1 86 PO UL TR r- CRA FT. 



CHAPTER X 



Selling Poultry and Eggs. 



SELLING MARKET EGGS AND TABLE POULTRY. 



269. The Poultry Crop Does Not Move Itself. The saying : " Good 

 poultry sells itself," originated among the marketmen, the middlemen. It 

 may be true for dealers who display their wares daily in public places. It is 

 not always true for the ordinary producer: not without qualifications, and, 

 especially, not in the beginning. To sell to best advantage ; to dispose of 

 different products at just the right time ; to get the best possible returns for 

 everything produced, usually requires thought, foresight, and some energetic 

 hustling for custom. The instances where a poultry keeper's product, how- 

 ever small, is well sold with little effort on his part, are comparatively rare. 

 Even when his surplus is sold at the door, he needs to give some thought to 

 market conditions, and keep informed of fluctuations in prices ; for however 

 honest the buyer may be, the interests of buyer and seller in the same transac- 

 tion cannot be identical, and the buyer, as is natural and right, looks after 

 his own interest jirst. 



270. From Producer to Consumer. There are several ways of dis- 

 posing of goods. They may go from producer to consumer direct, at first 

 hand ; or, by longer and more devious channels, through many hands. The 

 farmers' wives sell their eggs and fowls to collectors going about the country 

 with wagons, or trade them for supplies at the grocery store or meat market, 

 or sell them to families in the nearest town. The keepers of a few dozen hens 

 sell their small surpluses to neighbors, or barter them at the stores. The 

 business poultryman sells direct to private families, or to hotels, or to 

 retailers who want choice stock ; or, if he has not succeeded in getting such 

 customers for his products, or finds it more to his interest to give all his time 

 to producing, and let others sell for him for some good poultrymen are very 

 poor salesmen ; and sometimes a commission house can handle a poultryman's 

 product more profitably for him than he can for himself, ships all his stuff 

 to a commission merchant. The producer has to settle for himself which way 

 of disposing of goods will pay him best. It is a question of local market con- 

 ditions, personal circumstances, and the kind of business done, whether 

 large or small, and what special combination of the different branches of 

 poultry culture has been made. 



