THE CALL OF THE HEN. 59 



they had laid. I replied if that is the case her record shows 

 that she has never laid an egg. He said no more then but 

 brought me another hen asking me how many will she lay. I 

 examined her for capacity. I found she was a six fingered ab- 

 domen hen, her condition was good, her pelvic bones were 

 1-16 of an inch thick. They were both alike as to thickness. I 

 questioned him as to how he had fed her and if she had been 

 sick her first laying year. As he is one of the best breeders in 

 the United States I could depend on him knowing what he 

 was talking about. I asked him then to take off his hat. I 

 could see by the shape of his head he was a strictly honest 

 man. I then told him that I had never raised that breed of 

 hens. But if it was a Leghorn it might lay 280 eggs its first 

 laying year and if a Plymouth Rock it might lay 270. He re- 

 plied her trap nest record shows she laid 276 eggs from the 

 time she commenced to lay in her pullet year, until she had 

 ilaid one year. That's alright," I replied, "but what about the 

 first hen we examined?" "We have never found any in the 

 trap nest from her," he said, "but she might be in the hab't 

 of laying in the yard." And as he was offered $1000 for her he 

 was very anxious to get some chickens from her. I explained 

 to him that while most typical beef hens could be made to lay 

 a very small number of eggs in the spring When the crows 

 laid, by feeding them a little lean meat, and shrunken wheat 

 and bran on a grass plot of white clover (if the blossoms of the 

 white clover are clipped off) that his hen could not be made 

 to lay as she was a barren hen as indicated by the rigid cord 

 that connected both of the pelvic bones together thus indicat- 

 ing that nature never intended her to lay. I could name a num- 

 ber of professors and physicians that have told me they have 

 discovered the same condition after they had taken my les- 

 sons. 



The reader will please bear in mind that the two pelvic 

 bones of a hen are not always of the same thickness. Some 

 hens may have one pelvic bone thicker than the other. When 

 this is the case add the two together and half of the number 

 will be the right thickness to judge by. For instance, if one 

 pelvic bone was one-eighth of an inch and the other was one- 

 fourth of an inch the added thickness would be three-eighths of 

 an inch. Dividing this would give you three-sixteenths as the 

 thickness of one pelvic bone. Where one bone is thicker than 



