THE CALL OF THE HEN. 95 



reader too strongly. They should be as good or better if possible than 

 No. 1, Fig. 35, and do not forget that the thumb nail on the left hand 

 and the nail on the forefinger of the right hand (reverse the order if 

 left-handed) must be somewhat longer than the flesh, if you expect to 

 take correct measurements. 



CHAPTER XII. 



SELECTING THE COCKERELS AT BROILER AGE. 



I have tried to impress on the reader the importance of the careful 

 selection of the male birds, and perhaps he is fully alive to the value 

 of doing so. He starts out at the first opportunity and visits all the 

 poultry plants far and near, with the determination to purchase the best 

 male bird he can find. Before starting out, he decides he will have 

 nothing less than 200-egg types. Imagine his disappointment when, 

 after handling perhaps fifty or more, he can find nothing that will come 

 any way near the 200-egg type ; while if he examines the same number of 

 hens, he will very likely find at least one or perhaps more that will come 

 somewhat near what he is looking for. Then he will say that there is 

 no such bird as the chart describes as a 200-egg type cock bird. I wish 

 to say here that I think I have at least fifty male birds at the present 

 writing that will scale from 200 up, according to the charts. I have 

 over a dozen that will scale from 250 to 265, and these have all been 

 developed within six years from hens with three-finger abdomens and 

 J^-inch pelvic bones, mated to cockerels with IJ^-inch finger abdomens 

 and Vis-inch pelvic bones. 



The first season in California we raised about 300 cockerels up to 

 three months of age, which is within the broiler age for this section. 

 We arranged our house and catching-coop as in Figs. 1 and 2, and we 

 went through the same movements that we do when testing the hens, 

 except that we do not have to use all the tests on each one of the cockerels 

 that we use on the hens. We hold the cockerel as in Figs. 5 and 6 and 

 lay our hand on his abdomen as in Fig. 7. As soon as we lay our hand 

 on his abdomen we can feel instantly whether his pelvic bones are straight, 

 like Fig. 34, or crooked, like Fig. 33. If his pelvic bones are like Fig. 33, 

 we have no use for him as a breeder and put him in the shipping-crate 

 for market; if his pelvic bones are straight, like Fig. 34, we measure the 

 depth of his abdomen; if it is less than two fingers, we put him in the 

 shipping-crate ; if two fingers or over, we examine him for prepotency ; 

 and if the projection on the back of his head, as in No. 1, Fig. 35, is less 

 than Ys of an inch behind a line drawn at right angles from the back 

 of the ear (see Figs. 41, 42 and 43) we put him in the shipping-crate, 

 no matter how good he is in other points. We take no chances with 

 him, because if we have made no mistake in measuring his head lines, 

 abdomen, and pelvic bones, it will be a waste of time to breed from him; 

 but if his head measures up good, we keep him as a prospective breeder. 

 We say "as a prospective breeder," as it is very evident it will not pay 

 to raise all the cockerels to maturity. 



Here in Petaluma, where there are over 600,000 cockerels raised to 

 broiler age in a season, it would be impossible to raise them all and test 

 their breeding qualities, neither is it necessary. If a person has a 



