THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21 



same number of different grades in the male bird, is it any 

 wonder that there is so much difference of opinion in regard 

 to the profits derived from poultry-keeping? We have visited 

 hundreds of poultry plants that numbered from about fifty 

 to two thousand or more hens each. We have seen some 

 flocks of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they 

 consumed, for the simple reason that they were not the right 

 type of hens. They were fine-looking, healthy meat-pro- 

 ducers, but there was no earthly way possible to feed them 

 that would induce them to lay eggs at any time except a few 

 months in the spring when the crows laid, and eggs were 

 cheap. The owners of some of these flocks were bright, 

 brainy, vigorous business men, who tried every method that 

 usage and science suggested, and fought with sheer despera- 

 tion to make a success of the business, but went down in 

 failure; while their next neighbor, a little pin-headed, con- 

 ceited specimen of humanity, strutting around like a peacock, 

 was getting rich with the same breed of hens. "Luck," do 

 you say? Yes, it is mostly a matter of chance. The first 

 man was unfortunate in that he got his eggs or breeding-pens 

 from stock such as that described in the first article of the 

 Fanciers Monthly, while the last man got his eggs or breeding- 

 pens from stock described by Mrs. Basley in the second 

 article. 



We once visited a gentleman who had a very extensive 

 poultry plant. He had a large number of different breeds 

 yarded off in finely appointed yards, with help and financial 

 means to satisfy every need of a poultry plant. His pens 

 of Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans were remarkable layers, 

 while his Cochins, Houdans, and Polish were very good layers. 

 After looking over the last-named birds, he remarked: "I 

 have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which I 

 wish you would look at." After we had looked at them a few 

 minutes, asked, "What do you think of them as layers?" I 

 replied that if he would tell me which pen laid an average of 

 all the pens, I would tell him in a few minutes. "That pen 

 there," said he, pointing to No. 20, "has laid an average num- 

 ber of all the eggs laid." After examining the hens, I told 

 him I would not take them as a gift, if I had to keep them 

 one year. "Why?" he asked. "Because," I replied, "after 

 keeping them a year and selling them, the price I would re- 



