VI PUBLISHER'S INTRODUCTION. 
consequent certainty of a fortune more strongly presented than in 
the poultry business. In the first place the number of chickens 
which can be raised*from one healthy hen in a few years is some- 
thing astounding. Let us begin with one healthy young hen; let 
us suppose that she and her female progeny will live for seven 
years, (which is greatly within bounds) and rear two broods of 
13 each, every season. Let us also suppose that half her chickens 
are cockerels, almost all of which will be killed, except those re- 
quired for breeding, and therefore let us make no accouut of them. 
‘Then it will be found that 
At the end of the first year we have the original hen 
and 13 chickens, making 14 
At the end of the second year we have 196 
i " third i a 2,744 
e fourth “ i. 38,416 
“ 6 fifth c “ be 5377824 
: “ sixth 7:529,536 
8 e seventh “ ‘ - 105,413,504 
Here then is a chance for a fortune. Jet us emigrate to some 
western prairie, where we can find unoccupied land which we can 
use for a few years—just as do the great cattle robbers—we beg. their 
pardon, we mean Cattle Kings—and let us take with us a single 
hen. At the end of seven years we will be the happy possessors of 
one hundred and five millions of chickens, which at the very low. 
price of ten cents each, would make us worth over ten millions of 
dollars. At the end of that time, therefore, we can sell cut, come 
‘east and enjoy ourselves. - 
Of course, in such an extravagant statement as this, the fallacy 
becomes too obvious to allow of its deceiving any one, although 
in this, as in other casés, the figures do not lie. But, when men 
come to talk of thousands the impossibilities seem to disappear and 
it does not seem that propositions which are backed by such clear 
calculations, and are sustained by apparently well known facts, can 
be anything but feasible. Thus, some man reports that, from his 
flock of thirty hens he has made an annual profit of thirty dollars; and 
