THE CALL OF THE HEN. 73 
that is 7/1-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
that is over 7/i-inch pelvic bone in the four-finger-abdomen class; 
keeping every hen in the five-finger-abdomen class that is °/1.-inch pelvic 
bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market that is over 9/16- 
inch pelvic bone; keeping every hen in the six-finger abdomen class that 
is "/,.-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
that is over !!/,.-inch pelvic bone thick. 
I want to say here that there is nothing arbitrary in regard to Charts 
44 and 45. Each poultryman can draw the lines where he thinks it 
will best suit his purpose. A great many years of experimenting has 
led the writer to believe these charts answer the purpose very well. 
We have disposed of all the one-year-and-four-months-old hens, 
and will move our outfit to the two-year-and-four-months-old hens, and 
arrange the catching-coop and charts as in the first case. 
The first hen we take from the coop may be a one-finger-abdomen 
hen, in good condition. All one-and two-finger-abdomen hens in good 
condition over one year and four months old, as a rule, should be disposed 
of. There is no profit in them after they have laid their allotted number 
of eggs their first season—or, in other words, after they commence to 
moult in their first laying year; so after this we will not consider them in 
this connection. 
There is a great difference in the number of eggs a flock of hens will 
lay each year as they grow older. Some will lose 5 per cent, some 10 
per cent, some 15 per cent, and some 20 per cent. Some will not lay 
anything (this will be explained later) after their first laying year. It 
depends altogether on the vitality of the hen and how she has been fed 
and raised; and the variations in the percentage of eggs laid by exactly 
the same type of hens will vary with different poultry-keepers and also 
with the same poultry-keeper, varying more or less in each separate 
pen, proving that environment has more or less to do with egg-production, 
all other things, as far as human knowledge is concerned, being equal. 
Some people who are good mathematicians, but who are wholly ignorant 
of animal nature, look surprised when I explain to them the difference 
between classifying the production of a number of like machines with the . 
production of a number of hens of the same score in egg production. 
As a scientific proposition, it is impossible to write a chart beforehand 
that will fit every case. If we took 1,000 hens of any pronounced type— 
say 100-egg type, which were fed, housed, and cared for in exactly the 
same manner, and one of them laid 5, 10, or 15 eggs more or less some 
year than the other 999 hens, it would prove our contention or theory, 
from a scientific point of view. I am sure that 100 expert poultrymen 
could take 100 hens of the same general type that would score the same 
egg-capacity and would all be in the same condition, and each poultryman 
feed and care for his 100 birds for four years the best he knew how, 
and very few of them would agree on a set of figures that would give the 
percentage of decrease in egg-production each year. The one who fed 
the heaviest and produced the most eggs would have the largest per- 
centage of decrease, while the ones who fed for hatching eggs and did 
not force their hens with condiments and stimulants would get the 
least number of eggs and the lowest percentage of decrease, not figuring 
the percentage of decrease from the number of eggs actually laid, but 
from what the hen would lay each year. 
