THE CALL OF THE HEN. 23 



Now, here we have three distinct types of fowl in almost every 

 breed. We have divided these three types into six separate classes 

 for each type: 



No. 1 of the typical egg type hen may lay about 36 eggs; 



No. 2 may lay about 96 eggs; 



No. 3 may lay about 180 eggs; 



No. 4 may lay about 220 eggs; 



No. 5 may lay about 250 eggs; 



No. 6 may lay about 280 eggs; 



All this is in their first laying year. 



No. 1 of the dual-purpose type hen may lay about 20 eggs; 



No. 2 may lay about 50 eggs; 



No. 3 may lay about 96 eggs; 



No. 4 may lay about 115 eggs; 



No. 5 may lay about 130 eggs; 



No. 6 may lay about 145 eggs; 



This is in their first laying year. 



No. 1 of the typical meat type may lay from nothing to a dozen 

 eggs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 may lay from nothing to a couple of dozen 

 eggs, and, as a rule, will lay these in the spring when the crows lay. 

 The reason is very plain, if we stop to think that the same natural 

 laws govern all animal (and human) nature. 



The egg type hen is of a nervous temperament (that is why she is 

 usually free from body lice, if she has a suitable place to dust in), and 

 all she eats over bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. 

 The hen of the sanguine temperament is a little more beefy, and lays 

 less eggs; the hen of the bilious temperament is more beefy still, and lays 

 still less eggs, while the hen of the lymphatic temperament will lay 

 little or nothing, almost everything she eats going to flesh and fat. 

 (The reader need borrow no trouble over the meaning of the terms 

 "nervous," "sanguine," "bilious," and "lymphatic" temperament, if he 

 is not familiar with them, as the charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will specify 

 matters so that anyone can understand the matter of selecting the dif- 

 ferent grades of hens with very little study and trouble.) 



We have said that we have divided the three grades, the egg type, 

 dual-purpose type, and meat type, into six separate classes. There is, 

 in fact, a seventh class, but it is so rare that we will not take it into 

 consideration here, but will explain it later. But we have, in fact, made 

 ninety classes of these six for convenience in selection, and the process 

 could be extended indefinitely, but it would serve no needful purpose. 



Now, when we consider all these different grades in the hens of 

 every breed, and the further fact that there is the same number of 

 different grades in the male bird, is it any wonder that there is so much 

 difference of opinion in regard to the profits derived from poultry- 

 keeping? We have visited hundreds of poultry plants that numbered 

 from about fifty to two thousand or more hens each. We have seen 

 some flocks of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they con- 

 sumed, for the simple reason that they were not the right type of hens. 

 They were fine-looking, healthy meat-producers, but there was no 

 earthly way possible to feed them that would induce them to lay eggs 

 at any time except a few months in the spring when the crows laid, 

 and eggs were cheap. The owners of some of these flocks were bright, 

 brainy, vigorous business men, who tried every method that usage and 



