THE CALL OF THE HEN. 85 



that is 7 /i6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 

 that is over 7 /i 6 -inch pelvic bone in the four-finger-abdomen class; 

 keeping every hen in the five-finger-abdomen class that is 9 /ie-inch pelvic 

 bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market that is over 9 /i" 

 inch pelvic bone; keeping every hen in the six-finger abdomen class that 

 is n /i6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 

 that is over n /i6-inch pelvic bone thick. 



I want to say here that there is nothing arbitrary in regard to Charts 

 44 and 45. Each poultry man can draw the lines where he thinks it 

 will best suit his purpose. A great many years of experimenting has 

 led the writer to believe these charts answer the purpose very well. 



We have disposed of all the one-year-and-four-months-old hens, 

 and will move our outfit to the two-year-and-four-months-old hens, and 

 arrange the catching-coop and charts as in the first case. 



The first hen we take from the coop may be a one-finger-abdomen 

 hen, in good condition. All one and two-finger-abdomen hens in good 

 condition over one year and four months old, as a rule, should be disposed 

 of. There is no profit in them after they have laid their allotted number 

 of eggs their first season or, in other words, after they commence to 

 moult in their first laying year ; so after this we will not consider them in 

 this connection. 



There is a great difference in the number of eggs a flock of hens will 

 lay each year as they grow older. Some will lose 5 per cent, some 10 

 per cent, some 15 per cent, and some 20 per cent. Some will not lay 

 anything (this will be explained later) after their first laying year. It 

 depends altogether on the vitality of the hen and how she has been fed 

 and raised ; and the variations in the percentage of eggs laid by exactly 

 the same type of hens will vary with different poultry-keepers and also 

 with the same poultry-keeper, varying more or less in each separate 

 pen, proving that environment has more or less to do with egg-production, 

 all other things, as far as human knowledge is concerned, being equal. 

 Some people who are good mathematicians, but who are wholly ignorant 

 of animal nature, look surprised when I explain to them the difference 

 between classifying the production of a number of like machines with the 

 production of a number of hens of the same score in egg production. 

 As a scientific proposition, it is impossible to write a chart beforehand 

 that will fit every case. If we took 1,000 hens of any pronounced type 

 say 100-egg type, which were fed, housed, and cared for in exactly the 

 same manner, and one of them laid 5, 10, or 15 eggs more or less some 

 year than the other 999 hens, it would prove our contention or theory, 

 from a scientific point of view. I am sure that 100 expert poultrymen 

 could take 100 hens of the same general type that would score the same 

 egg-capacity and would all be in the same condition, and each poultryman 

 feed and care for his 100 birds for four years the best he knew how, 

 and very few of them would agree on a set of figures that would give the 

 percentage of decrease in egg-production each year. The one who fed 

 the heaviest and produced the most eggs would have the largest per- 

 centage of decrease, while the ones who fed for hatching eggs and did 

 not force their hens with condiments and stimulants would get the 

 least number of eggs and the lowest percentage of decrease, not figuring 

 the percentage of decrease from the number of eggs actually laid, but 

 from what the hen would lay each year. 



