210 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



her is to become a more rabid detractor of the laying 

 hen as a money-maker. If this unhappy eggless state 

 continue through January and February and even into 

 March, as is sometimes the case, so much the worse 

 for the reputation of the hen. Yet, even then, if the 

 hens fed have been rigidly selected for vigor and 

 parentage, they will have reestablished themselves in 

 favor by May, and will, even after this date, v begin to 

 make the income more than meet any reasonable outgo. 

 But who is to know the real facts, if there be no ac- 

 curate records ? No one can deceive himself more as 

 to real facts than the poultryman who relies on guesses 

 or on memory rather than on actual figures. And, as 

 one writer cleverly puts it : " When we keep accounts, 

 we virtually pledge ourselves to make the fowls pay." 



The little story told by one young man who, six years 

 before this is written was a Beginner of Beginners, 

 is good proof of the value of records. He started, 

 not " at the bottom," but down below the bottom, 

 since he borrowed $5 wherewith to buy his first 

 pair of fowls. Under these circumstances, the birds 

 were in duty bound to pay their own way, and records 

 were a necessity. The pair and its descendants have 

 paid for several good poultry houses and their ac- 

 companying yards; for advertising, for feed, and for 

 part of a new dwelling for their owner; besides fur- 

 nishing something of a nest egg in the bank. The 

 owner has them at State Shows in five states, and 

 has made winnings under more than twenty different 

 judges. He works hard, and studies hard; as most of 

 those in any kind of business need to do in these strenu- 

 ous times if they would command success. 



