22 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



to be egg breeds and dual-purpose breeds. The first are supposed to 

 be a paying proposition as a whole for egg-production. The latter are 

 supposed to be a paying proposition for both eggs and meat combined; 

 some breeders claiming that their breed will give you the very largest 

 number of eggs per year and the greatest weight of flesh all in one bird. 

 Now, these claims are misleading. It is an utter physical impossibility 

 for any hen to be a typical egg type and at the same time be a typical 

 meat type. It is against the laws of Nature. We have the Leghorns, 

 Minorcas, Spanish, and a number of other Mediterranean breeds that 

 are called "egg type." While the truth is, that while they have been 

 bred as best the breeders knew how along the lines of egg-production, 

 you can find vast numbe r s that will not lay eggs enough to pay for the 

 feed they eat. Great numbers in some flocks have all the characteristics 

 of the beef type, and will lay about three or four dozen eggs per year 

 and sometimes not over a dozen. The Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, 

 Wyandottes, and Langshans are classed as "dual-purpose" breeds, 

 which means hens that will lay a medium number of eggs and give a 

 good large carcass for the table; and while this is true in a majority of 

 cases, I have seen numerous specimens that laid over two hundred and 

 fifty eggs per year, while some would lay little or nothing. In fact, 

 while I have bred Leghorns for more than forty years, and they are 

 my favorite breed, I must say I have found as good layers (within a 

 few eggs) in all the other breeds I have named as I have found in the 

 Leghorns, and I have also found as poor layers among the Leghorns 

 as I have found in any other breed. As far as the number of eggs is 

 concerned, as a rule, I find that the breed of the hen has nothing to do 

 with it whatever. 



I do not wish to be considered dogmatic in anything I may say 

 in this work. I am merely giving the opinions I have formed by ob- 

 servation and experiment during a period of fifty-six years that I have 

 kept poultry, not to make all the money I could out of them, but to learn 

 all I possibly could about them in fact, until a few years ago I never 

 kept poultry for the money there was in it. The keeping of hens has 

 been a passion with me. I have spent years of time and thousand? of 

 dollars, but I think I have found something that will be of inestimable 

 value to the world, and I have found it not because I was any better 

 fitted for the work than thousands of other lovers of poultry, but be- 

 cause I stuck everlastingly to it, without any regard as to whether it 

 paid me in dollars or not. 



As previously stated, it is not a matter of breed as to whether a 

 hen is a good layer or not. It is a matter of type, capacity, and consti- 

 tutional vigor. First, in almost all breeds there is a type of hen where 

 everything she consumes over bodily maintenance goes to the pro- 

 duction of eggs. This we call the "typical egg type." Second, there 

 is a type where about half the food consumed over maintenance goes 

 to the production of eggs, the balance over bodily maintenance going 

 to make flesh. This is called the "dual-purpose type," as this hen 

 performs two functions that are considered necessary in the economy 

 of Nature: the production of eggs and the production of meat on a 

 commercial scale. Third, there is a type where everything consumed 

 over bodily maintenance goes to flesh. This hen we call the "meat 

 type," for the reason that practically all her energy is used in producing 

 meat. 



