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 ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
SF 487.H75T92''r""""-"'"'^ 
 ^™l™,l!,.™,!,.!?.fll■.°L^^!? Science of se 
 
 3 1924 003 211 822 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE POULTRYMEN WHO, 
 
 LIKE THE AUTHOR, 
 
 DO NOT KNOW IT ALL, 
 
 Jefferson City 
 
 The Hugh Stephens Co. 
 
 Printers 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Lady Show You, a White- Plymouth Rock hen, that holds the world's egg record 
 for a two-year-old hen; laid 281 eggs in the National Egg-laying Contest at the Missouri 
 State Poultry Experiment Station, Mountain Grove, Mo. She met the Hogan test. 
 

 THE MISSOURI State 
 
 Poultry Experiment 
 
 Station 
 
 Mountain Grove. 
 
 Mo. 
 
 PRIZE 
 PEN 
 
 I MISSOURI 
 INATIONAL 
 EOG 
 LAYING 
 CONTEST 
 
 \.r^ 
 
 MOUNTAIN 
 
 GROVE 
 1911-1912 
 
 i^SP-- 
 
 Photographed by request of the Chamber of Commerce, Petaluma. Cal. 
 
 These hens weighed less than 4. pounds each and laid 131 pounds and 2 ounces of 
 eggs. They won the prize for laying the greatest weight in eggs in the National Egg- 
 laying Contest. Each hen's eggs would have sold for $4.50 on the Petaluma Market, 
 if reduced to No. 1 eggs. They are the result of five years' breeding by the author 
 from common Petaluma Single Comb White Leghorns. It is possible for the reader- 
 to do the same with almost any breedj.by following instructions in this book. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This is an age which demands action, applied thought, and a prac- 
 tical, actual, and workable science. The world is demanding to know, 
 not "What are you?" or "What do you look like?" but "What can you 
 do?" Drones are being culled out in all lines of business activity and 
 rightly so; and the same is true with the poultry business. The hen 
 which delivers the goods is the hen which is in demand. "The hen that 
 lays is the hen that pays." 
 
 We have two reasons for publishing The Call of the Hen. Some 
 three years ago Mr. Hogan sent us three males, all Single Comb White 
 Leghorns; one was of his 280-egg type, selected according to this system; 
 another was of the 150-egg type, and the third was of a 70- or 80-egg 
 type. He also sent us two pens of hens of his own selection and breeding. 
 We trapnested all the hens, and bred from all three males. The results 
 in every case have borne out Mr. Hogan's claims and the truthfulness 
 of his methods of selection and breeding. We have also tested the hens 
 in the egg-laying contests; taken measurements and made tests and 
 judged their capacity for laying as per this system. The Call of the Hen. 
 The results so nearly tally with the system in practically every case that 
 we feel that this is a valuable method of selection and breeding, which 
 should be in the hands of everyone who attempts to raise poultry. 
 
 Capacity, condition, type, and vigor must all be taken into con- 
 sideration in determining whether a hen will be a good producer or a 
 poor producer. By making a careful and sensible application of the 
 rules made known in this book, it is possible for any poultry-raiser to 
 avoid great loss. 
 
 We are told and have good reason to believe that it is true, that 
 the average farm hen lays less than 80 eggs per year. If that be true, 
 about half the poultry is being kept at a loss- to the owner. If this 
 is the condition, are we not justified in doing something to attract the 
 attention of the farmers and poultry-raisers to methods and practices 
 which will lead to the production of more eggs than the average hen, 
 and to the necessity of culling and selection, and to more careful and 
 painstaking methods? 
 
 The object of The Call of the Hen is to stimulate an interest 
 in increasing egg-production in all varieties of poultry and to encourage 
 the breeding of strains of high-producers. We have come to the point 
 where our efforts to breed fowls with perfect plumage for show purposes 
 has overshadowed that of the ability of our hens to lay; and it can cer- 
 tainly result in no harm to call the attention of the breeders of the 
 nation to the good which would certainly come from a study of the things 
 which would tend to increase egg-production. We should all be vitally 
 concerned in any attempt to better conditions, to increase the pro- 
 ductiveness of the hen, and to give impetus to an industry which is 
 already one of our greatest agricultural factors. 
 
 (5) 
 OH— 2 
 
6 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 For a half century the fanciers and poultrymen generally have 
 devoted their attention to the showroom in the development of shape 
 and color. No opportunity has been offered or anything specially 
 done to encourage the farmer and poultryman to develop the natural 
 resources of the hen — her ability to lay eggs. A few of our best experi- 
 ment stations have made some investigations along this line and done 
 some very valuable work indeed. Here and there an occasional poultry- 
 breeder has given some thought and attention to breeding for egg-pro- 
 duction; but certainly, as a whole, the attention of breeders generally 
 has not been along this line, and it seems that this important matter has 
 been too much neglected. 
 
 Haphazard methods of mating and breeding don't pay, and in- 
 discriminate methods cannot prove successful in building up a flock of 
 laying hens. There never was a time in the history of this country 
 when poultry and eggs were in greater demand; the price at which 
 poultry and eggs sell has increased much more in proportion than has 
 the price of feeds necessary to produce these products; but because the 
 industry is flourishing today more than ever before does not justify 
 us in continuing indiscriminate or foolhardy methods. The opportunity 
 is ours to insure greater profits, if we will but carefully and systematically 
 solve the problem which is facing us: "How can we insure a reasonably 
 high average egg-production?" 
 
 The interests of the fancier are served through the showroom. If 
 a breeder enters birds in a showroom and is beaten, he* tries to improve 
 his flock and perfect it by introducing new blood or by improved methods 
 of breeding and careful selection. If he wins, he tries to keep his flock 
 in that high state of perfection. It is just as important, and even more 
 so that he know just what his flock can do in the matter of production, 
 and he ought to use the same care in trying to perfect his strain of layers. 
 
 There are exceptions to all rules. You will find some exceptions 
 in selecting, testing, and breeding your poultry according to the method 
 described in The Call of the Hen; but many breeders have tested 
 it for some six or eight years; many of these have doubled their egg 
 yield in this time. We feel certain that Mr. Hogan's method of selec- 
 tion and breeding will prove him to be to the poultry industry what 
 Burbank is to horticulture, Edison is to the electrical world, or Darwin 
 or Mendel to the breeding kingdom. That the mastery of this method 
 of selection and breeding, and sensibly applying the principles revealed 
 herein, will mean much to the poultry industry, is our honest belief. 
 
CHAPTER "A" 
 
 THE VALUE OF THIS BOOK. 
 
 The world is full of people who are not willing to give credit where 
 credit is due. The American Poultry School, as publishers of this 
 book, wish to say that no one man has done as much to aid the poul- 
 trymen of the world in culling out their drones and nonproducing hens 
 as has Walter Hogan, who first discovered this system. 
 
 Seven years ago, when this School first started to advocate this 
 system, the agricultural colleges and Government authorities made 
 sport of the thought that anything could be told about the productive 
 ability of a hen by her external characteristics. Too many scientists 
 are not willing to give credit unless they themselves are at least parti- 
 ally responsible for the discovery. At that time poultry journal editors 
 and poultry writers and contributors ridiculed any method of selection 
 by examination of external characteristics. These same authorities 
 and writers looked upow anyone with suspicion who made the state- 
 ment that he or she had a hen with a record of more than 200 eggs. 
 But in these seven years we have noted a wonderful change. All Gov- 
 ernment and State Institutions have been making tests, culling flocks 
 and putting on demonstrations where the methods recommended in 
 this book were always used, in whole or in part, in culling all flocks. 
 Some new ideas are being developed from time to time and there is 
 no system that is perfect. But to this School and this book is due 
 the credit for starting all this agitation which has resulted in a definite 
 system of culling and selection being universally used and adopted. 
 
 Some breeders hesitate to sell their stock and subject it to this 
 sort of a test, because the per cent of birds that would come up to the 
 high standard which we all want is comparatively small. Some people 
 who apply this test, condemn it because they do not know how to use 
 it. Others say it did not work in their case, but upon examination 
 we find that they used it only in part. 
 
 In applying this test no one characteristic can be depended upon 
 to indicate the true value of the bird being tested. You must take 
 into consideration the vitality and general health of the fowl. It 
 should have a bright, prominent eye that extends out from its head, 
 apparantly, and the eyelid should not be heavy and overhanging. 
 
 The bird should be a late moulter. It should be broad across the 
 back and the width should extend well back toward the tail. The 
 length of the ribs, or the depth of the bird up and down, should be 
 as great as you can get it in the individual. 
 
 In the good layer the vent will be moist and large; in the poor 
 layer it will be dry and puckered. The pelvic bones should be reason- 
 ably thin and staright, but I would not select birds for breeders where 
 the pelvic bones are too thin unless the other bones of the body seem 
 to be sufficiently large to insure the bird's strength and vitality. Select 
 birds with as much width between the pelvic bones as possible. 
 
 (7) 
 
8 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 A specimen must have lots of body capacity for large digestive 
 and egg organs, and for the consumption of a lot of food from which 
 to manufacture a large number of eggs. Therefore, select birds with 
 as much distance between the points of the pelvic bones and the point 
 of the breastbone as you can find. This will vary somewhat when 
 specimens are moulting and not in laying condition. They will show 
 less width or distance at that time than when in full laying. 
 
 The skin over the abdomen must be soft and pliable and lacking 
 in thick, heavy fat or flesh in that particular section of the bird. The 
 skin on a good layer will feel soft, loose and pliable in all parts of the 
 body, more so than in a poor layer. 
 
 If a hen has been a good layer in a yellow skinned variety, the 
 yellow pigment will be laid out of the legs, toes, beak and eye rings 
 of the bird, because same has been used by her in coloring the yolk 
 of the egg. 
 
 No single one of these characteristics or points mentioned should 
 be taken into consideration in passing final judgment on any specimen. 
 They all play a more or less important part and each should be given 
 due consideration, and if that is done a poultryman can select the good 
 birds from the poor ones with almost as much accuracy as if he had 
 used a trapnest. 
 
