THE CALL OF THE HEN. &5 



CHAPTER XI. 

 THE MALE BIRD. 



This is not a treatise on cattle or horses, but we have 

 to use them very often to illustrate the matter in hand 

 Stock raising has been brought to more of a science than poul- 

 try raising and is well understood by thousands of our pro- 

 gressive farmers. I have met hundreds of them who could 

 describe to me the points I would have to consider in selecting 

 a good paying butter fat, beef or milk proposition, both in dam 

 and sire, and while there may be as many poultrymen who un- 

 derstand the selection of poultry, both male and female, for egg 

 and meat production, I have failed to meet them, and while I 

 was made the butt of ridicule by the poultrymen when I issued 

 my first pamphlet entitled the "Walter Hogan System," in 

 March, 1905, the stock raisers who were interested in poultry 

 stood by me to a man. The reason was that the cattle men had 

 been studying along the utility lines in both sire and dam, in 

 order to develop the milk, butter fat, and beef producing capac- 

 ities of their cattle. It was a comparatively easy proposition 

 for them. The form of the animals was plainly to be seen. 

 They were not covered with a coat of fluff and feathers that hid 

 the shape and form of the subject. It was easy to distinguish 

 between the cat ham of the butter fat type, and the full deep 

 ham of the beef type. It was no trouble to compare the ud- 

 ders, milk veins, and wedge shape type of the Jersey, with the 

 full rounded build of the Hereford or Poled Angus . 



On the other hand the poultrymen to some extent were 

 deceived by the appearance of their hens. Take for instance the 

 Cochin and the Bantam. They would hold about the same re- 

 lation to each other as the lordly Durham would to the fine 

 bred Devon, yet I have found Bantam hens with as deep abdo- 

 men as a great Cochin hen; and it is my opinion that if poultry 

 were as bare of feathers as cattle are, the poultry industry 

 would be as far advanced at present as is the cattle business. 



The greatest impediment to the successful breeder of 

 poultry has been the inability to select the male bird of the re- 

 quired type. The custom in vogue at the present writing with 

 most poultrymen is to trap nest their hens and raise cockerels 

 from the best layers as indicated by the trap nest. The trouble 



