"THE FLYING COWS OF BILOXI recounts how Benson Bidwell grafts 12-foot wings made from orange trees to cows so they can easily feed on the Spanish moss growing freely on trees in Biloxi, Mississippi. Bidwell's successful experiment hinges on the "union of animal and vegetable substances." He plants the framework for his first set of wings in soil fertilized with blood so that the orange branches will sprout new leaves quickly "which would make them strong, elastic and light like a bird's wings." After testing these wings by harnessing them to a cow using an elaborate system of pulleys and ropes, Bidwell makes the remarkable discovery that, overnight, the wings have grown into the muscles of the cow's shoulders: "The blood I had used to fertilize the wings had found its affinity in the blood of the cow and a circulation had been established between the wings and the heart of the cow whose every beat sent its blood to the tips of the wings." Bidwell ends up producing a herd of flying cows whose calves are born with orange-tree wings that actually blossom and produce fruit that becomes a prime export to high-end department stores in Chicago. As scholar Douglas Anderson notes, FLYING COWS OF BILOXI acquired legendary status among genre collectors because noted bookmen, including Vincent Starrett, wrote about the book but could not find it.