twenty-five pullets?"

"Yes."

"That's what I was getting at. You think we might, by good luck, raise
twenty-five pullets from each hundred eggs. I'll cut that in the middle
and be satisfied with twelve, or even with ten. At that rate the two
thousand eggs that cost $200 will give me two hundred pullets to begin
the egg-making next November. That's not enough; we ought to raise just
twice that number. I'll spend as much more on eggs to be hatched by the
middle of April or the first of May, and then we can reasonably expect
to go into next winter with four hundred pullets. They will cost the
farm a dollar apiece, but the farm will have four hundred cockerels to
sell at fifty cents each, which will materially reduce the cost."

"I think you put that pretty low, sir; we ought to raise more than four
hundred pullets out of four thousand eggs."

"Everything more will be clear gain. I shall be satisfied with four
hundred. We must also get at the brooder house. This is the order in
which I want the buildings to stand in the chicken lot: first, the
incubating house, 10 feet from the south line; 40 feet north of this,
the brooder house; and 120 feet north of that, the first hen-house, with
runs 100 feet deep. We'll build other houses for the birds as we need
them. They are all to face to the south. If the brooder house is 50 feet
long and 15 feet wide, it can easily care for the eight hundred chicks,
and for half as many more, if we are lucky enough to get them.

"We'll have a five-foot walk against the north wall of this house, and a
ten-foot space north and south through the centre for heating plant and
food. This will leave a space at each side ten by twenty feet, to be cut
into five pens four feet by ten, each of which will mother a hundred
chicks or more. There must be plenty of glass in the south wall, and
we'll use overhead water pipes in each hover.

"There's no hurry about the poultry-houses. You can build one in the
early summer, and perhaps another in the fall. I expect you to do the
carpenter work on these houses. I'll see the mason at once and have him
ready by the time you've dug the hole. The incubators will be here in
good time, and we want everything ready for work as soon as the eggs
arrive."

Sam was pleased with his job; it was exactly to his liking. He took real
delight in caring for fowls, and he was especially anxious to prove to
me that it was not so much lack of knowledge as lack of capital that