72 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



me as to Capacity, Type, and Prepotency, I then hold her as 

 if I were testing her for capacity, except that I hold her by 

 the right leg only. I then lay my hand on her breast, so 

 that it (my hand) will conform to her shape, and draw it 

 slowly along her breast-bone (or keel) from front to rear. 

 When my hand reaches the rear, if I feel the slightest indica- 

 tion of her abdomen dropping the least bit below the rear 

 of the breast-bone, I reject the hen as a breeder, and thereby 

 save myself a world of trouble in the future. 



CHAPTER IX. 



PREPOTENCY. 



We will take up in this chapter Prepotency, the science 

 of breeding poultry, so that we can breed with a definite 

 knowledge of what we are doing, and not leave it to intuition 

 or chance. It is an old saying that "like begets like;" this 

 seems to be true in some cases, but seems not to be true in 

 other cases. Students of human nature can readily see where 

 it has apparently failed. Some children will resemble and 

 act like one parent and some will resemble and act like the 

 other parent; then again, some children will be like neither 

 of the parents. Breeders of horses and cattle are well aware 

 of the variations in offspring from the type and character- 

 istics of sire and dam. It is more through persistency in 

 breeding than the general knowledge of any scientific prin- 

 ciple that we have succeeded in producing the grand types 

 of animals we see at our State fairs. The breeding of poultry 

 is no exception to the above rule. While some breeders have 

 good success in breeding for the desired type of bird, whether 

 for fancy, for eggs, or for flesh, others will have very poor 

 success. 



The purpose of this chapter is to explain to the breeder 

 who has had poor success a method that will enable him to 

 breed with the full understanding as to what he is doing. It 

 is a well-known fact among the clothing trade that if a woolen 

 manufacturer has a sample of cloth presented to him, he can 

 manufacture thousands of yards that will be an exact dupli- 

 cate of the sample. The same is true in other industries. 

 But suppose the reader gives an order to one of our well- 



