SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 595 



seven chickens. When about four months of age I sold the seven chickens 

 for the enormous sum of $7.00. Not so bad, was it, when you take: into 

 consideration 'that I had only purchased eight eggs? 



That was my start in the fancy poultry business. Then 1 got Barred 

 Plymouth Rocks, and T have never regretted it. For ten years I raised 

 fancy chickens as a side issue, and finally branched out, left my tradd, 

 and started a poultry and fruit farm, and expect to continue same while 

 I live. I find the fancy part of it most profitable, and can point you to 

 hundreds, yes, thousands, of people in the middle west who are making 

 good money out of it today. I can point you to five married women, all 

 of them having families, and all living in the same county, that aco 

 making from $300 to $650 a year out of the fancy poultry business. Each 

 one breeds but one kind of chickens and makes a specialty of that breed. 

 How do they do it, you ask? This is how they do. Each one has 

 selected a dilTerent breed of the pure bred fowls. Of course they were to 

 quite a little expense to get a start. Each tried to get the best she coul^ 

 procure. They selected such breeds as were profitable and in great 

 demand. The first year they did not make a great amount of money, 

 having raised only from forty to 150 chickens each. The first year 

 I did not score to exceed forty birds for any one of them. The next year 

 they had more scored, and for the last three years they have each been 

 getting from 50 to 140 scored. Along at first they sold birds from 50 

 cents to $1.00 each, but each year they have been climbing up the larMer, 

 step by step, until they now get from $10 to $50 a dozen, depending npoH 

 what the fowls score. One lady last year had an order for $40 worth of 

 birds waiting to be scored the last of November. One of the other ladies 

 told me this fall that she had sold over $300 worth of eggs for sitting 

 this year. These are facts, my good friends, and I can name each one 

 of these parties. 



While there is fairly good money in a mongrel flock, there is three ' 

 or four times the money in a well bred flock. Of course it takes more 

 money to start with to get pure bred birds, but once you have the start, 

 and manage it right, it will pay its way. You can not get something 

 for nothing. 



How can they dispose of their birds? This is the problem that con- 

 fronts the new beginner. Advertise them, you say. Holy horrors, 

 that costs money, too. Certainly. But that takes off the profit? Oh, 

 no, my dear sir; that's a part of the business. This is only a small part 

 of he expense. By judicious advertising you can sell a good bird for $3 

 to $5, and occasionally one for $10, while if you did not advertise you 

 would be lucky to get $1. Of course, you could not afford to advertise just 

 one bird, but the expense would not amount to more than 5 to 25 cents 

 per bird where you have a lot of them. There are plenty of good poultry 

 and farm 'papers, and a small advertisement in two or three of these 

 papers will sell all you have, and you will be kicking yourself, or want 

 somebody else to do it for you, for not raising more. 



Don't be foolish and go headlong into the business and try to get 

 every variety there is, nor run after the new varieties, but select just one 

 good variety, mate the birds properly, and give the young stock the 



