without quite sufficient explanation and you are likely to get the very unenviable 

 reputation of being a disposer of "culls." This expression "culls" means eggs that are 

 badly soiled, or with large holes, nicked holes, or otherwise not quite right, and 

 many a possibly sincere friendship has been prematurely nipped in the bud by the 

 sending out of such specimens. 



Another important feature is in packing your specimens for shipment. This 

 article is not intended to be a primary school lesson, but it is a fact that altogether 

 too many of our experienced collectors insist upon sending their specimens in tin 

 boxes, or in wooden boxes that are too small or insufficiently brarerl. Never use 

 a tin box to ship eggs in, under any consideration, as it is very easily crushed in, and a 

 cigar box without proper bracing is just exactly as bad. Use either a good strong 

 wooden box, or a cigar box with a brace in each side and an upright in the center 

 to prevent the cover from being crushed in. Also use plenty of cotton in wrapping 

 the eggs, as the vibration caused by a sharp rap on the outside of the box has been the 

 ruin of many a good set. In other words, the old saying, "An ounce of prevention 

 is worth a pound of cure," applies to very few things so forcibly as it does to packing 

 eggs, and it is almost heartbreaking to think of the number of rare sets that have 

 been lost through the lack of just a few minutes time and effort before packing. 

 "But what has all that got to do with the ethics of exchange?" someone may remark. 

 Perhaps nothing, but it is nevertheless a fact that the impression made upon your 

 correspondent is an unpleasant one if he opens a box containing some long desired 

 set, only to find one or more of them smashed. Also, his opinion of you will descend at 

 a greatly increased ratio, more especially if it is your first correspondence together. 



The custom of extending credit in exchanging is another matter that requires 

 far more attention than is given it by many collectors who indulge in it. I have a 

 number of correspondents with whom I have used the credit system for years, with 

 the account seldom being balanced. Sometimes it will find me as the creditor and 

 sometimes my friend, but neither of us is worried a particle whichever way the 

 balance stands. At the same time a few little particulars should be very carefully ob- 

 served. A man may send you a hundred dollars worth of sets with the remark, 

 ''If you have not the sets I want now, you are fairly certain to balance the account 

 next season, or the season after. There's no hurry." And he means just what he says, 

 but at the same time, when next season has rolled by it pleases him to have you send 

 him a list of what sets you have for exchange. It hardly matters at all whether there 

 is anything on it that he wants, but what he does want and has every right to expect, 

 is to have you show that you have had the matter in mind and have done your best. 

 You may think to yourself that you know you have nothing he wants, so there is no use 

 in bothering him with your list. But that has nothing to do with it, as all he really 

 wants under the circumstances is just that little act of courtesy, for he knows perfectly 

 well that you will "try to do better next time." There have been more than a few 

 friendships severely strained by neglect which might so easily have been obviated. 



The credit system might easily occupy an entire article by itself, but let us 

 now turn to another very important feature in the great game of exchange that is 

 painfully neglected by a surprising number of our best collectors. This is the failure 

 to acknowledge the receipt of a box of specimens. There are one or two collectors 

 who send me some of the very best additions that come to my collection each year. 

 They always send their sets first and always let me set my own terms of exchange, 

 never making a question or remonstrance of any kind. Could any more nearly ideal 

 conditions exist? Yes, there could, because they do not acknowledge the sets that I 

 send them in return, unless it may be in the following year when possibly they ask 

 for another set of the same kind that shows a good variation. The reason for this 

 neglect is because they take it for granted that I know my specimens will be satis- 

 factory. However, apart from the satisfaction of knowing that our sets have arrived 

 in good condition, have we not all a little streak of conceit tucked away in us some- 

 where? Most certainly we have, and, after we have selected some especially rare 

 or handsome set that we have prepared with tiny holes, it surely tickles that streak of 

 conceit to have your correspondent write and tell us what a good job we made of it. 

 Why, even your hunting dog likes a couple of pats on the back and a word of praise 

 when he has done some especially clever piece of retrieving, and in return he will 

 almost work his legs off in trying to duplicate or better his performance. 



There are many other features that might be taken up, but I feel that the amount of 

 space allotted to me is rapidly nearing an end. In closing I should like to answer 

 a question that has been asked me more than once, and doubtless most of us have 

 been asked the same thing: "Your collection is beautiful, but you never sell any, 

 so what real good is it to you excepting to look at? Has it not been something of a 

 waste of time? A lover of the great outdoors would never ask such a question, so 

 our answer must be something rather more material, and my reply is this: "The game 

 of eggs and egg exchange has brought me most of the best friends that I have ever had, 

 or ever expect to have, and I believe that these friends have the same sincere feeling 

 toward me that I have for them. No. 1 consider it to have been very far from a 

 waste of time." 



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