POULTR?Y-CRAFT. 195 
long as all poultry is sold for exactly what it is, and every transaction is open 
and above board. If one tries to work off poor stock at the price of good, 
or sells the same grade of stock at several prices — according to what buyers 
are willing to pay, trouble is sure to come of it. 
SELLING BREEDING STOCK AND EGGS FOR HATCHING. 
290. Advertising is the first step toward making sales of eggs or stock 
of pure bred poultry. Without advertising, only a few neighborhood sales 
can be made. Advertising in local newspapers does not often pay. The 
consensus ‘of opinion among successful advertisers of poultry, is that adver- 
tising in other than poultry papers does not pay, though sometimes advertise- 
ments in agricultural papers with good poultry departments, bring good 
returns. * 
flow Much to Spend in Advertising —is a perplexing question. It is 
sometimes said that an advertiser ought to be satisfied for some time if his 
sales from advertising are paying his advertising bills. Not many people, 
however, can long afford to pay out good money for advertising which does 
not result more substantially than that. If advertising is not bringing in sub- 
stantial returns, the advertiser who is in the business for a living must look 
for the reason, and find a remedy; for there is no way in which money can 
be thrown away faster, and with less hope of its ever coming back again, than 
in advertising wrong. 
The first thing for a man to do when placing his advertising on a business 
basis, is to decide how much he can afford to spend for advertising. If he 
has income from other sources, it might pay him to spend for advertising in 
the first season 25%, or even 50%, of what he estimates his produce would 
bring if fairly well sold; + but if he has no income other than from his poultry, 
he cannot afford to plan for an expenditure for advertising to exceed 10% of 
his most judicious estimate of sales resulting from advertising. The amount 
thus appropriated may seem small; it is the more needful that it be invested 
wisely. Slow and sure is as good a rule now as it was when he began to 
build, and to buy and breed stock. 
The next step is to find out what poultry papers have the best circulation 
*NoTE.— Some very notable exceptions to the statement that general advertising does 
not pay poultrymen, are worthy of mention. There are a few poultrymen who are both 
extensive breeders of and dealers in poultry, at popular prices, and these use the leading 
magazines, and make it pay. 
+ Nore.— Even conservative methods of ‘‘ counting chickens before they are hatched,” 
are apt to result in excessive estimates. An expenditure for advertising of 50 per cent of 
estimated possible sales, would be likely to turn out 100 per cent of the actual sales; but 
if the advertising appropriation had been made on the basis of too per cent of estimated 
receipts, the poultryman would come out away behind. 
