70 POULTRY SECRE3TS REVEALED. 



There is nothing in which the beginner is more likely to form a 

 wrong idea of value than in exhibition birds. I have sold a bird for 

 $75 and another, from the same hatch for $5. 



Why should there be such a wide difference in price? The be- 

 ginner cannot understand it. He thinks that one is too dear or the 

 other too cheap. 



The answer to this puzzle is that, not considering the breeder's 

 reputation or the value of his strain, every bird is judged by its own 

 individual value. 



Beginners are prone to think of birds as of dollars coming from 

 the mint — that each is as good as the next; or, admitting a difference, 

 he thinks it should be slight. 



It, is, true that "strain" has value. A bird bred by a man of acknowl- 

 edged standing is far more likely to show value than if bred by a 

 novice. Thus I would rather have a ten dollar White RCck bred by 

 U. R. Fishel than one apparently worth fifty, of whose antecedants I 

 knew nothing. The former would throw stock of a known value. The 

 latter would carry one immediately into the unknown ; and the chances 

 would be that such stock would have market value only — and poor 

 value at that. 



And here is a fact worth remembering. The beginner makes a 



f 

 mistake — usually a fatal mistake — in buying, at the outset, birds of 



exceptional quality. He does not know how to mate for the best 



results nor how to raise the youflgsters that come from the mating. 



Consequently he would be courting disaster to buy such a bird. 



None of the really great breeders will sell a bird of the highest 

 quality to an inexperienced man, unless he has a manager who knows 



