110 COMMON SENSE 
died or wasted away. I generally gave such crates the go-by, but 
on one or two occasions I made some fine additions to my yards. © 
I pursued this course until I had secured 537 hens and about 
300 cocks. The birds, as purchased, were’ cagefully looked over, 
and all that seemed to be in the slightest degree out of health were 
placed in quarantine in one of the yards, and kept there until I 
was certain that all was right. I was very fortunate, However, and 
did not lose a single bird. 
The mongrel cocks were placed at once in large coops and liber- 
ally fed—soft food forming a large part of their diet. “Two weeks 
of such treatment made a great improvement in most of them, but 
on some of them it had no effect whatever. They were killed, 
dressed and sent to market as fast as they could be got ready, and 
brought fair prices, but I doubt if the results paid for the time, feed 
and labor expended. If I were to stock another yard'in the same 
way I would send the cocks to market at once and get rid of 
them, charging the loss to the cost of the hens. 
1 was now ready to take stock. I found that I had 537 hens, 
which cost me to date $302.23 for birds, food, etc. This allowed 
for the money received for the cocks sold, but I had on hand a 
small quantity of food (perhaps $15 worth) the cost of which is in- 
cluded in the $302.23, and which I have not taken into considera- 
tion. 
The hens were a motley lot. When a number of hens of even 
pure-bred fowls of different varieties are mixed together, they are 
apt to have a mongrel look, while even a lot of real mongrels, pro- 
vided they are all nearly alike in size, shape and color, may present 
a very attractive appearance. My first work, therefore, was to sort 
them into lots that were tolerably well mated. : 
Out of all the cocks, I savéd only a few White Leghorns, a 
Spangled Hamburgh and three Dominiques. I was satisfied that 
they were sufficiently pure and good to enable me to experiment 
with them. Meanwhile, I obtained from different noted breeders, 
one Dark Brahma, one White Leghorn, one Sparigled Hamburgh, 
and three Light Brahma cocks, and I set aside the ten small coops 
to accommodate them, and two White Leghorns, one Spangléd 
