The Florida agriculturist., 1906-03-07


err" whichever you choose to call it.
sold for $1,000 or not. The amount
does not make any particular differ
ence. One large amount is as good
as another so far as the philosophy
of the matter goes. If the bird sold
for 800, Or 81 900, or $4,000, or $4,000,
it was worth the money. The value
of anything at any time is the price it
will bring. The fact that the bird
which sells for $1OO is no larger, no
better eating no better layer, and pos
sibly not likely to live as long as one
that might be bought for a dollar, has
nothing to do with the case Iron is
more useful for some purposes than
gold, but gold is always worth more
money.
Or take a different kind of illustra-
tiOn A fine fowl is really a work of
skill and art It's production is some
thing i'm which the skill and art of the
breeder are hampered in many ways,
so much so that when a world beater
is produced, the breeder is as much
surprised at his success as any
though he never lets on that he is.
A painter of very moderate and Or
binary talent may paint a picture
which he gladly sells, with frame, for
few dollars. 1t may fill a vacant
place on the wall of room as salts
factOrily as a more costly work of art,
and its cOlOrs may seem as pleasing to
the owner But to those whose ideas
of art are different, this painting may
seem a wretched daub, thing they
would not take as gift. But some
of those who are up-Or think they are
rf ho ho
give enormous amounts for pictures,
and few will inquire into their sanity
on that account. Now, perhaps I'm
not a very good judge of art, but once
i'm while l go and sit and look at
pictures that represent big prices, and
1 come away feeling that after all it
would not be much out of the way if
fine fowls occasionally brought as big
prices as some of these pictures do.
think, too, that a good many
pictures and other works of art sell
more on the reputation of the artist
than on any remarkable beauty or
merit i'm them-just as a good many
fowls sell. In fact, the more 1 think
of it the higher is my estimate of the
people who pay big prices for fine
| fowls as compared with those who pay
1Or ART ODJecuS.
Or take the collectors of various
kinds for comparison One man will
buy an old book for few hundred
or thousands of dollars, paying the
price because the book is rare. a cir
cumStance which. instead of adding to
| it's value. seems to me to make the
book less desirable For if the book is
of use to people generally, it ought not
to be rare 1t need not be, for with
modern facilities for printing and re-
producing pictures or other features
| of book, any book that was really
of use to any considerable class of
people ought to be printed in popular
editions and spread broadcast. But
men collect books and coins, postage
stamps and posters, and all sorts of
| things. and no one stops to inquire
whether they are ''all there" or
whether their fad is worth while, un-
til they begin to pay out a little more
than the value for table purposes for
chickens.
To me it seems that chicken, that
is, some chickens. considered merely
as live works of art, are worth great
deal. and instead of getting warm un-
der the collar when people begin to
speak slightingly or look sidewise at
Al ,Ip or want extra