14 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR 



But if you find a number of successfully conducted 

 plants in the section, operating with practically the same 

 style and type, you are safer in following that lead than 

 in following the one. For instance, in Southern Califor- 

 nia by far the greater number of poultrymen use the long, 

 partially open-front laying house. Were you locating in 

 this section your best plan would be to adopt that style. 

 Of course you might come here and show us something 

 new, something that would put our efforts in the shade, 

 so to speak. But be sure you have enough money with 

 you to enable you to tear down and rebuild should your 

 innovation prove a failure. An experienced poultryman 

 could go into almost any poultry section and make im- 

 provements on the housing and methods commonly em- 

 ployed, but a beginner usually lays out for himself a 

 hard row to hoe when he attempts to learn the business 

 and to start an innovation at one and the same time. The 

 writer knows this to his cost — that is why his first two 

 years resulted in failure. The hens were not a failure — 

 they did remarkably well and showed a fine profit, but he 

 could not get enough hens to make the total profit pay 

 his living expenses, let alone a surplus for rainy days. 



This suggests another "don't" — don't be misled by re- 

 ports you see giving the results of a certain system or 

 method where a few hens were used to make the test. 

 If you make a success of the work you will want at least 

 one thousand and if you are ambitious, even moderately 

 so, two thousand will be the least number you will carry. 

 And it is absolutely foolhardy to base your ideas of the 

 business and its returns on multiplying by one or two 

 thousand the results per hen you can find in many reports 

 of experiments. 



