120 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



was wholly unable to find a bird or strain that were known to be excep- 

 tional egg-producers, he succeeded, within six years after starting, in 

 building up a flock that averaged annually considerably over 200 eggs 

 per hen. 



CUT No. 1 A Leghorn hen showing this development has the egg-laying instinct 

 at its maximum. 



Before deciding to publish this work, I found, after diligent inquiry 

 among the leading poultrymen of the United States and Canada, and 

 some correspondence reaching to other countries, that there was no known 

 method other than the slow and costly one of trap-nesting of selecting 

 birds of great egg-producing capacity. Trap-nesting, in addition to the 

 faults mentioned, which makes it almost impracticable for the farmer, 

 had a still more serious one in the writer's judgment; it could not trap- 

 nest roosters, which I have found to be more than "half the flock." For 

 this seemingly insurmountable difficulty I have found an easy solution, 

 and can as readily identify the male as the female, and as unerringly. 



The facts of which this document treat are a discovery, a method, 

 and a development all in one. The happy inspiration and discovery 

 came within a few hours; but it has reached this workable and abso- 

 lutely reliable form by a costly analytical and experimental process 

 extending through years. After the underlying principle had been found, 

 it had to be tested and proved to my own satisfaction. Then the various 

 objections and criticisms, which will occur to many readers, had to be 

 answered or met by actual practical experiences. 



