WHEN AND HOW TO ADVERTISE. 
who neglect their business, who neglect their 
own interests, who are not really in the poultry 
business. They may imagine they are, but 
they are not. They really give precious little 
attention to the essentials of the business. 
Is it not logical and reasonable for a would- 
be customer to ask himself this question: “ If 
these men thus neglect as important a business 
matter as their advertising, what about the 
other part of their business? ” Does not such 
a “sign.” hung up on the printed page for 
thousands to read say to the interested public, 
“ Here is a man who is not in real earnest. Here 
is a man who is either careless, neglectful or 
incompetent?” Is it not natural for the think¬ 
ing man also to conclude, “ Such a man is unsafe 
to do business with. We would be foolish to 
entrust our orders with him. Men who neglect 
their own important interests cannot safely be 
trusted with ours.” 
Is not this conclusion natural and reasonable? 
It is, in the main. There are three months’ 
poultrvmen and there are twelve months’ 
poultrymen. The latter are “in the business” 
all the time. It is business with them. They 
are the men who “make things go.” They are 
the safe men with whom to deal. An “eggs 
for hatching” ad., if run out of season because 
of neglect on the part of the man who pays for 
the space, is due warning to buyers at this end 
of the line that the man at the other end of 
the line is not attending to his business—and 
the trade goes elsewhere, into safer hands. 
Attend to business, those of you who crave 
success. Put into your work all the brains you 
have yourself and all that you can hire. Even 
then some other fellow, a competitor, will crowd 
you. 
G. M. Curtis in Agricultural Advertising. 
About Advertising. 
There are a great many people advertising 
who don’t get the returns they should because 
they don’t advertise what the people want— 
even when they have it. They advertise the 
qualities they prize mostly in their stock, 
without apparently considering that more 
people would value the stock for qualities to 
which they attach less importance. 
We know of more than one such man who 
has stock that is both useful and beautiful, but 
will not in his ads. call attention to the utility 
value of his strain, because he fears to do so 
will injure his reputation as a breeder of exhi¬ 
bition fowls. We think they are mistaken in 
this. As long as their fowls can win as they 
have won now and won in the past, they need 
have no fears of hurting their reputation as 
prize winners by advertising their useful quali¬ 
ties. On the other hand, they can by adver¬ 
tising those qualities attract the attention of 
that class of buyers who want fowls principally 
for eggs and meat, but don’t want scrub or 
mongrel stock. 
We don’t think breeders generally realize 
how large this class is or how well it would pay 
them to cater to its wants. These are not 
the people who want something for nothing. 
They are willing to pav a fair price for what 
they want—and what they want is stock not 
quite good enough for No. 1 breeding, yet fairly 
good. Every large breeder has lots of that 
stock to sell, and we think most of them find it 
the hardest stock to handle, because the people 
who buy such birds so often buy them with 
the expectation of getting a winner or a bird 
that will breed winners for $2.00. Of course 
they are disappointed; but if the same bird 
were from stock bred also for practical qualities, 
the man who purchased with useful points 
first in his thought will not be found among 
the “ kickers.” 
We wish all breeders who have this class of 
stock could see the letter's that come to this 
office asking where just such stock, of one 
breed or another can be obtained. We print 
some of them occasionally; but probably not 
one in a hundred received is printed. We 
answer them all. The stereotyped replies are 
“We don’t know.” or “We cannot say,” aid 
“ Consult our advertising columns.” The latter 
we use as often as possible; but too often we 
know it is useless to refer inquiries to the adver¬ 
tisements. 
There is one encouraging feature, though, 
and that is, the number of men who advertise 
the practical qualities of their stock is con¬ 
stantly increasing, (it is more than five times as 
large today as it was five years ago), and in 
that number are included a few of the best 
known breeders in the country. We not, too, 
that these men are among our best advertisers, 
and we cannot see that they are using any less 
space in other poultry papers than they used to. 
Now there is a better—larger and on the 
whole more profitable—demand for hardy, 
quick growing, early maturing, prolific laying 
stock of average or medium standard excellence 
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