Chapter IX 
SELLING STOCK FOR BREEDING PURPOSES AND SELLING EGGS FOR HATCHING. 
WHEN AND HOW TO ADVERTISE. POULTRY FARM BOOKKEEPING. 
study of the growth of a poultry busi¬ 
ness is extremely interesting, and is 
certainly most instructive to the 
beginner in poultry work. The 
accounts which we read of highly successful 
poultrymen contain a valuable lesson for the 
beginners, because even 7 one of the prominent 
poultrymen of today were the beginners of 
five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago, and the 
success to which they have attained has been 
the result of a simple, natural growth. The 
selling of stock for breeding purposes and the 
selling of eggs for hatching is a natural develop¬ 
ment of the starting in the poultry business 
and having thoroughbred stock themselves. 
All of the great poultrymen of today began 
with raising poultry and eggs for market; 
they realized that thoroughbred stock laid the 
most eggs and produced the best market 
poultry, so equipped themselves with thorough¬ 
bred stock. What more natural, then, than 
that they should offer to sell of their thorough¬ 
bred stock, and eggs for hatching, once they had 
secured it for themselves? Going into the sale 
of stock for breeding purposes and eggs for 
hatching is but a natural development, and is 
practically the old, old story of “first the blade, 
then the ear, then the full corn in the car.” 
The giants of the poultry world, Hawkins, 
Duston, Bright, E. B. Thompson, Wyckoff, 
Knapp Bros., Fishel, McClave—all began by 
raising poultry and eggs for market. All the 
difference between these great poultrymen and 
those who started similarly is, that these great 
poultrymen of today did not stop with raising 
poultry and eggs for market; they continued 
to grow', and by the aid of printer’s ink have 
developed businesses of $5,000, $10,000, 
$15,000 or $20,000 a year, with their conse¬ 
quently splendid profits; and others can do 
exactly the same if they will but follow 7 in the 
path where these men have led. There are 
just as great (yes, greater!) opportunities today 
than in the years ago w r hen these men started. 
The poultry business is growing steadily, and 
the demand for stock for breeding purposes and 
eggs for hatching is ten times greater today 
than it was ten years ago, and in all probability 
will be ten times greater ten years hence than 
it is today; those of us who can look back 
20 or 30 years fully believe that. The essential 
thing is that we outfit ourselves with the best 
of stock of the best variety, and then tell the 
buying public that we have got that stock for 
breeding or eggs for hatching; the public, 
ever anxious to buy the best, will do the rest. 
In making a start in the thoroughbred 
poultry business a most essential thing is that 
we start w r ith good stock, by getting the very 
best that our money can buy. Most beginners 
have little idea how much time is saved (and 
time is money!) by buying good stock. A 
most interesting example of this is seen in the 
egg-farm of Mr. Henry Van Dreser, the story 
of which farm is told in Chapter V. Mhen 
his step-son convinced him that poultry keeping 
w'as a profitable branch of farm w'ork, he went 
to Mr. Wyckoff and bought 30 birds of his great 
laying stock, and thereby outfitted himself 
with stock which had in it the accelerated 
momentum of many years of breeding,—first 
for a great egg production, and second for 
standard quality; by making this start Mr. Van 
Dreser bridged many years of preliminary 
work at one step, and other beginners would 
be wise to follow his example. 
Another point, breed but one variety. A 
most common mistake of the beginner is to 
think he will start with several varieties and 
thus be better prepared to meet the wants of 
the public. The whole of a lifetime is not too 
long to get the best out of one variety, and the 
man who devotes himself to one, makes that one 
his specialty, and gets out of that one the best 
that there is in it,—will have achieved a great 
success. The great successes among poultrymen 
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