CHAPTER XXIV. 



AN EXPENSIVE' BUSINESS. 



During ihe past six years I have expended, outright, for 

 h.'eeding stock, and for appropriate buildings for my fowls, 

 over four thousand dollars, in round numbers — without 

 taking into the account the expenses of their care, and the 

 cost of feeding. 



Few breeders have spent anything like this sum, for this 

 purpose, strictly. In the mean time, the aggregate of my 

 receipts has reached (up to January, 1855) upwards of 

 seventy thousand dollars. I have raised thousands upon 

 thousands of the Chinese varieties of fowls, and my purchases 

 to fill orders which came to hand during this term — in 

 addition to what I was able to fill from those I myself 

 raised — have been very large. And, while I have been 

 thus engaged, hundreds and hundreds of amateurs and 

 fanciers have sprung up in various directions, all of whom 

 have had their share, too, in this trade. 



To the fanciers — those who purchased, as many did at 

 first, simply for their amusement, or for the mere satisfaction 



