THE BEGINNER'S FOES AND HIS FRIENDS 427 



Even many so-called " books " which do not offer a 

 " System " are more and more a snare to the Beginner. 

 Books which are essentially nothing but an advertising 

 circular for the stock of their writers flood the market, 

 and are offered as the Beginner's one hope at 75 cents 

 and one dollar a copy in paper covers. The best way 

 to judge the probable value of any book is to learn 

 something about the author : his knowledge, his charac- 

 ter, and his possession of the teaching faculty. On these 

 three points rests the possible value of informative books 

 of every sort. Ninety per cent of the books offered in 

 some fields of work, if not in all, would be thrown out 

 as not good enough, if subjected to the above test. 



But, suppose the man who sees both sides says: 

 " They do, however, give plenty of good advice to any 

 one who is competent to pick it out." (I have seen this 

 argument used.) 



This, I think, strikes at the real weak spot in all the 

 Systems : they have so much of " buncombe," so much 

 exaggeration, so much depreciation of all other methods, 

 that they simply make pi of the ideas of any novice, who 

 is, in the nature of things, easily confused. Possibly it 

 is true that some give more information for the money 

 than can be had in other ways for the same money. But 

 their defect is that the information is not all reliable. 

 And who is to pick out the good from the other kind for 

 the puzzled Beginner ? A question and answer book, of 

 which there are several, would be less likely to do him 

 harm ; because these, at least, try to keep within the ex- 

 perience of the great majority of poultrymen, in giving 

 their information. 



There is, perhaps, one place where a novice might 



