I really think I chose the 'dottes because the first
reply to my letters was from a man who was breeding them."
"They are 'beauts,' all of them, and I'll give them a good chance to
spread themselves," said Sam.
"What percentage of hatch may we expect from purchased eggs?"
"About sixty chicks out of every hundred eggs, I reckon."
"That would be doing pretty well, wouldn't it? If we had good luck with
the sixty chicks, how many would grow up?"
"Fifty ought to."
"Of these fifty, can we count on 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.
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