 The best time to apply this test is to begin about the close of the 
 heavy laying season to the beginning of the next laying season. In 
 other words, in most climates between June 1st and December 1st. 
 It is a good idea to go over the birds twice during this period, making 
 a first selection and later on a final selection, and then again before 
 the birds are finally put into the breeding pens. 
 
 No definite method has yet been found for the selection of the 
 good layers among pullets before they have ever laid any eggs. It is 
 difl&cult to use any system outside of the trapnest with any great de- 
 gree of accuracy until the bird has passed through one laying season. 
 Something can be told about pullets, but we do not recommend apply- 
 ing this system until the birds have had an opportunity to produce 
 and reach their full state of growth and development. Next to the 
 trapnest there is no system in the world that is more accurate than that 
 outlined in this book. 
 
 We would recommend that you read the suggestions that we have 
 given below for the selection of your layers and the culling of your 
 nonproducers, then after you have studied Mr. Hogan's suggestions 
 on the pages which follow and you have concluded all that he has said 
 on the subject, come back to this Chapter "A" and read all of this 
 chapter over a second time. You will then get its full effect and the 
 entire book will be clearer and the system more easily and throughly 
 understood. 
 
 SELECTION VITALLY IMPORTANT. 
 
 Right feeding alone is not the key to increased egg production. 
 More depends on careful selection of the hens. Too many farm flocks 
 are nonproducers and drones. Perhaps this is true of the entire flock, 
 or maybe only a part,- but the drones are always responsible for the 
 limited profits. 
 
 By selection, I do not mean that the farmer should buy prize 
 chickens at exorbitant prices, though I do believe in good blood. But 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 9 
 
 selection is just as necessary in a flock of poultry as in a dairy herd. 
 
 Now, when you ask if the farmer can afford to keep chickens while 
 grain is so high, if you refer to the usual flock of culls, I will say, "No." 
 Grain is too valuable to be thrown promiscuously to nonproducing hens. 
 
 It may be that you will think when I mention selection that I 
 refer to a lot of scientific and complicated experiments. I simply mean 
 that you should go into your flock, pick out the culls and get rid of them. 
 A hen of low vitality is a menace to the flock, because she is susceptible 
 to disease. She is an expense to her owner because she is a consumer 
 and not a producer. It is a funny thing, but many farmers who would 
 be quick to get rid of a poor cow, will keep two or three dozens hens 
 that never have made a cent for him or never will, no matter how he 
 cares for them. 
 
 HOW TO MAKE SELECTION. 
 
 The rules that govern selection are as simple as A, B, C to any 
 observing person. For instance, a hen that is slow to feather is lacking 
 in vitality. Anyone ought to know that. You cannot stuff^ her and 
 make her lay eggs. She is by Nature a weakling. Hens do not lay eggs 
 because they want to ; they lay eggs because they are strong and vigorous 
 and egg laying is a natural result which they cannot avoid. That 
 tendency must be bred in them. Why, if the average farmer would 
 give half the attention to his poultry that he does to his live stock he 
 would find the poultry the best investment in many cases. Success 
 comes from being willing to discard. When you have culled out the 
 poor hens and got them clear off the farm, then it is time to begin think- 
 ing about feeding for egg production and, also, let me emphasize, water- 
 ing for egg production, for water is as essential as feed. 
 
 At this time one of the greatest problems facing American poul- 
 trymen is the ratio of profit between the cost of feed and the selling 
 price of poultry and eggs. No poultryman can object to the high 
 price of feed if the selling price of poultry and eggs is proportionately 
 high. Thousands of the more or less inexperienced poultrymen, who 
 were loaded with poor stock, drones and slackers, or who, because of 
 inexperience, haphazard methods, or poor management, have been 
 forced out of business. Many others in the same class are ce.rtain to 
 go, but the future promises much for the man who has the goods and 
 who knows how. 
 
 In order to lay well, a bird must have a sound body. As a first 
 consideration, the bird must be vigorous and healthy if it is to be able 
 to lay well. Vigor and health are shown by a bright, clear eye, a well 
 set body, a comparatively active disposition and an indication of good 
 blood circulation. Further, the bird must be free from physical de- 
 fects, such as crooked beak; excessively long toenails; eyelids that 
 overhang so that the bird cannot see well; excessively scaly legs, or 
 anything else that would keep the bird from seeing or getting an abun- 
 dance of feed. 
 
 LOSS OF FAT AND LOSS OF COLOR OF FAT DUE TO LAYING 
 PIGMENTATION CHANGES. 
 
 A laying fowl uses up the surplus fat in the body. Especially, it 
 removes the fat from the skin. In yellow skinned breeds, this loss of 
 fat can readily be seen by the loss of the yellow color. The different 
 
10 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 parts of the body tend to become white, according to the amount of 
 fat which is being taken from these parts, depending, of course, on the 
 amount of fat which has been stored up in these various parts, and the 
 circulation of blood through them. It should be recognized that all 
 yellow-color changes are dependent on the feed, the coarseness of skin, 
 and the size of the bird. A large bird fed on an abundance of green feed, 
 or other material that will color the fat deep yellow, will not bleach out 
 in color in these various parts as quickly as will a smaller bird, or one 
 which naturally has pale yellow colorings. The changes occur in the 
 following order: 
 
 Vent. The vent changes very quickly with egg production, so 
 that a white or pink vent on a yellow-skinned bird generally means 
 that the bird is laying, while a yellow vent means that the bird is not 
 laying. 
 
 Eye Ring and Ear Lobe. The eye ring, that is, the inner edge of 
 the eyelid, bleaches out a trifle more slowly than the vent. The ear 
 lobes of Leghorns and other white-lobed varieties bleach out a little 
 more slowly than the eye ring, so that a bleached ear lobe means a 
 longer or greater production than a bleached vent or eye ring. 
 
 Beak. The color leaves the beak beginning at the base and gradu- 
 ally disappearing until it leaves the front part of the upper beak. The 
 very tip of the beak is usually white before the bird is making eggs, 
 and should not be confused with the loss of pigment due to produc- 
 tion. A very small ring just on the crest of the curve of the beak is 
 often the last part of the beak to lose its color. The lower beak bleaches 
 faster than the upper, but may be used where the upper is obscured 
 by a horn, or black co or as in Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks. 
 On the average-colored yellow-skinned birds, and on the average-sized 
 bird, a bleached beak means fairly heavy production for at lesist the 
 past four to six weeks. 
 
 Shank. The shanks are the slowest to bleach out, and hence in- 
 dicate a much longer period of production than the other parts. The 
 yellow color leaves the outer ring of the scales, then leaves the entire 
 scale, on the front of the shanks first, and finally, after a longer and 
 greater production, leaves the scales on the rear of the shanks. The 
 scales on the heel of the shank — that part of the shank just below the 
 back of the hock-joint — are the last to bleach out, and for this reason 
 may generally be used as an index as to the natural depth of the original 
 yellow color of the various parts of the bird. A bleached-out shank 
 on an average-sized bird with an average yellow color, indicates that 
 the bird has been laying fairly heavy for at least from 15 to 20 weeks. 
 
 Reappearance of Pigment. When the bird stops laying, the yellow 
 color comes back into the vent, eye ring, ear lobes, beak, and shanks 
 in the same sequence as it left, but the color returns much more quickly 
 than it went out. 
 
 A vacation or rest period can sometimes be determined by the 
 end of the beak being bleached and the base being yellow, or a longer 
 vacation or rest can be determined by the shanks being pale or some- 
 what bleached and the beak showing a fair amount of yellow pigment. 
 
 In other words, if the degree of yellow color in a bird gradually 
 increases in density, from the vent to the eye ring, to the lobe, to the 
 base of the beak, to the point of the beak, and to the shanks, it shows 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 11 
 
 that the bird has laid continually without rest for a period indicated 
 by the amount of yellow present; whereas, if the bird shows more yellow 
 in any preceding part of the sequence as outlined, it indicates a rest 
 period depending on the difference of the yellow color found in these 
 parts. 
 
 BODY CHANGES DUE TO LAYING. 
 
 Vent. A laying hen has a large, moist vent, showing a dilated 
 condition and looseness, as compared with the hard, puckered vent of 
 nonlaying hens. 
 
 Abdomen. The abdomen is dilated as well as the vent, so that 
 the pelvic arches are wide-spread, and the keel is forced downward 
 away from the pelvic arches, so as to give large capacity. The more 
 eggs the bird is going to lay in the following week, the greater will be 
 the size of the abdomen in proportion to the size of the bird. The 
 actual size of the abdomen is, of course, greatly influenced by the size 
 of the bird and to a certain extent, by the size of the egg laid. 
 
 Quality of Skin. Heavy production is shown by the quality of 
 the skin. Fat goes out from the skin and body with production, so 
 that the heavy producers have a soft, velvety skin that is not under- 
 laid by heavy layers of hard fat. The abdomen in particular is soft 
 and pliable. 
 
 Pelvic Arches or Pelvic Bones. Heavy production is shown by 
 the quality and the thickness and stiffness of the pelvic arches or bones. 
 In heavy producers these are apt to show high qualities by being thin 
 and pliable rather than stiff and thick; hence the thicker and blunter 
 the pelvic bones and the greater the amount of fat and meat covering 
 them, the less the production, or the longer the time since production 
 ceased. 
 
 The pelvic bones are those found on each side of the "vent and 
 abdomen. They are just below the tail bone and just above the rear 
 point of the breastbone. These bones will be thin, straight and pliable 
 in a good layer. They are usually crooked or thick and covered with 
 heavy skin and fat in a poor layer. Determine their thickness by 
 pinching them between the thumb and first finger. These bones should 
 not only be thin, but there should be a good distance between the point 
 of the breastbone and the pelvic bones. There should also be con- 
 siderable distance between the two pelvic bones when the hen is in 
 laying condition, but not so much when she is not laying. 
 
