THE CALL OF THE HEN; OR, THE SCIENCE 

 OF SELECTING AND BREEDING POULTRY 



By WALTER HOGAN. 

 CHAPTER I. 



THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES WHICH GOVERN THE SELECTION AND 

 BREEDING OF POULTRY ARE CAPACITY, CONDITION, TYPE, CON- 

 STITUTIONAL VIGOR AND PREPOTENCY. 



In the winter of 1910 I received a letter from a woman in Oregon 

 which read as follows: 



"DEAR SIR My husband is a machinist. He is getting old and 

 his health is failing. We have both worked hard all our lives, and have 

 saved enough to buy a small place in the country. We can no longer 

 do hard work, and in looking for some light occupation that would 

 bring weekly returns, we have looked favorably on the poultry business. 

 We have kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of years, 

 and think we have done well with them. We also take four poultry 

 papers, but each one tells a different story, and we cannot decide what 

 to do. We have been years accumulating our little savings, and if we 

 should lose them, we would have no resources left for our old age. I 

 enclose two articles from the September (1910) number of the Pacific 

 Fanciers' Monthly. One article gives me to understand that it is almost 

 hopeless to think of making a living with hens, if we depend on selling 

 eggs and poultry on the market. The other article holds out the promise 

 of a possible income of a thousand dollars per year from 300 hens if 

 handled under right conditions. One means utter failure and bank- 

 ruptcy in market eggs and poultry, and the other means the fullest 

 measure of success. Both of these articles are in the same number 

 and one follows the other on the same page. How can you reconcile 

 these two conflicting opinions?" 



(The articles follow.) 



"A COMMON QUESTION WISELY ANSWERED. 



"By George Scott. 



"Can a living be made from poultry? Probably there is no one 

 who has attained distinction in the avicultural arena to whom this ques- 

 tion has not been put hundreds of times; and it is a question of perennial 

 interest to the poultry-keeping public. There are many people who will 

 tell you that a living, and a good living, can be made from poultry- 

 keeping alone, and as proof of their statement will point out the numer- 

 ous men whose names are household words in the fancy. On the other 

 hand, a vast majority will most emphatically give utterance to state- 



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