THE CALL OF THE HEN 105 
was wholly unable to find a bird or strain that were known to be excep- 
tional egg-producers, he succeeded, within six years after starting, in 
pulgiae up a flock that averaged annually considerably over 200 eggs 
per hen. 
Cur No. 1—A Leghorn hen showing this development has the egg-laying instinct 
at its maximum. 
Before deciding to publish this work, I found, after diligent inquiry 
among the leading poultrymen of the United States and Canada, and 
some correspondence reaching to other countries, that there was no known 
method—other than the slow and costly one of trap-nesting—of selecting 
birds of great egg-producing capacity. Trap-nesting, in addition to the 
faults mentioned, which makes it almost impracticable for the farmer, 
had a still more serious one in the writer’s judgment; it could not trap- 
nest roosters, which I have found to be more than “‘half the flock.’’ For 
this seemingly insurmountable difficulty I have found an easy solution, 
and can as readily identify the male as the female, and as unerringly. 
The facts of which this document treat are a discovery, a method, 
and a development all in one. The happy inspiration and discovery 
came within a few hours; but it has reached this workable and abso- 
lutely reliable form by a costly analytical and experimental process 
extending through years. After the underlying principle had been found, 
it had to be tested and proved to my own satisfaction. ‘Then the various 
objections and criticisms, which will occur to many readers, had to be 
answered or met by actual practical experiences. 
