Bob in especial acquired concentrated practice in horsemanship
for the simple reason that his animal refused to dismiss his first
hypothesis of bears.
Nevertheless, at the end of the season Merker gravely presented a duly
made out balance to the credit of hogs.
Encouraged by the success of this venture, he next attempted chickens.
But even his vacant-eyed figuring had neglected to take into
consideration the abundance of such predatory beasts and birds as
wildcats, coyotes, raccoons, owls and the swift hawks of the falcon
family.
"I had thought," he reported to the secretly amused Welton, "that even
in feeding the finer sorts of garbage to hogs there might be an economic
waste; hogs fatten well enough on the coarser grades, and chickens will
eat the finer. In that I fell into error. The percentage of loss from
noxious varmints more than equals the difference in the cost of eggs. I
further find that the margin of profits on chickens is not large enough
to warrant expenditures for traps, dogs and men sufficient for
protection."
"And how does the enterprise stand now?" asked Welton.
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