106 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
The method enables one: : 
1. To easily and without error weed out all the worthless birds 
from a flock; those that do not lay at all, also those that lay so little that 
it is aloss to keep them. This alone means millions to this country. 
2. To separate just as unerringly all pullets before they begin to 
lay; indicating the coming great layers, the fair layers, the very poor, 
and the barren. The latter will be found in nearly all flocks. 
3. To tell those not liable to lay when disposing of old or other 
hens for the table or market or for other reasons. 
t 
Cut No. 2—This is a hen of minimum development. She is a fair layer. 
Beginning my investigation, as I was compelled to, with birds 
selected wholly without egg-record, I was soon greatly impressed with 
the dissimilarity of formation of the pelvic bones and surrounding 
portions of the body, particularly of the former. Some I found nearly 
closed up, hard, and unyielding; others barely admitting one finger 
between these points; while a very few would easily admit the end of 
three fingers between the tips of the pelvic bones, and these were generally 
thin, tapering, and elastic. With this clue, IJ was not long in finding 
that my great layers were the latter and my barren and nearly barren 
ones the first mentioned. My attention was next forcibly called to this 
by seeing a long row of dressed pullets and hens in a butchering estab- 
lishment. Noticing the great difference in the formation, I secured the 
privilege of numbering the hens and having the entrails, as they were 
removed, left by the side of each bird. In every instance I found my 
