CHAPTER XIX 



MARKETING POULTRY PRODUCTS 



Poultry keepers and middlemen. To dispose of his produce with 

 the largest possible profit to himself is the aim of every poultry- 

 keeper. It is commonly assumed that this is best accomplished by 

 dispensing with middlemen and selling direct to the consumer, 

 and that every time a middleman is eliminated from the number 

 concerned in the collection and distribution of eggs and poultry, 

 the producer is benefited. Under some circumstances this may 

 be true ; considering the interests of the producer in particular 

 instances, it will often appear that he makes much larger profits 

 by selling direct to consumers than by selling through middlemen. 

 Broader comparisons of results, however, indicate that study of 

 such special instances may be misleading. It has been shown that, 

 in general, a poultry business is limited to what one man can 

 manage with the (usually) very limited help he can rely upon. 

 When a man conducting such a business undertakes to sell direct 

 to consumers, he often finds that it costs him more to sell his 

 produce than it does the middlemen, and that he can make more 

 money by giving all his time to production and selling his products 

 through the ordinary channels, — he, of course, taking every advan- 

 tage that he can without himself retailing his goods. A poultry 

 keeper whose opportunities or facilities for production are limited 

 may find it to his advantage, and perhaps necessary, to sell his 

 produce direct to consumers, but one who is in a position to extend 

 productive operations to the limit of his ability to handle them will 

 almost invariably make more money by giving as much as possible 

 of his time to production and intrusting the selling of his produce 

 to reliable persons whose specialty is selling. This is a natural 

 division of labor brought about by the conditions of production 

 and distribution and by differences in men. The best producers 

 of poultry are rarely good salesmen. In the most thriving poul- 

 try districts producers generally devote themselves to production, 



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