National Agricultural Library

A Start in the Fancy

A fancy chicken farmer becomes the object of curiosity in his town when he comes home from a show with a hen purchased for ten dollars. His neighbors first tease him about his foolish extravagance, then start to copy him by starting backyard flocks of their own. But the farmer has the last laugh when he turns around and sells his hen for a huge profit.

"The man with the courage of his convictions was home from the Score Card Poultry Show with a ten-dollar pullet, and the fact got into the local papers and his neighbors dropped by to condole with him.
'Can you see that much money in a hen?' said one.
'Wasn't it this way?' said another, 'the man you bought her of bought another of you for the same price, you both got the advertising, and not a dollar changed hands.'
A third offered the man twenty cents a pound for her live weight. 'It's easy to see she's an extra good hen,' he admitted…."
page 147

The Eastern Poultryman

Volume 4, Number 10

147-148