330 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



his incubator overtime that season, so as to fill 

 our houses by autumn. I should need 800 or 

 900 pullets to make our quota good, for most of 

 the older hens would have to be disposed of in 

 the autumn, all but about 200, which would 

 be kept until the following spring to breed from. 



I believe that a three-year-old hen that has 

 shown the egg habit is the best fowl to breed 

 from, and it is the custom at Four Oaks to re- 

 serve specially good pens for this purpose. The 

 egg habit is unquestionably as much a matter of 

 heredity as the milk or the fat producing habit, 

 and should be as carefully cultivated. With this 

 end in view, Sam added young cockerels to four 

 of his best-producing flocks on January 1, and by 

 the 15th he was able to start his incubators. 



Breeding and feeding for eggs is on the same 

 principle as feeding and breeding for milk. It 

 is no more natural for a hen to lay eggs for 

 human consumption than it is for the robin to do 

 so, or for the cow to give more milk than is suffi- 

 cient for her calf. Man's necessity has made 

 demands upon both cow and hen, and man's in- 

 telligence has converted individualists into social- 

 ises in both of these races. They no longer live 

 for themselves alone. As the cow, under favor- 

 able conditions, finds pleasure in giving milk, so 

 does the hen under like conditions take delight 

 in giving eggs, else why the joyous cackle when 

 leaving her nest after doing her full duty ? She 

 gloats over it, and glories in it, and announces 



