98 LES50N5 IN POULTRY KEEPING — SECOND SERIES. 



gootl chicks at a cost away below wbat birds of the same quality could lie liought for at matur- 

 ity. This chance is attractive enough to nialie mofct of us risk the tot«l failure which comes to 

 the buyer of eggs about as often as a satisfactory hatch of chicks that turn out well. 



Buying young chickens is much like buying eggs except that the uncertainty of hatching is 

 eliminated as far as the existence of the nuniljer of chicks desired is concerned. The chicks 

 are st\,ipped before it begins to appear whether they would generally live and thrive, and the 

 results at the end of the season are likely to average only a little better than with eggs. That 

 liille, however, is an inducement to many to buy new hatched chicks rather than eggs. 



It is not possible to eliminate risks in starting, or — for that matter, at any stage of the pro- 

 ceedings. Whichever way one elects to liegin, or if he prefers to try them all, there is risk of 

 failure to succeed in any of the attempts. 



Nowhere is persistence more necessary than in efforts to get a start with stock of poultry cf 

 the kind one desirrs. In what follows I shall try by suggestions and advice to help each l)egin- 

 nor to avoid mistakes, but 1 cannot assure him of any way of certainly avoiding them. 1 madi* 

 the common mistake myself, of beginning with a number of varieties, and made no more tlKin 

 the average number of mistakes ill buying, yet it took me two to three seasons to get a good 

 start — just a stiirt with a few birds in most varieties, and ' some it took longer than that. 



In many cases the question as to beginning with eggs or slock is better answered by considei- 

 ing it with the question, 



Where to Buy. 



The greater number of novices in poultry culture seem lo think they can buy better stock, 

 whelber in birds or eggs by sending to some breeder at a distance for it. They see the faults — 

 some of Ihcm — in the stock of nearliy breeders whose yards they visit. The stock they donot 

 see they judge Ijy the breeder's advertisement and descriptive literature which rarely admit 

 that the stock has any serious faults, and his correspondence, which only occasionally refers to 

 the weak points in llie stock, and then minimizes faults more than u. disinterested person 

 would. Common sense might teach p\ en the novice in poultr}' transactions ta discount liberally 

 the salesman's enthusiastic I'ecommendations of his goods, tint apparently only exiierience in 

 buiiiig teaches this lesson (flVctively, and the average beginner in buving poultry will pass by 

 his neight>ors and cheerfully pay a little higher price, plus a hcav}- express charge, for stock no 

 better than he could get (dose b} . 



1 would not have any reader conclude that there is never an advantage in buying from a dis- 

 tance, for tliere often is a great ad\'antage in it, but when iiuying stock of ordinary grades, if 

 you have an opportunity to l)uy from a nearliy breeder whose stock } ou can inspect, within the 

 range of prices mentioned earlier in this lesson, the chances are that } ou will be better satisfied 

 in the end than if you send the same amount of money for the same number of birds lo a 

 breeder at a distance. After one begins to be able to judge of the quality of his stock, to know 

 where it is weak, and to know stmiething about the characteristics of difTerent slocks of tlie 

 same variety, it will be his best policy to buy what he needs where he can get what suits him 

 licst, but aconslderalile part of the present buying away from liome is of no benefit to anyone 

 but till' transportation companies. If every pinultry keeper who had rot a good reason for 

 sending away for breeding stock and eggs for hatching would buy at home, sellers generally 

 woul'd sell as much as they do now, and the business would be on a much better liasia. 



There is another and a strong reason for the novice buying his first slock in his own locality 

 if pos-ible. Fowl', like all kinds of live stock, and like human beings too, are with few excep- 

 tions affectjed by change of climate. Nearly all fowls are unfavorably affected for a lime — for 

 a few wtteks or months. After that some are like'ly to be better for the change, some w'orse, 

 others iii>o.t notably afTected either way. On the whole the period of acclimatization is an 

 unsettled. period, and the beginner will almost invariably do better lo work with accHmate<l 

 stock. ^> 



But not all beginners can buy stock at home. There are still many localities in which thor- 

 oughbred stock is rare. AVUhin a few years I have had a letter from a poultryman in a section 

 where a show, at which he was an exhibitor, had been held annually for several years, asking 

 for a description of 'White AVyandottes, one of our most popular varieties, and stating that 



