5 3o POULTRY CULTURE 



advertising. The confidence which is the foundation of trade in this 

 line pertains to the personality of the breeder to such a degree that 

 the "good will" of a business is not transferable. It may be bought 

 and sold, but cannot be delivered. 



Advertising. To be profitable, advertising must be done system- 

 atically and with a view to direct results. In a line where com- 

 petition is keen and reputation of great importance, a newcomer 

 cannot reasonably expect that his advertising will bring consider- 

 able immediate returns ; but as what it does bring is all that he will 

 get from it, 1 he should not expend more in advertising than the 

 amount of stock he has to sell will justify, or than he can afford to 

 spend if the returns prove small. One who has little capital and 

 no experience in selling through advertising does well to advertise, 

 for a season, in a very modest way. At an expenditure of from two 

 dollars to five dollars per m6nth, according to the style of advertis- 

 ing and the circulation of the paper, he can buy in any of the 

 poultry papers space large enough for an announcement which 

 may bring him in a year several hundred dollars' worth of business. 

 It is usually best for a beginner to select a good paper in his own 

 territory, and to advertise only in that for the first season. On the 

 basis of that experience he should be able to decide whether to 

 go on with this paper on the same scale, or to increase, or to try 

 another paper. Poultry papers are usually the best mediums for 

 advertising poultry, but some of the general agricultural papers, 

 especially those of large circulation, are excellent mediums. News- 

 papers, except when they make a specialty of poultry advertising, 

 generally give poor returns to poultry advertisers. In writing adver- 

 tisements one should be plain and direct, stating just what he has 

 to sell, the price, and his address. In reading advertisements with 

 a view to buying, the apparently conflicting claims of advertisers 

 are often so confusing that the buyer in search of the best is at 

 a loss where to buy. The real difficulty here is not in the adver- 

 tising but in the attitude of the buyer. The stock of competing 

 breeders is usually about equal in quality. One breeder's stock may 

 be especially strong in one character, another's in another. As 



1 This is practically, not literally, correct. As poultry papers are often pre- 

 served for reference, some sales are made from dead advertisements. There is 

 also some cumulative value in advertising, but the amount of this in small, inter- 

 mittent advertising is practically negligible. 



