198 POULTR?Y-CRAFT. 
that their substance need not be repeated here. Those paragraphs should be 
re-read in connection with the following remarks, which are more specially 
pertinent to the new breeder as a seller of stock. 
The beginner, generally, is a poor judge of stock —though generally he does 
not thus think of himself. He can make broad distinctions between his best 
and his worst, but when it comes to accurately placing values on his mediocre 
stock, he is most apt to make mistakes, and in consequence make some bad 
blunders in filling orders. Mistakes due to ignorance are often aggravated by 
one’s carelessness — pricing or shipping stock without carefully examining it; 
sometimes catching birds in the dark, and cooping them almost without 
looking at them, — filling orders by the catch-as-catch-can method. If one is 
frank and straightforward with his customer, such blunders are easily rectified 
without injury to either party, and without ill-feeling on either side. 
Some breeders prefer to have their stock scored, and sell by the score. It 
is questionable whether there is any real advantage in this. Private scoring is 
so open to abuses that private scores are generally discredited. The full 
responsibility of filling orders educates a seller in values more quickly than 
anything else. 
One of the most serious mistakes of beginners is selling their best birds. 
A breeder — no matter how low down in the ranks — ought never to sell his 
best birds, unless he is sure he can replace as many as he needs of them for 
less money than these bring him. If he does not keep a little in advance of 
his customers, he cannot long hold their trade. 
Nearly all new breeders carry too many low class males through the 
winter. Males of the quality sold for crossing or grading rarely bring over 
$1.50 to $2 each. At such prices it does not pay to carry them until the 
beginning of the breeding season, when they will be in demand. Some old 
breeders say that it does not pay to winter a male that cannot be sold in the 
spring for $5. The new breeder cannot place his limit quite as high as that, 
for he cannot at any time get the prices the older breeders get; but if he will 
make it a rule to keep over no male which he cannot sell for $2.50 or $3, 
one of the worst leaks in his business will be stopped. Pullets of like inferior 
quality can be made to pay their way. 
An unknown breeder cannot expect to get the prices a breeder of wide 
reputation gets for stock of the same quality, as far as appearances show. 
At the same time, he ought not to make the mistake of cheapening his stock 
and himself by offering goods for less than the ordinary small breeder 
gets for similar stock. At first glance it would appear that if one cannot 
dispose of most of his eggs for hatching at $2 or $1.50 per sitting, it is better 
to sell for 75 cents or even 50 cents, than to eat them; or if he cannot get $3 
or $2 for birds well worth those prices, it is better to let them go at $1 for 
breeding, than at 50 cents as poultry. Every dime saved this way is a dollar 
lost in future sales. The beginner who has good stock should keep his prices 
at a fair medium. 
