35 



— perhaps twelve'or fifteen of them in a^ flock of sixty or seventy 

 bens ; and he thought he would take a Buff Leghorn cockerel and 

 mate with them, separating them from the rest of the stock. But 

 the only bird of that variety I happened to have that I could sell 

 was one I had been keeping for a reserve bird, — a big, well-built 

 fellow, too good in color to use merely in cross-breeding ; and I 

 held him at a figure I thought no ranchman would pay. So I tried 

 to sell him a Brown Leghorn, of which I had on hand a few birds 

 at prices that would suit him better, though none of them had the 

 size and shape of the Buff one. Finally, when he insisted on my 

 giving him a price on that bird, I told him he could have it for 

 four dollars. He went away without buying a bird. A few days 

 after he came again, wanted to know if the bird had been sold, 

 and, learning that he had not, said, " Well, if you'll take it in 

 hay, I'll take him." I agreed to that, and he took the cockerel 

 away with him, having first exacted a promise that I would not 

 tell " the old woman " the price of the bird. 



Next fall he came to me one day to tell me how well he had 

 done on that investment. Hatching only from that one male, 

 mated with a few of his best hens, he had had the evenest and 

 quickest growing lot of chicks, that had ever been on the farm. 

 The cockerels hatched at the usual season had been ready for 

 market before prices went down ; the pullets well grown, and 

 beginning to lay before winter; and, taking it all in all, he esti- 

 mated that they were something like fifty dollars better off than if 

 he had bought a small, cheap rooster. " But," he said, as he con- 

 cluded his story, " I haven't told my old woman yet what I paid 

 you for that rooster." 



I don't want to be understood as in any way implying that the 

 fancy poultry breeders' scale of prices is adjusted to the values of 

 his birds to farmers, or for practical breeding purposes. , The 

 position I take is, that in buyifig stock to improve his flock the 

 farmer should not take birds that have not in marked degree the 

 qualities he desires to introduce into his flock. If he can get at 

 a low price birds that are culls for some superficial defect, not 

 affecting their real value, so much the better; but if he cannot get 

 the qualities he wants in a low-priced bird, it is much cheaper in 

 the end to*buy a higher-priced one ; and the point I especially 

 want to bring out here is that in a great many cases the Super- 

 fluous males on a farm, sold at market prices, would bring the 

 price of a realjy good thoroughbred bird. 



Or, if one has one or more male birds — as many as he needs — 

 that are as good as he needs, what is saved by disposing of unneces- 

 sary male birds will go a long way toward the expense of provid- 



