16 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
science suggested, and fought with sheer desperation to make a success 
of the business, but went down in failure; while their next neighbor, a 
little pin-headed, conceited specimen of humanity, strutting around 
like a peacock, was getting rich with the same breed of hens. ‘‘Luck,”’ 
do you say? Yes, it is mostly a matter of chance. The first man was 
unfortunate in that he got his eggs or breeding-hens from stock such as 
that described in the first article of the Fanciers’ Monthly, while the last 
man got his eggs or breeding-pens from stock described by Mrs. Basley 
in the second article. 
We once visited a gentleman who had a very extensive poultry 
plant. He had a large number of different breeds yarded off in finely 
appointed yards, with help and financial means to satisfy every need 
of a poultry plant. His pens of Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans 
were remarkable layers, while his Cochins, Houdans and Polish were 
very good layers. After looking ove: the last-named birds, he re- 
marked: “I have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which 
I wish you would look at.” After we had looked at them a few minutes, 
he asked, ‘‘What do you think of them as layers?”’ I replied that if he would 
tell me which pen laid an average of all the pens, I would tell him in 
a few minutes. ‘That pen there,” said he, pointing to No. 20, “has 
laid an average number of all the eggs laid.’’ After examining the hens, 
I told him I would not take them as a gift, if I had to keep them one 
year. ‘Why’? he asked. “Because,” I replied, ‘‘after keeping them 
a year and selling them, the price I would receive for the hens and the 
eggs they would lay would not pay for their feed. I cannot see why 
you keep them.’’ The next evening he said to me, ‘Do you see that 
man moving into the place over yonder? Well, I have sold those 
Leghorn hens to that newcomer for $500.” “Is this an exceptional 
case?’”’ you ask. I have only this to say: that all the David Harums 
are not in the horse business, neither can I see why a poultryman should 
be his brother’s keeper, when it is not the rule in other lines of business. 
It seems to me the better way is to study poultry from a scientific point 
of view, so that you can judge the value of a hen for the purpose you 
want her for, and not have to depend on other people’s opinions. 
By studying this book carefully you will be able to tell approximately 
the number of eggs a hen is capable of laying in a year; you can also 
select the hens that will be the best for breeding purposes, for eggs, 
for meat, or as a dual-purpose hen—that is, a hen that will give you 
the largest number of eggs possible with the largest possible amount of 
meat when you wish to sell her, or the hen that will produce the best 
broilers, regardless of any one particular breed. Some hens will be 
very good layers, some very good meat-producers, some very good 
dual-purpose type, and some very fine fancy birds, and you can mate 
them with the same type of male bird and breed from these birds for a 
few generations, and their progeny will degenerate. The chickens from 
the hens and cockerels or cock birds of the 200-egg type may lay less 
each generation, until in eight or ten generations they may not lay 
enough to pay for their feed. The progeny from some of the best meat 
and dual-purpose type matings will sometimes degenerate just as the 
egg type, until they are practically worthless as profitable meat pro- 
ducers. The chicks from the fancy mating may be a failure from the 
fancier’s point of view. 
