THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21 



I wrote the lady that both of these articles were right. Let us see 

 if we can prove the statement. If the reader has ever had any ex- 

 perience with cattle, he knows it would be sure folly to buy a herd of 

 Polled Angus or Herefords for a dairy farm, for they have been bred 

 for years for beef, and practically everything fed to them goes to meat; 

 while it would be just as foolish to buy a herd of Jersey cows and expect 

 to make a living from them raising beef, as they have been bred for 

 years for butter-fat, and practically everything fed to them goes to milk 

 and cream. If the reader's experience has been with horses, he is aware 

 that a man engaged in teaming would not select the trotting type of 

 horse, neither would a turfman put his money on an 1800-pound Clyde 

 horse, if the balance of the field were trotting horses; that would not 

 be horse sense. Now, the same comparison holds good in the poultry 

 field, except with this difference, that the egg type and meat type in 

 poultry have never been segregated into different breeds, and each breed 

 bred for a number of years along the line it was intended for the egg 

 type bred for eggs alone, and all birds inclined to meat-production dis- 

 carded both male and female, and the meat type bred for meat, with- 

 out regard to eggs, except enough to perpetuate the species, just as the 

 typical butter cattle and typical beef cattle have been bred. 



I have seen a great many cases like the first mentioned article, 

 where a person would go into the poultry business and get started 

 with stock that was of the meat type, and, not knowing any better, 

 would think that all poultry was the same as his, and the only way any 

 money could be made in the business was to sell fancy birds and eggs 

 at fancy prices. Now, these people are not to blame for what they do 

 not know. They think their hens are as good layers as any other hens 

 and they have no way of knowing any better. 



I have also seen a great many cases like Mrs. Basley writes of 

 except the profits were not so large, owing t6 different environment 

 I suppose. These people had the same breed of hens as the parties 

 before mentioned, but they were fortunate in getting the egg type, 

 and they made money with their hens. Everyone thinks every other 

 person's hens are the same as theirs, if they are of the same breed, and 

 that is the reason there are so many different conflicting statements in 

 the poultry papers, and not because the writers are not intelligent or 

 not truthful, as some suppose. From a scientific point of view, and 

 apart from the fancy, and as far as the knowledge of meat and egg pro- 

 duction is concerned, the poultry business is in its infancy, and the 

 people who write for the poultry papers give their experience for your 

 benefit. That is all. 



To further impress on your mind the difference between poultry 

 and other stock, I would say that while some individual cattle of the 

 various beef breeds will not be a paying proposition, the only safe plan 

 is to select your leaders from the beef family; and while some Jersey 

 cows will not pay as butter-producers, still, as a breed, they are among 

 the best for that purpose. Though some trotting horses do not make 

 good, as a rule, they will carry you over the road in good time, and though 

 some draft-type teams are not sure pullers, they are a success as a class. 



The same general laws apply to all animal nature. The hen is no 

 exception, only in this respect: that while cattle and horses have been 

 bred so that as a rule novices can select the type they wish by selecting 

 the breed, hens have not been bred that way. We have what purport 



