POULTRYMLN NOT ENOUGH INTLRE5TLD. 155 



5. — Local poultry associations organized for instruction and information and exchange 

 of ideas on poultry topics. Of these there are only a very few in existence. A 

 few local associations organized primarily to hold shows also hold a number of 

 meetings of an educational character during the year. 

 6.— Specialty clubs — organizations of breeders of a particular breed or variety ; the 

 olrject of the organization being to advance the interest of that breed or variety. 

 These clubs generally draw membership from all parts of the country, though in a 

 few instances where interest in the breed or variety to which the club was devoted 

 was strong in some locality or section, the local members dominated the club. In 

 such oases the government of the club is likely to be very democratic, the members 

 generally attending the meetings and taking part in them, but the specialty club 

 usually is an organization of which the secretary is during the period of his incum- 

 bency the autocrat. 

 Most readers will agree with me that the above enumeration shows variety enough in organ- 

 ization. As to the numerical strength of these organizations, it varies from less than ten to 

 over a thousand. 



But with all these organizations it happens almost Invariably that when the occa^iion arises 

 for organized ettbrt on the part of poultrymen, either to advance or to protect their iuterest>, 

 there is no organization in the field so constituted that it can make its influence felt and its 

 power respected by legislatures and corporations. The estimates of the value of poultry prod- 

 ucts which make them outrank many crops commonly considered as of greater importance are 

 doubtless often exaggerated. But allowing a great deal for exaggeration, it still remains a fact 

 that the value of our poultry products ranges well into hundreds of millions of dollars annually^ 

 and far exceeds the value of aiticles whose producers by combined and persistent effort are 

 able to force a consideration of their interests on those responsible for state and national legis- 

 lation. Why is it? 



My answer is: — Because most poultrymen are too absorbed in the details of most intimate 

 concern to them to have more than an occasional passing thought for the larger matters 

 which should be of interest to all poultrymen; because poultry keeping being with mofet 

 poultry keepers a side issue, the individual poultryman's financial dependence upon it is not 

 great enough to strongly impel him to unite with others for the remedy of conditions that 

 need improving; and because poultry keeping as a hobby, fad, or recreation draws its recruits 

 largely from people of very modest means who have neither the money nor the inclination to 

 make it as conspicuous, and their wishes or interests as much regarded by the rest of the 

 people as some of the other forms of recreation. In fact, the average poultryman's dis- 

 position Is quiet and retiring. The push and rush and noise of strenuous and spectacular 

 sports do not draw him as do the quiet interest and occupation he finds in taking care of and 

 developing his fowls. He may be and often is somewhat interested in popular sports, but 

 rarely follows them with the zeal of their more pronounced devotees. A little of them will 

 do for him ; then back to the quiet, restful recreation he finds in poultry keeping. 



Now in poultry organizations, as in all associations, differences of opinion and of interest 

 promote jealousies, disagreements, and divisions. The average poultryman would rather keep 

 out of these or drop out of the association in which they arise, than stay in and endeavor to 

 work out a harmonious solution of the difliculty. The result Is that dissension in a poultry 

 oro-anization usually results in its collapse, or, at least, in greatly weakening it, when if the 

 members felt the importance to them of maintaining an organization dissensions would not 

 11 so often be allowed to develop to the breaking point. 



It may not be possible by presenting reasons for faults like this to persuade people to avoid 

 them but if such a statement of the causes of weakness in poultry organizations impresses 

 the reader as true or reasonable it may serve to make his attitude in such matters more favor- 

 able to adjustment. To return to our suiiject proper : 



These various poultry organizations all have claims on the attention of poultrymen when 

 they solicit membership. As a general rule: Every poultryman ought to be associated with 

 every organization which he can help, or which can be of help to him. But in the present 



