1905.] THOROUGHBRED POULTRY VERSUS MONGRELS. 1 59 



value. An advertisement in a neighboring agricultural or 

 poultry paper will help find new customers and, if the man or 

 woman possesses the true fancier's spirit, it may be the start- 

 ing point of a good-sized and growing fancy poultry plant. 



It will take considerable correspondence and office work 

 to sell fancy poultry for the show or breeding pen, but, if the 

 best birds you can spare each year are sold at good prices, it 

 will help to increase your profits and be worth the labor. 



The ideal plant from a money-making point of view, 

 whether a side issue on a farm or run as an exclusive poultry 

 plant, is a combination of market and fancy poultry. One 

 should not carry on all branches of the market industry, but 

 should specialize on one or two, and combine with this the 

 thoroughbred branch. On our own farm we raise several 

 thousand ducks for market each year, and several thousand 

 thoroughbred chickens. At broiler weight we market all the 

 chickens we know will not make good breeders or show birds, 

 and in the fall we market all that do not develop as well as 

 they promised to earlier in the season. This leaves us about 

 2,000 selected birds to sell each year, and we find no difficulty 

 in disposing of them. 



The most important thing in starting any branch of flie 

 poultry industry is to approach it seriously. Treat it as a busi- 

 ness proposition and consider carefully each step you take. 

 If you have means and not sufficient knowledge hire the knowl- 

 edge. We would not close our eyes and jump blindly into any 

 ordinary business, yet that is exactly what many have done in 

 the poultry business. Let us all remember that we must 

 creep before we can walk, and start in a small way. If we will 

 thoroughly learn each step and then work the business up to 

 the point where our bump of precaution bids us stop, we are 

 sure to be successful. 



If every beginner wall use these precautions, the poultry 

 industry would show no larger percentage of failures than does 

 any other business, and the people will more fully realize the 

 exact truth, that the raising of thoroughbred poultry for eggs, 

 market, and breeding purposes is a sound and respectable 

 business, and one that annually produces more dollars than 

 any other product of our farms. 



