90 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
for the egg-type bird, as the reader will see when I relate an incident 
that occurred during the show in Inglewood, which was held in March. 
A gentleman had entered a White Leghorn hen that he had trap-nested 
a year up to the previous November, and had her record with him. 
The hen scored (as near as I can remember) two fingers abdomen, two 
fingers out of condition, and °/,.-inch pelvic bone, and according to the 
rules of the show I was obliged to give her credit for 78 eggs her first 
laying year when, according to his trap-nested record, she had-laid 180 
eggs. He said she had been sick and had just commenced to improve 
shortly before he sent her to the show, and he wanted to prove whether 
or not I could tell how many eggs she had laid her first laying year. 
I told him I could not tell how many eggs she had laid, but I could tell 
how many she could have laid if she had been fed and cared for right, 
barring accidents and sickness; that her capacity was 190 eggs her first 
laying year. He then showed me her record, which was 180 eggs. 
In the autumn of 1911 George D. Holden, ex-president of the 
American Poultry Association, judged the fancy and the writer judged 
the utility birds at the Pajaro Valley Poultry Show, held at Watsonville, 
Santa Cruz County, California. In judging that show full credit was 
given each bird, both male and female, as to what they were capable 
of doing, whether in meat or eggs, and for prepotency, without any 
regard as to how their owners cared for them—or, in other words, without 
regard to their condition. And the owners of the birds who were inter- 
ested in knowing were instructed how to rectify any deficiency there 
may have been in the birds. It seems to me this is the best way to 
encourage and develop the poultry industry. I am sure the American 
Poultry Association could formulate a code of rules that would greatly 
aid in judging utility poultry and thereby add greatly to the interest 
of our poultry shows; in fact, I am advised that such a proposition is 
being considered at the time I am writing this (July 25, 1913). 
CHAPTER XVI. 
STAMINA IN POULTRY. 
When I came to California and told the poultry-raisers that I was 
going to take their birds and in the course of time breed a flock of 200-egg 
hens from them, they declared it could not be done. They said if it 
was possible to breed up a large flock of 200-egg hens, their progeny 
would be so weak I could never raise them, and that their eggs would 
be so misshapen and thin-shelled they would not be marketable. I 
replied that perhaps they were right, but I saw no reason why I could 
not do so here, as I had bred up one lot in the Eastern States and another 
lot in Minnesota. Both lots were Leghorns, and I thought it would 
be easier to develop Leghorns in California than in Minnesota, and I 
have now demonstrated in California that the following can be done: 
1. The 200-egg hen is a fact and not a theory. 
2. That she can be bred and fed to lay as perfect an egg as 
any other class of hens. 
3. That her eggs are as fertile and will hatch as strong chicks 
as the hen that does not pay for her feed. 
