THE QUESTION OF 1'UOIITS 1U9 



to tell what is '-good stock." Stock is not good, better, or best, merely 

 because we own it, or because it appears to be good to our unskilled 

 judgment. 



One peculiar feature of thi- peculiar business is thai experience can 

 sometimes sell a bird for several dollars that is north about eight 

 cents per pound while inexperience is often obliged to send to market 

 really valuable breeding cockerels; and he often fails to market those 

 early enough. 



It is one thing to produce, another thing to sell at a profit. The ef- 

 fect of competition, while healthful in the main, is to block our attempt-, 

 to sell our goods at a profit. The shoemaker will agitate the question 

 of shorter days and higher wages and then try his best to beat down 

 the price when he buys a pair of shoes. 



It is the same with all products. Complex and unreasonable human 

 natures make all problems of profit in business complex and difficult of 

 solution . 



The demand for poultry and eggs is. however, greater than the sup- 

 ply ; hence there is plenty of room and reward for industry, intelligence 

 and capital in the business. 



There is an immense difference between the methods of different suc- 

 cessful poultry keepers. I have iu mind two cases that illustrate the 

 point. A — keeps from loot) to I ."><)<> hens (mongrels) and one farm 

 hand cares for them. They are fed cheap feed and every thing about the 

 plant is cheap, yet a profit lias been made for many years. A — is an 

 exceptional man. What measure of success he obtains is not due to his 

 choice of stock and methods of maintaining it but in spite of them. "His 

 own personal aptitude for making m nicy is responsible for his profits. 

 Being a modest man he thinks, of course, that they are due to his "prac- 

 tical" methods. 



B — keeps 200 or ;>00 pure-blood birds in nice houses, uses the best of 

 every thing in feeds and appliances, sells breeding stock and eggs for 

 hatching, and makes a good profit. lie could not succeed by A — 's 

 methods and A — could not succeed by his: yet each will tacitly con- 

 demn the other's system and recommend his own. 



The whole matter of success lies in the men themselves and not in 

 their peculiar methods or pet theories. 



Sometimes a successful man in explaining the '-secret" of his success 

 will wander into romance and tell a pleasing story that is largely made 

 up of the things that he has often dreamed of doing, but rarely has 

 done. 



Successful men have their dreams, but they do not let the dreams in- 

 terfere with present duties. 



When we arbitrarily dictate to the poultry-beginner, tell him that he 

 must do this and must not do that, there is danger of giving him advice 



