120 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



man, however small his flock, can afford to go on in the old 

 way a single year longer. 



Every animal on the farm has a well defined mission all 

 its own, outside of the general one of producing meat. The 

 .great mission of the cow is to produce milk, the sheep wool, 

 and the mission of the hen is evidently and pre-eminently egg 

 production. This being the case her value varies, or should 

 vary, largely with her ability to produce eggs. And still it is a 

 well known fact that, while every farm animal has been select- 

 ed and bred for the best there was in it along its own peculiar 

 line, and all prizes have been awarded accordingly, the hen has 

 been bred largely, and prizes awarded her almost wholly, for 

 feather and markings, the judges seldom or never dreaming it 

 important to know whether she was capable of laying at all 01 

 not. 



The writer was amazed to find this state of things when, 

 some years ago, he turned his attention from managing woolen 

 mill interests to trying to manage a poultry yard. But, in spite 

 of the fact that he was wholly unable to find bird or strain that 

 were known to be exceptional egg producers, he succeeded 

 within six years after starting, in building up a flock that aver- 

 aged annually considerably over 200 eggs per hen. 



Before deciding to publish this work I found, after diligent 

 inquiry among the leading poultrymen of the United States 

 and Canada, and some correspondence reaching to other coun- 

 tries, that there was no known method other than the slow 

 and costly one of trap nesting of selecting birds of great egg 

 producing capacity. Trap nesting, in addition to the faults 

 mentioned, which make it almost impracticable for the farm- 

 er, had a still more serious one in the writer's judgment; it 

 could not trap nest roosters, which I have found to be more 

 than "half the flock." For this seemingly insurmountable diffi- 

 culty I have found an easy solution, and can as readily identify 

 the male as the female and as unerringly. 



The facts of which this document treat are a discovery, a 

 method, and a development, all in one. The happy inspiration 

 and discovery came within a few hours; but it has reached this 

 workable and absolutely reliable form by a costly analytical 

 and experimental process extending through years. After the 

 underlying principle had been found, it had to be tested and 



