366 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



agreement made) at a set price, which is not very high. 

 While not the best way, this is a feasible way in which a 

 man with a farm but without spare capital can get a 

 start with really high-class stock. Men who know their 

 business say that they would rather have a fair bird from 

 good stock than one of exceptionally good appearance 

 which had not good blood lines behind it. It is on these 

 blood lines that the skilled fancier relies to get him the 

 accumulative forces which will insure him continuancy 

 in producing the best. This continuancy is the one as- 

 set of greatest value to the fancier. 



All other statements notwithstanding, it is not always 

 safe to rely on getting good stock from any fancier 

 merely because he ranks as " a good breeder." " Buy 

 of a man who has a reputation for having good stock 

 and you are safe," is very common advice to the novice ; 

 but this is far from being the real story. There are 

 men in the country with the reputation of breeding good 

 stock going back twenty-five years or more, some of 

 them judges, who are rated by those who know them 

 best as "good fellows to keep watch of." Some who 

 have the widest reputation as winners in best shows, and 

 some who crow loudest in the public prints, will fleece 

 every man who does not know what he wants. This, of 

 course, usually means the Beginner. I could mention 

 half a dozen whose advertisements are known from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific who are not trusted by the 

 breeders at large who know them. They have good 

 stock, but not all their stock is good, nor are their busi- 

 ness methods above suspicion. Another point is that 

 the Beginner, not having been educated up to the price 

 which the best stock brings, asks for the best at a price 



