THE CALL OF THE HEN. 9 



My friends early prophesied that my penchant for in- 

 vention would land me in the poor-house in my old age. So 

 by some occult inspiration I was induced to abstain from 

 publishing any part of my discoveries until 1904, when, by 

 the advice of Ex-Congressman Haldor E. Boen, of Minne- 

 sota, to whom I had confided my poultry secrets some years 

 previous, I decided to publish only my first discovery, known 

 as the "Walter Hogan System" (which will be found in the 

 latter part of this work), after the same had been tested at 

 the Minnesota State Experimental Station by Professor 

 Hoverstadt, the superintendent of the station. However, 

 before taking any steps to bring this matter before the public, 

 I wrote to some thirty or more poultry judges, who were 

 supposed to be selected as judges to officiate at the coming 

 poultry show to be held in Buffalo during the exhibition at 

 that place in 1901, asking them if they knew of any way 

 to tell when a pullet was about to lay. I thought that if 

 they did not know that much of the laying proposition, I 

 would be safe in going ahead with publishing my secrets. 

 The letters I received were left in Minnesota when I came 

 to California shortly before the earthquake in 1906, so I 

 cannot name the judges at present, but they will remember 

 me as the proprietor of the Fergus Falls Woolen Mills; and 

 I must say they replied in a very courteous manner, saying 

 there was no way except the general appearance of the bird, 

 as to its maturity of form, redness of comb and wattles, 

 singing, looking for nest, etc. One only of the number 

 charged me one dollar for this information. 



Failing health obliged me to dispose of my manufactur- 

 ing business and retire to the farm, and it was in the spring 

 of 1905 before I published my "Walter Hogan System," 

 when it appeared in a number of poultry papers. (See 

 Reliable Poultry Journal, March, 1905.) I did not copy- 

 right the work at that time, although my experience in me- 

 chanical inventions had taught me that I should have done 

 so, and the following August imitations began to appear, 

 until in 1912 a number of different parties in the United 

 States and foreign countries were claiming authorship and 

 selling it under the same or different titles. 



My years of research and expense brought me no finan- 

 cial returns, and in the spring of 1906 I left Minnesota for 



