SUCCESS WITH POULTRX 



81 



Bummer resorts and those who v live, iii oommunities where 

 summer boarders are taken on the farms, have a good op- 

 portunity to secure customers for eggs. Frequently a largi 

 hotel, restaurant, sanitarium, hospital, and occasionally 

 large retail dealers .trill pay nearly or quite as much as 

 private families. This wholesale trade, however, is harder 

 to secure, but easier to serve. 



!Mlaking aoo4 for Breakage. 

 In order to adjust claims for breakage with the ex- 

 press companies, it will be found more satisfactory to have 

 tne purchaser pay the express charges, even if it should be 

 necessary — ^which usually is not — to have the express charges 

 deducted from the bill at the end of the month. The con- 

 sumer will then hold the express company responsible for 

 rough handling. The one who is on the spot and finds the 

 eggs broken can deal directly with the man who delivered 

 them much more easily and satisfactorily than through a 

 third party living at a distance. With strong, handy, con- 

 spicuously stenciled crates the breakage is not serious. If 

 possible, avoid shipping to points where the eggs must be 

 handled by two express companies. Bach company lays the 

 breakage to the other. 



System in Delivery. 



It is advisable to have a regular shipping day each 

 week. This eoonimizes labor by bunching the work of clean- 

 ing, packing and delivering at the express office. It also . 

 simplifies the keeping of accounts. Once a week delivery 

 will satisfy most customers. If all eggs are sold each week 

 and the shipment lasts the customer a week, it is plainly 

 possible that some of the eggs may be two weeks old when 

 the last eggs are eaten. If they have been kept in a proper 

 place, however, they should be perfectly satisfactory. By 

 shipping to certain customers, eggs can be delivered before 

 they are two days old, but usually this system is wholly 

 unnecessary and multiplies the work. 



Keep a Fixed Price. 



There are three ways of fixing the price. The first is 

 to agree upon a single price per dozen for the year and the 

 number of eggs to be delivered each week. The lattr clause 

 is necessary in order to insure fairness and not leave to 

 either party the temptation to take advantage of the other. 

 This might easily be done by a dishonest purchaser who 

 would sell eggs to outside parties when he could get more 

 than his contract price, or to the dishonest buyer who would 

 purchase elsewhere when he could get eggs" cheaper than the 

 contract price. 



The second plan is to decide upon a certain fixed per- 

 centage increase; for example, five to fifty per cent, to be 

 paid above the highest market quotation each week, as 

 quoted in the wholesale market. By this sliding scale there 

 will be less incentive for either party to the contract break- 

 ing faith. 



The third plan is to name a fixed price per dozen for 

 the different months, varying the prices a certain number of 

 cents, according to the demand which usually maintains at 

 that particular season. A good scale of -prioes on this basis, 

 which is being ,paid to a certain poultryman, is 25 cents 

 ^er dozen for April, May, June and July; 35 cents per dozen 

 for August and September; 40 cents per dozen for October 

 and November; 45 cents per dozen for December and Janu- 

 ary; 35 cents per dozen for February and March. By this 

 system there is an incentive for the customer to eat more 

 eggs when they are abundant and cheap and to find less 

 fault if he sliould not get his full supply when they are 



scarce and high. The production of eggs for each month of 

 the year varies with remarkable uniformity each year. In 

 supplying the trade where the quantity of eggs to be deliv- 

 ered each week is guaranteed, one must use his best skill 

 to increase the production during the months of scarcity, be- 

 cause on those months will depend to a large extent the size 

 of the trade which he can agree to serve during the year. 



A Neat Package Is a Grood Investment. 



An attractive shipping crate has much to do with fixing 

 the price of the product. The old saw, ' ' Appearances are 

 deceptive," seldom applies to attractive packages of farm 

 products. The person who will take the trouble to prepare 

 a neat package may be depended upon to be equally careful 

 and painstaking about the quality of the goods which he 

 puts into it. Buyers know this instinctively. A good prod- 

 uct is worthy of an attractive package. It is unfair to 

 good hens that lay good eggs to put their products in a 

 rickety shipping box. 



The box alone will be sufficient to put them in a class 

 among the ordinary, every-day store eggs, thus reducing 

 their selling price; therefore, a suitable package should 

 always be supplied. If a shipping-box that costs only a 

 few cents in money and a few hours in time will increase 

 the price of eggs even a fraction of a cent per dozen, 

 and the crates hold several dozen, not many shipments will 

 have to be made in order to pay for the package. Then 

 the satisfaction of knowing that a thing is done right is 

 worth much. 



Everyone who has had much experience in shipping poul- 

 try or eggs to market or for hatching, and who has used 

 attractive boxes and coops, neatly tagged and stenciled with 

 the name of the farm or the shipper and his address, can 

 ,give numerous instances of various orders received frdm 

 people who -have been attracted by the package at the 

 express office or the railroad station. A neat package also 

 insures more careful handling because it indicates fragile 

 contents. 



A Well-Stenciled Crate is a Ouarantee of Quality. 



It is the earmark of honesty. The man who has poor 

 products to sell keeps his name out of sight. Every prod- 

 uct that IS worthy of a reputation should be "suitably and 

 attractively stenciled. Attractiveness is not the only value 

 to a stencil. A conspicuous stencil mark will save the loss 

 of many crates in shipment, because they are less apt to 

 be overlooked and carried by the station or put off at the 

 wrong place. 



Hoine-Made ServiceaWe Crates. 



A good time to make the crates is on a rainy day. 

 But, like most "rainy-day jobs," it is -likely to be put off, 

 and therefore may never get donci A serviceable and at- 

 tractive crate that has withstood the test of time for ship- 

 ping eggs to a wholesale and private trade is here described. 

 These crates can be made at home by any person with 

 ordinary skill. , 



Common standard egg-erates are purchased at the stores 

 for from five to fifteen cents each, ipcluding the paper fillers. 

 Be particular to select crates which have solid ends. The 

 material for the sides, top and bottom should be first quality, 

 three-eights inch Georgia pine ceiling. For the bottoms of 

 the small crates, the sides of the purchased crates can be 

 used, if well nailed. If a thirty-dozen crate is to be made, 

 ■sue side of the purchased crate should be removed, and a 

 new side made, using the G-eargia pine ceiling. Then the 

 other side is removed and renewed; then the bottom, after 

 which the lid is made. This is held solid by cleats of the 



