THE ONE-DAY-OLD CHICK TRADE 89 



Poultry men of experience are all agreed that more little chicks 

 are killed by too early feeding than by delay in feeding, and all ad- 

 vise that the chick be not fed until it is at least two or three days 

 old. In fact, some people attribute the diarrhoea of little chicks to 

 too early feeding. If you overcrowd the chick's digestive system 

 before it is ready to digest, you will have bowel trouble, and you 

 know with that you will not have the chicks very long. If it is the 

 advice of men of experience, not to feed until at least the chick is 

 a couple of days old, then why cannot the bird be traveling during 

 that time, comfortably packed in a warm box? That chicks can be 

 safely shipped, has been successfully proved through all who have 

 ever attempted to do so, unless the chicks have very low vitality. 

 Thousands are being shipped all over California and the neighbor- 

 ing states, most successfully, where if eggs had been expressed in- 

 stead of chicks, many would have been broken en route, for they 

 would have been handled many times rougher than the baby 

 chicks. It would be a very hard-hearted expressman who would 

 throw a box of baby chicks across an express car as they some^ 

 times do when they handle eggs. The selling of day-old chicks 

 should be encouraged, especially among amateurs who often get so 

 discouraged by having poor hatches that they give up after their 

 first attempt. 



I have frequently had persons write to thank me for sending 

 the chicks, saying that the chicks arrived in such good condition 

 after three days' journey that they were better and stronger than 

 those hatched at the same time that had not taken the journey. One 

 man in particular, in Mexico, ordered fifty chicks and his success 

 was so great that the neighbors around ended by getting two thou- 

 sand last season, and this year others in the same neighborhood are 

 already sending for them by the thousand. The day-old chick busi- 

 ness has come to stay in America as well as in Egypt. 



I want to emphasize the necessity of caring for the chicks 

 immediately on arrival. More chicks are lost or injured in the 

 last stages of their journey than in all the rest of their trip 

 put together. 



Find out what train they are coming on, and meet them 

 if possible, or if a telephone is available, have the agent call 

 up on arrival. Make friends with the agent, and tell him that 

 you are getting chicks in and ask him not to pile the boxes, 

 but place them in the shade, but out of the draft. 



A good way to make friends with an agent is to go to him 

 for a money order when the chicks are bought, and this gives 

 you a fine chance to talk to him. 



