsteps, an extension poultry specialist from 1985 to 1997.
Among the most influential persons in the industry, Williams writes, was Frank Gordy, a 1928 UD graduate, who served as director of the UD agricultural substation in Sussex County, later renamed the Research and Education Center. Called by Frank Perdue "a great moderator and pacifier," Gordy was responsible for promoting and implementing industry-wide cooperation, which was essential for the prosperity and success of the broiler business, eventually leading to the founding of the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc.
Gordy also was instrumental in beginning the Delmarva Chicken Festival.
"The poultry industry is the focus of the whole Delmarva peninsula," Williams pointed out. "As you drive around the area, you realize that not only are there hatcheries, feed mills and processing plants but that the crops of corn and soybeans are raised for the industry as well. Writing the book was an education for me on this important segment of Delaware history."
The book traces the history of the industry to 1998, and Williams touches on the current issues, such as the use of chicken manure as a fertilizer and the subsequent runoff into Delmarva's waterways. "This is an ongoing concern of the industry, and I felt that whatever I wrote in a definitive way would soon be outdated," he said.
However, as he concludes, the industry has overcome several obstacles in its history but keeps "moving ahead, solving old problems and meeting new challenges with innovative ideas and the application of the most advanced modern technology."
The book, edited by Elizabeth Reynolds, University Honors Program, is available in the University Bookstore.
-Sue Swyers Moncure
