THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21 



the trap nest, selecting eggs for hatching from hens that 

 were his best layers, and conformed as near as possible to 

 the standard, and using cockerels hatched from these eggs 

 to mate with his hens. Now this was all right as far as it went, 

 but there was something that the professor had not taken 

 into consideration. He had procured the best birds he could 

 rind, had trap nested them to discover the hens that were 

 the most prolific layers, had selected the eggs from what 

 he had considered to be the best hens for the purpose (and 

 few men had better judgment in this respect.) He had mated 

 up the best looking cockerels from these best eggs from the 

 best laying hens, and according to (all apparent precedents 

 was he not justified in expecting an increase each year in 

 egg production? But what were the results? If reports are 

 true, there was a decrease in egg production, and what do 

 you suppose was the cause? There must be some cause. There 

 is a cause for every effect. Sometimes we think things just 

 happen, that there is no natural law that governs them ; that 

 in this or that case it was all chance; that it may not have 

 happened to another person, and will not be likely to happen 

 to us again, and so we dismiss the matter only to have the 

 same thing repeat itself, until we either solve the problem 

 or meet our doom through it. And thereby hangs a tale. 



Some time in the summer of 1905 I received a letter 

 from a doctor in one of the suburbs of Boston, asking me 

 what I would charge to visit Orono, Maine, and have a talk 

 with Prof. Gowell, and incidentally to drop a few remarks 

 that might be of some help to him in his investigations. I 

 had never met the Professor, but I replied to the Doctor that 

 I would go. (I was then living in Minnesota.) And would 

 pay my own expenses as I wished to visit Boston, my birth- 

 place and where I first started 1 in poultry keeping in 1857, 

 and it would be a small matter to go from there to Orono 

 Maine, where Prof. Gowell was conducting his experiments. 

 While I was waiting for a reply, I decided that as Prof 

 Gowell had put so much time and thought into the trap 

 nest proposition and had built so much on that one thing, 

 and that as he could get results from it (only it was a waste of 

 time), that in this first visit to him I would offer only one 

 suggestion, and that was the secret of selecting the birds, 

 both male and female, that would be sure to breed progeny 



