POULTRY KEEPING AS AN INVESTMENT. 73 



per cent, or even more. Men with unproductive laud which tbcy are not able or qualified to 

 handle profitably often think that by forming some sort of partnership arrangement with a 

 poultry farmer they can get, ap income from the land. 



All these schemes presuppose a profit on poultry large enough to yield the owner of the land, 

 or the plant, better returns than he would be likely to get on any other investment ol his 

 money, or use of his laud. As far as I am able to learn, no arrangement of this kind has ever 

 been satisfactory — no investment in a poultry plant managed by another for a man who knew 

 nothing of the business, has ever been profitable, and no poultry plant established on a large 

 scale, as an investment, has ever been run at a profit. There may be Instances which con- 

 stitute exceptions to these statements, but I do not know of them. I do know of large plants 

 started on a large scale, which those interested in them claim are paying, but I know of no 

 such farm in which the statements that have been given out as proof establish the claims made. 

 1 do not know of a single lar^e poultry plant in profitable operation except such as have been 

 built up gradually from small beginnings by men who were trained poultrymen, most of them 

 acquiring their training on their own plants, and conducting them for some years at first on a 

 very small scale. 



The great obstacle to the development of plants of this character is the difliculty of securing 

 competent managers. As indicated in one of the sketches of successful poultrymen in the 

 preceding section of this chapter, men who have the executive and commercial ability required 

 for the successful management of large poultry plants can usually get larger returns at some- 

 thing ehe. Men who are equal only to the management of a "one man plant" almost always 

 prefer to work for themselves, or to take charge of plants on which they are not expected to 

 <lo the impossible. , 



It may be that the time will come when poultry [ilants will be satisfactory as an investment, 

 and when men with unoccupied land can hire it advantageously to poultrymen. It may be 

 that in the many failures of attempts to do these things we are gradually working out methods, 

 training men, and approaching conditions which will make these things possible, but as 1 see 

 the facts today I could not ofl'er any great encouragement to those who looked to poultry 

 culture as an investment for their funds, or a use of their land, unless they were competent 

 themselves to manage the venture. 



What Poultry Keeping Offers in Salaried Positions and Wages. 



The best paid salaried poultrymen are fanciers of much more than common ability as breed- 

 ers and exhibitors. They are few in number, and, as I can place them now in my mind, are 

 all employed by well to do fanciers who cannot personally manage their plants add attend to 

 their exhibits. By that I mean cannot for any reason, including more important demands as 

 well as inability. Not a few men of means in the fancy are men whose judgment and skill, 

 while not perhaps equal to that of those who devote all their attention to poultry, are still of 

 first rate quality. In fact it seems to be impossible for the first rate men in salaried- positions 

 to be satisfied in the employ of men who are not keen fanciers. In tlie>e positions men com- 

 mand salaries from about $1,000 a year to $1,500 year, with possibly one or two going above the 

 latter figure. In most ca.'-es men in these positions can earn something extra as judges or in 

 other ways in line with their opportunities. 



There is a considerable demand for managers of market poultry plants, generally at a much 

 lower range of salaries. The equivalent of $100 per month is about as high as these salaries 

 go. In a few instances higher salaries have been paid, but such engagements have rarely con- 

 tinued beyond the limit of the original contract. The average amount paid a man able to 

 handle a poultry plant of one or two man capacity is about $75 per mouth. Good men in 

 subordinate positions get $40 to $50 per month. 



The poultryman's opportunities, however, are not limited to employment on poultry farms. 

 There is an ever increasing demand for men having a practical knowledge of poultry culture, 

 for places in all lines of business dealing with poultrymen, and a good many men who have 

 not been able to make money with poultry in the ways they had originally planned, are finding 

 their acquirements useful in these collateral lines. Not only so, but to many who have made a 

 good deal of a success in poultry culture, these lines offer more profitable openings.- 



