164 COMMON SENSE 
exactly what they wanted. But, when sold in market, without any 
representations as to character or quality, we had no hesitation 
about taking the highest price we could get. 
‘The stock that required the greatest care in selling, was our 
very early chickens. They were worth most—weight for weight— 
sometimes bringing as high as seventy cents per pound. We found 
that there was considerable difference in the quality of these very 
early chickens, according to the kind of food given to them and 
the manner in which they were kept. We did not force ours as 
rapidly as some breeders did; we fed more cracked wheat and 
corn—particularly wheat—and less meal. The birds, therefore, 
showed firmer flesh, and did not waste as much in the process 
of cooking, and the flavor was higher. Our birds soon became 
known to the keepers of a few of the first class restaurants in the 
city, and we could always dispose of all we had at good prices. 
They were altogether the most profitable stock we raised, and after 
we got fairly under way and had our houses, coops and yards 
fixed up for them, they were not difficult to raise. 
We sold a few of them in the village, but not many. Very few 
of the villagers—even those who were comparatively well to do— 
cared to give 75 cents for a little queen : weighing a pound anda 
half. ; 
But, in the city, this price was not thought extravagant. Chick- 
ens heavier than a pound and a half did not sell well, per- 
haps, because people suspected that they were simply old chickens 
of a small breed. We, therefore, tried to bring them to this 
weight as rapidly as possible, and as soon as we saw that they. were 
large enough, we sold them out. We soon learned to estimate 
their weight, by the eye, quite accurately. 
We found a great difference in the rapidity with which different 
breeds reached this size, and still greater differences in the appear- 
ances of the different breeds at this age. The great egg layets— 
Leghorns, Hamburghs, etc-—had to be kept too long; Brahmas, 
Cochins, etc., looked sprawley and skeleton-like; a cross between 
the two matured rapidly and looked “ splendid,” as the little girls 
say. . : 