 The spread or distance between the pelvic bones and point of 
 breastbone can be roughly measured for practical purposes by deter- 
 mining how many fingers can be laid between the bones. If the spread 
 measures two fingers or less the probabilities are that the hen is not 
 laying, while if the spread is greater, she is probably laying. In measur- 
 ing this spread the size of the hens of different breeds, with the cor- 
 responding natural difference in the spread, must be kept in mind. 
 
 Distance from Pelvic Bones to Keel Bone. A hen laying well is 
 a good eater. Her intestines are, therefore, fuller and more distended, 
 and require more room than when she is not laying and not eating so 
 much. When laying, the ovary and oviduct are of greater size and 
 require more room. To provide this extra room, the distance from 
 the rear end of the keel to the pelvic bones increases with a consequent 
 increase in size of the abdomen. A spread of three or more fingers 
 
12 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 in the smaller breeds such as the Leghorn, and four or more fingers 
 in the larger breeds such as the Plymouth Rock, indicates that the 
 hen is in a laying condition. A spread of less than three fingers in 
 the smaller breeds and less than four fingers in the larger breeds in- 
 dicates that she is not in laying condition. 
 
 Sternal Processes. These, like the pelvic arches, should, in a 
 bird of good production or in a bird which is producing heavily, show 
 good quality by being soft and pliable, prominent, and generally bent 
 outward. 
 
 Head. One of the finer indications, yet one of the most valuable 
 in picking the high layers, is the fineness of the head. The head of 
 a good layer is fine; that is, the wattles and ear lobes fit close to the 
 beak and are loose and flat, the face is clean cut, and the eyes are full, 
 round, clear, and prominent, especially as seen from the front. 
 
 Feathering. The high layer is trimmer and always apt to be 
 somewhat more angular; that is, the feathers lie closer to the body 
 than on the poor layers, and after heavy production the oil from the 
 base of the feathers does not keep the plumage relatively so sleek and 
 glossy as on a poorer layer. On the other hand, the plumage of the 
 heavy layer is apt to become worn and threadbare. 
 
 Comb, Wattles, and Ear Lobes. The comb, wattles, and ear lobes 
 enlarge or contract, depending upon the activity of the ovary. If 
 these parts are large, full, and smooth, or hard and waxy, the bird is 
 in full lay. If the comb is limp, the bird is only laying slightly, but 
 is not laying at all when the comb is dried down, especially at molting 
 time. If the comb is warm, it is an indication that the bird is coming 
 back into production. 
 
 Molting. When a bird stops laying in the summer, she usually 
 starts molting. The later a hen lays in the summer, or the longer the 
 period in which she lays, the greater will be her production; hence the 
 high producer is the late layer and the late molter. The length of 
 time that a hen has been molting, or has stopped laying, can be de- 
 termined by the molting of the ten large feathers at the end of the 
 wing- — primary feathers. It takes about six weeks to renew com- 
 pletely the primary feather next to the middle feather of the wing, 
 and an additional two weeks for each subsequent or outer primary 
 to be renewed. 
 
 Temperment and Activity. A good layer is more active and yet more 
 easily handled than a poor layer; she shows more friendliness, and 
 yet elusiveness, than a poor layer. A poor layer or a bird which is 
 loafing is apt to be shy, staying on the edge of the flock, and will gener- 
 ally squawk when caught. 
 
 Type. In order to make a good record a hen must not only lay 
 long, but heavily. In order to lay heavily she must have sufficient 
 body capacity to digest large amounts of food rapidly. Large capacity 
 in a laying hen is shown by a body that is deeper at the rear end of 
 the keel than at the front end. The under line should be fairly str^ght 
 and the back should be comparatively horizontal, 
 
 A small capacity hen stands erectly. The body is either very 
 shallow or, in the case of beefy individuals, the abdomen shows a pro- 
 nounced sagging at rear of keel. A small-capacity hen generally pos- 
 sesses a hump on the back. The comb generally has sharp, narrow 
 points, with the blades pointing up. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 13 
 
 The general body conformation of a heavy producer conforms 
 very closely to a rectangle with pronounced angles rather than smooth 
 curves. 
 
 A male shows the same general characteristics except that the 
 abdomen is not so deep. 
 
 The keel bone should be long and the body relatively deep in pro- 
 portion to weight or length. 
 
 Cull These Hens. Sick, weak, lacking vigor, inactive, poor eaters, 
 molted or started to molt, with small, puckered, hard, dry vents; with 
 small, shriveled, hard, dull-colored combs; with thick or coarse stiff 
 pelvic bones, pelvic bones close together, small spread between pelvic 
 bones and rear end of keel, and full, hard, small abdomen. In breeds 
 with yellow skin and shanks the discarded hen should also show yellow 
 or medium yellow shanks and yellow beaks and vents. 
 
 Save These Hens. Healthy, strong, vigorous, alert and active; 
 good eaters; not molting or just beginning to molt in September or 
 October; with large, moist vents; with large, bright- red combs; thin, 
 pliable pelvip bones well spread apart, wide spread between pelvic 
 bones and rear end of keel, and large, soft, pliable abdomen. In breeds 
 with yellow skins and shanks, the hens saved should also show pale 
 or white shanks, and pale or white beaks and vents. 
 
 GET RID OF THE DRONES. 
 
 Before carrying your birds through another season, take one more 
 look at them, and keep the following rules in mind when making your 
 selection : 
 
 1. Market those which have been slow to feather or seem to lack 
 vitality. 
 
 2. Keep the pullets which mature quickly and start laying first. 
 Those which start laying when less than 200 days old will be the best 
 layers if they have the right care. 
 
 3. Keep the late molters. 
 
 4. Keep the birds with rather large, plump combs and wattles. 
 
 5. Hens with pale vents, pale beaks and pale legs have been good 
 layers. 
 
 6. The skin of the best layers should be rather loose and flabby 
 on the abdomen between the vent and breastbone. 
 
 7. The pelvic bones must be thin, straight, flexible and wide 
 apart. 
 
 8. Market the hens which are baggy behind and which have a 
 heavy, fat, thick abdomen which hangs down below the point of the 
 breastbone. 
 
 9. Keep the hustlers and heavy eaters that go to bed late and 
 with full crops. 
 
 10. Birds that have long toenails and show no signs of being 
 workers are usually unprofitable. 
 
 11. If a bird meets the above requirements, it should have a 
 broad back, long body, be stoutly built and in good flesh. 
 
 12. If a bird is not molting and still has a small dried-up comb 
 covered with a sort of whitish substance, or if a bird has thick or crooked 
 pelvic bones, which will be found on each side of the vent and above 
 the point of the breastbone, these are always money losers. 
 
14 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN 
 
 The best known methods of selecting the laying hen without the 
 use of the trapnest is contained in this book. It tells plainly how to 
 weed out the slackers and how to breed to increase egg production. 
 No man or woman can afford to feed a flock of drones at the present 
 prices of feed, but the good layers will make more profit than in any 
 previous year. 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 T. E. QUISENBERRY, Pres 
 American Poultry School. 
 
 11 PAYS TO CULL 
 10. SLIHIBAIS IHFESIOR BIBSS 
 TO SEiBCT BEST TOB BBEESIira 
 
 HOW 10 TELL 
 &00S from the 
 
 White \ 
 Large > 
 Moist/ 
 
 White 
 White 
 White 
 White 
 
 Wide 
 Thin 
 
 > 
 
 Large \ 
 Plump > 
 Bright/ 
 
 Bright \ 
 Bulging/ 
 
 Lean 
 
 THE 
 
 BAD 
 
 Vent 
 
 Eye ring 
 
 Ear lobe 
 
 Beak 
 
 Shanks 
 
 Span 
 Comb 
 
 Sjre 
 
 aeaa 
 
 ytellow 
 ■r Small 
 \Dry 
 
 Yelluw 
 Tellow 
 Yellow 
 Yellow 
 
 /Jfarrow 
 \q?hiok 
 
 < Small 
 Shrunk 
 Pali 
 
 /Dull 
 ?lat 
 
 FIG. 4— CULLING IN A NUTSHELL. 
 This effective cliart was prepared by the New Jersey Experiment Station and puts 
 the principal external characters of good and poor layers in sharp contrast. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The writer's introduction into poultry-keeping was in the city of 
 Boston, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1857. By the spring of '68 
 I had a flock of nearly 400 birds, among them a lot of the best Single 
 Comb White Leghorns that I could find. I went in person to New 
 York City to get them. My friends thought such extensive poultry- 
 keeping the limit of folly, and freely renlarked that I was going crazy. 
 In those days eggs were almost worthless during the spring and summer 
 months, but would often sell for fifty cents per dozen in the winter. 
 This set me to thinking that perhaps it might be possible to increase 
 the egg yield in the winter and by so doing make the fad a better paying 
 proposition. Through my experiments I found that all hens were not 
 alike; that some would be very good table fowl and poor layers, others 
 would be very good, layers and poor table fowl, while still other hens 
 would be very fair table fowl and very fair layers. At this time we had 
 all the old-fashioned breeds we could get, and discarded them all for the 
 Single Comb White and Brown Leghorns. I had decided that knowl- 
 edge was of commercial value only when applied, and having a working 
 knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the hen, I decided to try 
 to turn the same to a commercial account, and in a couple of years 
 had evolved what is now known as the "Walter Hogan System," which 
 consists in ascertaining the value of a hen for the purpose you desire 
 by the relative thickness of and distance apart of the pelvic bones. 
 Before 1873 I had communicated this discovery to some of my friends 
 under promise of secrecy. One of them, Albert Brown, once a well- 
 known banker of Amesbury, Massachusetts, and O. H. Farrar of the 
 same place, an overseer in the Hamilton Mills, and a Light Brahma 
 specialist. After using the above so-called ".system" for a number of 
 years, I developed a new method, which I have taught in part privately 
 for some years, and which I now introduce to the public under the title 
 of "The Call of the Hen; or, The Science of Selecting and Breeding 
 Poultry." 
 
