PO UL TR r- CRAFT. 203 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Exhibiting Poultry. 



297. The Business Breeder Should Be an Exhibitor. The educa- 

 tional and advertising advantages which a breeder may get from poultry 

 shows, have been mentioned more than once in preceding pages. There is 

 another and a stronger reason why every business breeder of thoroughbred 

 fowls ought to do all that he ca,n do in reason to make a poultry show in his 

 section a success and a permanent thing. A live poultry show extends the 

 interest in poultry as few other agencies do increasing the demand for the 

 poultryman's goods, and thus affording a better market for what he has to 

 sell. In this way the show benefits him, though he shows and fails to win, 

 and even though he does not show at all. (If he never goes near the show, 

 he still is indirectly benefited by it). 



The breeders' duty on this point is, when the matter is looked at in the right 

 light, clear. Poultry associations are not money making affairs. Those who 

 promote them often have to go down in their own pockets to pay deficits. It 

 does not often happen that there is a balance on hand when the bills are paid. 

 With the simple fancier, maintaining a local poultry show is only a matter of 

 pride; with the breeder it is a matter of profit as well. While he ought not 

 to put himself in a position where the support of a show would fall too heavily 

 on him, he is much at fault if he allows the benefits, direct and indirect, which 

 a live show gives him, to be withdrawn or reduced for lack of his support. 

 Where the interest in poultry is already strong, the support of one breeder 

 does not often matter greatly ; but in the many sections where the pure bred 

 poultry industry is still in its infancy, the support of one breeder may mean 

 a great deal to a show. 



A fancier to whom poultry breeding is recreation, the competition of the 

 show room u sport," is not in any way under obligation to support shows 

 unless he chooses to make such obligation his. The breeder, as a business 

 man, owes it to himself, to those dependent on him, to his community, to 

 all interested in his success or affected by his failure, to use every means in 

 his power to make the business successful. Of aids to the breeders' success, 

 there are not many more efficient than a live nearby poultry show. 



298. General Care of Exhibition Stock. The general preparation of 

 birds bred specially for exhibition, begins from the time when they leave the 

 shell. The chicks are given every opportunity to make the best development 

 of which they are capable. Nothing that would hurt them is permitted; 



