THE CALL OF THE HEN. 37 



11 and 24. This indicates the Type of the bird. Some will be one- 

 sixteenth (Vie) of an inch thick, including the flank as held between 

 the thumb and forefinger, as seen in Figs. 11 and 24, and will vary all 

 the way up to one and a quarter (1J4) inches, including bone, gristle, 

 fat, and flank, as seen in Fig. 31. 



The reader is aware by this time that we are in the chapter per- 

 taining to Type, the last of the three classes that it is necessary to 

 divide poultry into in order to make a scientific classification to enable 

 one to arrive at the approximate value of the "Individual Bird" as an 

 Egg or as a Meat proposition (and without any regard as to its value 

 as a breeder, which will be shown later). I wish to repeat here that 

 Type is controlled wholly by temperament. We must select the tem- 

 perament or combinations of temperaments that suit our purpose, and 

 then, with the desired capacity and by scientific feeding, so as to keep 

 the subject in proper condition, poultry culture will become more of 

 a science with the majority of poultry men than it is at present. In 

 order to prepare the reader for what is to follow, I will divide poultry 

 into three distinct classes as to temperaments. 



The hen that will produce the largest amount of eggs with the small- 

 est amount of meat possible for her capacity is of the nervous tem- 

 perament. The hen which uses one-half of her vitality in producing 

 eggs and the other half of her vitality in producing meat in other 

 words, the dual-purpose hen is a combination of both the sanguine 

 and bilious temperaments and is called "the hen with the sanguine- 

 bilious temperament." The hen that produces the largest amount of 

 flesh and the smallest amount of eggs consistent with her capacity is 

 of the lymphatic temperament. 



In a fowl all the different temperaments and their different degrees 

 of combinations are indicated by the pelvic bones. In the horse they 

 are indicated largely by the breed. The Arabian, the ideal running 

 and trotting horse, is a good type of the nervous temperament, the Coach 

 horse is a good type of the sanguine-bilious temperament, and the 

 Clyde is a good type of the lymphatic temperament. In cattle we 

 have a good example of the nervous temperament in the Jersey, and 

 of the lymphatic in the beef family of Durham, also Hereford and 

 Polled Angus, while the Holstein and Ayrshire cattle are good types 

 of the sanguine-bilious combined. 



I have made this deviation so I could offer to my poultry friends 

 this thought: that there are certain laws in nature that have no regard 

 for our theories, and the better we understand these laws, the less liable 

 we are to make mistakes. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CAPACITY. 



In the preceding chapters we have given the reader an idea of the; 

 method we use in judging the value of a hen for the purpose we wish 

 her for. In the succeeding chapters we will explain the method in detail. 



First, we will take up "Capacity." 



Fig. 12 shows a hen with only one finger capacity (% of an inch) 

 between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 



OH 3 



