THE CALL OF THE HEN. 75 



animals and birds gave me the opportunity to study the 

 construction of the different skulls and classify them as to 

 the known habits of the birds or animals under consideration. 

 The knowledge gained in this way was of inestimable value 

 in later research in the selection and breeding of poultry. I 

 am positive that without this early training I never could have 

 accomplished what I have. 



After raising my first lot of Leghorns in 1869, I decided 

 to dispose of all breeds but the Leghorns and Light Brahmas. 

 I said I would raise Leghorns for eggs and Brahmas for meat. 

 Up to that time I had not paid much attention to the individual 

 laying qualities of the birds. Experience had taught me that 

 the Light Brahma, when fed right and of the right age, made 

 a delicious table-fowl, and I was led to believe the Leghorns 

 were all great layers. That was a good many years ago; 

 and we have made wonderful discoveries and progress in 

 science and the arts since that time. The reader can imagine 

 my surprise when I found by experience that some of my 

 Leghorns laid very few eggs and laid them only in the spring 

 months; others laid large numbers and laid late in the fall 

 and early winter. In those days we had no cold-storage 

 plants, and while eggs were very cheap in the summer, they 

 were very dear in the winter, and I decided to experiment 

 with my Leghorns, with a view to getting more eggs in the 

 winter. After a few years of study and experiment, I mated 

 the best egg-type birds and from some pens got good results, 

 from other pens not so good, and from still others very poor 

 results. My previous studies in anatomy had enabled me 

 to select the matings from birds that were all of the same type, 

 and I expected to raise a lot of poultry that would be dupli- 

 cates of their parents, as far as their egg-laying qualities 

 were concerned. But after numerous experiments in mating 

 the 180-egg type cock bird with 180-egg type hens, I found I 

 could not depend on getting definite results. 



Some are born rich, some are born handsome, and some 

 are born lucky. The writer was born with none of these 

 gifts, but with a combination of faculties that compelled to 

 invention, to wander and toil and delve in the fields, the by- 

 ways, and the mines of the mysterious. These researches, 

 with the aid received by studying the pioneers in the same 

 lines of investigation, led to the discovery, as the writer 



