16 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



man (who is sometimes a woman) sizes you up; some people 

 have a talent for this and seldom make a mistake; they know 

 just how to handle you. They stick to you like glue; they take 

 no chances of letting you get away. The salesman is usually 

 a man of pleasing ways, polished manners, and well equipped 

 for the position he occupies. He has been taught since child- 

 hood that the only thing worth while is the dollar, and all 

 his talents are used to get it. David Harum would have died 

 in the poor house if he had made many deals with some of 

 the real estate dealers I know. These men are engaged in a 

 business in which competition is keen. Competition forces 

 them to be conscienceless and heartless or to resign in 

 favor of others who are. This being the case, they will tell 

 you anything to sell land. They know that they are living 

 under the "Do-others-before-they-do-you" method and they 

 may as well "do" you as let the other dealer turn the trick. 



One real estate man, not knowing who I was or where I 

 came from, wanted to sell me some property for a poultry 

 farm which happened to be just a mile from where I had 

 lived for ten years. He showed me photographs of the place 

 and the description he gave me took my breath away. Accord- 

 ing to his representations, this land was the finest on earth; 

 it produced the finest vegetables and fruit, had the finest 

 climate in the world, and was, in fact, a paradise. You can 

 imagine my surprise. I knew this land to be about the poor- 

 est land in the State. He tried to sell it to me for $100 per 

 acre. I then told him I would sell him some land that I 

 owned myself, located within one mile of his place, for $10.00 

 an acre, and I also told him how poor the land was. He said 

 he did not care about buying any more land, and then pro- 

 ceeded in the calmest manner possible, and without even a 

 blush, to inform me that I did not realize the true value of 

 the location or the soil. He did it so cleverly that I have 



