LACK OF JUDGMENT AND STABILITY. 59 



things left undone for lack of time there are plenty of such things on the average poultry 

 plant or take a little needed recreation. 



There are a great many old poultrymen who have their work so well systematized that it 

 would be hard to plan such a saving in time as this. The old hand's shortcomings in such 

 matters are generally limited to occasional tasks. His regular work as a rule he has, as the 

 saying is, down fine. But nearly all beginners, and most of those who, after a few years hart! 

 work, are still creeping along on the ragged edge of failure, could save much more than a half 

 an hour each day. 



The old method of learning a trade, when a boy worked as an apprentice for a number of 

 years, and then as a journeyman traveled about, working a short time in each of a number of 

 places, is the ideal way of learning poultry keeping. I sometimes think that we will never 

 know just what can be done with poultry until we have among poultrymen a considerable num- 

 ber of bright intelligent men who have grown up in the business, and thus learned it more 

 thoroughly than most of those who pick it up later in life ever can know it. When that time 

 conies we may look to see successful poultry plants on a very large, scale and until then I do 

 not think we shall. 



I have already referred incidentally to the aptitude for the work of caring for live stock as a 

 factor in successful poultry keeping. If we attempt to analyze this faculty we find that it con- 

 fists mostly of good judgment as to the condition and needs of each animal; and if we try to 

 learn the history, or trace the development of this faculty in individuals, we find that it is a 

 natural talent developed by experience and training. Where the talent is conspicuous, the per- 

 son possessing it will be quite successful from the first with almost any kind of live stock, and 

 in time will become notably successful. Where it is of less degree, experience and training 

 in inverse ratio to the amount of talent are required to make one proficient in the manage- 

 ment of livestock. Where this faculty or talent is wholly wanting, I do not think it possible 

 for the person so deficient to ever attain any respectable measure of success. His occasional 

 successes will, as a rule, be purely accidental. The proportion of persons thus deficient is 

 probably small or appears so because few of them attempt to go into stock breeding. Yet r 

 first and last, a great many such persons do engage in poultry keeping, and if they are of per- 

 severing disposition, peg away at it for a long time before they come to a realization of their 

 unfilness for the work. 



A very common idea, which seems to me wholly wrong, is that love of animals Is an impor- 

 tant factor in ability to manage them well. 



A great many prospective poultry keepers mention that as the first and most important of 

 their qualifications for making a success with poultry. 



As far as I have been able to analyze the conditions of success in handling live stock, a Iove t 

 or strong liking for animals, and good judgment in caring for them are two entirely independ- 

 ent attributes. They are frequently found existing together, and sometimes one helps the 

 other; but an excess of affection for animals is apt to bias one's judgment as to their needs. 

 The cultivation of the calculating spirit in considering animals is quite essential in one who 

 keeps them for profit, and this spirit is likely to develop a very cold blooded matter-of-fact 

 brand of the article called love. 



A strain of fickleness in a person's character is likely to develop in various ways when he 

 engages in poultry keeping, and nearly always in ways detrimental to the success of his busi- 

 ness in poultry. 



Perhaps the most noteworthy illustration of this is found in the case of persons who are con- 

 tinually changing breeds of fowls, never keeping any one long enough to know what it is or 

 what they can do with it. It takes several 3 ears of careful handling and close observation to 

 show one just what his stock is, and if he is breeding for fancy points generally several years 

 more are required to get the stock on such footing that he is at all sure of results from it. 



This being the case, it is as clearly impossible for one who changes breeds every year or two 

 to make any perceptible progress as it was for the frog in the well which, in the catch problem 

 in the old mental arithmetics, was said to crawl up three feet every day, and slip back four feet 

 every night. 