 My friends early prophesied that my penchant for invention would 
 land me in the poorhouse in my old age. So by some occult inspiration 
 I was induced to abstain from publishing any part of my discoveries 
 until 1904, when, by the advice of Ex-Congressman Haldor E. Boen 
 of Minnesota, to whom I had confided my poultry secrets some years 
 previous, I decided to publish only my first discovery, known as the 
 "Walter Hogan System" (which will be found in the latter part of this 
 work), after the same had been tested at the Minnesota State Experi- 
 mental Station by Professor Hoverstadt, the superintendent of the 
 station. However, before taking any steps to bring this matter before 
 the public, I wrote to some thirty or more poultry judges, who were 
 supposed to be selected as judges to officiate at the coming poultry 
 show to be held in Buffalo during the exhibition at that place in 1901, 
 asking them if they knew of any way to tell when a pullet was about 
 
 (15) 
 
Ifi THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 to lay. I thought that if they did not know that much of the laying 
 proposition, I would be safe in going ahead with publishing my secrets. 
 The letters I received were left in Minnesota when I came to California 
 shortly before the earthquake in IQOfi, so I cannot name the judges at 
 present, but they will remember me as the proprietor of the Fergus 
 Falls Woolen Mills; and I must say they replied in a very courteous 
 manner, saying there was no way except the general appearance of the 
 bird, as to its maturity of form, redness of comb and wattles, singing, 
 looking for nest, etc. One only of the number charged me one dollar 
 for this information. 
 
 Failing health obliged me to dispose of my manufacturing business 
 and retire to the farm, and it weis in the spring of 1905 before I published 
 my "Walter Hogan System," when it appeared in a number of poultry 
 papers. (See Reliable Poultry Journal, March, 1905.) I did not 
 copyright ,the work at that time, although my experience in mechanical 
 inventions had taught me that I should have done so, and the following 
 August imitations began to appear until in 1912 a number of different 
 parties in the United States and foreign countries were claiming author- 
 ship and selling it under the same or different titles. 
 
 My years of research and expense brought me no financial returns, 
 and in the spring of 1906 I left Minnesota for California, a physical and 
 financial wreck. After having regained my health, I began here at 
 Petaluma to build up the same kind of a flock of layers that I had done 
 in previous years, with the idea of publishing my entire work when I 
 should have bred up a strain of 200-egg hens and better. 
 
 After I removed to California, Professor M. E. Jaffa, of the Uni- 
 versity of California, became interested in the matter, and at the request 
 of the Petaluma Poultry Association, had the discovery tested at the 
 California Poultry Experimental Station for two years, and continued 
 for two years longer for the purpose of determining the value of four- 
 year-old hens as layers, as it is outlined in this book in the chapter 
 relating to the selection of the best layers in a flock. 
 
 It was also tested in New Zealand by D. D. Hyde, chief poultry 
 expert for the New Zealand Government, and Prof. Brown, of the New 
 Zealand Poultry Experiment Station. I have repeatedly been requested 
 by my friends in different parts of the world to publish the full matter 
 in book form, but poor health and lack of sufficient funds have J)re- 
 vented me from doing so until now. As this work will be copyrighted, 
 I do not anticipate the literary pirates will raid it as they have my 
 former work. In justice to the poultry fraternity, I want to say that 
 while I have been and am now a member of the American Poultry 
 Association, and have raised poultry fifty-six years, and now raise them 
 by the thousand, I have never in the past classed myself as a "poultry- 
 man" in the strict sense of the word. Neither do I claim that I am the 
 only one who has discovered the facts set forth in this book. I only 
 know that I have never seen them in print before. I know what the 
 results of following this method have been with me, and I feel safe in 
 assuming that the things I have discovered have not been known. 
 Hundreds have known me as an inventor and woolen manufacturer 
 where one would know me as a "poultry crank;" and the apology I have 
 for offering this book to the public in a field already crowded with poultry 
 literature is the earnest solicitation of my friends. 
 
 Walter Hogan. 
 
 Petaluma, Cal., July 7, 1919. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN; OR, THE SCIENCE 
 OF SELECTING AND BREEDING POULTRY 
 
 By WALTER HOGAN. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Underlying Principles Which Govern the Selection and 
 Breeding of Poultry are Capacity, Condition, Type, Con- 
 stitutional Vigor and Prepotency. 
 
 In the winter of 1910 I received a letter from a woman in Oregon 
 which read as follows: 
 
 "D^^AR.SjR — My husband is a machinist. He is getting old and 
 his health is failing. We have both worked hard all our lives, and have 
 saved enough to buy a small place in the country. We can no longer 
 do hard work, and in looking for some light occupation that would 
 bring weekly returns, we have looked favorably on the poultry business. 
 We have kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of years, 
 and fliink we have done well with them. We also take four poultry 
 papers, but each one tells a different story, and we cannot decide what 
 to do. We have been years accumulating our little savings, and if we 
 should lose them, we would have no resources left for our old age. I 
 enclose two articles from the September (1910) number of the Pacific 
 Fanciers' Monthly. One article gives me to understand th^t it is almost 
 hopeless to think of making a living with hens, if we depend on selling 
 eggs and poultry on the market. The other article holds out the promise 
 of a possible income of a thousand dollars per year from 300 hens if 
 handled under right conditions. One means utter failure and bank- 
 ruptcy in market eggs and poultry, and the other means the fullest 
 measure of success. Both of these articles are in the same number 
 and one follows the other on the same page. How can you reconcile 
 these two conflicting opinions?" 
 
 (The articles follow.) 
 
 "A Common Question Wisely Answered. 
 
 "By George Scott. 
 
 "Can a living be made from poultry? Probably there is no one 
 who has attained distinction in the avicultural arena to whom this ques- 
 tion has not been put hundreds of times ; and it is a question of perennial 
 interest to the poultry-keeping public. There are many people who will 
 tell you that a living, and a good living, can be made from poultry- 
 keeping alone, and as proof of their statement will point out the numer- 
 ous nien whose names are household words in the fancy. On the other 
 hand, a vast majority will most emphatically give utterance to state- 
 
 (17) 
 
18 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 ments calculated to deter any poultry-keeping aspirant, and give weight 
 to their contention by citing hundreds of cases where men have tried 
 and failed. Truly the mass of evidence appears to be with the latter 
 belief, for it is an indubitable fact that for every person who succeeds 
 in this business a hundred fail. But, looking at the matter from a logical 
 point of view, the fact that a minority rely on poultry for their daily 
 bread, is ample evidence that it is quite possible to make a living out of 
 poultry-keeping, and the abnormal number of failures merely proves 
 that the business is a diflScult one. 
 
 "The fact that a man who has failed in some other business takes 
 up poultry-keeping with a like result in no sense proves that poultry- 
 keeping does not pay; it is only what could be expected, and any ex- 
 perienced aviculturist would have prophesied such a result. It is, 
 however, useless to explain such things to the man who is contemplating 
 starting a poultry farm. To suggest that he is unfit for the tcisk would 
 be taken by him as an insult, for the public, in its ignorance, has con- 
 ceived the idea that poultry management is the simplest work that 
 anyone can think of — in fact, I question whether an outsider considers 
 it to be work at all. 
 
 "Such a hold has this belief obtained on the man in the street that 
 it almost amounts to a superstition, and until the fallacy is exploded 
 the number of the unsuccessful will be constantly increased. The public, 
 apparently, cannot understand the difference between keeping a few 
 fowls as a paying hobby and managing a poultry farm is an enormous 
 one, and that the minor difficulties to be met with in the former case 
 are increased a thousand fold in the latter. 
 
 "Probably there is no other business which calls for so many qual- 
 ifications as that of the poultry-farmer, and to say that the man who 
 has been successful in any other walk in life is totally unfitted for this 
 business, thdUgh somewhat exaggerated, will give the tyro some idea of 
 what is wanted. An intimate detailed knowledge of poultry manage- 
 ment, an unlimited reserve of perseverance, determination, and resource, 
 a genuine love for fowls, the capacity for hard, continuous work for 
 seven days a week, combined with business knowledge and thrifty man- 
 agement, are all essential, and will, with ordinary luck, lead one to the 
 desired goal. 
 
 "I am very dubious as to whether a living can be made from utility 
 poultry-keeping, pure and simple — that is to say, by selling eggs and 
 birds solely for edible purposes. A profit can undoubtedly be made, 
 but it is so infinitesimal that the income derived from this source alone 
 would, I am afraid, scarcely suffice for the needs of the most parsimonious. 
 If it is decided to specialize in utility points, pure-bred stock must be 
 kept of the popular varieties, and eggs for hatching, day-old chicks, 
 and stock birds must be sold. This will make all the difference, and 
 once a connection has been worked up, there is no reason why the busi- 
 ness, should not pay, and pay well. 
 
 "The breeding of exhibition birds is, without doubt, the most 
 profitable branch, and when once a name has been made, stock and eggs 
 can be disposed of at most remunerative prices. Success, however, 
 cannot be attained at once; it is often the work of years; and many 
 breeders never rise from the ranks of mediocrity. Moreover, much 
 capital is required to start an exhibition poultry farm, and one's expenses 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 19 
 
 incurred in the management are infinitely heavier than in the case where 
 utility points are the only consideration. 
 
 "I would not advise anyone unversed in poultry-culture to give up 
 a situiation, however poor, in order to go in for poultry-keeping as a 
 means of earning a livelihood. To think of such a thing is foolish in 
 the extreme, but for anyone to burn one's boats behind one in this way 
 would be suicidal. What I would suggest to poultry-keeping aspirants 
 (and I believe the number of these reaches well into four figures) is that 
 they should keep as many fowls as they can attend to properly in their 
 spare hours, and see what profits they can make from the birds. Above 
 all, they must find out if they have a genuine love for the work, for with- 
 out this nothing can be done. When a name has been made as a breeder 
 of good stock, then, and then only, is it time for the amateur to consider 
 the advisability of adopting poultry-keeping as a business; and long 
 before this point is reached the glamour of the idea may have faded 
 for the life of a poultry-keeper is, contrary to popular belief, far from 
 being a bed of roses. Practically all the men who are today making 
 a living from poultry commenced keeping fowls as a hobby, and the 
 knowledge and experience which they gained in this way enabled them 
 to found the establishments which are to-day of world-wide reputation. 
 
