14 THE, CALL OF THE HEN. 
to be egg breeds and dual-purpose breeds. The first are supposed to 
be a paying proposition as a whole for egg-production. The latter are 
supposed to be a paying proposition for both eggs and meat combined; 
some breeders claiming that their breed will give you the very largest 
number of eggs per year and the greatest weight of flesh all in one bird. 
Now, these claims are misleading. It is an utter physical impossibility 
for any hen to be a typical egg type and at the same time be a typical 
meat type. It is against the laws of Nature. We have the Leghorns, 
Minorcas, Spanish, and a number of other Mediterranean breeds that 
are called “egg type.”’ While the truth is, that while they have been 
bred as best the breeders knew how along the lines of egg-production, 
you can find vast numbers that will not lay eggs enough to pay for the 
feed they eat. Great numbers in some flocks have all the characteristics 
of the beef type, and will lay about three or four dozen eggs per year 
and sometimes not over a dozen. The Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, 
Wyandottes, and Langshans are classed as ‘‘dual-purpose’’ breeds, 
which means hens that will lay a medium number of eggs and givea 
good large carcass for the table; and while this is true in a majority of 
cases, I have seen numerous specimens that laid over two hundred and 
fifty eggs per year, while some would lay little or nothing. In fact, 
while I have bred Leghorns for more than forty years, and they are 
my favorite breed, I must say I have found as good layers (within a 
few eggs) in all the other breeds I have named as I have found in the 
Leghorns, and I have also found as poor layers among the Leghorns 
as I have found in any other breed. As far as the number of eggs is 
concerned, as a rule, I find that the breed of the hen has nothing to do 
with it whatever. 
I do not wish to be considered dogmatic in anything I may say 
in this work. I am merely giving the opinions I have formed by ob- 
servation and experiment during a period of fifty-six years that I have 
kept poultry, not to make all the money I could out of them, but to learn 
all I possibly could about them—in fact, until a few years ago I never 
kept poultry for the money there was in it. The keeping of hens has 
been a passion with me. I have spent years of time and thousands of 
dollars, but I think I have found something that will be of inestimable 
value to the world, and I have found it not because I was any bette1 
fitted for the work than thousands of other lovers of poultry, but be- 
cause I stuck everlastingly to it, without any regard as to whether it 
paid me in dollars or not. 
As previously stated, it is not a matter of breed as to whether a 
hen is a good layer or not. It is a matter of type, capacity, and consti- 
tutional vigor. First, in almost all breeds there is a type of hen where 
everything she consumes over bodily maintenance goes to the pro- 
duction of eggs. This we call the ‘‘typical egg type.’’ Second, there 
is a type where about half the food consumed over maintenance goes 
to the production of eggs, the balance over bodily maintenance going 
to make flesh. This is called the ‘“‘dual-purpose type,’’ as this hen 
performs two functions that are considered necessary in the economy 
of Nature: the production of eggs and the production of meat on a 
commercial scale. Third, there is a type where everything consumed 
over bodily maintenance goes to flesh. This hen we call the ‘‘meat 
type,” for the reason that practically all her energy is used in producing 
meat. 
