1871. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
291 
complains that wheu lie wrote to known breed- 
ers for tbe price of a bull, he was charged a 
higher price than he could afford to pay ($400 
to $500). I do not think you do full justice to 
the breeders in your reply. Those who are 
known to be first-rate breeders of Shorthorns 
are few. They have paid thousands for their 
foundation stock, where they ask hundreds for 
the choicest progeny ; they have taken enor- 
mous risks, and they have but a limited market. 
The price that common farmers, with limited 
capital, think they can afford to pay, would not 
remunerate them, and no one has a right to get 
Vexed that they should ask ail they think their 
6tock will command. I never knew a breeder 
of thorough-bred stock to make a large fortune, 
and this fact alone shows that what you call 
"fancy" prices are none too high, iu view of 
the capital invested and the hazard incurred. 
Then, again, what do we mean by "fancy 
prices"? If the $400 to which your corre- 
spondent objects, is fancy, why is not the $200 
that you suggest ? It is more than the value 
of an equal weight of common stock, and if the 
surplus is fancy in one case it must be in anoth- 
er. Where shall we draw the line? There is 
one safe rule for us all to follow ; that is, for 
each party to a negotiation to fix his own stand- 
ard of value. If Mr. Smith objects to paying 
$500 for a calf, Mr. Jones has no right to com- 
pel him to pay it, or to get angry because he 
won't. On the other hand, if Mr. Jones will 
not sell his calf for less than $500, 3Ir. Smith 
has no right to grumble thereanent. Each is a 
free agent ; the one has a right to ask, and the 
other to pay just what he pleases ; if they don't 
agree, they needn't trade — that is the whole 
story. For my part, I do not believe at all in 
the idea of " fancy prices." I stand ready to 
pay for just such a Jersey bull as I want (if be 
exists — which is doubtful), several times $500; 
but I should not be, in any sense, paying a 
fancy price. Fancy would have nothing to do 
with it. It would be a pure!}' business transac- 
tion, and I should be actuated solely by a de- 
sire to add to the value (not for sale only, but 
for the purposes of my buttery) of every calf that 
will henceforth be born on the farm. There 
is no end to the influence of a good bull ; every 
calf he gets carries the impress of his quality 
in its own person, and transmits it through 
countless generations. Suppose I were to pay 
$5,000 for a bull, and should use him for four 
years on all my thirty cows and heifers, and on 
all their female progeny. 
"With only ordinary luck, I would have in all 
about 150 calves by him, each one of which 
would cost about $30 more than if from a $500 
bull. And this is only the beginning ; I should 
have laid a foundation for future improvement 
that by judicious selection I could keep up in- 
definitely, and if I had succeeded in adding on 
the average five per cent to the dairy value of 
every calf that would ever be born to any de- 
scendant of my present herd, I should have 
attained a result of priceless value. Of course, I 
would be a fool to pay $5,000 for a bull ne better 
than I could get for $500, but if I really had a 
chauce to buy the very best bull iu existence, 
I would be a fool not to buy him at any price 
I could possibly afford to pay, providing I could 
not get him for less. 
The bull is the key-note of the whole tune. If 
you intend to breed thorough-breds, go the full 
length of your tether, if you must, to get the 
the very best. If you only mean to raise butcher's 
meat, get a thorough-bred of good quality, 
and at a price you can afford to pay. The bet- 
ter he is, the better for you, but don't growl be- 
cause you can't buy the best at half-price. I am 
a breeder of the kind of stock you would call 
" fancy," but I never bought an animal with any 
other motive than a desire to make money by 
it, and though I have both paid and received 
high prices for my animals, I think their actual 
value as progenitors of future herds, if rightly es- 
timated by butter-making capacity alone, would 
iu every case exceed the price. There is no 
" fancy " in 235 lbs. of good butter in a year 
from a small cow. 
An Egg Farm. 
by h. n. Stoddard. — Fourth ArlicU. 
Whea it is attempted to raise a few eggs and 
chickens for home use, the form, proportions, 
aud fixtures of the fowl-house are of small con- 
sequence, so long as the proprietor has invent- 
ed something a little different from what has 
ever been made before, and is satisfied. But 
business upon a large scale demands buildings 
that shall conduce in the highest degree to the 
thrift of their inmates, and to the convenience 
of the attendant, while the outlay in both ma- 
terial and construction should he the lowest 
possible. The buildings generally put up cost 
$2 or $3 for each fowl provided for, while ama- 
teurs sometimes expend $5 or more per head for 
the housing of their poultry. There are three 
classes of adult fowls necessary under our plan, 
which we designate breeders, sitters, and lay- 
ers; and the latter, which are most numerous, 
are housed at a cost of materials not exceeding 
40c. for each bird ; estimates being based on 
hemlock lumber at $23 per thousand. The ac- 
commodations for the breeding and sitting 
stock are necessarily more expensive, aud there 
is, in addition, the cost of coops and fixtures for 
raising chickens enough to replace two thirds 
of the adults yearly. 
In a practical and economical fowl-house, we 
expect nothing ornamental nor complicated. 
