86 Hubbard's poultry secrets. 



the strongest points they have is that they show their birds in 

 the pink of condition ; that is that they are good fitters. Most 

 of their time is devoted to the study of faking and condition- 

 ing, and they give Httle thought and study to mating and 

 growing, on which points they are very weak. With these 

 two strong points in their favor (faking and conditioning,) 

 they are hard men for the amateur to defeat. Amateurs gen- 

 erally start showing at the early and late fall fairs, thinking 

 that their chances of winning would be better than they would 

 be at the large mid-winter shows. Here is where a great many 

 times the amateur gets defeated by the fakirs. 



I have known fakirs to follow the fall fairs with a string 

 of birds that they themselves did not breed, and clear a thou- 

 sand dollars on cash prizes. Two years ago I had a letter 

 from a poultryman of this type asking if I had three cockerels 

 and three pullets that were good type and size that I would 

 sell cheap and that I had culled out in the Black Orpingtons. 

 He said he didn't care if they had side sprigs, stubs, poor color 

 or high tails, so long as they had the size and type, as he wanted 

 them to show at the fall fairs. He was getting a team of over 

 a hundred birds of different breeds and expected to clean up 

 $1,200 on cash prizes. This man offered me $3.00 each for 

 six culls, but he insisted on having good type and size. I 

 never took the time to answer his letter, as I have always dis- 

 liked poultrymen who are trying to make reputations on birds 

 that they never breed. This man wanted to buy culls of me 

 and fake them to win. Poultrymen of this type are hurting 

 the Fancy Poultry business more than anything else. My 

 heart really aches for the amateurs that have to stand de- 

 feat by the hucksters and fakirs at the early fairs. 



Mate, feed and care for your birds as described in this book, 

 and you can defeat any huckster or fakir in the business. 



