IN THE POULTRY YARD. 163 
ing why I could not, at this time, always supply as many eggs as 
were wanted, but promising to divide, pro rata, with all my cus- 
tomers. I assured them that in quality and freshness there would 
be no falling off, and ended by suggesting that, while there could 
be no substitute for Ferniebield eggs for table purposes, others might 
perhaps be used to good advantage for baking, ete. This plain 
statement held all my customers, but I made a firm resolution that 
if I lived I would have eggs as’ plentiful in December as in Apri, 
and my progress towards that very desirable consummation has 
not been inconsiderable. 
To save my customers as much trouble as possible, I procured a 
quantity of postal cards with my address printed thereon, and on 
the side appropriated to messages was an order in blank, as follows: 
Deliver ....-..--..- dozen eggs on .......2.22.------ to 
(NOME) ce cil Seon aa eae dels 
(Street and NO.) vc o2 80 eee eee es tx eave ose eee 
These cards were left with all our customers, so that if at any 
time they wanted eggs they could have them, and, as I had a box 
in the post-office and always called there, eggs could be had every 
morning by simply leaving a card at the post office early enough. 
I never sent the wagon to town without a few extra crates to 
supply this casual demand. 
The marketing of the surplus -chickens gave but little trouble. 
For the prime table chickens, which we sold during the fall and 
winter, we found customers enough amongst those who bought 
our eggs. From some, we had regular orders to deliver one or 
two pairs of dressed chickens every week, on certain days, and it 
did not take many such orders to clean out our entire stock. 
The old hens, we found it most profitable to sell in open 
market. ‘They brought a certain rate per pound, and were pretty 
sure sale. We could not sell them to our regular customers as 
dressed chickens, and neither would we sell them to those who 
came to us wanting laying hens for a poultry yard, and stating 
