56 COMMON SENSE 
bad qualities of all the breeds with which I was acquainted, I 
decided for the present to adopt a cross-bred fowl for laying and 
marketing. ‘The cross that I now selected was that between a 
White Leghorn cock and a Light Brahma hen. I also resolved 
to experiment with crosses between White Leghorn and: Spangled 
Hamburgh cocks, and Light Brahma and Dominique hens. Of 
the cross between the Brown Leghorns and good common hens I 
already had a large number. : 
Having decided what kind to get, the next question was, Where 
can I get them? Five hundred fowls is not a large number for a 
poulterer to handle, but is so large that it would be dificult to 
secure that number of select breeding birds at moderate figures. 
Three methods suggested themselves to me: £. To procure pure 
bred birds from reliable dealers and stock my yards at once. 2. 
‘lo procure eggs from pure bred fowls:and hatch them in an incu- 
bator and by the aid of common hens. 3. To buy a sufficient . 
number of common hens—say four or five hundred—and cross the 
best of them with pure bred cockerels, thus gradually raising.up a 
flock that would be especially adapted to my wants. 
The first plan was out of the question on account of the ex- 
pense. On corresponding with a large number of prominent 
dealers I found that I could not secure fair birds for less than 
$2. goeach. This would make the flock cost $1,250—a sum ‘greater 
than I cared to invest in hens at that stage of the experiment, 
though I now look upon a stock which is worth four times that 
figure as a really good investment. 
‘lo the second plan there were equally strong objections. «To 
produce 500 pullets would require the incubation of, at least, 2,000 
eggs, allowing for cockerels, infertile eggs, loss of chicks, and: culls. 
Now, dealers in pure bred fowls asked from $1.50 to $7.50 per 
setting for eggs; $3.00 was a usual price, but taking the lowest 
figure, $1.50 for 13 eggs, they would have cost $231 for eggs 
alone. The incubator and its attendant would have cost a con- 
siderable sum, and the only immediate return would have Ween: 
from the sale of young cockerels, which in such. numbers would 
only have brought the price of dressed poultry. But the most 
