114 Tlie Business hi en. 



were worth $45 to $60 each. Consequently it appears that it takes a good 

 cow to pay an annual profit equal to one-third her market value. 



"Now I rise to say that if there is anywhere in these United States 

 any old dunghill, scaly-legged, blear-eyed, frosted-combed, roach-backed, 

 crooked-breasted, twisted-toed apology for a hen, that with relative good 

 care won't pay an annual profit on her market value of more than 33 per 

 cent then she ought to be exhibited at the St. Louis Exhibition as the 

 biggest curiosity in the show. I have kept fowls off and on for 40 years, 

 in city and village back yards, and for the last 10 years on a farm, and I 

 know there has never been a year when they did not pay me from 200 to 

 300 per cent on their market value." 



PAID FOR A FARM. — Mr. Cosgrove knows what he is talking about, 

 for the Wyandotte hen has paid for his home. He left the city at 57 

 years of aee and invested all his savings in a run-down farm in a Con- 

 necticut hill town. There were 80 acres in the farm, with only 17 cleared, 

 and barely two acres plowed. So poor was its reputation as a money 

 earner that the farm sold for less than the cost of the buildings. It 

 should be added that Mr. Cosgrove is in poor health, and has been un- 

 able to do a hard day's work in 10 years. He has been oWisred to buy all 

 his grain and figure close in every way. Yet, in spite of all these serious 

 drawbacks the Wyandotte hens have paid for the farm twice over, and 

 provided a good living. Mr. Cosgrove represents one class of men who 

 should keep hens. No other stock could have come within the range of his 

 powers and paid for his farm. He loved a hen, studied her needs and pro- 

 vided for them so well that his 400 hens give a gross income of over $3 

 each, besides giving meat and eggs for the family and fertilizer for the 

 garden and fruit. 



Mr. Cosgrove prefers Wyandottes for several good reasons. They are 

 dignified without being dull. It takes a young and lively man to keep track 

 of Leghorns. The Wyandottes will stay quietly inside a four-foot fence. 

 They are thickly feathered, and do not require such warm housing as the 

 more nervous breeds. Their combs are small — in fact head and comb can 

 easily be put under the wing at night. Mr. Cosgrove says that if he 

 were breeding Leghorns he would clip off their combs in the Fall about as 

 Game cocks are trimmed. The wound would soon heal and the bird would 

 suffer less from the cold. Mr. Cosgrove's experience shows what a man 

 can do by selectincr a breed or family with a definite performance ir 

 view. During the fearful Winter of 1004 his Wyandottes in their small 

 and simple houses laid so well that they earned $20 a week clear of ex- 

 penses. Of course, people heard of this and rightly thought that the 

 character of the hens was largely responsible for it. As they could not 

 hire Mr. Cosgrove to come and manage their poultry they were glad to pay 

 a good price for part of his skill and care. Every hen on his farm and 



