26 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



other facts that may better be shown by pictures than by 

 explanations alone. 



You will remember, no doubt, that you did not arrive at 

 your present proficiency in reading in a day or two; that it 

 took some little time, and there was a certain system or 

 evolution in your study. You will find the same true of this 

 method. There is a certain process that,leads from one step 

 to another, until you have covered the system, when by re- 

 peated study and practice you will become proficient and ac- 

 complish what at first seems impossible. It may seem an 

 impossible task to handle and grade sixteen hundred hens in 

 six hours, but the writer has done it. With sufficient help 

 to hand me the hens, we graded (or, in other words, tested 

 out) sixteen hundred hens in six hours in the State Hospital 

 poultry yards at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, in 

 March, 1910. "Not so bad for a semi-invalid of 62," we hear 

 you say. Our reply is, "It's practice." You can do the same. 

 Go through the movements with every hen you pick up each 

 day, and in a short time what at first is difficult will appear 

 quite easy. 



For some years previous to 1912 there was great activity 

 in the poultry industry, there having been no lack of poultry 

 papers, farm papers, and magazines that for a nominal sum 

 would give tuition in poultry culture. The ease of getting a 

 theoretical knowledge of the business induced thousands to 

 take it up who otherwise would- not have thought of doing so. 

 The apparent ease of conducting the business, the small 

 amount of capital it was supposed to require, with the large 

 and steady income it offered, were the will-o'-the-wisps that 

 lured many to financial loss. I. would warn my readers 

 against rushing into the poultry business on a scale beyond 

 their means without first obtaining a working knowledge of 

 the same. With good stock, with the proper environment, a 

 good market, and a working knowledge of the business, there 

 is little danger of failure, if one is willing to do the work 

 necessary on a poultry plant. It offers the most independent 

 living for the smallest amount of capital of any business I 

 know of. 



The requisites for success are the knowledge of how to 

 be able to select the hen you need for any particular pur- 

 pose, whether it is for eggs or for meat or fancy; whether 



