276 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



accounts of profits and losses; but in the 

 course of a year that unconsidered leak 

 might easily amount to twenty-five per 

 cent, of all we had. When we essayed to put 

 the business on a commercial footing, and on 

 a much magnified scale, plainly those losses 

 had to be looked after closely. They couldn't 

 be guarded against save by staying right on 

 the job, watching for disease, keeping up the 

 yards, scoring and sorting out the likeliest 

 breeders, keeping individual records of per- 

 formance. There was a lot to be learned be- 

 fore we would be able to do this well. 



We should have to work hard for at least 

 two years without any net income, while we 

 were getting the business firmly on its feet. 

 Had we been situated close to a good consum- 

 ing market for our surplus eggs and broilers, 

 and able to reach consumers directly, the case 

 would have been somewhat better; but Fay- 

 etteville, like every other country town I've 

 ever known anything about, isn't a profitable 

 market for a little jag of farm surplus. Too 

 many farmers are going in every day with 

 little jags of something or other, accepting 

 whatever the middlemen are offering. Our 

 surplus wasn't yet great enough so that we 



