96 LE.5SON5 IN POULTRY KEEPING — 5LCOND iERIL.S. 



LESSON IX. 



Stocking the Poultry Plant. 



IN THE last lesson the different varieties of poultry were ile.«crilied, and their adaptability 

 to difl'erent conditions and purposes discussed. In this lesson we take up a numlicr 

 of questions in which beginners, wherever located, or whatever tlieir oiijects, are about 

 equally interested. 



How Many Breeds or Varieties Should a Poultryman Keep? 



Those who have been long in the bus-iness are generally agreed that oiie variety is l)etter 

 than more — is enough. Even those who keep several or many varieties' are quite unaniaiou>ly 

 of the opinion that it is better to start with a single variety, and to limit oneself to that ojie 

 variety. It docs not necessarily follow from their taking this position with reference to what 

 it is best for one beginning now to do, that it is also better for one who has several or 

 numerous varieties of fowls to drop all but one. 



Granted that it might have been better not to keep more than one variety, it still is true 

 that when the thing that was not best has been done, conditions are sometimes created which 

 make it bfitter policy tb keep on as one has begun than to change to the more approved situ- 

 ation. 



A l)reeder of several varieties who has established a trade in each, cannot drop any of them 

 without letting go trade which it cost him something to secure, and he cannot afford to let suc'h 

 trade go unless he is reasonably sure that increased sales fiom the variety he retains will 

 compensate for the loss of trade which follows the dropping of the others. .The beginner's 

 situation is different. He can take the one variety of his choice, and concentrate all his efforts 

 on securing a fine stock of that variety, and building up a trade in it. It he is successful in 

 the first, and h;is ordinary good business ability, he can hardly fail to succeed ultimately in the 

 second. In the earlier days of poultry culture it may sometimes have been good policy to start 

 w-itih several breeds; as to that, opinions differ. But of late years trade tends more and more 

 to go to " specialists " — that is, to breeders making a specialty of a single variety, and in the 

 stronger competition for exbiliition honors, and for business that exists today, the man of 

 stveralbreeds is more apt-to be crowded aside by competitors, and neglected by purcha-ei s. 

 He finds it harder to win a satisfactory share of the prizes where in each variety he keeps he 

 has to contend with men of equal or greater skill in breeding who are applying to that one 

 variety as much skill as he has to divide among tsvo, three, or a half a dozen, and to add to 

 his difficulties, buyers generally prefer to buy of the man who keeps but one breed. The 

 reasons some have for doing this are fallacious, but it is the condition of which the breeder 

 must take account. He can adjust his business to conditions much more readily than he can 

 change conditions to fit his ideas of how business shoulil be done. 



Beginners often think it advisable to keep two varieties of different classes and types to meet 

 different demands or serve different purposes. The most common cases are to keep large fowls 

 for table purposes and small fowls for la\ing; and to keep fowls of the Asiatic or American 

 breeds for winter layers, and Leghorns for summer layers. Usually they find that results do 



