FIRST LES8ONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 155 



but as the amount they produce increases, the relative conditions change. Where at first they 

 put time in the selling of goods that otherwise would have been unoccupied, as their business 

 increases the time given to preparing and delivering for private families is time that could be 

 used to better advantage right in the poultry yard. 



It should be said, also, that the personality of the poultryman is of some importance in deciding 

 guch a question as this. Qualifications as a salesman count for as much in disposing of prod- 

 ucts as other qualifications do in producing them. As some people can produce chickens and 

 eggs cheaper than others, get better results for the same investment or work : so some can sell 

 better than others can work goods off quicker, and often get better prices as well. Like 

 several other matters we have considered during the year, the question of the best way to dis- 

 pose of produce finally resolves itself into a question of what a certain individual can do under 

 certain conditions, and the general advice I have given is what fits the case for most individuals 

 in the greatest number of conditions. 



Taking up now the special consideration of the different methods of selling poultry 

 products: 



Selling Eggs and Poultry to Private Customers. 



This means, as a rule, the delivery once or twice a week of an approximately uniform 

 quantity of eggs during the greater part of the year. Most families economize on eggs for a 

 few months when prices are highest; indulge in them more freely when prices are lowest, 

 but during the greater part of the year use the same number of dozens per week. The total 

 number of regular customers a poultryman can take, can never be much greater than the 

 number he can supply when eggs are scarce. 



A few families will use poultry once or twice a week, and a few such customers can take the 

 poultry product from quite a large plant if hatches happen to be so distributed through the 

 season that there is something to dress every week. The average family buys poultry about 

 once in two or three weeks, and while such orders help out, unless a route has a goodly pro- 

 portion of customers buying poultry once a week or oftener, it does not pay to supply it 

 with poultry, speaking now of a poultry and egg route. If other produce is sold the case 

 may be different. 



Selling to Large Consumers of Eggs and Poultry. 



Some private families trade would come under this heading, but under it I refer more par- 

 ticularly to hotel, boarding house, restaurant, and soda fountain trade. Opportunities to sell 

 at a premium to this class of trade are not generally as good as they were before the days of 

 modern cold storage methods. The more careful candling and grading of eggs by commission 

 houses has also had its influence on the situation. These and the fact that many such con- 

 sumers have arrangements with some poultryman for supplies of eggs, make it sometimes hard 

 to find customers of this class. Another thing that works against the poultryman looking for 

 this class of trade, is that so often poultrymen agree to furnish eggs, and within a few weeks 

 or months find themselves unable to keep to their agreement, and the customer Is left in the 

 lurch. 



If one happens to know or to get in touch with a good customer of this class, supplying this 

 trade is one of the most satisfactory ways of disposing of egg*, but I doubt whether it would 

 pay to spend much time looking for it. The prices obtained from this trade are sometimes as 

 good as the best from family trade, often a little lower, but as the goods are taken in larger 

 quantities the lower price may be actually better. 



Probably the best trade of this kind for eggs, and certainly the best for poultry, is at the 

 summer resort hotels in the north, and the winter resorts in the south. For practically all 

 sales direct to consumers poultry must be dressed. 



flarketing With One Middleman. 



A most satisfactory arrangement when it can be made, is to sell direct to retailers who sup- 

 ply a high class grocery or provision trade. There are many such in every large city, and 

 some in almost all towns, and as they can easily get fancy prices for fancy goods they are 



