No matter what breed our dog is we shall surely become greatly attached to him and almost look upon him as a friend rather than as an animal.  A boy should never encourage a dog to fight.  It is a cruel, unmanly thing and one that a real dog lover will never do.  Dog fighting is a form of brutality second only to tying tin cans and other things to a dog’s tail for the “fun” of seeing him run.  I once saw a poor beast lose his tail as a result of this brutal joke.  Some one had tied a string tightly around his tail and the dog ran until completely exhausted.  He then kept out of sight for a few days.  In the meantime the string caused his tail to become fearfully sore and finally to fall off.  Can any one see a joke in this?

XI

THE CARE OF CHICKENS

The best breed—­Good and bad points of incubators—­What to feed small chicks—­A model chicken house

A pen of chickens gives a boy or girl an opportunity for keeping pets that have some real value.  Whether there is much profit in poultry is a question, but it is at least certain that the more care you give them the better they pay.  There is but little difference in the results obtained from the various breeds of chickens, but there is a great difference in the people who take care of them.  It is very difficult to make poultry pay on a large scale.  Nearly every poultry farm that has started as a business has failed to make a success.  The surest way to make chickens pay is to have only a few.  Then the table scraps and the worms and weed seeds they can pick up will supply them with practically all their feed and the time you give them need not be counted as expense.

There are sixty or seventy distinct breeds of poultry recognized by expert fanciers and from three to ten colours or varieties in many of these breeds.  New ones are being added constantly.  For example, a breed called Orpingtons was recently introduced from England and now has ten varieties or colours that are “standard.”  At the New York Poultry Show a record price of $2,500 was paid for the prize-winning hen of this breed.  There is a style in chickens as well as in anything else.  A new breed will always have a great many admirers at first, and great claims will be made for its superior qualities.  The poultrymen who have stock and eggs to sell will secure high prices for their output.  Very soon, however, the real value of a new breed will be known and it will be on the same basis as the older breeds.

A beginner had better start with some standard recognized breed and leave the experimenting to some one else.  One thing is certain:  thoroughbreds will pay better than mongrels.  Their eggs are of more uniform size and colour, the stock will be healthy and as a rule weigh a pound or two more than birds of uncertain breeding.  Thoroughbreds do not cost any more to feed or care for than the mongrels and in every way are superior.