374 
THE KURAb NEW-YORKEH 
March 18, 
THE COW vs. THE HEN. 
Among other letters from the cow¬ 
men are the following: 
One of the members of our Subordinate 
Grange, John Arfman, authorizes me to 
say to you that he will pit a cow against 
Mr. Dougan's 10 hens for 12 months if 
fair details can be arranged. lie is willing 
to put $50 or $25 in your hands, Mr. 
Dougan to do the same, and the winner to 
have all at the close of the year. Value 
of milk to be computed at Borden whole¬ 
sale prices, and value of eggs and chickens 
also to be reckoned at highest wholesale 
quotations. o. w. mates. 
New York. 
Mr. Dougan speaks of comparing the 
manufactured hen product against the raw 
product of the cow. Will he consider it 
a fair go if the receipts from ice cream, 
charlotte russe, etc., were figured against 
his chicks and eggs? If he gets 40 cents 
per chick (which is cheap for good ones, as 
I have paid myself $10 for 13 eggs), why 
should not say a Hood Farm cow figure her 
calf at $200? It would then simply be a 
case of “who is the biggest?” If Mr. Dou- 
gan wants a contest so badly, and he is 
willing to stick to value of food produced, 
why I think he ought not to find it so 
hard to be accommodated. I am almost 
ashamed to take his chickens. My actual 
receipts from .32 ordinary cows for the past 
three months are one dollar per day per 
cow. If there is anything left of Mr. 
Dougan but memory, let's hear what the 
doctor says. ALBERT SCHIMMEL. 
Long Island. 
If you can formulate a plan that will be 
fair I am ready with a cow any time. But 
I shall insist that the hens be put under 
inspection as well as the cow. Mr. Dougan 
savs that he can get nine dozen eggs for 
market and raise 36 broilers from each hen. 
So I will take him at his word, and he 
must sell nine dozen eggs or 90 dozen in 
all, and all other eggs that the hens lay 
may be incubated and the product sold as 
broilers, but nothing as breeding stock. I 
have a cow that is due to calve February 
II that 1 would like to put up against the 
hens. I will put her on authenticated 
test under the supervision of the State 
Agricultural College, and her butter shall 
be figured from that test. I will actually 
churn the butter and sell it for whatever 
1 can get for it, and -will weigh her milk 
and either raise a pig. on it or a calf, or 
have its value estimated at so much per 
hundred, as you think best. Of course, the 
cow is worth several times what the hens 
would be worth to me, but 1 have so much 
confidence in her that I am willing to risk 
her. I am not much of a hen man. but my 
next door neighbor is quite an expert, and 
knowing my cow t , he says that it will take 
50 hens very well cared for to equal her 
in profit. The test must begin by March 
1 , if I put this cow in. 
New York. J. grant morse. 
R. N.-Y.—We put these letters before 
Mr. Dougan. As to the plan suggested 
by Mr. Mapes the conditions are, in our 
judgment, not quite fair. These 10 hens 
may be worth $15, while the cow is 
probably worth $150. To hold both 
sides down to wholesale prices would 
not be fair unless we let Mr. Dougan 
take $150 worth of hens—or an equiv¬ 
alent of the cow’s value. One thing we 
would like to bring out in this contest 
is the ability of a man to sell his goods 
to advantage. If Mr. Dougan can get 
* a good share of the consumer's dollar 
he should have the privilege. He does 
not sell any birds or eggs as breeding 
stock. We would advise him not to 
enter a contest and be held down to 
wholesale prices. 
Mr. Albert Schimmel is one dairyman 
in 10,000. He has a dairy right in New 
York City, buys common cows and milks 
them out and sells inspected milk at 
high prices. Some of it is sold by the 
glass. Thus one of his cows will, as he 
says, earn one dollar a day. We do not 
think this would make a fair contest, at 
least not one which would prove what 
we are after. 
Mr. Morse makes 
cept that he proposes 
gan’s sale of eggs to 
make any limit at all; 
We make the condition that no eggs or 
stock be sold for breeding purposes. It 
must be a plain deal in food products. 
