272 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



conditions that are not reproduced in every-day 

 commercial life. It is the examination system applied 

 to hens, and, just as we are for ever coming across 

 efficient men who were duffers in examination and 

 duffers of prizemen, so there are, no doubt, dis- 

 appointments in store for the poultry-man who buys 

 too blindly the offspring of champion layers. We 

 suppose that the proportion of eggs that will produce 

 healthy chicks must be smaller than in the case of 

 a normal layer, and in many cases the tired organism 

 of the over-layer would take a very reactionary rest 

 in the next generation. Then the hen that lays with 

 the fury of these champions lays only for one season. 

 She must be replaced in the second season, and it 

 may be that the cost of rearing an increased number 

 of chicks must be set off against the advantage of 

 getting even fifty per cent, more eggs per laying hen 

 per annum. 



We almost hope that there may be economic reasons 

 against the undue driving of the hen. We no more 

 like to think of the farmyard population renewed 

 every year than that the " hands " in a factory must 

 be " pole-axed " at the age of thirty to make room for 

 more paying material. We like to see the grand- 

 mother and great-grandmother sunning herself in the 

 straw with her latest foster family, or taking a turn 

 at the laying for a few weeks each year. We cannot 

 believe that the hen of a certain hundred and fifty 

 eggs per annum can lay really good eggs. We call 

 upon the public analyst to report on this matter, and 

 we say beforehand that if he finds the sweated egg 

 as rich in food values as the other we shall take leave 

 to doubt him. Certainly by far the best eggs we 