 "To those who are qualified for the work poultry-keeping offers 
 a good living; but to the idle, the thriftless or the pleasure-seekers of 
 this holiday-making age it offers more desolate prospects than any other 
 trade or profession. In this business nothing but dogged determination 
 will enable the beginner to climb the rugged, precipitous path to success, 
 and anyone who is lacking in this essential, or who is afraid of hard, 
 continuous work, will save himself the obloquy of failure by choosing 
 some other field in which to exercise his powers." 
 
 "The Good Little Hen. 
 "What She Will Do for You if You Will Treat Her Right. 
 
 "By Mrs. A. Basley. 
 
 "There is money in poultry for the man and especially for the 
 woman that will dig it out. This I can assure the Fanciers' Monthly 
 readers, if they are in doubt. 
 
 " 'Dig it out' seems a curious way of putting it. When I spent 
 a summer in a big mining camp in Colorado, I noticed a great many 
 holes in the sides of the mountains. 'Yes,' said a miner, 'and not 5 
 per cent of those holes have paid.' It was appalling to think of the 
 thousands of dollars lost in those holes. 'Give me a hundred hens,' 
 said I. The money it took to dig one of those unprofitable holes would 
 have started a fine poultry plant and the good little hens would have 
 brought in a living for their owners. 
 
 "There is money in poultry. Every inch of a hen is valuable. 
 I would like to give you one of the values of the hen and what it costs 
 to keep her. 
 
 "First, there are the eggs she will lay, if properly fed and treated. 
 Twelve dozen eggs per year is the average, although I personally know 
 poultry plants now being operated in Southern California where the 
 output, as shown by carefully kept records, is sixteen dozen per year. 
 The average price at the Arlington Egg Ranch for the past year was 
 
20 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 31 cents a dozen, because the proprietor arranged to have his hens 
 laying when eggs cost most, in the fall and winter months. 
 
 "Sixteen dozen eggs at 31 cents a dozen means each hen brings in 
 $4.96 in eggs, whilst her food costs 10 cents per month or $1.20 per year, 
 leaving $3.76 as profit for eggs. 
 
 "There is still another source of profit in the hen, and that is in 
 the droppings. At several of the experiment stations it has been found" 
 that a hen voids about 100 pounds of droppings per year. These drop- 
 pings have been analyzed and show a value as fertilizer of from 30 to 
 35 cents per hen; the value being controlled not only by the market 
 demand, but also by the quality; the droppings being richer as fertilizer 
 where the food was rich in protein and where the hens are fed the 'full 
 and plenty' method. 
 
 " 'What do you do with the hen droppings?' I asked a beginner. 
 'Throw them away; glad to get rid of them,' was the reply. At the 
 rate of $10.00 per ton, that was a waste of 50 cents per hen. Two of 
 our neighbors had lawns which were in so bad a condition from the soil 
 being worn out that they were on the point of having them dug out 
 and new soil put in and the whole re-sowed, when they thought of their 
 hen droppings; these they had spread over the lawns and then raked off 
 again and the lawns well watered. In a month's time those lawns 
 looked beautiful — better far than if they had been re-made, and at far 
 less cost. 
 
 "When I lived in the Eastern States, my window garden was the 
 envy and admiration of everyone that passed ; there were flowers galore 
 all through the dark winter gloom and cold frosty days. I loved my 
 plants, took good care of them in every way, but the secret of the won- 
 derful blossoms was hen manure. 
 
 "Once a month I half-filled a bucket with hen droppings, poured 
 a kettleful of boiling water on it, filled the bucket with the water, stirred 
 it with a stick, let it settle and cool, and watered the plants with that 
 liquid. I found that hen droppings enrich the ground for almost all 
 plants better than anything; roses are the only exception that I have 
 found, they doing much better when fertilized with well-rotted cow 
 manure. 
 
 "But to return to our hen. She gives 26 pounds' weight of eggs, 
 or sixteen dozen, valued at $4.96; she also gives 100 pounds of valuable 
 fertilizer, worth here $10 a ton, or 50 cents per hen, which brings the 
 amount of her earnings to $5.40, and at the end of the year we still have 
 the hen to eat or sell at market value, about 75 cents or $1.00. If we 
 eat her, we have the feathers, which are easily saved, and can be sold or 
 made into pillows, the bones pounded up and fed to the other fowls. 
 
 "Poultry pays, and pays better than any other legitimate business, 
 considering the amount invested. Why then are there any fciilures? 
 I will tell you why: The failures are not the fault of the good little 
 hen. She will always do her duty; she will always respond to the treat- 
 ment she gets. The failures are the people who care for the hen. The 
 owners are the failures, and not the fowls. 
 
 "Success is what we all want to attain in whatever we undertake: 
 and, 'lest we forget' some of the things which lead to success, may I 
 repeat that there are three essentials to egg-production. These are: 
 Comfort, Exercise, and Proper Food. I would like to review these." 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21 
 
 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 horses do not make 
 good, as a rule, 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 
 
22 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 to be egg breeds and dual-purpose breeds. The first are supposed to 
 be a paying proposition as a whole for egg-production. ,The latter are 
 supposed to be a paying proposition for both eggs and meat combined; 
 some breeders claiming that their breed will give you the very largest 
 number of eggs per year and the greatest weight of flesh all in one bird. 
 Now, these claims are misleading. It is an utter physical impossibility 
 for any hen to be a typical egg type and at the same time be a typical 
 meat type. It is against the laws of Nature. We have the Leghorns, 
 Minorcas, Spanish, and a number of other Mediterranean breeds that 
 are called "egg type." While the truth is, that while they have been 
 bred as best the breeders knew how along the lines of egg-production, 
 you can find vast numbers that will not lay eggs enough to pay for the 
 feed they eat. Great numbers in some flocks have all the characteristics 
 of the beef type, and will lay about three or four dozen eggs per year 
 and sometimes not over a dozen. The Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, 
 Wyandottes, and Langshans are classed as "dual-purpose" breeds, 
 which means hens that will lay a medium number of eggs and give a 
 good large carcass for the table; and while this is true in a majority of 
 cases, I have seen numerous specimens that laid over two hundred and 
 fifty eggs per year, while some would lay little or nothing. In fact, 
 while I have bred Leghorns for more than forty years, and they are 
 my favorite breed, I must say I have found as good layers (within a 
 few eggs) in all the other breeds I have named as I have found in the 
 Leghorns, and I have also found as poor layers among the Leghorns 
 as I have found in any other breed. As far as the number of eggs is 
 concerned, as a rule, I find that the breed of the hen has nothing to do 
 with it whatever. 
 
 I do not wish to be considered dogmatic in anything I may say 
 in this work. I am merely giving the opinions I have formed by ob- 
 servation and experiment during a period of fifty-six years that I have 
 kept poultry, not to make all the money I could out of them, but to learn 
 all I possibly could about them — in fact, until a few years ago I never 
 kept poultry for the money there was in it. The keeping of hens hcis 
 been a passion with me. I have spent years of time and thousands of 
 dollars, but I think I have found something that will be of inestimable 
 value to the world, and I have found it not because I was any bettei 
 fitted for the work than thousands of other lovers of poultry, but be- 
 cause I stuck everlastingly to it, without any regard as to whether it 
 paid me in dollars or not. 
 
 As previously stated, it is not a matter of breed as to whether a 
 hen is a good layer or not. It is a matter of type, capacity, and consti- 
 tutional vigor. First, in almost all breeds there is a type of hen where 
 everything she consumes over bodily maintenance goes to the pro- 
 duction of eggs. This we call the "typical egg type." Second, there 
 is a type where about half the food consumed over maintenance goes 
 to the production of eggs, the balance over bodily maintenance going 
 to make flesh. This is called the "dual-purpose type," as this hen 
 performs two functions that are considered necessary in the economy 
 of Nature: the production of eggs and the production of meat on a 
 commercial scale. Third, there is a type where everything consumed 
 over bodily maintenance goes to flesh. This hen we call the "meat 
 type," for the reason that practically all her energy is used in producing 
 meat. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 23 
 
 Now, here we have three distinct types of fowl in almost every 
 breed. We have divided these three types into six separate classes 
 for each type : 
 
 No. 1 of the typical egg type hen may lay about 36 eggs; 
 
 No. 2 may lay about 96 eggs ; 
 
 No. 3 may lay about 180 eggs ; 
 
 No. 4 may lay about 220 eggs ; 
 
 No. 5 may lay about 250 eggs; 
 
 No. 6 may lay about 280 eggs; 
 
 All this is in their first laying year. 
 
 No. 1 of the dual-purpose t3^e hen may lay about 20 eggs; 
 
 No. 2 may lay about 50 eggs; 
 
 No. 3 may lay about 96 eggs ; 
 
 No. 4 may lay about 115 eggs; 
 
 No. 5 may lay about 130 eggs ; 
 
 No. 6 may lay about 145 eggs; 
 
 This is in their first laying year. 
 
 No. 1 of the typical meat type may lay from nothing to a dozen 
 eggs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 6 may lay from nothing to a couple of dozen 
 eggs, and, as a rule, will lay these in the spring when the crows lay. 
 The reason is very plain, if we stop to think that the same natural 
 laws govern all animal (and human) nature. 
 
