896 
THE R.URA.E HEW-YORKER 
July 4, 
“ A CHICKEN-MAN’S HONOR.” 
What Should He Do ? Mark the Egg*. 
R. COSGROVE’S letter on “A 
Chicken Man’s Honor” is interest¬ 
ing. His problem lias been faced 
by most of us who sell hatching eggs. 
The only fair and square and sure course 
it seems to me is this: Mark every egg 
in some individual manner. Then no¬ 
tify your customer that you will make 
good every infertile egg that he returns 
to you. The mark must be something 
that a dishonest customer cannot copy, 
or he will send you back his own vir¬ 
gin eggs with your mark on them. But 
there are many ways of marking eggs so 
that nobody can fool you. w. E. KEYES. 
Massachusetts. 
Infertile Eggs Returned. 
I N passing opinion on your article “A 
Chicken Man’s Honor,” page 790. 
you state “None hatched; all infer¬ 
tile.” If the eggs were infertile they 
should not have been incubated longer 
than seven or eight days and returned to 
seller. The seller cannot guarantee any 
hatch, all he can do is to guarantee the 
fertility which he should do. He is cer¬ 
tainly responsible for the eggs until they 
reach the customer and no matter how 
the loss, should there be any, should make 
it right. He should make a statement 
that eggs not fertile should be returned 
before 10 days (he can put some small 
mark of recognition on shell). He then 
has evidence of the state eggs reached 
customer if they are returned to him, at 
least in most cases it would be so, but 
how can a man be responsible for eggs 
that are put in an ice box or an oven or 
anything else that does no better for 20 
days and do not hatch. fred carter. 
New York. 
Duplicate the Egg*. 
L ET me suggest to Geo. A. Cosgrove that 
the fair thing to do with a customer 
who complains of a bad hatch, is that 
you stand ready to duplicate every egg 
returned to you,' transportation prepaid. 
Any honest customer will be glad to pay 
the express both ways if you are willing 
to make good every bad egg. That is to 
say, if the hatch comes perilously near 
being a complete failure. 
Vermont. j. h. livixgston. 
Make Good and Say Nothing. 
I THINK I am well qualified to answer 
this from both sides. I have shipped 
this season some 20,000 eggs for 
hatching to about 1,000 customers, and 
have had complaint of every egg infer¬ 
tile when I know positively that the eggs 
left my place highly fertile, as we are 
hatching from every mating the season 
through in a mammoth incubator, and 
know every week just how the eggs from 
every mating are running as to fertility 
and hatchability. 
My practise is to duplicate the ship¬ 
ment without query, as I prefer to retain 
the customer’s good will even if my eggs 
were not at fault. So many things can 
happen to fertile eggs after they leave 
my hands that the customer may be 
right; the eggs appear infertile to him 
and I hope bv duplication to keep the 
customer for the future and also to do 
my part in seeing that he gets some¬ 
thing for his money. Of course there are 
a few who deliberately swindle and ask 
for a duplicate setting when they had 
good results from the first, but I figure 
that such cases are so few as not to cut 
any figure in the year’s business. I have 
investigated several complaints of every 
egg infertile and invariably found that 
the customer was a novice, and had set 
the eggs under a hen in the regular hen¬ 
house in the nest where she was accus¬ 
tomed to lay, and no wonder the eggs did 
not hatch. I have told the customer what 
the trouble was and how to get a good 
hatch, and to prove my statement have 
made him a present of a second setting, 
and invariably have received a good tes¬ 
timonial as the result. 
From the buyer’s side I occasionally 
purchase eggs for hatching, and at this 
moment have hens sitting on eggs that 
have cost me $10, $15 and $30 per set¬ 
ting respectively. I certainly expect to 
get my money’s worth out of the invest¬ 
ment, and if I do not get a 50 per cent, 
hatch from each setting I shall make com¬ 
plaint, as my customers make to me 
when they do not get a fair hatch. I sell 
hatching eggs to my customers expecting 
them to get a two-thirds hatch or better, 
and when they don’t get it I invite them 
to let me know. I invariably make good 
to them with additional eggs. I calcu¬ 
late on a certain percentage of such 
claims every season. f. m. Prescott. 
New Jersey. 
A Buyer’s Experience. 
