16 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
composed of those who have’failed at everything else they have 
tried. 
“Poultry ?” they seem to say. “Oh yes, fowls and eggs and 
things! Jolly profitable business!” They buy a few fowls— 
any old fowls will do—provide some tumble-down houses—any 
old sheds will do—and purchase some cheap food—any old food 
will do. Having well and truly laid the foundations of failure, 
they begin systematically to neglect their farm. And when the 
final reckoning comes, as come it will, they blame the fowls, they 
blame the shelter, they blame the food, they blame everything and 
everyone but themselves. They will tell you that the poultry 
industry is played out, that they have tried it and that there is 
nothing in it—nothing at all. 
If this were the last word to be said about poultry there would 
be no need to write this book, but it is precisely because of the 
foolish things that have been said about fowls that another book 
is necessary. Poultry need no apology, nor am I an apologist. 
THE QUALITIES NECESSARY 
Whether one begins in a small way or a large way the same 
qualities are necessary. Given good fowls, good houses, and good 
food, the other needs are common-sense and business methods. 
I do not decry knowledge. On the contrary, one cannot have 
too much real knowledge unless where it runs to seed. I know 
some poultry-keepers who know much more than I do, but they 
spend too much of their time theorising, and too little in actual 
contact with their birds. An ounce of experience is worth cart- 
loads of theory. I bank on experience—the experience that has 
met difficulties and conquered them, the experience that has 
already borne fruit. Give me the successful poultry-farmer, the 
man who has made a living at it for “‘donkey’s years,” and I will 
give in return all the book knowledge, all the college certificates, 
all the long-winded treatises that ever were written. 
Not the man who has “kept” poultry, but the man who has 
made poultry keep him and put money in the bank—that is the 
