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is the .easiest thing in the world when you come to put common sense 

 principles to apply to selecting individuals. Body must be wide and 

 the legs wide apart. Take chickens with low vitality and you get the 

 knock-kneed, bow-legged individuals and all sorts of combinations in 

 these low vitality chickens. I have seen chickens of low vitality that 

 their legs were so close together that they touched when they walked. 



Take the question of gallantry. That is a little thing, and yet it 

 is an indication of vigor. Test a bunch of males that may "pass 

 muster" on all of these other things, throw down grain for the flock 

 of hens and notice how they eat. If the males show generosity and 

 gallantry and have the physical qualities we want, they will pick up 

 the grain and call the hens and not simply eat it themselves. Some 

 of the finest males I have known would literally starve themselves 

 to see that the hens secured all they wanted to eat. 



What has the length of the fowl's toe nails to do with its health? 

 You will find that the chicken that has fine constitutional vigor is 

 generally so busy scratching and hunting for food, whether in a hen 

 house or outside, that the toe nails are short, and the chicken of low 

 vitality is very likely to have long toe nails. This, however, is only one 

 evidence of high or low vitality. Usually he will be a good crower, 

 characteristically so. A chicken of low vitality very seldom crows. 

 I have seen this tested over and over again. I learned a short time 

 ago that it is customary in some of the foreign countries to have what 

 is known as crowing contests as a test of fighting quality, and that 

 the individuals that are the strongest do the most crowing. At any 

 rate, if we will use the crowing character in connection with these 

 other factors in selecting males for our breeding pens, we have gone 

 one step further in getting our best breeders. The fainter the crow 

 the more the male should be associated with low vitality. The only 

 time I have ever known a low vitality male to crow when I have been 

 giving a demonstration is where the partition between the coop was 

 broken down and the two individuals got together and the stronger 

 one licked the weaker one. When they were separated the low vitality 

 individual crowed for joy, he was so glad apparently to get away from 

 the other one. Possibly you have noticed this same trait in human 

 nature. The same thing is true in regard to singing of hens. A hen 

 of low vitality seldom sings, and if she lays is not very expressive of 

 the fact. The singing hen is the laying hen as well as the cackling 

 hen. The activity of the individual is a good character. Go to a 

 flock of fowls and watch them and it will be observed that the fowl 

 of the highest vitality generally is on the move hunting for food. The 

 hens of low vitality are very frequently upon the perches during the 

 middle of the day doing nothing, and if they are not there they are 

 standing around humped up on one leg in the corner, tail feathers 

 drooping. So effective is this method of distinguishing low from high 

 vitality by the way fowls eat and act that one can, by observing hens 

 early in the morning, to discover the ones that get off the roosts first 

 to hunt for grain and then at night the ones that go to roost last, you 

 will find that they are the same individuals. The ones that get up 

 first and go to bed last are in the best laying condition. Why? Because 

 they have such tremendous appetites. They are generally such good 

 growers or good producers that they have used up the food they ate 

 the day before, and therefore they get out in the morning hungry, 

 hence get up early and go immediately to hunt for food, while the 



