The Call of the Hen; or, the Science 

 of Selecting and Breeding Poultry 



By WALTER HOGAN. 

 CHAPTER I. 



THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES WHICH GOVERN THE SELECTION 



AND BREEDING OF POULTRY ARE CAPACITY, CONDITION, 



TYPE, CONSTITUTIONAL VIGOR, AND PREPOTENCY. 



In the winter of 1910 I received a letter from a woman 

 in Oregon, which read as follows: 



"DEAR SIR My husband is a machinist. He is getting 

 old and his health is failing. We have both worked hard all 

 our lives, and have saved enough to buy a small place in the 

 country. We can no longer do hard work, and in looking 

 for some light occupation that would bring weekly returns, 

 we have looked favorably on the poultry business. We have 

 kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of years, 

 and think we have done well with them. We also take four 

 poultry papers, but each one tells a different story, and we 

 cannot decide what to do. We have been years accumulat- 

 ing our little savings, and if we should lose them, we would 

 have no resources left for our old age. I enclose two articles 

 from the September (1910) number of the Pacific Fanciers' 

 Monthly. One article gives me to understand that it is 

 almost hopeless to think of making a living with hens, if we 

 depend on selling eggs and poultry on the market. The 

 other article holds out the promise of a possible income of a 

 thousand dollars per year from 300 hens, if handled under 

 right conditions. One means utter failure and bankruptcy 

 in market eggs and poultry, and the other means the fullest 

 measure of success. Both of these articles are in the same 

 number and one follows the other on the same page. How 

 can you reconcile these two conflicting opinions?" 



(The articles follow.) 



(ii) 



