Poultry Problems and Profits. 



431 



risk. "One bad egg will ruin the reputation gained by selling a 

 thousand good ones." The poultryman who is able to deliver, 

 regularly and continuously, goods of guaranteed superiority, will 

 experience no trouble in securing and holding good customers. 

 One Missouri poultry dealer writes as follows: 



"For the coming season, I have a private customer in Chi- 

 cago who pays me one cent advance over highest Chicago market, 

 eggs to be delivered at express office at my home town. This will 

 be six or seven cents per dozen better than local market." 



As a general proposition it is the best plan to sell poultry and 

 eggs to the dealer, provided he is willing to recognize quality, for 

 much of the complaint that is heard against him is unjust. There 

 are two sides to the question. First, a price that is uniform, is 

 unfair. Second, when a dealer pays for fresh eggs and good 

 poultry, he is entitled to what he pays for. As to the first propo- 

 sition, it may be said that there is no more reason why all the 

 poultry should be bought at a price that is uniform — the same 

 price for the scrawniest and the fattest — than that all hogs, sheep, 

 or cattle should sell alike on the market. Such a system may mean 



INTERIOR VIEW OF HOUSE, SHOWING ROOSTS SUSPENDED ON A LEVEL. 



(See page 418). 



the average worth of all the poultry and the actual worth of none. 

 It does not offer proper encouragement to the farmer with good 

 chickens. In many parts of Missouri, most of the poultry and 

 eggs is sold right at the farm, where drivers of poultry wagons 

 receive and pay for it, the uniform price for the day being fixed 

 before the driver starts out on his route. The result is that chick- 

 ens, good and bad, are crowded into the same coops, and eggs, 

 fresh and stale, placed in the same cases. So that the farmer who 

 sells inferior goods gets just as much credit — and just as much 

 cash — as his neighbor who supplies the best. Some buyers pursue 

 a different policy, paying a premium for fresh, clean eggs of good 

 color and size, and for choice, well-fatted birds, but as yet the 

 practice is not as common as it should become. Shippers and deal- 

 ers should stimulate the raising of good poultry. One extensive 

 Missouri dealer is doing this by furnishing pure bred cockerels to 



