RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK"' : ' 



the artificial method, giving my own experience in the business 

 for thirty years, in detail. In doing this, the most approved 

 buildings will be (both for brooding and breeding) described 

 in full, together with cuts of the egg in different stages of 

 incubation, and the living and dead germ compared, and how 

 to distinguish each, plainly told. Just here let me say that a 

 great deal of skepticism prevailed among people in general and 

 farmers in particular. They did not believe in the success of 

 artificial poultry growing, or, indeed, of growing it in large 

 numbers in any other way. As a proof of their assertions they 

 will tell you that more than three-fourths of the people who 

 attempt the business on a large scale make a complete failure 

 of it. And it is the plain truth. There are few communities 

 in this country, large as it is, but that, at some time in the 

 past, has had a bogus incubator within its limits, or a good one 

 that has been badly managed. The unfortunate, experience of 

 these men has spread for miles in all directions. There is but 

 one verdict. The man is never condemned. The system is so 

 denounced that a strong prejudice exis'ts against all incubators, 

 which it is difficult to combat. Every town, too, has had its 

 representative poultry man who has erected extensive buildings 

 with a view to growing poultry on a large scale in the natural 

 way. He, too, has met with disaster. Failure has attended 

 his efforts, and the community is still more embittered against 

 the whole thing, and the emphatic "It can't be done," meets 

 you on every side. 



Now, there is a cause for. all this. Where is it? In the 

 men. They do not comply with the conditions of success, and 

 failure is the result. We will endeavor to give some of the 

 reasons why: Nearly three-fourths of these people come from 

 the city. Now, city people have unfortunately imbibed the 

 impression that the necessary amount of brains and executive 

 ability required to successfully run a mercantile, manufactur- 

 ing or broker's business in the city is largely in excess of that 

 required to run a successful poultry or agricultural ranch in 

 the country. 



Raising Poultry in the Country 



Men who have impoverished themselves by repeated fail- 

 ures in the city come out to retrieve their fortune's' by raising 

 poultry in the country. They visit your place and see thou- 

 sands of young ducklings of all sizes and ages, each one vieirig 

 with the other as to which will consume the most food. They 

 are completely carried away with the sight. They question 

 you closely in regard to the profit derived from the business, 

 and then openly avow their intention of doing the same thing 



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