Later the following letter was re¬ 
ceived from Mr. Cloud : 
If interested farmers will analyze W. J. 
Dougan's figures they will find that his 104 
hens had help part of the year from 17;> 
pullets. Now my cow that returned me 
$143 for milk in one year, produced a heifer 
calf, but unfortunately for me the heifer 
did not mature in a year so as to help her 
mother out with the milk production. When 
I first answered Mr. Dougan's challenge 1 
had no idea of boasting of my cow. 1 sim¬ 
ply hoped 1 might awaken some dairymen 
to" the need of keeping records, and know¬ 
ing which cows make money and which are 
boarders. In regard to Mr. Dougan's chal¬ 
lenge to put his hens against my cow, win¬ 
ner to take both, I enjoy all sorts of games, 
even to a horse race, but I never yet 
plaved for a stake. We also keep Leghorn 
hens, and could tell some tall stories about 
them, for we know more than we do about 
the cows. We know what it costs to raise 
and keep them, and something of the losses 
from roup, foxes, hawks, etc. 
Chester Co., I’a. r. allen cloud. 
As it seems difficult to organize a 
satisfactory lien and cow contest we 
have arranged with Mr. Dougan to make 
a year's test of 10 Wyandotte and 10 
Leghorn liens. Reports will be printed 
regularly, and if others want to start 
similar "tests for comparison we shall be 
glad to hear from them. 
A LARGE MINK STORY. 
I find some interesting skunk and weasel 
stories in The R. N.-Y., so will give my 
experience with a mink. More than 40 
years ago I went on to a homestead in 
Kansas; I built a small henhouse of poles, 
chinked the cracks with hay, and covered 
and banked with hay. One cold night, with 
snow on the ground, I heard a squalling 
out there and ‘hiked” out only half dressed, 
with a candle and matches; got into the 
henhouse, lit my light and there lay six 
biddies dead and a big mink trying to get 
more. I struck at .him a dozen or more 
times with a club; but couldn't hit him, 
lie was so quick. Every time I gave him 
a close call he would run out through the 
hole he had made in the chinking; but 
would come right in again. As 1 was feel¬ 
ing the cold I concluded I would “catch him 
alive,” so holding my hand just above 
the hole when he stuck his head through 
and smelt of my hand (he was not a bit 
afraid), I made a grab for his neck, but he 
slipped back and I missed him; he came 
right through again ; and when through all 
but his hind quarters. I made another grab 
and got him around the neck. Now if you 
never had hold of a big live mink you 
can have no idea of their prodigious 
strength; but I held him, though he 
scratched my wrist fearfully and took him 
into the house and pounded his head with 
a hammer. His hide brought me $1.50, 
which just squared the account for the 
biddies he had killed. J. p. little. 
New Mexico. 
a good offer, ex- 
to limit Air. Dou- 
nine dozen. Why 
If there is more 
irofit in broilers or chicks, why should 
lot Mr. Dougan be permitted to handle 
lis eggs as he sees fit—provided both 
;ggs and chicks are sold as food and 
tot as breeding stock ? Again, we doubt 
f it is what the public wants, or a fair 
leal, to put up a purebred, superior cow 
igainst 10 ordinary hens. If these hens 
were kept to sell high-class breeding 
stock, it would be another thing, but all 
that is claimed for them is that they 
ire just ordinary hens, such as any 
;areful farmer can produce. Mr. Dou¬ 
gan figures that his hens averaged 164 
eggs each last year—not a large yield 
compared with some of the claimed 
“records.” Our own desire is to have 
this contest between the hens and an 
“ordinary” cow—that is, one such as 
would be found in a good dairy herd. 
In other words, a cow that would com¬ 
pare well as a farm animal with Mr. 
Dougan’s hens. On examining his offer 
on page 113 you will see that he named 
such cows as Mr. Cloud named. 1 he 
R. N.-Y. and not Mr. Dougan is respon¬ 
sible for broadening out the cow limit. 
We advise him to stick to his challenge 
to ordinary cows, to submit to reason¬ 
able inspection, and to claim the right to 
sell his eggs and chickens wherever he 
can get the best price for them as food. 
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What is the analysis of the “commercial 
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