294 
GENERAL MANAGEMENT 
stand you at one farthing each, or a penny threefarthings 
per pound ; that is, at the rate of about three pounds and a 
half for sixpence, or eight-and-forty eggs for a shilling. 
All these calculations tend to demonstrate the cost and 
profit of a hen to those farmers who have no rats. But to 
the farmer who has always been in the habit of keeping a 
rat, and who is determined to do away with it, and keep a 
good hen in. its place, the hen is infinitely more than all 
profit. I say more than all profit, because she not only lives 
well upon what the rat is accustomed to waste, but clears the 
farm of grubs, worms, slugs, insects, &c. Besides that, she 
does not give him a family of hungry young rats to keep. 
Still, to make the matter of cost and profit more clear, let 
us set down her food at five shillings. Then set down the 
eggs at sixpence per pound ; and who would not sooner give 
sixpence a pound for English new4aid eggs, than the same 
price for foreign stale ones 1 We next calculate the hen 
to lay 120 eggs, which, at seven to the pound, weighs 
seventeen pounds, and one egg over. l^ow seventeen 
pounds of eggs, at sixpence per pound, amounts to 8s. Gd. ; 
and if we value the hen herself at only two shillings, then 
the hen and eggs produce 10s. 6d. Now let us deduct 
five shillings for the bushel of barley, &c. ; and then does it 
leave just 5s. 6d., or 110 i)er cent, profit. But to farmers 
who grow their own food, and who of course have it at 
prime cost, the expense of a hen will be only 2s. 6d., which 
will leave 8s., or 320 per cent, profit. But to those farmers 
who have bestirred themselves, and now keep a host of 
fowls instead of rats, they are all profit together. 
Thus the difference between keeping 125 rats, and 125 
Spanish Dorkings, will be, that according to the wdne-glass 
standard the rats will cost him at the rate of £34 45. 4|cZ. 
per year ; whereas the fowls, in the same period, will bring 
into his pocket £50. 
And now let me show you the difference it would 
make to each, if you did away wdth your rats, and kept 
Spanish Dorkings in their stead. 
In the first place, let him who estimates his rats at 250, 
do aw^ay with them, and keep the same number of Spanish 
Dorking hens ; then, instead of loss, he will realize over 
<£100 clear profit in the year. 
