THE CALL OF THE HEN. 125 



Again, a worthless pullet can be found when she is from five to six 

 months old and fattened and sold without having to keep her a full year 

 in order to do it safely. Besides, handling hens almost always tends 

 to disturb and discourage laying. Trap-nesting will, if persistently 

 followed the entire year, give nearly the exact individual record, which 

 is not material to one egg man in a thousand. It cannot be exact, 

 however, as a shut-in and otherwise disturbed hen never does her best. 



This method applies to other birds as well turkeys, for instance. 

 Last fall I bought two turkeys for experiment; one was SMALL, with 

 LARGE egg-development; the other LARGE with SMALL egg-de- 

 velopment. The small bird has laid and hatched out two litters of four- 

 teen each the present season, and has at this date laid twenty- three 

 eggs toward a third litter. The large one laid and hatched fourteen 

 eggs early in the season, and has shown no signs of laying since, but 

 has taken on much more flesh than the laying turkey. This would, in 

 addition to indicating laying turkeys, also show what to breed if large 

 birds only are desired as would nearly always be the case with turkeys. 



The absolute surety of never killing a bird for market or home 

 consumption that is laying, about to begin laying, or is liable to lay in 

 the near future, is another decided advantage over the trap-nest, and 

 one of the quickest available advantages of the system. 



Again, the process requires no investment in patent nests, leg- 

 bands, or other fixings, which amount, in trap-nesting, to many times 

 the first and only cost of this method. For accuracy in all the ad- 

 vantages claimed for this method, we will most gladly submit to a test 

 with the greatest expert trap-nester that can be selected, if it can be so 

 arranged that some high authority in poultry matters or some Govern- 

 ment Experiment Station shall have charge of it. This unconditional 

 offer we make to the world. 



How TO SELECT. 



As a basic principle of this method of identifying capacity for egg- 

 production is the width and relative condition of the pelvic bones and 

 surrounding construction, it is obvious that exact measurements cannot 

 be given, unless a distinct breed be designated. A Cochin lays a large 

 egg, and is built accordingly; a Bantam lays a small egg, and its pelvic 

 development in inches is correspondingly smaller. 1 1 would be manifestly 

 misleading to apply the same measurements to the two birds. 



While the ability to make this allowance will come to the operator 

 quickly almost intuitively after a very short experience I have 

 thought best to confine all my descriptions and measurements here to 

 one breed of fowls only, the Leghorns, these being a medium-sized, 

 representative bird, well scattered over the entire country. It will be 

 easy from the measurements to work up or down, as the birds on hand 

 may be larger or smaller. It is all a matter of comparison, and, all things 

 being equal, the bird with the widest and most pliable pelvic bones will 

 be the greatest layer, while the one with very narrow contracted pelvic 

 formation will lay little, if at all. Behind the pelvic bones lies the egg 

 machinery, and it will be found more abundant and roomy the wider 

 the bones. 



