The figures at the head of this chapter have become famous, and, perhaps, in the way of small things, represent as great a bone of contention as has been squabbled over for many a year. And yet there really was nothing so extraordinary in the profit. It represented a large amount of careful work and study, a keen business administration, a careful looking after of all the little details, the preserving of all by-products and selling them at a figure which was actually under their true value, as was proven in later years by better prices obtained.
For instance, the fertilizer made on the Farm has been so handled that its returns to the owners are much greater than when these figures were given to the public. The Corning Egg Farm was very much criticised in numerous statements made in the different papers throughout the country as to the authenticity of these figures, and, to put it in clear Anglo-Saxon, many writers indulged quite freely in the word so much used by one of the distinguished Presidents of the United States, and threw the lie indiscriminately at everything and everybody connected with The Corning Egg Farm.
After a time the humor of the situation dawned upon those who were being so adversely criticized. The fact is, the critics were people who wanted to gauge everything in the World by their own little yard stick. They did not themselves know how to make $6.41 per hen per year, and, therefore, they reasoned it out that the man did not exist who could. One fact entirely overlooked by these profound writers on poultry subjects was that two dollars of this profit was made by the sale of the hen at the end of ten months of laying.
In the last few years there have appeared in the advertising columns of numerous publications, claims by a man selling a book in which he asserts he made $120.00 per hen, in twelve months, in a back-yard. Another individual blossomed forth with a statement of ten dollars and fifty odd cents profit per hen per year, but these statements did not excite widespread criticism. They were statements of men who were doing a back-yard business, with from ten to twenty hens, and were, therefore, simply looked upon as ridiculous and not entitled to serious consideration.
But The Corning Egg Farm “$6.41 per hen, per year” was not an extravagant claim, and the figures showing just exactly how it had been accomplished were plainly set forth. It was not done with twenty hens in a back-yard, but on a large, commercial scale, and an extensive business was in active operation.
The methods were so entirely new, and the results so unprecedented, that poultry writers and lecturers hastily declared them fantastic, without the careful investigation to which they were entitled, and proceeded to wholesale condemnation of the figures, the methods, and everything else connected with the Farm.
However, later, the majority of our critics have visited The Corning Egg Farm, and have seen what we have, what we are doing, and satisfied themselves thoroughly that every statement made was well within the facts.
It will be noticed that the profit of $6.41 was figured with the cockerels selling at the live weight price of broilers, and when no hatching eggs were sold.
At The Corning Egg Farm, to-day, the hen is making considerably more than $6.41 per year. A large number of cockerels, which formerly brought merely the live weight broiler price, are now being reared and disposed of for breeders. Hatching eggs are sold in large quantities, but, it must be remembered, before one can reach this point, his Strain of birds must be brought to a high point of perfection, he must establish his reputation, and his customers must find his claims are substantiated. As an illustration, purchasers of hatching eggs from The Corning Egg Farm, in the season of 1910, came back with orders for the season of 1911 increased by the multiple of ten, and these same customers are already booking large orders in September and October, 1911, for the hatching season of 1912.
This chapter is written to emphasize our statement that anyone possessed of the ordinary qualifications to succeed with poultry, can, by following The Corning Egg Farm Method, surely build up a large and profitable business.
THE WORK SHOP ON THE CORNING EGG FARM