 The egg type hen is of a nervous temperament (that is why she is 
 usually free from body lice, if she has a suitable place to dust in), and 
 all she eats over bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. 
 The hen of the sanguine temperament is a little more beefy, and lays 
 less eggs ; the hen of the bilious temperament is more beefy still, and lays 
 still less eggs, while the hen of the lymphatic temperament will lay 
 little or nothing, almost everything she eats going to flesh and fat. 
 (The reader need borrow no trouble over the meaning of the terms 
 "nervous," "sanguine," "bilious," and "lymphatic" temperament, if he 
 is not familiar with them, as the charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will specify 
 matters so that anyone can understand the matter of selecting the dif- 
 ferent grades of hens with very little study and trouble.) 
 
 We have said that we have divided the three grades, the egg type, 
 dual-purpose type, and meat type, into six separate classes. There is, 
 in fact, a seventh class, but it is so rare that we will not take it into 
 consideration here, but will explain it later. But we have, in fact, made 
 ninety classes of these six for convenience in selection, and the process 
 could be extended indefinitely, but it would serve no needful purpose. 
 
 Now, when we consider all these different grades in the hens of 
 every breed, and the further fact that there is the same number of 
 different grades in the male bird, is it aijy wonder that there is so much 
 difference of opinion in regard to the profits derived from poultry- 
 keeping? We have visited hundreds of poultry plants that numbered 
 from about fifty to two thousand or more hens each. We have seen 
 some flocks of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they con- 
 sumed, for the simple reason that they were not the right type of hens. 
 They were fine-looking, healthy meat-producers, but there was no 
 earthly way possible to feed them that would induce them to lay eggs 
 at any time except a few months in the spring when the crows laid, 
 and eggs were cheap. The owners of some of these flocks were bright, 
 brainy, vigorous business men, who tried every method that usage and 
 
24 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 science suggested, and fought with sheer desperation to make a success 
 of the business, but went down in failure; while their next neighbor, a 
 little pin-headed, conceited specimen of humanity, strutting around 
 like a peacock, was getting rich with the same breed of hens. "Luck," 
 do you say? Yes, it is mostly a matter of chance. The first man was 
 unfortunate in that he got his eggs or breeding-hens from stock such as 
 that described in the first article of the Fanciers' Monthly, \^Jiile the last 
 man got his eggs or breeding-pens from stock described by Airs. Basley 
 in the second article. 
 
 We once visited a gentleman who had a very exten^ve poultry 
 plant. He had a large number of different breeds yarded off in finely 
 "It^pointed yards, with help and financial means to satisfy every need 
 of a poultry plant. His pens of Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans 
 were remarkable layers, while his Cochins, Houdans and Polish were 
 very good layers. After looking over the last-named birds, he re- 
 marked: "I have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which 
 I wish you would look at." After we had looked at them a few minutes, 
 he asked, "What do you think of them as layers?" I replied that if he would 
 tell me which pen laid an average of all the pens, I would tell him in 
 a few minutes. "That pen there," said he, pointing to No. 20, "has 
 laid an average number of all the eggs laid." After examining the hens, 
 I told him I would not take them as a gift, if I had to keep them one 
 year. "Why"? he asked. "Because," I replied, "after keeping them 
 a year and selling them, the price I would receive for the hens and the 
 eggs they would lay would not pay for their feed. I cannot see why 
 you keep them." The next evening he said to me, "Do you see that 
 man moving into the place over yonder? Well, I have sold those 
 Leghorn hens to that newcomer for $500." "Is this an exceptional 
 case?" you ask. I have only this to say: that all the David Harums 
 are not in the horse business, neither can I see why a poultryman should 
 be his brother's keeper, when it is not the rule in other lines of business. 
 It seems to me the better way is to study poultry from a scientific point 
 of view, so that you can judge the value of a hen for the purpose you 
 want her for, and not have to depend on other people's opinions. 
 
 By studying this book carefully you will be able to tell approximately 
 the number of eggs a hen is capable of laying in a year; you can also 
 select the hens that will be the best for breeding purposes, for eggs, 
 for meat, or as a dual-purpose hen — that is, a hen that will give you 
 the largest number of eggs possible with the largest possible amount of 
 meat when you wish to sell her, or the hen that will produce the best 
 broilers, regardless of any one particular breed. Some hens will be 
 very good layers, some very good meat-producers, some very good 
 dual-purpose type, and some very fine fancy birds, and you can mate 
 them with the same type of male bird and breed from these birds for a 
 few generations, and tiieir progeny will degenerate. The chickens from 
 the hens and cockerels or cock birds of the 200-egg type may lay less 
 each generation, until in eight or ten generations they may not lay 
 enough to pay for their feed. The progeny from some of the best meat 
 and dual-purpose type matings will sometimes degenerate just as the 
 egg type, until they are practically worthless as profitable meat pro- 
 ducers. The chicks from the fancy mating may be a failure froin the 
 fancier's point of view. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 25 
 
 This is the rock that some old poultry-breeders are sometimes 
 wrecked upon. One case of national interest was the case of the late 
 lamented Professor Gowell, of the State of Maine Experiment Station. 
 He had started some years before to breed up a heavy-laying strain by 
 using the trap-nest, selecting eggs for hatching from hens that were his 
 best layer's and conformed as near as possible to the standard, and using 
 cockerels hatched from these eggs to mate with his hens. Now this was 
 all right eis far as it went, but there was something that the Professor 
 had not taken into consideration. He had procured the best birds he 
 could find, had trap-nested them to discover the hens that were the most 
 prolific layers, had selected the eggs from what he had considered to 
 be the best hens for the purpose (and few men had better judgment in this 
 respect). He had mated up the best-looking cockerels from these best 
 eggs from the best-laying hens, and according to all apparent precedents 
 was he not justified in expecting an increase each year in egg-production? 
 But what were the results? If reports are true, there was a decrease 
 in egg-^bduction, and what do you suppose was the cause? There 
 must be^Some cause. There is a cause for every effect. Sometimes we 
 think tffiigs just happen; that there is no natural law that governs 
 them; tiSkt in this or that case it was all chance; that it may not have 
 happened to another person, and will not be likely to happen to us again, 
 and so we dismiss the matter only to have the same thing repeat itself, 
 until we either solve the problem or meet our doom through it. And 
 thereby hangs a tale. 
 
 Some time in the summer of 1905 I received a letter from a doctor 
 in one of the suburbs of Boston, asking me what I would charge to visit 
 Orono, Maine, and have a talk with Professor Gowell, and incidentally 
 to drop a few remarks that might be of some help to him in his in- 
 vestigations. I had never met the Professor, but I replied to the Doctor 
 that I would go (I was then living in Minnesota), and would pay my 
 own expenses, as I wished to visit Boston, my birthplace, and where I 
 first started in poultry-keeping in 1857, and it would be a small matter 
 to go from there to Orono, Maine, where Professor Gowell was con- 
 ducting his experiments. While I was waiting for a reply, I decided 
 that as Professor Gowell had put so much time and thought into the 
 trap-nest proposition and had built so much on that one thing, and that 
 as he could get results from it (only it was a waste of time), that in this 
 first visit to him I would offer only one suggestion and that was the 
 secret of selecting the birds, both male and female, that would be sure 
 to breed progeny that would be better than their parents along the 
 lines in which the parents excelled, or, in other words, transmit their 
 predominating characteristics to their offspring; that is, if the cockerel 
 or cock birds and hens were typical meat type birds, the progeny would 
 excel along these lines. Some of them would excel their parents in the 
 production of meat ; they would be hardier, better feeders, would digest 
 and assimilate their food better, and consequently arrive at maturity 
 sooner, and be of better flavor and more tender, and by breeding these 
 birds along the lines laid down by I. K. Felch, of Natick, Massachusetts 
 ("line breeding" he calls it), they would improve each season, so that 
 in a number of years there would be a great difference in their favor 
 over their parents. If the pen was a fancy proposition and had been bred 
 some years for fancy points, the progeny would show a decided improve- 
 ment in a few years over their parents. If the pen were the typical 
 
26 THF CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 egg type, the progeny would show an increase over their parents in 
 stamina and egg-production. I would also have shown him where the 
 birds he was breeding from were deficient in the faculty that governs 
 fecundity, or, in other words, which controls the function of reproduc- 
 tion. 
 
 Whittier, in "Maud Muller," says, "For of all sad words of tongue 
 or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been." Yes, "it might 
 have been." Professor Gowell might have lived to give many more 
 years of aid to the poultry world and his tragic death been prevented; 
 but he wrote the Doctor that he did not want me to come. He seemed 
 determined to solve the problem himself, and no doubt would have done 
 so if he had been as care-free from routine duties as a man in his position 
 should have been; and I charge his untimely end to society. The men 
 and women in our public institutions who are giving their lives for the 
 benefit of humanity are not appreciated at their true value. We de- 
 mand the full limit of routine duties, forgetting that it is impossible for 
 a tired body to furnish sufficient nutriment to the brain to solve these 
 intricate problems that are continually confronting them, and while 
 we cause them to suffer mentally and physically individually, we cause 
 ourselves to suffer collectively, by our parsimonious treatment of them. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 Preliminary Remarks, Giving Some Advice to the 
 Reader. 
 
 The writer is not one of the long-winded kind. I don't like to talk 
 a long time in order to say a few words, or write a dozen pages where 
 one will do as well. I believe in handing out the chunks of gold with 
 as little dross as possible. I think the reader would rather receive 
 the information I have to offer in one page than in a dozen; that he would 
 rather discover the facts in a few feet than to be obliged to hunt over 
 a hundred acres of literary space for the same information. For that 
 reason I will make this work as brief as possible. I will be aided in my 
 effort to do so by the fact that the theories offered in this work have 
 been more or less demonstrated by the Government Experimental 
 Stations of New Zealand and the States of Minnesota and California; 
 also in the poultry plants of the five State hospitals (which contain 
 thousands of hens) in the State of California, under the auspices of the 
 State Board of Health and the physicians of the different hospitals. • 
 It might not be a difficult matter to mislead a few poultry men on a 
 subject that deals wholly with physiology and anatomy, but it would 
 be absurd to think for a moment that one could deceive all the phy- 
 sicians in five State insane hospitals. It seems a man who would still 
 doubt would believe the world is flat, especially when he learns that a 
 member of the State Board of Health told the writer that there was a 
 difference of $1,500 in favor of using this system in one year, in one 
 of the hospitals alone. 
 
