RELATIONS OF DLMAND, QUALITY, AND PRICE. 145 



Said another man to me one clay : " The art of celling thoroughbred fowls to make a good 

 pro tit on them consists in finding out what a customer wants, and giving him a fowl that will 

 answer his requirements. I have customers who want fowls I could not use, and would have* 

 difficulty in disposing of to others, and they are willing to pay as much for them as for birds L 

 would consider good. Why should I take the position that only the points I and those who 

 think as I do prize make quality? It is demand that makes prices. Breeders often have to 

 breed to standards they do not like in order to sell their stock. I will sell a man anything [ 

 have that will suit him, and ask the highest price I think I can get. If I make a mistake, ami 

 the fowls do not suit b>m, I take them back and refund his money. If both the fowls and the 

 price suit him, why is not taut the value of the fowls? You may say he is satisfied because he 

 is ignorant of standard requirements. That is none of my business. I cannot put myself iit 

 the position of assuming that a customer is ignorant; I have to take h'im at his own estimate of 

 his knowledge of what he wants. How do I know but that he can make good use of birds 

 worthless to me, and not salable to others? I hold that when an order is filled to the customer'* 

 satisfaction it is filled right.*' * 



In such bald statements or in the extreme instances of their application we see things whicln 

 most of us unhesitatingly condemn as, at best, questionable. But the more we consider then* 

 the more we find that logically they lead us back to the question : "What makes the value of 

 fancy poultry?" and we find it difficult to place a boundary line between what is and what is; 

 not permissible. 



In practice the question of values seems to resolve itself into the question of suiting the 

 customer, while most of the friction that arises between buyers and oelleis is traceable to> 

 errors in what were really sincere efforts to please the customer. 



Selling Unsexed Fowls. 



Occasionally someone comes out and charges a breeder with having sold him " caponized '" 

 males or females. It is not likely that any breeder ever knowingly or intentionally did this. 

 It is not improbable that breeders have often shipped fowls that were sexually impotent, and* 

 that in some cases post mortem examination would show a condition of the reproductive 

 organs which was abnormal. Even In such a case it is not necessary to assume that the 

 abnormal condition of the parts results from an operation, for It may result from disease of 

 the organs which would not ordinarily be noticed; but in the case of a fowl in which the 

 poultry man had special interest might be discovered because an effort would be made to deter- 

 mine what was wrong. It would be the height of folly for a breeder to castrate a fowl he 

 intended to sell for breeding, or to sell a castrated fowl for that purpose. There is no authen- 

 tic instance of it known. 



Honesty the Best Policy. 



While there are many points upon which people may differ as to honesty of certain trans- 

 actions, I find no reason, as my acquaintance with poultrymen extends more and more, to- 

 change the opinion that, with rare exceptions, they intend to be honest. But if one had a 

 leaning the other way, he would soon find that, as a matter of business policy, he could not 

 afford to have many dissatisfied customers. Competition in the business is keen. It cost* 

 money in advertising to get a customer. It costs most breeders so much that if they bad to> 

 depend on their new customers they would soon go out of business. After the breeder has 

 once secured a customer he hopes to have him continue with him, and if he does not know- 

 he soon finds that while advertising may bring customers and continue to interest them, what 

 holds the customer and brings further orders is satisfactory treatment. 



