PO UL TR T- CRAF7\ 81 



CHAPTER VI. 



Choosing a Variety. Buying Stock. 



99. One Variety or More. "For best results, keep but one variety," 

 say most experienced poultrymen. Few practice what they preach. It is 

 not surprising, then, that their example has more weight than their precept. 

 For most of those who keep fowls, one variety is enough. For many who 

 want an income from poultry, one variety is not enough. "Circumstances 

 alter cases." The general rule should be: A flock (large or small) should 

 not contain fowls of different varieties. The application of this rule would 

 settle the question for most poultry keepers. For the others, a good rule is : 

 As many varieties should be kept as are needed to supply, to the limit of the 

 capacity of a plant, the paying demand for its special products. One may 

 be enough. Even in an extreme case, it is not probable that more than three 

 or four will be needed. 



An error market poultrymen ought to avoid is : keeping two or three 

 varieties or breeds which, practically, fill the same bill. It does not often 

 happen that more than one variety is needed for an exclusive market poultry 

 plant. A market poultryman who sells some stock for breeding purposes 

 does not always find the demand for stock of his breeding, of one variety, 

 large enough to take all his surplus. By using two or more varieties, he can 

 get the same results in the market branch of his business, and, being in a 

 position to supply a more varied demand, may sell a larger proportion of his 

 stock at the prices obtained for breeders. Thus his increased sales of breeding 

 stock would justify the expense of maintaining breeding stocks of several 

 varieties. 



Except in the rare event of his having made a national reputation with a 

 popular variety, a breeder-fancier needs several varieties. Even as a beginner, 

 it is better that he should keep a varied stock. The results of his matings for 

 the first few years are, if good, apt to be happy chances. Having several 

 varieties, he will hardly fail to do fairly well with at least one of them. 

 When a breeder's matings all disappoint him, his season's work is a total 

 failure. Besides this, the beginner's position as a seller of good stock, is like 

 that of the market poultryman who uses several varieties to better advantage 

 than one. It would on the face of the matter seem wisest for the breeder to 

 begin with one variety, adding others as he found demand for them, and as 

 his skill in breeding increased ; but, as a matter of fact, it takes less skill to 

 breed several varieties to a fair degree of excellence than to breed one variety 

 to very high excellence. 



