WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN 
Twenty-five years ago there were in print hundreds of com- 
plete treatises on human diseases and the practice of medi- 
cine. Notwithstanding the size of the book-shelves or the high 
standing of the authorities, one might have read the entire 
medical library of that day and still have remained in ignor- 
ance of the fact that out-door life is a better cure for consump- 
tion than the contents of a drug store. The medical professor 
of 1885 may have gone prematurely to his grave because of 
ignorance of facts which are to-day the property of every in- 
telligent man. 
There are to-day on the book-shelves of agricultural colleges 
and public libraries, scores of complete works on “Poultry” 
and hundreds of minor writings on various phases of the in- 
dustry. Let the would-be poultryman master this entire col- 
lection of literature and he is still in ignorance of facts and 
principles, a knowledge of which in better developed indus- 
tries would be considered prime necessities for carrying on 
the business. 
As a concrete illustration of the above statement, I want to 
point to a young man, intelligent, enterprising, industrious, 
and a graduate of the best known agricultural college poultry 
course in the country. This lad invested some $18,000 of his 
own and his friends’ money in a poultry plant. The plant was 
built and the business conducted in accordance with the plans 
and principles of the recognized poultry authorities. To-day 
the young man is bravely facing the proposition of working 
on a salary in another business, to pay back the debts of 
honor resulting from his attempt to apply in practice the 
teaching of our agricultural colleges and our poultry book- 
shelves. . 
The experience just related did not prove disastrous from 
some single item of ignorance or oversight; the difficulty was 
that the cost of growing and marketing the product amounted 
to more than the receipts from its sale. This poultry farm, 
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