76 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



CHAPTER X. 

 TESTING HENS ON A LARGE SCALE USING 



CHARTS 44 AND 45. 



I will describe in this chapter how I cull hens when we 

 have large numbers of them as we have in poultry plants in 

 California. I shall take it for granted that the reader has no 

 method of selecting the good from the poor layers, except, 

 perhaps, the "Walter Hogan System," or some of its pirated 

 forms that are now used extensively in all parts of the civiliz- 

 ed world, and which is based on the theory that the value of 

 a hen as an egg producer depends on the relative distance 

 apart of her Pelvic Bones and the thinness of same. We will 

 suppose the reader has three hundred hens, one lot is about 

 a year and four months old, another lot is about two years and 

 four months old, and another lot is about three years and four 

 months old. Each lot has been kept in separate yards, so 

 there can be no mistake in regard to their ages, or they have 

 been toe punched or otherwise marked. W r e notice more or 

 less feathers flying around the yard, thus indicating the season 

 of the year when moulting is near at hand. Everything else be- 

 ing equal the poorest hen moults first, and if she is a very poor 

 layer, she will stop laying when she begins to moult, and will 

 not lay again until the crows lay in the spring. We consider it 

 is about time to cull out the poor layers and send them to mar- 

 ket. The next thing that comes to mind is the question, 

 "\Vhat is a poor layer?" That all depends on the price you 

 get for the eggs, the price of feed, houses, etc. I raised poul- 

 try in Todd Co., Minn., in 1886 and 1887, and sold good lumber 

 at the saw mill for $5.00 per 1000 feet. Wheat was about a 

 cent per pound and wheat screenings for chicken feed could be 

 had for the hauling. It is very evident that a poorer class of 

 layers might have been kept at a greater profit when supplies 

 were at that low price, than can be profitably kept when sup- 

 plies are as high priced as they are at the present time of writ- 

 ing, June 1913. So the reader can see that the matter of the 

 profitable hen is a local matter. At this waiting you can buy 

 nearly two bushels of wheat in some parts of Minnesota for 

 what you will pay for one in California. I was told a few days 

 ago that you could buy twice as much oats at the present time 

 in Minnesota as you can in California for the same money. 



