24 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



science suggested, and fought with sheer desperation to make a success 

 of the business, but went down in failure; while their next neighbor, a 

 little pin-headed, conceited specimen of humanity, strutting around 

 like a peacock, was getting rich with the same breed of hens. "Luck," 

 do you say? Yes, it is mostly a matter of chance. The first man was 

 unfortunate in that he got his eggs or breeding-hens from stock such as 

 that described in the first article of the Fanciers' Monthly, while the last 

 man got his eggs or breeding-pens from stock described by Mrs. Basley 

 in the second article. 



We once visited a gentleman who had a very extensive poultry 

 plant. He had a large number of different breeds yarded off in finely 

 appointed yards, with help and financial means to satisfy every need 

 of a poultry plant. His pens of Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans 

 were remarkable layers, while his Cochins, Houdans and Polish were 

 very good layers. After looking over the last-named birds, he re- 

 marked: "I have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which 

 I wish you would look at." After we had looked at them a few minutes, 

 he asked, "What do you think of them as layers?" I replied that if he would 

 tell me which pen laid an average of all the pens, I would tell him in 

 a few minutes. "That pen there," said he, pointing to No. 20, "has 

 laid an average number of all the eggs laid." After examining the hens, 

 I told him I would not take them as a gift, if I had to keep them one 

 year. "Why"? he asked. "Because," I replied, "after keeping them 

 a year and selling them, the price I would receive for the hens and the 

 eggs they would lay would not pay for their feed. I cannot see why 

 you keep them." The next evening he said to me, "Do you see that 

 man moving into the place over yonder? Well, I have sold those 

 Leghorn hens to that newcomer for $500." "Is this an exceptional 

 case?" you ask. I have only this to say: that all the David Harums 

 are not in the horse business, neither can I see why a poultry man should 

 be his brother's keeper, when it is not the rule in other lines of business. 

 It seems to me the better way is to study poultry from a scientific point 

 of view, so that you can judge the value of a hen for the purpose you 

 want her for, and not have to depend on other people's opinions. 



By studying this book carefully you will be able to tell approximately 

 the number of eggs a hen is capable of laying in a year; you can also 

 select the hens that will be the best for breeding purposes, for eggs, 

 for meat, or as a dual-purpose hen that is, a hen that will give you 

 the largest number of eggs possible with the largest possible amount of 

 meat when you wish to sell her, or the hen that will produce the best 

 broilers, regardless of any one particular breed. Some hens will be 

 very good layers, some very good meat-producers, some very good 

 dual-purpose type, and some very fine fancy birds, and you can mate 

 them with the same type of male bird and breed from these birds for a 

 few generations, and their progeny will degenerate. The chickens from 

 the hens and cockerels or cock birds of the 200-egg type may lay less 

 each generation, until in eight or ten generations they may not lay 

 enough to pay for their feed. The progeny from some of the best meat 

 and dual-purpose type matings will sometimes degenerate just as the 

 egg type, until they are practically worthless as profitable meat pro- 

 ducers. The chicks from the fancy mating may be a failure from the 

 fancier's point of view. 



