1 
IN THE POULTRY YARD. 161 
not want to sell—that I wanted to keep the breed to myself. 
When, therefore, they found that eggs which were fresh and cer- 
tainly from my yards, could be had in the stores, they felt jubilant 
over the supposed fact that they had outwitted me. Remember 
that these people had not seen my labels and circulars. I have 
since learned that quite a business was done in my eggs for hatch- 
ing purposes. Indeed, I had several orders from grocers which I 
filled without hesitation, and it always puzzled me to know why 
men should take a roundabout way of getting these eggs, when 
they could have come to me and got them without any trouble. 
But alas! the eggs never hatched! And then it became current 
report that I applied a certain chemical to the eggs to prevent their 
hatching, and there was the proof in the curious stain found on 
each egg!! It is often in business as in lovers’ walks; people 
prefer a crooked and roundabout road to a straight one. 
Some of my neighbors, however, took a different course. They 
came to me frankly, and said that they would like to get rid of their 
present stock of fowls, and get some from me if I would sell them 
eggs or fowls. I at once explained to them that my laying fowls— 
my best hens for practical purposes, and those that gave the eggs 
which I furnished to my customers—were cross-bred birds, and 
that they could not keep up the breed, as a breed, but that I was 
perfectly willing to let them have eggs every year to keep their 
yards up. I also explained that these eggs actually cost me double 
what my marketable eggs cost; that I had to raise or buy specially 
fine cockerels every year, and keep the breeding pens carefully at- 
tended to. ‘That my price for such eggs, eggs giving a first or 
second cross, was just double the market price, whatever that 
might be. 
Some of them saw the reasonableness of the system, and bought 
eggs from me quite freely. Some tried to breed again from the 
birds thus raised, but it is needless to say that their flocks did not 
show the same uniformity and excellence that they did the first 
year, and every succeding year they became worse. 
My sales of pure-bred fowls were very limited. To carry on ba 
successful business in this branch, requires careful management, 
