Sonoma County Biography
Coulson Poultry and Stock Food Company
Past master in their line of commercial activity are the president and the secretary of the Coulson Poultry and Stock Food Company, an organization identified with the business development of Petaluma and transacting a large trade that extends throughout the entire state and even into Nevada, Washington and Oregon. The factory affords ample facilities for the manufacture and handling of poultry food and supplies, which is a specialty of the firm. The ingredients used in the work are bought in immense quantities and at the lowest possible prices, which gives the company an advantage in disposing of the product at reasonable rats. The company acts as Pacific coast agents for Armour's poultry meat and blood meals, also as agent for Conkey's celebrated poultry and stock remedies and the Jubilee incubators and brooders. The advantages of the Jubilee incubators are described to include a correct underlying principle, a faultless construction, a superior finish and an unapproached record. The Jubilee sectional hot-water in-door brooders are constructed in two, three and four sections, to accommodate fifty chicks to each section, and are made for indoor use in brooder houses. The colony outdoor brooders are constructed in one size only, for outdoor use. The Coulson Company have also a fireless brooder involving a new principle, that of heat accumulators under which the chicks are hovered and in which they are free from the danger of smothering, no lamps being used nor any other kind of artificial heat.
The present company was organized in February of 1905, with H. C. Scrutton as president and manager, and S. C. Leonard as secretary, and with a capital stock of $100,000, all paid in. From fifteen to twenty men are employed, four of them being traveling salesmen. Shipments are made in large quantities over the railroad, while the excellent shipping facilities offered by water make it possible to successfully compete with dealers in other western cities. The superiority of their poultry foods is recognized by customers, and in consequence the demand is constantly increasing. The people of Petaluma are justly proud of the factory, and its growing trade is appreciated by residents of the home town. The large brick building used as a factory is owned by the company, together with the expensive equipment of machinery necessary for mixing. The product is rich in protein, correctly mixed, accurately proportioned, and contains nothing that is not absolutely wholesome and the best of its kind. In poultry feeds the owners of the factory believe that the “best is the cheapest,” and that many of the heavy losses sustained by chicken-raisers are due to the purchase of cheap, impure feeds. The principal products are Coulson's improved egg food, Coulson's egg food, Coulson's special dry chick feed, Coulson's growing chick feed, Coulson's scratching feed, Coulson's No. 5 condition powder for horses, Coulson's No. 1 condition powder for little chicks and Coulson's No. 3 condition powder for laying hens.
The improved egg food is highly concentrated food, containing a large percentage of protein and egg-producing material, due to the ingredients that make up its composition. The food being concentrated is fed in smaller quantities than the old-fashioned feeds, while it is claimed that the flocks are kept in healthier condition, because their digestion is not overtaxed by having to eat a very large amount of food in order to produce the necessary eggs. A sack of ninety pounds makes a meal for twelve hundred and fifty hens. A little more than two pounds is sufficient for a hen for one month. The egg food is similar to the improved egg food, but contains less meat meal, blood meal and condition powders. The dry chick feed is adapted to young chicks and contains tender seeds, cracked grains, cut oat meal, dried meat, fine particles of fresh cut bone, charcoal and burnt bone. Every ingredient is selected with a view to its soundness and purity.
The secretary of the company, S. C. Leonard, was born in Bradford county, Pa., in 1865, and at the age of five years accompanied the family to New York state, where he was given the advantages of the excellent grammar-schools and the free academy at Elmira. At the age of fifteen years he moved to Big Flats, Chemung county, N. Y., and for three years helped with the work on the home farm, after which he studied telegraphy on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. At the age of twenty-one he was appointed station agent at Big Flats, and for fifteen years he remained in the same position, resigning in 1901. In 1904 he removed to California, where he has since been a resident of Petaluma and an associate in the business with which he is now connected.
The president of the company, H. C. Scrutton, was born in London, England, in 1872. In 1902 he came to California, settling in Sonoma county, where he bought and conducted a chicken ranch. In the year 1909 he sold the ranch in order to devote his entire attention to the rapidly growing business at Petaluma. With his partner he is giving the closest attention to the details of the business, and its rapid development is due to their indefatigable energy and sagacious judgment.
History of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
May 2008
Pages 499-500
Sonoma County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
Copyright © 1996-2011; This Web page is sponsored by Supporters on behalf of the California portion of The USGenWeb Project by The Administrative Team of the CAGW. Although believed to be correct as presented, if you note any corrections, changes, additions, or find that any links provided on this page are not functioning properly please contact the Archive Coordinator for prompt attention to the matter.