The Call of the Hen or the Science of 

 the Selection and Breeding of Poultry 



By WALTER HOGAN 



CHAPTER I. 



I received a letter in the winter of 1910 from a woman in 

 Oregon which read as follows. 



Dear Sir: My husband is a machinist. He is getting 

 old and his health is failing. We have both worked hard all 

 our lives and have saved enough to buy a small place in the 

 country. We can no longer do hard work, and in looking for 

 some light occupation that \vould bring weekly returns, we 

 have looked favorably on the poultry business. We have 

 kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of 

 years and think we have done well with them. We also take 

 four poultry papers, but each one tells a different story, and 

 we cannot decide what to do. We have! been years accumu- 

 lating our little savings, and if we should lose them we would 

 hjave no resources left for our old age. I enclose two articles 

 from the September, 1910 number of the ''Pacific Fanciers 

 Monthly." One article gives me to understand that it is almost 

 hopeless to think of making a living with hens if wfe depend on 

 selling eggs and poultry on the market. The other article 

 holds out the promise of a possible income of a thousand dol- 

 lars per year from 300 hens if handled under right conditions. 

 One means utter failure and bankruptcy in market eggs and 

 poultry, and the other means the fullest measure of success. 

 Both of these articles are in the same number and one follows 

 the other on the same page. How can you reconcile these two 

 conflicting opinions? 



(The articles follow) : 



