Proceedings of Seventeenth Normal Institute 210 



middlemen solely, when the farmers themselves are largely to 

 blame. 



The farmers shonld learn how to candle their eggs, and should 

 iearn how to handle their poultry. They should be required to 

 handle these products according to certain simple standards. The 

 farmers should be prepared for legislation of this nature as 

 early as possible, by their attention being brought to the present 

 neglect. 



SELLING POULTRY PRODUCTS 



It is very difficult to recommend one method of selling poultry 

 products to everyone. Personality is an exceedingly strong fac- 

 tor when it comes to representing the quality of eggs which one 

 has to sell, and of satisfying the consumer who receives those eggs. 

 This personal requirement is perhaps the thing which makes it 

 so necessary to have middlemen between the producers and the 

 consumers. Some producers are natural salesmen. These peo- 

 ple may safely be encouraged to go beyond the middlemen and 

 reach the retail store, the bakery, the resturant or hotel, direct. 

 They will be able to meet the complications and difficulties, and 

 will be able to absorb the profit which would be demanded by the 

 middleman without assuming over-balancing expenses Other 

 producers are just the reverse; they prefer to delve more thor- 

 oughly into the problems of production. They do not have the 

 ability to deal with customers. They are successful producers, 

 provided they can dispose of their products with a small amount 

 of trouble and delay, but they would be entirely unsuccessful if 

 they endeavored to eliminate, to any great extent, any of the mid- 

 dlemen hi the presently established system of distribution. It 

 is difficult to know just what to recommend to an audience of pro- 

 ducers. Each man has his own individual problems. He must 

 use good judgment and common sense in learning whether it will 

 pay him to sell his eggs to his local market or to ship them to a 

 more distant market. It may pay him to sell his poultry alive, 

 or it may pay him to dress it and sell it to a special consuming 

 trade. Ordinarily the fanner, who has less than 500 hens, cannot 

 afford to specialize in his marketing work. Smaller producers 

 especially need to combine wnth others in the same community, 

 so that together they can act as one large producer, and be 