1 AM keeping S. C. White Leghorns, 
but my little boy wanted a few chicks 
“different from mother’s,” so I sent 
for 30 Mottled Ancona eggs for him. 
When the eggs arrived I was not pleased 
with them; they were not uniform in 
size, color or shape. However, I placed 
them in the incubator with some of my 
own eggs. At the first test (five days) 15 
tested out infertile. At second (15 days) 
only six were left in the incubator and 
even these failed to hatch, so my little 
boy, to his great disappointment, did not 
get a single chick. It could not have 
been the fault of the incubator as my 
own eggs hatched 70 per cent. We wrote 
to the seller stating these facts, and he 
had not even the courtesy or business 
sense to answer our letter. 
I offer a plan which I think is a solu¬ 
tion, although perhaps older and wiser 
breeders than I may say it is not feasi¬ 
ble. It is this: Every breeder should 
stamp with a small indelible stamp his 
name and address (or name only) on 
every egg he sends out for hatching, en¬ 
closing with them a card stating he will 
replace infertile eggs only if returned to 
him. Should a customer claim that the 
eggs are all “infertile,” he must ship 
them back to the seller, who should pay 
all transportation charges if the eggs are 
as stated. In this way the seller can 
test the eggs himself and make sure the 
buyer has not mistaken (?) dead germs 
for infertile eggs. This seems to me to 
be fair to both sides. If the buyer should 
be so unfortunate as to get “all infertile” 
eggs, it would be very little trouble for 
him to replace the eggs in the case they 
were sent out in and ship back to the 
seller on the sixth day. The seller would, 
or should, be perfectly willing to replace 
such eggs and not have the uncomfortable 
feeling that he probably has been cheated. 
Of course everyone expects a certain per¬ 
centage of infertility, differing according 
to the earliness or lateness of the sea¬ 
son. EDITII GRATIAS. 
Pennsylvania. 
A TALK ABOUT BOSTON MILK. 
FEW truths spoken by Dr. Blodgett 
of Boston before the Medical Asso¬ 
ciation a short time since are well 
worth noting. Pure milk, fresh and 
promptly delivered, is what the consumer 
wants; it should be and usually is what 
the middleman or contractor wishes to 
handle; it also should be and often is 
what the farmer wishes to produce. The 
farmer ought to understand that the con¬ 
sumer has a right to demand pure milk 
at a reasonable price which would proper¬ 
ly pay the producer for his pains and 
trouble in producing this article under 
good conditions, which will satisfy the 
user. As the consumer loses confidence 
in the quality of his milk supply, his 
consumption decreases. Thus the farm¬ 
er’s business is injured as a whole by 
dirty milk from a few. The non-increase 
of milk consumption during the past five 
years, according to growth of population, 
is largely due to people’s loss of confi¬ 
dence in the milk supply. 
This loss of confidence has been caused 
by stories that milk four days old is de¬ 
livered in Boston, also that milk from 
diseased cows and in some cases filthy 
barns is delivered, and also stories of 
epidemics due to use of milk from im¬ 
proper sources or where proper care and 
precautions were not used. For some of 
these complaints the farmers have been 
responsible, for others the contractor has 
been responsible, for still others mere 
rumor or some so-called investigation has 
been responsible. I believe I am safe 
in saying that if by some miracle, every¬ 
body in this city should suddenly become 
sure of receiving pure milk not over 24 
hours old, the consumption of milk would 
increase enormously. 
I believe the farmer who produces dirty 
milk or knows where such milk is pro¬ 
duced and does not report the same, is I 
hurting his own business, and also the I 
business of others. Also the contractor 
who does not see that his milk is properly j 
handled and promptly delivered, is injur- ; 
ing his own business and that of others. 
So important are these facts that certain 
associations of producers have been 
formed, and no producer can belong j 
whose product does not come up to the 
required standard of purity. It is be¬ 
lieved this policy will win back the con¬ 
fidence of consumers and increased de¬ 
mand for this product will follow. 
