STOCKING A FARM. 65 



to do ; and honesty compels us to say that, owing to 

 the greater prevalence of disease in birds, and other 

 causes, we doubt whether the same man under the 

 same circumstances could do it now. 



But let us suppose the commoner case of a young 

 man who has only got £500 to invest, but is pro- 

 mised birds on the halves. We should then advise 

 him to invest his capital as in the first £500 in the 

 former case, and to get on the halves a proportion of 

 breeding and feather birds as there described. Breed- 

 ing birds, where they succeed, undoubtedly pay in- 

 finitely the best ; but the risk is correspondingly 

 greater, and every man should have a moderate troop of 

 plucking birds to meet the rent and expenses in case 

 of a bad season with the breeders. Of course, with 

 birds on the halves our young friend has got a tough 

 up-hill game to fight, but ^' Faint heart never won fair 

 lady," or a fortune. 



As soon as our friend has got his birds comfortably 

 located on his farm, he should commence a camp of 

 say 1,000 acres in w^hich to put his plucking birds, and 

 so have them to a considerable extent off his hands by 

 the time his first chicks come. 



A farm of the size we have named is more veldt 

 than he will require at first, but he must have room 

 for future increase, and nothing will damage his chance 