There are no ingenious ventilators cheap at $3 
each, or patent nests to beguile hens into laying 
more or bigger eggs, or rat-proof feeding hop- 
pers opening by clock-work, but the utmost sim- 
plicity is sought throughout. 
The illustration shows upon the right the 
house used at the stations, for the layers. It is 
not too large to be moved with convenience, 
aud nothing smaller would accommodate a flock 
of fifty, the number to be kept at each station, 
with perches, nests, and sufficient ground room 
in stormy weather, aud at the same time afford 
bight enough to give a circulation of air over 
the perches, and a proper pitch of roof. It is 
15 ft. long, 8'| 2 ft. wide, aud 4'|a ft. high at the 
peak. Let it be noted that any attempt to build 
so that the attendant may enter, either makes a 
stooping, slow job of every operation, from 
year's end to year's end, or if the house is carried 
high enough to allow standing upright, the 
weight interferes with moving, aud the lumber 
costs too much. It is as easy to reach into a 
building designed for the keeper to stand out- 
side, as to reach into a handy cupboard. To 
give sufficient air, the room is as lofty in pro- 
portion to the siee of the birds or their breath- 
ing capacity, as a stable twenty feet high would 
be for cattle. It is just about as necessary for 
the poulterer to have a roof over his head for 
protection in all weathers while at work, as iu 
the plan the National Poultry Co. carried out 
at Bromley, Kent, in England, as it is for a farm- 
er to make a shed over his land to defend his 
complexion from the sun while haying, and the 
rain while transplanting cabbages. The part 
of the roof on the south side at A, A, A, and 
nearly all on the north, consists of hinged doors 
opening to the right or left, and overlapping 
■when closed, to shed raiu. When it is desired 
to whitewash, throw opeu all the doors, thus 
turning the house inside out, takeout the perch- 
es and nests, all built movable, and there will 
be no nook or cranny of the woodwork that 
the brush can not be made to reach with ease, 
and no lack of elbow-room. This arrangement 
of doors makes it convenient also to catch 
fowls upon the perches by night. The doors 
should shut as snugly as may be in coarse joiner 
work, and the cracks unavoidably left around 
them will afford all the ventilation needed in 
winter, while in summer they may be opened 
more or less widely, according to the weather. 
When it is warm, yet wet, they may be partly 
opened and propped up, and a board put acros3 
their edges to shed rain. It is very desirable, 
under any plan for henneries, to build so that 
while moderately tight iu- -winter, they may be 
thrown open on every side in hot weather ; for 
fowls are warmly clad, aud suffer much from 
the heat when in buildings made, as is too fre- 
quently the case, only with reference to the cold. 
The doors which form the north roof project 
6 inches at the ridge to keep ont rain, as there 
is no ridge-cap. The two wiudows in the south 
roof are glazed greenhouse fashion, that is, with 
overlapping panes, that snow may slide from 
them readily as soon as loosened by the warmth 
inside. They are 2 ft. high and 3 ft. wide, and 
set IS inches from the peak of the roof. A strip 
of tin is fastened over the upper part of the 
sash, and the sides and bottom of the sash over- 
lap the roof, to be rain-proof. The shutters, 
B, B, used to darken the building on certain 
necessary occasions, elsewhere referred to, are 
hinged to the lower part of the sash, and when 
opened, as in the illustration, rest upon the roof 
below the windows. The side sills project at 
both ends of the building, arc beveled runner 
fashion, aud strengthened with iron where holes 
are bored to attach chains ; thus it may bo drawn 
by either end. The sills, which receive the 
principal strain during »ioving, should be so 
well braced as to keep the whole building iu 
shape. The end sills, of 2-iuch plank, should 
be spiked upon the top of the others, flatwise, 
so as not to touch the ground while moving, 
aud the side-sills, 4 inches square, should be of 
chestnut or oak, to be as durable as possible, 
for they rest on the ground during a good part 
of the year. The spruce rafters, 2x3 inches, 
which answer for studs and rafters both, should 
be set at such distances apart as will correspond 
with the width of the door3 aud windows which 
are fastened to them. A stout ridge-pole, sawn of 
a triangular shape, runs the length of the build- 
ing underneath the rafters, and two sticks are 
fastened to this ridge-pole, one 5 ft. from each 
end, and braced upon the center of the end sills 
to give firmness, for the covering, consisting 
chiefly of doors, does not strengthen the build- 
ing, as iu ordinary cases, where the covering is 
nailed to the frame. C C are doors, each 3 :' . 
x 1 ft., opening outwards and downwards, to 
give the keeper access to the nests, which are 1 
ft. square, aud the same in depth, and so con- 
trived that the l^ens enter them atone side from 
a passage inches wide and 1 It. high, boarded 
at side and top, running the length of the row 
of nests, and are thus indulged in their liking 
for privacy while laying. Tire nests are tight 
upon the top, the outside door should fit closely, 
and the opening admitting the fowls to the pas- 
sage he made so small that, the nests will be 
rather dark. It is found that when, nests are 
