Gulyás Mihály: A baromfi-feldolgozás és a baromfikonzerv-gyártás története Orosházán (A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 12. Békéscsaba-Orosháza, 1987)
MIHÁLY GULYÁS History of poultry-proceeding and the production of poultry conserves in Orosháza (Proceeding since 1880, production of conserves since 1963) The first poultry-proceeding plant in Hungary was established in Nagykőrös in 1870. Not much later slaughtering and transport of geese started in Orosháza too. This more than loo years old industrial activity we can already consider traditional has been completed by the production of different kitchen-ready poultry products and poultry-conserves during the last 20 years. The products of the plant are well-known not only on the inland market, but also abroad. The plant has —and still does —also played an important part in the life of the town. Former it has given work to several hundreds, now it employs almost one thousand people. The plant and the importance of this industry is worth getting acquainted with, the beginnings and its loo-years history. This is the aim of the rich material collected in this volume. We can consider it a lucky circumstance that about 40 years age the Ministry of Agriculture ordered a young veterinarian to the plant for steady control, who was also interested in the former life of the plant. He then still was able to speak to the former owners of the plant. He also could collect data from those workers who had started to work here at the end of last century or at the beginning of this century in the different poultry-proceeding plants and -shops. This book also enlightens the life of the other poultry-proceeding plants in Hungary, as their upcoming and development, their technologies of production, their machinery and the circumstances of the people working there were similar in many aspects. So this book introduces not only the poultry-proceeding of Orosháza, but it describes and introduces the whole Hungarian poultryindustry. Before describing the former poultry-proceeding, the author introduces the poultry-breeding of Orosháza and surrounding. He investigates the economical and social background of poultry-keeping and proceeding. He concludes, that the boom in Orosháza poultry-keeping, and so the beginning increase in breeding in wider range, fell into the 60-s, 70-s of last century. Then production in farm-economies increased and became more widespread. By the Orosházians' field-enriching activities the number of farms increased not only on the border of the town itself, but also outside it, where there was possibility for keeping geese in great number. According to earliest data already in 1885 they transported 347 tons of poultry from Orosháza railway station. This remarkable result is connected with the development of the economical and social structure as well as the development of the production structures. More and more is the statement 160
