XVIII 

 PROFIT AND LOSS 



Studying Losses, for Profit Crowding and Loss Over- 

 crowded Land " Relatively " Where will the Begin- 

 ner Lose ? The Mental Attitude Business Instinct 

 and Detail Work When Experts Disagree The 

 Handler the Chief Cause of Losses How Hard must 

 One Work ? Raising Chicks " to Perfection " Faulty 

 Figures Disillusion Making Income cover Season 



THE discussion of " profit and loss " usually shows a 

 proneness to dwell on the thought of " profit " ; and I 

 think this is especially the case when it comes to a ques- 

 tion of poultry. I prefer to discuss, rather, the losses. 

 I chance to know a gallant young poultryman not yet 

 out of high school who has been struggling for some 

 years with this painful kind of arithmetic. At intervals, 

 his mother attacks me with poignant inquiries as to 

 whether poultry ever really does pay. And, though I 

 have not the figures, I am given to understand that this 

 flock, into which the lad has put keen interest, enthusi- 

 asm, time, and money, far beyond the average, does not 

 pay. And this, despite the fact that the products are 

 largely bought to supply the home table. I gather that 

 the income has an ingrained habit of failing to meet ex- 

 penses, even though we ignore all mention of time, 

 work, etc., being paid for. 



Not long ago, there appeared in a New England pub- 

 lication (probably the most conservative one in the 

 United States, dealing especially with the poultry indus- 



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