io PO UL TR T- CRAFT. 



5. Is There Danger of Overdoing the Business? The United States 

 imports annually about one million dozens of eggs. This fact is often cited 

 to show that the business is in no danger of being overdone. It is assumed 

 that, as long as eggs are imported the domestic supply must be inadequate. 

 A comparison of the amount of imports with the total home product, shows 

 that this assumption is a fallacy. A million dozen is less than one-tenth of 

 one per cent of the (estimated) total annual egg crop. In effect the nation 

 produces all the poultry and eggs it uses, and consumes all it produces. Dur- 

 ing a considerable portion of each year the markets are glutted with stock of 

 inferior quality. The kind of poultry keeping which produces such stock is 

 already overdone. On the other hand, the demand for stock of superior 

 quality is in advance of the supply, and there is every reason to believe that 

 this condition will continue for a long time. A poultryman making a wise 

 choice of location with reference to this demand, and producing articles of the 

 grade it calls for, need have no fears of overstocking his market. In the trade 

 in breeding and exhibition stock, conditions are different. Successful sales 

 depend much on reputation and skillful advertising. Lacking these, breeders 

 often fail to sell really fine stock of varieties in good demand. 



6. Comparison of the Different Branches of Poultry Keeping. 



Attention has already been called to the advisability of combining branches 

 of the industry. As a matter of fact, poultry keepers doing an exclusive 

 business cannot keep to one branch. A living from poultry requires com- 

 binations, and some branches depend on others. The egg farmer who rears 

 his layers, as nearly all do, has large quantities of poultry to sell. The 

 broiler farmer who produces on his own plant the eggs for his incubators 

 and this is the only way to get reliable eggs in quantity has eggs to sell 

 during a part of the year. Besides, broiler raising is a business for a season. 

 It has never been made profitable on a large scale as an exclusive business. 

 In connection with an egg farm, or as winter employment for those whose 

 regular occupation leaves them idle in winter, it pays. Sales of eggs for 

 hatching are limited to a few months in the spring. The bulk of the trade in 

 breeding stock is done in the first three months of the year. Expenses keep 

 steadily on through every twelvemonth. So it comes about that, though one 

 may start business intending to confine himself to a single branch, he is 

 obliged to make a combination like that suggested in ^[4, in order to 

 handle his stock to best advantage and have a regular income. He may give 

 relatively more or less attention to the various branches than is suggested 

 there, but that combination, in some proportions, is the one to which a 

 poultry business, large or small, inevitably tends. 



7. Poultry Keeping as an Adjunct of Another Business. The 



greater number of those deriving a considerable income from poultry keeping 

 conduct it as an adjunct of another business, as farming, fruit growing, 



