Aid to Chickens

All priorities do not go to big business. In Lithonia, Ga. (pop. 1,554) the four Davidson brothers, who call themselves "Dentists to American Hens," last week tested $20,000 worth of new machinery which they had got after a long fight with the Office of Production Management. They got the machines in the name of defense. Their purpose: to crush and screen the Stonemo Granite Grit which is the Davidson brothers' contribution to the health of the U.S. chicken.

The Davidsons got into the chicken-grit business twelve years ago when demand for paving granite from their quarry fell off. Since chickens have no teeth, they masticate their food in their gizzards, with the help of pebbles they swallow while feeding. The Davidsons claim that their grit is ideal because it contains sparkling particles of feldspar and mica which attract a hungry hen's eye.

From first-year sales of eight carloads, the Davidsons have built up a demand which this year will take 1,300 cars of their grit--enough for 39,000,000 chickens. Thanks to Claude Wickard's program for increased farm production, next year's demand looks even bigger. So the Davidsons, faced with the need for expansion, went to OPM and argued that they were in the defense business, too. OPM finally agreed.

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