THE CALL OF THE HEN. 19 



for convenience in selection and the process could be ex- 

 tended indefinitely but it would serve no needful purpose. 



Now when we consider all these different grades in the 

 hens of every breed, and the further fact that there is the same 

 number of different grades in the male bird, is it any wonder 

 that there is so much difference of opinion in regard to the 

 profits derived from poultry keeping? We have visited hun- 

 dreds of poultry plants that numbered from about fifty to 

 two thousand or more hens e'ach. We have seen some flocks 

 of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they consumed 

 for the simple reason that they were not the right type of 

 hens. They were fine looking healthy meat producers, but 

 there was no earthly way possible to feed them that would 

 induce them to lay eggs at any time except a few months 

 in the spring when the crows laid and eggs were cheap. The 

 owners of some of these flocks were bright, brainy, vigorous 

 business men who tried every method that usage and science 

 suggested and fought with sheer desperation to make a suc- 

 cess of the business, but went down in failure ; while their next 

 neighbor, a little pin-headed, conceited speciman of humanity, 

 strutting around like a peacock, was getting rich with the same 

 breed of hens.. Luck, do you say? Yes it is mostly a matter 

 of chance. The first man was unfortunate in that he got his 

 eggs or breeding pens from stock such as that described in 

 the first article of the "Fanciers Monthly," while the last 

 man got his eggs or breeding pens from stock described by 

 Mrs. Basley in the second article. 



W T e once visited a gentlman who had a very extensive 

 poultry plant. He had a large number of different breeds 

 yarded off in finely appointed yards with help and financial 

 means to satisfy every need of a poultry plant. His pens of 

 Rocks, Orpingtons and Langshans were remarkable layers, 

 while his Cochins, Houdans and Polish were very good lay- 

 ers. After looking over the last named birds he remarked, 

 "I have 500 Leghorn hens which are 18 months old which I 

 wish you would look at." After we had looked at them a few 

 minutes he said, "What do you think of them as layers?" I 

 replied that if he would tell me which pen laid an average of 

 all the pens, I would tell him in a few minutes. "That pen 

 there," said he, pointing to No. 20, "has laid an average num- 

 ber of all the eggs laid." I looked it up only last night. After 



