THE CALL OF THE HEN. 83 



We will return to our two year old hens. We said all one 

 and two fingered hens should be sold, and we will consider 

 them no more than to put them in the market crates when we 

 find one. The reader will remember that in selecting the six- 

 teen-months old hens we retained only those in the three, four, 

 five and six finger abdomen column, that measured five, seven, 

 nine and eleven-sixteenths of an inch or less, and everything 

 below these lines went to market. In the show room when the 

 writer judges utility birds we use the charts so as to score each 

 bird according to its capacity for egg production, but when we 

 cull the poultry on commercial plants, in order to save the 

 time of looking on the charts we keep in mind only four fig- 

 ures, for the hens of any age that we are examining. For hens 

 about sixteen-months old we use the figures five, seven, nine, 

 eleven. For hens with three fingers abdomen we use the fig- 

 ures five-sixteenths; for four fingers abdomen seven-sixteen- 

 ths; for five fingers abdomen, nine-sixteenths; and for six 

 fingers abdomen, eleven-sixteenths. All under three fingers 

 abdomen goes to the market and all under the lines go also. 



For the two year and four-months old hens, we keep in 

 mind the following figures, three, five, seven, nine. For the 

 three fingers abdomen hen three-sixteenths pelvic bone; four 

 finger abdomen hen, five-sixteenths pelvic bone; five finger 

 abdomen hen, seven-sixteenths pelvic bone, and six finger ab- 

 domen hen, nine-sixteenths pelvic bone. Everything below 

 these figures goes to market, also all one and two fingered ab- 

 domen birds there may be in the lot. 



We now go to the hens that are three years and four- 

 months old. Any one and two fingered abdomen birds that we 

 may find go to market, and all the three fingered abdomen 

 birds below one-sixteenth pelvic bones. For the three years 

 and four-months old birds we bear in mind one, three, five, 

 seven. Three fingers abdomen hen, one-sixteenth pelvic bones; 

 four fingers abdomen hen, three-sixteenths pelvic bones; five 

 fingers abdomen hen, five-sixteenths pelvic bones, and six fin- 

 gers abdomen hen, seven-sixteenths pelvic bones. All below 

 these lines go to market. 



If the reader has some good hens that he wishes to breed 

 from, he can use the Figs. 1, 3, 5. 



The fourth year when he wishes to select from the four, 



