THE CALL OF THE HEN. 13 
I wrote the lady that both of these articles were right. Let us see 
_if we can prove the statement. If the reader has ever had any ex- 
perience with cattle, he knows it would be sure folly to buy a herd of 
Polled Angus or Herefords for a dairy farm, for they have been bred 
for years for beef, and practically everything fed to them goes to meat; 
while it would be just as foolish to buy a herd of Jersey cows and expect 
to make a living from them raising beef, as they have been bred for 
years for butter-fat, and practically everything fed to them goes to milk 
and cream. If the reader’s experience has been with horses, he is aware 
that a man engaged in teaming would not select the trotting type of 
horse, neither would a turfman put his money on an 1800-pound Clyde 
horse, if the balance of the field were trotting horses; that would not 
be horse sense. Now, the same comparison holds good in the poultry 
field, except with this difference, that the egg type and meat type in 
poultry have never been segregated into different breeds, and each breed 
bred for a number of years along the line it was intended for—the egg 
type bred for eggs alone, and all birds inclined to meat-production dis- 
carded—both male and female, and the meat type bred for meat, with- 
out regard to eggs, except enough to perpetuate the species, just as the 
typical butter cattle and typical beef cattle have been bred. 
I have seen a great many cases like the first mentioned article, 
where a person would go into the poultry business and get started 
with stock that was of the meat type, and, not knowing any better, 
would think that all poultry was the same as his, and the only way any 
money could be made in the business was to sell fancy birds and eggs 
at fancy prices. Now, these people are not to blame for what they do 
not know. ‘They think their hens are as good layers as any other hens 
and they have no way of knowing any better. 
I have also seen a great many cases like Mrs. Basley writes of 
except the profits were not so large, owing to different environment 
I suppose. These people had the same breed of hens as the parties 
before mentioned, but they were fortunate in getting the egg type, 
and they made money with their hens. Everyone thinks every other 
person’s hens are the same as theirs, if they are of the same breed, and 
that is the reason there are so many different conflicting statements in 
the poultry papers, and not because the writers are not intelligent or 
not truthful, as some suppose. From a scientific point of view, and 
apart from the fancy, and as far as the knowledge of meat and egg pro- 
duction is concerned, the poultry business is in its infancy, and the 
people who write for the poultry papers give their experience for your 
benefit. That is all. 
To further impress on your mind the difference between poultry 
and other stock, I would say that while some individual cattle of the 
various beef breeds will not be a paying proposition, the only safe plan 
is to select your leaders from the beef family; and while some Jersey 
cows will not pay as butter-producers, still, as a breed, they are among 
the best for that purpose. Though some trotting hoises do not make 
good, as arule, they will carry you over the road in good time, and though 
some draft-type teams are not sure pullers, they are a success as a class. 
The same general laws apply to all animal nature. The hen is no 
exception, only in this respect: that while cattle and horses#have been 
bred so that as a rule novices can select the type they wish by selecting 
the breed, hens have not been bred that way. We have what purport 
