■ POULTKY-BKEEDIXG R EMUXERATIVE. I 77 



all competitors that he was quickly purchased, at the price of ;£'20, by a wealthy amateur ; who 

 naturally thought he was about to claim the honours of the year. But it happened that the bird in 

 question was only his breeder's second best, and the seller accordingly "came out" next month 

 with a bird which beat him easily, and was eventually sold at the high price of £"^0. 



One reason of our mentioning these things is to show from another point of view to that taken 

 in Chap. X. how unsatisfactory it will often be to buy a bird merely for the sake of winning with 

 him. Some definite object besides should always be sought, and it will often be found that birds 

 which really are the best for show are not what is required by the breeder for his particular needs. 



When the judgment cannot be depended upon, and patience will not hold out till the 

 necessary knowledge has been acquired, we can only advise that some one of character should be 

 applied to, who will give some personal guarantee that the birds he sells are mated as they should 

 be, and will produce souic proportion of good chickens. That proportion will of course vary with 

 the price ; all fanciers have in their own yards better and worse — some hens which hardly ever 

 breed a bad chicken, and some which perhaps only j'ield ten per cent, of good ones. That 

 there are many who will state honestly what their birds ma\- be expected to do, we know 

 from personal experience ourselves when we knew a great deal less than wc do now ; but we 

 may add that such honesty does not always meet its due return from the applicants. For instance, 

 we well remember a man once asking for a pen of Brahmas at a moderate price ; and we ofiered 

 him at an average of two guineas per bird a hocked cock then only a year and a half old, for 

 which we had ourselves given five guineas as a cockerel, and two hens going into their third laying 

 season, short of feather. From this identical pen we had bred as good chickens as we ever 

 wish to see ; and only sold them because it is a rule with us alwaj's to sell our hens while they 

 are still good for something, and thus keep our stock young ; and we had no others to suit this 

 cock. We received in reply a most insolent letter, saying the writer supposed we " did not 

 know he was aware that vulture-hocks were a disqualification," and hence had tried to 

 "impose upon him" with them! We have had milder cases of the same gratuitous and insulting 

 suspicion, simply because we have honestly specified all the faults our birds had ; and the 

 experience of others has been the same as our own. Honourable feeling is due on one side as 

 well as the other. 



Really good birds can almost always be sold at fan- prices at good shows, especially if one 

 of the entries wins a prize. Thus, if any exhibitor wins either of the first three prizes at 

 Birmingham, any cockerels of fair quality which he may have entered at a price not exceeding 

 ;^5 each in the major classes, are tolerably sure to be claimed. Highly-commended birds, also, 

 at first-rate shows, will generally realise ^5 per pen; bad stock we are not speaking of In 

 spite of the crowd of exhibitors, the number of reall}- skilled breeders in each class is so few, 

 that any one who has the taste, and will give the time, for the stndy of the subject, can. make his 

 mark in the poultry world ; and once known as a man who reall\- " has a strain," he can sell pretty 

 readily — until then it is difficult to do so except at very moderate prices, save for such individual 

 birds as are good enough to make their own merits known. It is a notorious fact, that some of 

 the most frequent winners are rarely applied to for fowls. It is known that they did not breed 

 their birds ; and the many who are in that secret prefer rather to resort to those carefully-bred 

 yards which they know to have sold the fowls, although owing to the very fact of such sale they 

 may be making just then less noise in the world. 



When a little solid reputation has in any way been established, it pays to advertise any 

 surplus stock. If the reputation is very high this is often not needed, but every egg and bird 

 may be engaged weeks in advance of the time they can be spared. Wc know of no pursuit in 

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