98 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



bred Devon, yet I have found Bantam hens with as deep ab- 

 domen as a great Cochin hen; and it is my opinion that if 

 poultry were as bare of feathers as cattle are, the poultry in- 

 dustry would be as far advanced at present as is the cattle 

 business. 



The greatest impediment to the successful breeder of 

 poultry has been the inability to select the male bird of the 

 required type. The custom in vogue at the present writing 

 with most poultrymen is to trap-nest their hens and raise 

 cockerels from the best layers as indicated by the trap-nest. 

 The trouble with this method is, that while the hen may lay a 

 large number of eggs, she may not have the faculty to transmit 

 her laying qualities to her offspring, and her cockerels may be 

 deficient in both egg-laying qualities and the ability to trans- 

 mit what good qualities they may possess to their progeny. 



Again, I have seen a great many cases where poultry- 

 farmers would send away and buy a lot of cockerels. The man 

 that raised and sold them had no knowledge of how to classify 

 them, and the man who bought them knew he was buying 

 cockerels and that is all he did know about them. He could not 

 be sure whether they would increase his egg yield or not. He 

 had to pay his money and take chances. It was nothing more 

 nor less than a gamble ; but the days of gambling in the poultry 

 business are passed for the intelligent, progressive poultryman, 

 no longer will he be obliged to trust to luck or intuition. 

 He will be able to select his male birds with as much assur- 

 ance as his hens, and instead of groping in the dark, he will 

 have the satisfaction of seeing and knowing just what he is 

 doing by bearing in mind the instructions in this chapter. 



The reader will by this time be familiar with the different 

 types and capacities of hens, and will not be surprised to 

 learn there is a similar number of variations in the male 

 birds; and if one wishes to produce a certain type and capacity 

 in a pullet or cockerel, he must select the parent birds that 

 will produce that type. We know how to select the hen; 

 we will now take up the study of how to select the male 

 bird. 



We go through the same movements in selecting or testing 

 the male bird as we do in selecting the hen, but we use a dif- 

 ferent set of charts. For example, it is possible for a hen to 

 change from six to three fingers in abdominal capacity within 