 We commence in this chapter the unfolding of a method or test 
 by which the reader can tell approximately the value of a hen and a 
 male bird as a breeding proposition (and in the chapter on Breeding 
 alone this book will be worth its weight in gold to the fanciers) 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 27 
 
 egg-producer or a meat-producer. It is my desire to make the fatts 
 contained in this book so clear and the tests so easy of application that 
 anyone can become proficient in the use of them in a short time. There- 
 fore I have prepared a series of illustrations showing numerous types 
 and conditions of fowls, also various other facts that may better be shown 
 by pictures than by explanations alone. 
 
 You will remember, no doubt, that you did not arrive at your 
 present proficiency in reading in a day or two; that it took some little 
 time, and there was a certain system or evolution in your study. You 
 will find the same true of this method. There is a certain process that 
 leads from one step to another, until you have covered the system, 
 when by repeated study and practice you will become proficient and 
 accomplish what at first seems impossible. It may seem an impossible 
 task to handle and grade sixteen hundred hens in six hours, but the 
 writer has done it. With sufficient help to hand me the hens, we graded 
 (or, in other words, tested out) sixteen hundred hens in six hours in the 
 State Hospital Poultry yards at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, 
 in March, 1910. "Not so bad for a semi-invalid of 62," we hear you 
 say. Our reply is, "It's practice." You can do the same. Go through 
 the movements with every hen you pick up each day, and in a short 
 time what at first is difficult will appear quite easy. 
 
 For some years previous to 1912 there was great activity in the 
 poultry industry, there having been no lack of poultry papers, farm 
 papers, and magazines that for a nominal sum would give tuition in 
 poultry culture. The ease of getting a theoretical knowledge of the 
 business induced thousands to take it up who otherwise would not have 
 thought of doing so. The apparent ease of conducting the business, 
 the small amount of capital it was supposed to require, with the large 
 and steady income it offered, were the will-o'-the-wisps that lured many 
 to financial loss. I would warn my readers against rushing into the 
 poultry business on a scale beyond their means without first obtaining 
 a working knowledge of the same. With good stock, with the proper 
 environment, a good market, and a working knowledge of the business, 
 there is little danger of failure, if one is willing to do the work necessary 
 on a poultry plant. It offers the most independent living for the smallest 
 amount of capital of any business I know of. 
 
 The requisites for success are the knowledge of how to be able to 
 select the hen you need for any particular purpose, whether it is for 
 eggs or for meat or fancy; whether the hen will be a paying proposition 
 or not (this may depend on your market); whether she will be able to 
 transmit her predominating characteristics to her offspring or not. 
 Also you must be able to judge accurately the value of the male bird 
 as to what you want him for and as to his ability to stamp his offspring 
 with the desired qualities. All the above you can learn from this book. 
 You should also know how to operate incubators; how to feed and care 
 for little chicks; how your hen-houses should be built to suit your climate; 
 how your growing pullets should be fed and housed ; and the best way 
 to feed to get the most eggs at the smallest cost, and how to feed and 
 mate to get fertile eggs and vigorous chicks. There are numerous 
 books published on all of these latter subjects that you can buy from 
 the publishers of any poultry paper; so we do not take up the matter 
 in this work; we give only what you cannot get elsewhere. 
 
28 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Following is a series of half-tones and explanations representing 
 the method we have used in instructing hundreds of poultrymen and 
 women in California and other States and the managers of poultry 
 plants in a number of State institutions in the State of California. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Various Steps in the Application of the Method of the 
 Selection fo'r Egg-Production. 
 
 There are four characteristics that it is absolutely necessary for 
 a hen to possess for the economical production of eggs or meat. The 
 first is capacity, the second is condition, the third is type, and the fourth 
 is constitutional vigor. The reader must bear the first three in mind 
 in studying the next few chapters, as we will dispose of these before 
 taking other matters into consideration. 
 
 First. What is Capacity? — Capacity means the abdominal capacity 
 to consume and assimilate the amount of food necessary to produce 
 the number of eggs or amount of meat necessary to make the individual 
 hen under consideration a paying proposition. We measure the ca- 
 pacity of the hen by placing the hand across the abdomen between the 
 end of the breast-bone, or keel, and the pelvic bones. The method will 
 be shown in detail in Chapter IV. 
 
 Second. Condition. — If the hen under consideration is an egg 
 type, she must be kept in proper bodily condition by supplying her with 
 the right quantity and quality of food that will furnish her with vitality 
 material necessary to produce the number of eggs required of her. If 
 the hen is in good condition, the flesh oil the breast will be plump or 
 practically flush with the breast-bone. Any variation in that condition 
 will be shown by a shrinking away of the flesh of the breast, and will be 
 followed by a corresponding shrinking of the abdomen. We. show this 
 by illustration and example later. 
 
 Third. Tjrpe. — She must be of a type that everything she consumes 
 is used in producing the desired effect, whether it is meat, whether it is 
 eggs, or whether it is the maximum amount of eggs and meat that a 
 dual-purpose hen can produce. According to our idea, the ty{?e of hen 
 determines how she will dispose of the food she eats. The kind of type 
 is shown by the relative thickness of the pelvic bones. The very tJun 
 bone indicates the egg type. As we pass into the dual-purpose and beef 
 types we find the bones becoming thicker. We show these by illustrations 
 and charts later. 
 
 With the reader bearing the above three propositions in mind — 
 namely, Capacity, Condition and Tjrpe — we will proceed to show how< 
 to judge the hen with the least amount of time and labor. 
 
 Fig. 1 shows the interior of an open-front colony house, largely used 
 around Petaluma. The roosts are connected to the house by hinges, so 
 they can be hooked up out of the way while cleaning the house or ex- 
 amining the hens, as in the present case. These houses eu-e usually 
 about 8 feet wide and 10 feet deep inside, with 4 feet posts and pitch 
 roof. These houses are open front, with the exception of 18 inches on 
 each side, as can be seen on one side, where hens are going out of the 
 house into' the catching-coop. When hens move too slow to suit, one 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 29 
 
 or more persons (children will do) can take a grain sack by bottom 
 side in one hand and top side in the other hand and go into the house 
 holding sacks spread apart and moving gently close to the floor or ground 
 and drive the hens into the catching-coop. When the coop is full, 
 shut down the slide door on outside to prevent hens returning to the 
 house. 
 
 Fia. 1 — Showing hens in house. Note exit in the corner and catching crate 
 placed just outside. They wallc into this unconsciously, and this saves them from 
 excitement and rough handling. As soon as the crate is filled the door is closed behind 
 them. 
 
 Some readers may have long houses, holding five hundred hens 
 or more. In this case you will need a panel, run diagonally across 
 the house to a point near the opening, where the hens go in and out of 
 the house, as in Fig. IJ^. This panel can be as long as required for 
 the width of the house and made in sections, if desired, and should be 
 6 feet or more high. 
 
 Fig. 2 shows hens in the coop. When there are enough in, we 
 shut down the slide door and proceed as in Fig. 3. 
 
 Fig. 3. Note the slide door on top of the „ crate. We open this 
 just enough to admit our arm while we grasp the hen firmly by both 
 legs, so she can't twist around and injure herself. A slide door is better 
 than a hinged door, as you can open the former just enough to take out 
 the hen without so much danger of any of the other hens escaping. 
 Be careful not to break wing or tail feathers or to injure the hen^ 
 
Fig. IJ^ — Showing 2-inch wire panel placed diagonally across house holding 
 2,000 hens. Panel frame and wire can be seen at left. This forces hens to go out 
 at exit in the corner of house and they walk into the catching-crate on the outside of 
 the exit. 
 
 Fig. 2 — Showing hens in caxciaatmawadaraaaaBai 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 31 
 
 Fig. 3 — Showing how hens are taken out of catching-crate. If they are taken 
 out in thisTmanner be sure to grasp both legs firmly and be careful not to break wing 
 or tail feathers. 
 
 Fig. 4 — Showing right and wrong way to hold arras. 
 
32 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 4. Note how the right arm is held in Fig. 4. This is not the 
 right way, but it is the way most persons hold the left arm when they 
 receive their first lesson. Now, note how the left arm is held; this is 
 the right position, and it is difficult for me to teach students to hold 
 their arms this way. I have to drill them repeatedly before they will 
 do so. The hand which holds the hen by the legs should be at the 
 height of the hip; this enables you to use the other hand in examinipg 
 the hen for capacity with greater speed and accuracy. 
 
 Fig. 5 shows how the writer holds a bird to ascertain its capacity 
 by holding it this way. After long practice, he is enabled to inspect 
 one in a few seconds by having three parties to hand him the bipds 
 and to take them from him. A small, light hen or pullet is best to prac- 
 tice with. 
 
 Fig. S — Showing how a hen may be held while testing capacity. 
 
 Fig. 6 shows where the head of the bird should be. You will note 
 that her eyes are covered up so she can't see, and that has a tendency 
 to keep her quiet while you examine her. 
 
 Fig. 7 gives an example of testing the capacity of a hen. The hand 
 is placed on the abdomen between the two pelvic bones and the rear 
 of the breast-bone; the left hand holding the legs is turned under enough 
 to bring the thighs away from the point of the breeist-bone, so that the 
 thighs will not interfere with measuring the depth of the abdomen. 
 The depth of the abdomen will vary with different hens; some will be 
 one finger (a finger means the width of a finger the widest way; I have 
 called it three-fourths of an inch) between the two pelvic bones (some- 
 times called "lay" bones or "vent" bones) and the rear of the bresist- 
 bone. Some hens will be two fingers between the two pelvic_bones and 
 
Fig. 6 — Showing where the hen's head should be so she cannot see anything. 
 
 Fig. 7 — Showing how to test capacity. 
 