The farmer’s position is this: He is 
in most cases paid an inadequate price 
to produce first-class milk. Ilis living 
depends on this product; lie has too often 
found he gets the same price for a poor 
product as a good one; that is, no pre¬ 
mium for improved quality. Every six 
months a dispute arises as to price to be 
paid for the coming six months. This 
lasts perhaps a month before he knows 
what he will get, a price below cost of 
producing a reasonable product. What 
can he do? In many cases all his prop¬ 
erty is the cows and equipment for milk 
production, no cash capital to try other 
lines, so he worries along for six months 
or more hoping conditions will change 
and price be better. Under these condi¬ 
tions. who can blame him for producing 
as cheap a product as possible? Can 
you blame him for not seeing the justice 
of some inspector’s demand for improve¬ 
ment in conditions? At present less than 
one per cent, of the milk sold in Boston 
is a certified product. The rest is just 
milk, some produced under sanitary con- 
jditions, some not, all mixed together in 
' many cases and sold as milk. 
There seems nothing is gained by the 
farmer who produces a first-class article, 
except the self satisfaction that he is 
doing right; he generally receives no 
other reward. Under these conditions a 
man’s conscience must be superior to the 
ordinary man’s if he continues trying to 
supply a good article when his neighbor 
gets just as much for supplying a poor 
one. Further, the conscientious man is 
the more likely of the two to discontinue 
business and try something else, which 
does not improve the percentage in favor 
of the better supply; it works the other 
way. Almost any other commodity in 
the world is sold on its merits, different 
grades, different prices. Milk is sold 
mostly as one grade yet it varies greatly. 
In the city today you receive some of 
one man’s, to-morrow some others, or two 
or three mixed as it happens, you do 
not receive your supply right along from 
the same dairy, unless in exceptional 
cases, yet at the month’s end you pay the 
same price for all and the grade of supply 
may have varied greatly. Many pro¬ 
ducers do not know how to produce clean 
milk economically. Also, few physicians, 
boards of health or even bacteriologists, 
know as much about practical production 
of milk as many farmers do. Can the 
farmer be blamed for not obeying many 
of the foolish rules issued by this class? 
As the rule fault is found, but no prac¬ 
tical suggestions are offered to remedy 
it. 
The .State inspector says unless some 
plan is found to encourage production in 
nearby New England territory, the pres¬ 
ent policy of extending the distance for 
obtaining the necessary amount must 
continue, and no improvement of supply 
is likely to result from the extension 
policy. There should be three grades of 
milk sold in Boston: First, pasteurized 
or cooked milk, which is perfectly good 
for cooking, can be used for drinking, and 
is sold frankly as milk not suitable to be 
used when raw, but which is rendered 
harmless by cooking. Second should 
come the great bulk of milk costing one 
cent per quart more and produced on a 
plan similar to Dr. Worth’s idea of a 
central sterilization plant. Third, certi¬ 
fied milk of high fat content, to be sold 
at extra price. The policy of financial 
encouragement for a good product instead 
of price and other punishment for a poor 
product, should be the policy to improve 
conditions and product. There has been 
over $100,000 spent on inspection each 
year in this State. Use half or more of 
this for premiums to producers who im¬ 
prove and supply a higher quality and the 
results would be more satisfactory. Some 
small dealers are now using auto trucks 
to collect milk and pay up to 10 cents 
per can extra for good quality fresh 
milk, and sell the same in two classes, a 
good quality at nine cents per quart, the 
other guaranteed to be not over 24 hours 
old at 10 cents per quart. The demand 
for the latter sometimes exceeds the 
supply. 
Most producers are glad to adopt an 
innovation if a good reason is shown for 
doing so. or an increased price is the re¬ 
ward. There always will be some milk 
produced not fit to use in raw state, such 
must be properly treated before selling. 
The proposal put forth by some to ster¬ 
ilize all the milk supply is foolish, as that 
which can be safely sold as raw milk 
should be as this is much more beneficial 
to digestion than the cooked milk, as the 
latter process kills the bacteria which 
are beneficial and an aid to digestion as 
well as the kinds that are harmful. 
A. E. P. 
The pupils in an Alabama school were 
asked to construct a sentence containing 
the word “amphibious.” Quick as a flash 
the son of a local preacher gave the fol¬ 
lowing; “Most fish stories am fibious.”— 
Woman’s Journal. 
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Easy Running 
Your farm engine is 
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“Eight horsepower?—don’t you mean 
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BUZZARD 
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Box 233 
Manitowoc, WIs. 
Manufacturers of 
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340 Broadway 
Salem, Ohio 
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