8 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOK 



a cockerel, hatched from a brown egg that was laid by a hen 



that 3^011 know to have been a persistent layer?" "If so, at what 

 price?" The courteous inquiry and a stamp failed to bring a reply to 

 that question. A second letter also failed. 



I received samples of shell that indicated that the hen that laid the 

 egg had neither laid freely or long. I do not know if the Sage of 

 Wolfboro knew that or not although he claims that we can learn all 

 that we wish to know by observation without the aid of trap nests . 



In my serious writing I desire that my words be taken at their face 

 value. The personal equation as a factor in discussion is often given 

 undue ' weight. An error is none the less an error because 

 promulgated by those who command a high place in society, litera- 

 ture, politics, religion or business. A fart is a fact however 

 humble its source. Behind this little book is the authority of 

 a fairly good number of hens. To me they represent competent au- 

 thority when we question them one at a time and do not endeavor to 

 form our opinions when they are all talking at once. 



There is nothing in this book that can harm anyone, nothing that 

 need require much expenditure of time or money. Any time that 

 an Ideal user becomes tired of using the nests as traps he can use 

 them open and he will have as good open nests as I have ever seen. 



I have been told that I take this business too seriously. That de- 

 pends, of course, upon our point of view. A business that produces 

 so many "wrecks along the shore" cannot be taken too seriously. 

 These wrecks are not always due to the spending of too much money 

 in preparing for the voyage. Many of them are due to a lack of 

 knowledge of the laws of poultry navigation and the neglect to study 

 the charts that show the rocks and the shoals that menace, and the 

 beacon lights that guide or warn the poultry keeper. 



There is nothing more important in the conduct of any pursuit, for 

 business or pleasure, than intelligent thought. Nothing more harmful 

 than hysterical assumption. 



A man can keep hens, at a profit, for forty years and yet know very 

 little about hens in general, or even his own hens. 



Current discussion proves that men may read and criticize and yet 

 know very little of what they read or criticize. This can bo applied 

 to poultry keeping, the coal strike, or anything else that gets into print 

 and attracts attention. 



Scientific advertising, when it degenerates to scientific lying, may 

 arouse sincere condemnation, but many judge too hastily and allow 

 their own ignorance to mislead thorn woefully. AVhat may appear in- 

 credible to us is often a common-place truth to those who know. 



I have read exposes, written by apparently competent authority, that 

 bore the undeniable hall-mark of presumptuous ignorance. Because 



