106 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



The enclosed article gives the results of my six months' test of the system ; 

 these results are so striking that I have ventured to send them to you 

 for publication in your paper. I hope you will be able to use it as getting 

 these facts has involved a great deal of close personal attention and effort. 

 I presented a copy of Mr. Hogan's book to a neighbor poultryman 

 and induced another to send for a copy. The book was entirely unknown 

 in this section. Both of my friends are enthusiastic about the system 

 and have already found it of great value. They are both expert poultry- 

 men, one of them having charge of Mr. C. F. Lewis' poultry yards here 

 and the other having been in the business for fourteen years. The 

 latter has found the chapters devoted to prepotency of cocks especially 

 valuable and now understands why his flock went all to pieces some 

 years ago after five years of careful upbuilding. 



Very truly yours, 



CHARLES H. PARKER. 



"Do the physical characteristics of a pullet or hen the distance 

 between the pelvic bones and the breast bone, the width of the pelvic 

 bones and the condition as indicated by the amount of flesh on the 

 breast bone enable a poultryman to foretell, with approximate accuracy, 

 the number of eggs that a pullet or hen will lay in a year? This is the 

 question the writer decided to answer for himself after reading Walter 

 Hogan's book The Call of the Hen.' 



"If the system as outlined by Mr. Hogan is to be relied upon the 

 use of the trap-nest would not be necessary except for pedigree work. 

 No poultryman needs to be told how valuable, if reliable, such a system 

 would be in enabling him, with a minimum of labor and expense, to build 

 up a flock with a high egg yield, to regulate feeding by separating the 

 egg from the meat type and in many cases to turn losses into profits. 



"This book made such an impression upon the writer that he at 

 once determined to measure his hens according to the directions given 

 by Mr. Hogan, to note the egg-laying capacity as thus indicated and to 

 check this forecast with an actual trap-nest record. 



"Following are the very striking results of this experiment, extending 

 over a period which put the system to a severe test the months of 

 September, October, November, December, January and February, in 

 the state of Connecticut. The hens were Fishel's White Rocks, fed 

 during the test, according to the Cornell formula and confined in yards 

 allowing 100 square feet per bird. Each hen was carefully measured and 

 leg-banded, great care being taken that no mistakes were made in the 

 measurements. These measurements and the egg-laying capacity they 

 indicated according to the system were as follows: 



Capacity Condition Pelvic bones, 



Hen No. in fingers. in fingers. inches. Egg capacity. 



RIO 5 1 */4 235 



G3 5 1 V4 235 



G7 5 1 / 205 



R8 4 2 / 205 



Gil 5 1 / 20S 



G8 3 2 / 175 



R4 5 Vt 145 



R6 3 1 V U5 



G9 4 1 '/ 85 



