20 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



No. 4 may lay about 220 eggs; 



No. 5 may lay about 250 eggs ; 



No. 6 may lay about 280 eggs ; 



All this is in their first laying year. 



No. 1 of the dual-purpose type hen may lay about 20 eggs; 



No. 2 may lay about 50 eggs; 



No. 3 may lay about 96 eggs; 



No. 4 may lay about 115 eggs; 



No. 5 may lay about 130 eggs ; 



No. 6 may lay about 145 eggs. 



This in their first laying year. 



No. 1 of the typical meat type may lay from nothing to 

 a dozen eggs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 may lay from nothing to a 

 couple of dozen eggs, and, as a rule, will lay these in the spring 

 when the crows lay. The reason is very plain, if we stop to 

 think that the same natural laws govern all animal (and 

 human) nature. 



The egg type hen is of a nervous temperament (that is 

 why she is usually free from body lice, if she has a suitable 

 place to dust in), and all she eats over bodily maintenance 

 goes to the production of eggs. The hen of the sanguine 

 temperament is a little more beefy, and lays less eggs; the 

 hen of the bilious temperament is more beefy still, and lays 

 still less eggs, while the hen of the lymphatic temperament 

 will lay little or nothing, almost everything she eats going to 

 flesh and fat. (The reader need borrow no trouble over the 

 meaning of the terms "nervous," "sanguine," "bilious," and 

 "lymphatic" temperaments, if he is not familiar with them, as 

 the charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will specify matters so that any- 

 one can understand the matter of selecting the different 

 grades of hens with very little study and trouble.) 



We have said that we have divided the three grades, the 

 egg type, dual-purpose type, and meat type, into six separate 

 classes. There is, in fact, a seventh class, but it is so rare 

 that we will not take it into consideration here, but will 

 explain it later. But we have, in fact, made ninety classes 

 of these six for convenience in selection, and the process could 

 be extended indefinitely, but it would serve no needful pur- 

 pose. 



Now, when we consider all these different grades in the 

 hens of every breed, and the further fact that there is the 



