THE CALL OF THE HEN. 97 



year is computed by good poultrymen to be from 10 to 20 per 

 cent in egg-production on plants that are run for hatching eggs. 

 If you force your hens with an excess of meat and condiments, 

 the loss will be according to how you feed them, and no 

 one can tell what it may be but yourself. Some poultrymen 

 will get practically all there is in a hen out of her the first 

 season, then sell her. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE MALE BIRD. 



This is not a treatise on cattle or horses, but we have to 

 use them very often to illustrate the matter in hand. Stock- 

 raising has been brought to more of a science than poultry- 

 raising, arid is well understood by thousands of our progres- 

 sive farmers. I have met hundreds of them who could de- 

 scribe to me the points I would have to consider in selecting 

 a good-paying butter-fat, beef or milk proposition, both in dam 

 and sire ; and while there may be as many poultrymen who un- 

 derstand the selection of poultry, both male and female, for 

 egg- and meat-production, I have failed to meet them; and 

 while I was made the butt of ridicule by the poultrymen when 

 I issued my first pamphlet, entitled the "Walter Hogan Sys- 

 tem," in March, 1905, the stock-raisers who were interested 

 in poultry stood by me to a man. The reason was, that the 

 cattlemen had been studying along the utility lines in both 

 sire and dam in order to develop the milk, butter-fat, and 

 beef-producing capacities of their cattle. It was a com- 

 paratively easy proposition for them. The form of the ani- 

 mals was plainly to be seen. They were not covered with a 

 coat of fluff and feathers that hid the shape and form of the 

 subject. It was easy to distinguish between the cat ham of 

 the butter-fat type and the full, deep ham of the beef type. 

 It was no trouble to compare the udders, milk-veins, and 

 wedge-shape type of the Jersey with the full, rounded build 

 of the Hereford or Polled Angus. 



On the other hand, the poultrymen, to some extent, were 



deceived by the appearance of their hens. Take, for instance, 



the Cochin and the Bantam ; they would hold about the same 



relation to each other as the lordly Durham would to the fine- 



p H 7 



