,96 



the three-finger-abdomen hen, 3 /i 6 -inch pelvic bone; four- 

 finger-abdomen hen, 5 /i 6 -inch pelvic bone; five-finger-abdomen 

 hen, 7 /i6-inch pelvic bone. Everything below these figures 

 goes to the market; also all one- and two-finger-abdomen 

 birds there may be in the lot. 



We now go to the hens that are three years and four 

 months old. Any one- and two-finger-abdomen birds that 

 we may find go to market and all the three-finger-abdomen 

 birds below Vie-mch pelvic , bones. For the three-year-and- 

 four-months-old birds we bear in mind 1, 3, 5, and 7 sixteenths . 

 Three-finger-abdomen hen.^/ie-mch pelvic bones; four-finger- 

 abdomen hen, 3 /is-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen 

 hen, 5 /]6-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger-abdomen hen, 

 7 /i6-inch pelvic bones. All below these lines go to market. 



If the reader has some good hens that he wishes to breed 

 from, he can use the figures: 1, 3, and 5 sixteenths. 



The fourth year, when he wishes to select from the four,- 

 five- and six-finger abdomen hens, it will be: Four-finger- 

 abdomen hen, * /i6-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, 

 3 /i6-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger-abdomen hen, 5 /i 6 -inch 

 pelvic bones. Very few will want to keep hens as long as this. 

 They will be five years and about four months old when you 

 will sell them. Most people here sell them about the time 

 they commence to moult after they are two years old; but I 

 selected the hens used at the California State Poultry Ex- 

 periment Station to test this method as far as the egg-laying 

 qualities were concerned, and the hens I selected as hens that 

 would pay at four years made a good paying record. 



The reader will understand that the way we have just 

 been selecting the paying hens is the way we select when we 

 have large numbers; this is the way I selected 1,600 hens in 

 six hours at the poultry farm of the Ukiah State Hospital, 

 Mendocino County, California, and at other State hospitals 

 and poultry plants. We do not have to stop to figure out the 

 percentage of loss of each bird. You can take any combina- 

 tion of figures you wish, as Y^inch, 3 / 8 -inch, 1 / 2 -inch, 5 /g-inch, 

 for sixteen months-old birds; Vie-mch, 3 / 16 -inch, 5 /ie-inch, 

 7 /i6-inch, for twenty-eight-months-old birds. You can figure 

 out the percentage of loss each year and take a combination 

 of figures that will suit your purpose. You have only to 

 carry four figures in your mind. The percentage of loss each- 



