24 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



You will remember no doubt that you did not arrive at 

 your present proficiency in reading in a day or two ; that it 

 took some little time, and there was a certain system or 

 evolution in your study. You will find the same true of this 

 method. There is a certain process that leads from one step 

 to another, until you have covered the system, when by re- 

 peated study and practice you will become proficient and 

 accomplish what at first seems impossible. It may seem an 

 impossible task to handle and grade sixteen hundred hens in 

 six hours, but the writer has done it. With sufficient help 

 to hand me the hens, we graded or in other words tested 

 out sixteen hundred hens in six hours in the State Hospital 

 Poultry yards at Ukiah, Mendocino county, California, March 

 1910. Not so bad for a semi-invalid of 62, we hear you say. 

 Our reply is, it's practice. You can do the same. Go through 

 the movements with every hen you pick up each day, and in 

 a short time, what at first is difficult will appear quite easy. 



For some years previous to 1912 there was great ac- 

 tivity in the poultry industry, there having been no lack of 

 poultry papers, farm papers and magazines, that for a nom- 

 inal sum would give tuition in poultry culture. The ease of 

 getting a theoretical knowledge of the business, induced 

 thousands to take it up who otherwise would not think of 

 doing so. The apparent ease of conducting the business, the 

 small amount of capital it was supposed to require with the 

 large and steady income it offered were the will-o-th'-wisps 

 that lured the many to financial loss. I would warn my 

 readers against rushing into the poultry business on a scale 

 beyond their means without first obtaining a working knowl- 

 edge of the same. With good stock, with the proper en- 

 vironment, a good market and a working knowledge of the 

 business, there is little danger of failure if one is willing to 

 do the work necessary on a poultry plant. It offers the most 

 independent living for the smallest amount of capital of any 

 business I know of. 



The requisites for success are the knowledge to know 

 how to be able to select the hen you need for any particular 

 purpose, whether it is for eggs or for meat or fancy. W'hether 

 the hen will be a paying proposition or not (this may depend 

 on your market) whether she will be able to transmit her 

 predominating characteristics to her offspring or not. Also 



