144 LL5SON5 IN POULTRY KEEPING — SECOND SERIES. 



As far as the liujer is concerned, he lakes the usual risks on this as on other points when 

 dealing with parties not known to him. There are times when, were he disposed to take the 

 matter to law, he might secure redress iji that way, but usually the amount involved is too 

 email to make that worth while, and the common sense of most poultrymen leads them to 

 charge such losses to experience, to avoid further dealings with those they find unsatisfactory, 

 keep buying in sample lots wherever they think they are most likely to get what they want, 

 and having found one or more breeders of the variety of their choice, whose stock and methods 

 suit them, to do business mostly with those breedeis. 



Fowls That Are Not as Represented. 



The number of fowls not up to descriptions sold each year i^ considerable when reckoned in 

 numbers, yet not so impressive when compared witli the whole numljer that changes haitd>. 



Transactions in fowls are on quite a different basis from transactions iu eggs. Generally 

 speaking it is not possible for any marked change to take place in the appearance or condition 

 of the fowl in the few hours, or, at most, few days, that intervene between its shipment liy the 

 seller and receipt by the customer. It may reasonably be assumed that in.-tances iu which 

 fowls do not reach the bu\er in approximately the condition they wei'e in when packed for 

 shipment aie exceptional. 



So if -I fowl, on receipt, is found to be unsatisfactory we say that either the seller gave too 

 little or the buyer expected too much, or that their ideas of what was wanted were so difl'erent 

 that the transaction was on both sides a mistake. I have known many instances where people 

 finding fault with the quality of the stock sent them had no occasion to find fault at all, the 

 -stock being just as represented, and the fault being in the buyer's ideas of what constituted 

 quality. 1 have heard breeders vigorously denounced for having shipped a customer high 

 priced stock decidedly inferior to some they had bought at bargain prices, when the conditions 

 as to quality were just tlie reverse of what the buyer supposed, and the trouble was that his 

 ideas were all wrong. When so much dissatisfaction of buyers is due to ignorance it is inevit- 

 able that there should be quite as many instances of people well satisfied with goods that are 

 not worth what they pay for them. In this is found the breeder's greatest temptation to take 

 chances in selling rather low grade fowls to people who do not appreciate quality, but want 

 fowls that represent considerable sums of money. 



The ethical and moral arguments that develop in considering this phase of the question are 

 too deep for me. I have never tried to come to any definite general conclusions on them. I 

 will here only briefly allude to a few of them that the reader may, perhaps, get some insight 

 into the considerations which influence men with no wish to do wrong to do things which to 

 many may seem very wrong. Let me give first, in illustration two points given to me by two 

 very successful poultry salesmen, one mentioning one point, the other the other point. 



A pouUryman whom I was once visiting, discussing the matter of values and prices of fowls 

 of different grades of quality, remarked that the controlling factor in fixing prices was not the 

 actual or relative quality of the birds, but the number of people who wanted to own expensive 

 fowls. In illustration of his point he told how one day a gentleman and lady drove to hisfarm 

 in a fine turnout and wanted to look at poultry. They were much pleased with the birds in 

 the firi-t yard shown them, and asked the price of a trio. He mentioned a figure which prob- 

 ably correctly expressed the value of the fowls, say |25. Having named the price of these, he 

 observed that the visitois lost interest in them. Being a shrewd man and experienced in the 

 wa} s of buyers of thoroughbred poultry, he concluded that the price mentioned was too low. 

 So he took thcin to a pen a little further along, and when they asked the price named a little 

 higlier figure; still further, and stopping before another pen, be priced what birds they wanted 

 from that lot at seventy-five dollars, and a sale was quickly made. "You see," said he, "they 

 didn't want fine fowls, they did not know or care anything about them. AVhat they wanted 

 was to have a few fowls that they could point out to their friends as having cost so much 

 money. The birds I sold them at f 75 were a little better than those I priced Ibem at Si'25, but 

 not mucli. But it would have been a crime to waste birds worth $75 on people who could not 

 apprcciiiic them, and only wanted to pay money for fowls." 



