THE CALL OF THE HEN. 129 



No doubt you have a good working knowledge of the 

 first four subjects, and you wonder why I have not written a 

 chapter on Vitality. The reason is, that when I decided to 

 write "The Call of the Hen," I told my wife that I would write 

 nothing that even a blind man could not understand and 

 practice. I have tried to do so, for to her patience, perse- 

 verance, and untiring zeal I owe much of the success I have had 

 in getting out this book. 



The writer can see only three ways of detecting vitality 

 in a fowl ; the most ancient is intuition, then observation, and 

 lastly the trap-nest. A hen may be a typical 250-egg type 

 hen, she may have the very best of care and food, and yet, 

 for lack of vitality, may not be able to lay over 150 eggs per 

 year. Let us take the steam engine for example. There are 

 a great many types of engines besides the high and low- 

 pressure ones, as there are a great many types of hens and cock 

 birds. The diameter of cylinder, length of stroke, and revolu- 

 tions per minute give you the capacity of the engine, as the 

 length and depth of abdomen in the fowl gives its capacity. 

 The fuel fed into the fire-box generates the steam (vitality) 

 to run the engine, as the food fed into the hen's abdomen 

 generates her vitality. 



The writer has owned steam engines where there was de- 

 fective fire-box construction scale in the boiler and tubes, 

 loose rings in the piston head, cylinder worn out of true, and 

 other defects that reduced the efficiency of the power system 

 a great deal or, in other words, lowered the vitality of the 

 engine. In just the same way a weak digestive system in a 

 250-egg type hen will reduce her egg-yield. But do not think 

 that you can make a 150-egg type hen in perfect condition lay 

 200 eggs by any of the feeding formulas now in vogue. If you 

 try to force her, she will go to flesh and then break down with 

 liver trouble. 



If you lack the intuitive faculty and lack the time to 

 carefully observe individual hens, I would advise you to select 

 the hens by the chart you wish to breed from. When they 

 are about a year old you can breed from them. Then, if you 

 wish to breed from only those with the greatest vitality, trap- 

 nest these hens for the next two or three years. The hens 

 with the greatest vitality will be great layers and strong, 

 p H 9 



