THE CALL OF THE HEN. 23 



CHAPTER II. 



The writer is not one of the long winded kind. I don't 

 like to talk a long time in order to say a few words, or write 

 a dozen pages, where one will do as well. I believe in hand- 

 ing out the chunks of gold with as little dross as possible. 

 I think the reader would rather receive the information I 

 have to offer, in one page, than in a dozen; that he would 

 rather discover the facts in a few feet than to be obliged to 

 hunt over a hundred acres of literary space for the same in- 

 formation. For that reason I will make this work as brief as pos- 

 sible. I will be aided in my effort to do so by the fact that 

 the theories offered in this work have been more or less dem- 

 onstrated by the "Govermental Experimental Stations of New 

 Zealand, and the States of Minnesota and California; also in 

 the Poultry Plants of the five state hospitals (which contains 

 thousands of hens) in, the State of California, under the 

 auspices of the State Board of Health, and the Physicians 

 of the different hospitals. It might not be a difficult matter 

 to mislead a few poultrymen on a subject that deals wholly 

 with Physiology and Anatomy, but it would be absurd to 

 think for a moment that one could deceive all of the phy- 

 sicians in five state insane hospitals. It seems a man who 

 would still doubt, would believe the world was flat, especially 

 when he learns that a member of the State Board of Health, 

 told the writer that there was a difference of fifteen hundred 

 dollars in favor of using the system, in one year, in one of 

 the hospitals alone. 



We commence in this chapter the unfolding of a method 

 or test by which the reader can tell approximately the 

 value of a hen and a male bird as a breeding proposition 

 (and in the chapter on breeding alone, this book will be worth 

 it's weight in gold, to the fanciers) an egg producer, or a meat 

 producer. It is my desire to make the facts contained in 

 this book, so clear, and the tests so easy of application, that 

 any one can become proficient in the use of them in a short 

 time. Therefore, I have prepared a series of illustrations, 

 showing numerous types and conditions of fowls, also var- 

 ious other facts that may better be shown by pictures, than 

 by explanations alone. 



