$6.41 Per Hen Per Year Corning Method and Strain Enabling Others to
Better $6.41
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.
$6.41 Not Extravagant Claim
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.
Corning Farm Making More Than $6.41
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.
[Illustration: THE WORK SHOP ON THE CORNING EGG FARM]