34 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 the rear of the breast-bone, some will be three fingers, some will be four 
 fingers, some will be five fingers^ some will be six fingers, and occasionally 
 one will be seven fingers between the two pelvic bones and the rear of 
 the breast-bone. The depth of the abdomen indicates the capacity or 
 the ability of the bird to consume and assimilate food, and it applies 
 to all breeds, except that, everything else being equal, the longer-bodied 
 hen, having more room for the digestive machinery, would have some 
 advantage over the shorter-bodied hen. 
 
 Fig. 8 — Showing how to test condition. The legs of the hen are drawn upward, 
 so that you can see the breast. The condition is tested by placing the thumb and 
 forefinger about J^ inch from the front of the breast-bone. Figs. 20, 21 and 22 show 
 the method in detail. 
 
 Fig. 8. This indicates how to hold a hen when you examine her 
 for condition. This is one of the most difficult and serious problems 
 a poultryman has to deal with. To illustrate, I will cite one case out 
 of hundreds that have come under my observation. A gentleman 
 wrote me to call on him, as he was having trouble with his hens. When 
 I arrived at his place, he told me that when he fed his hens well he got 
 lots of eggs, but some of his hens died; then when he did not feed them 
 so well they did not lay so many eggs, but none of them died. He s£iid 
 he had repeated this a number of times with the same results. He said 
 the ones that died were as fat as butter. I picked up one of the hens; 
 she was in prime condition for the market. I picked up another one; 
 she was very thin. I examined' all his hens. I found he had, like a 
 great many poultrymen, three distinct types of hens: the egg type, the 
 dual-purpose type, and the meat type. As he had fancy birds in all 
 
Fig. 9 — Showing one movement that has proved an aid in testing type. The 
 right hand is placed under the breast of the hen to steady her while the legs are drawn 
 downward to bring the hen into position so that she may be examined for type (as in 
 cut 10). 
 
 Fig. 10 — Showing another movement that has proved an aid in testing type. 
 The legs are drawn well under the hen, thus throwing the pelvic bones forward. The 
 right hand is then removed and used to examine the thickness of the pelvic bones 
 (FiK. 11). 
 
36 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 the different types, he did not want to dispose of any of his flock, so I 
 segregated them into three divisions: the egg type, the dual-purpose 
 type, and the meat type. After that he fed the egg type all the grain 
 they could clean up in the scratching-shed and kept a balance-ration 
 of dry ground feed before them all the time. The dual-purpose hens 
 were fed all the grain they could clean up in the scratching-shed, with 
 a small amouht of dry ground feed each day. The meat type hens 
 were fed a smaller amount of grain in the scratching-shed, with a couple 
 of feeds each week of dry ground mash — just enough to keep them in 
 condition. After this he had no more trouble with his hens not laying 
 in the proper season and dying from being too fat. He would occasionally 
 pick up hens in the different pens and note their condition and feed them 
 accordingly. He told me later that before he had taken the lessons he 
 had been working completely in the dark, but now he understood the 
 matter thoroughly and knew what to do. 
 
 Fig. 9. After examining the hen as in Fig. 8, place the hand as 
 in Fig. 9, and hold right hand firmly enough to prevent her from slipping 
 down. 
 
 Fig. 10. Then move the left hand down as in Fig. 10, and hold 
 left hand firm enough to keep her in place while removing right hand. 
 
 Type. 
 Fig. 11. Now brush feathers away from vent with back of hand 
 and part the feathers near pelvic bones with lingers. Then grasp end 
 of pelvic bone so that it comes flush with outside of fingers as in Figs. 
 
 Fig. 11— Shows method of ^testing types. The thumb and forefinger are 
 placed one on each side of the pelvic bone so that you may estimate the thickness 
 of the same, including flesh, fat, gristle, etc. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 37 
 
 11 and 24. This indicates the Type of the bird. Some will be one- 
 sixteenth (^/le) of an inch thick, including the flank as held between 
 the thumb and forefinger, as seen in Figs. 11 and 24, and will vary all 
 the way up to one and a quarter (IJ^) inches, including bone, gristle, 
 fat, and flank, as seen in Fig. 31. 
 
 The reader is aware by this time that we are in the chapter per- 
 taining to Type, the last of the three classes that it is necessary to 
 divide poultry into in order to make a scientific classification to eqable 
 one to arrive at the approximate value of the "Individual Bird" as an 
 Egg or as a Meat proposition (and without any regard as to its value 
 as a breeder, which will be shown later). I wish to repeat here that 
 Type is controlled wholly by temperament. We must select the tem- 
 perament or combinations of temperaments that suit our purpose, and 
 then, with the desired capacity and by scientific feeding, so as to keep 
 the subject in proper condition, poultry culture will become more of 
 a science with the. majority of poultrymen than it is at present'. In 
 order to prepare the reader for what is to follow, I will divide poultry 
 into three distinct classes as to temperaments. 
 
 The hen that will produce the largest amount of eggs with the small- 
 est amount of meat possible for her capacity is of the nervous tem- 
 perament. The hen which uses one-half of her vitality in producing 
 eggs and the other half of her vitality in producing meat — in other 
 words, the dual-purpose, hen — is a combination of both the sanguine 
 and bilious temperaments and is called "the hen with the sanguine- 
 bilious, temperament." The hen that produces the largest amount 
 of flesh and the smallest amount of eggs consistent with her capacity 
 is of the lyiiiphatic temperament. 
 
 In a fowl all the different temperaments and their different degrees 
 of combinations are indicated by the pelvic bones. In the horse they 
 are indicated largely by the breed. The Arabian, the ideal running 
 and trotting horse, is a good type of the nervous temperament, the Coach 
 horse is a good type of the sanguine-bilious temperament, and the 
 Clyde is a good type of the lymphatic temperament. In cattle we 
 have a good example of the nervous temperament in the Jersey, and 
 of the lymphatic in the beef family of Durham, also Hereford and 
 Polled Angus, while the Holstein and Ayrshire cattle are gbod types 
 of the sanguine-bilious combined. 
 
 I have made this deviation so I could offer to my poultry friends 
 this thought: that there are certain laws in nature that have no rega^-d 
 for our theories, and the better we understand these laws, the less liable 
 we are to make mistakes. i 
 
 CHAPTER IV. j 
 
 Capacity. 
 
 In the preceding chapters we have given the reader an idea of the 
 method we use in judging the value of a hen for the purpose we wish 
 her for. In the succeeding chapters we will explain the method in detail. 
 
 First, we will take up "Capacity." 
 
 Fig. 12 shows a hen with only one finger capacity (^ of an inch) 
 between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 
 
 ^ OH— 2 
 
3S 
 
 tHE Call op tbe hen. 
 
 Fig. 13 shows a hen with two fingers capacity (13^ inches) between 
 the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 
 
 Fig. 14 shows a hen with three fingers capacity (2J^ inches) be- 
 tween the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 
 
 Fig. 12 — Ope-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) This indicates a hen of very small 
 capacity to consume and assimilate food. She never can be a large eater, hence of 
 net much value. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 39 
 
 Fig. 15 shows a hen with four fingers capacity (3 inches) between 
 the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 
 
 Fig. 16 shows a hen with five fingers capacity (3^ inches) between 
 the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 
 
 Fig. 13 — Two-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Slightly larger capacity than the 
 preceding, but still of relatively small ability to consume food. 
 
40 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 17 shows a hen with six fingers capacity (4J^ inches) between 
 the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 
 
 Fig. 14 — ^Three-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating very good ability to 
 consume and assimilate food. We find hens that lay as high as 180 eggs in their first 
 laying year in this class, depending on the type. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 41 
 
 NOTE: The tests for type and capacity cannot be applied to 
 young pullets with ajiy degree of accuracy. These tests cannot be 
 properly made until the pullet has laid at least one clutch of eggs. A 
 pullet must obtain her natural shape and be fully developed before 
 you really know what she is. These two tests can best be made on yearly 
 
 Fig. 15 — ^Four-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) A hen of very large capacity to 
 consume and assimilate food. We find 220-egg hens in this class, provided they have 
 the right type. 
 
42 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 hens. This is where many poultrymen fail in making their tests and 
 it is why many of them condemn this system. It is absolutely accurate 
 in 99% of the cases if properly and sensibly appfied. — Publishers. 
 
 Fig. 16 — Five-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) A hen of still larger ability to con- 
 sume food than the preceding. We find 250-egg hens in this class if of the right type. 
 
THE CALL OF fHE HEN. 
 
 43 
 
 Fig. 17 — Six-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating extremely large capacity 
 to consume and assimilate food. She may be a 280-egg type hen or a heavy beef type 
 hen. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Condition. 
 We next come to "Condition." 
 Fig. 18 shows a hen in very poor condition. 
 
 Fig. 19 shows a hen in perfect condition, as indicated by her full 
 breast. 
 
44 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 18 — ^Showing hen in very poor condition. The feathers being plucked away 
 shows the actual condition of the fiesh. We call a hen in this condition "three fingers 
 out: of condition," which indicates that her abdomen has shrunken up three fingers. 
 If she now has a capacity of one finger, when in good condition she would be four fingers 
 abcionien; if she has a capacity of two fingers now, she would have five fingers capacity 
 when in good condition. 
 
 Fig. 20 is somewhat thinner, as indicated by breast-bone. We call 
 her one finger out of condition. 
 
 The degrees of condition show the amount of shrinkage in ab- 
 dominal depth. One finger out of condition shows she has shrunken 
 
 Fig. 19 — Showing hen in good condition. You will note that the flesh is even 
 with the breast-bone. This hen would show her normal abdominal depth when exam- 
 ined. 
 
THE CALL OF THeT HEN. 
 
 45 
 
 one finger in-depth of abdomen; two fingers out of condition shows she 
 has shrunken tjvo fingers"|in depth of abdomen; three fingers out of 
 condition shows she has shrunken three fingers in depth of abdomen. 
 
 Fig. 20 — Showing hen one finger out of condition. You will note that the flesh 
 appears slightly shrunken away from the breast-bone. When the thumb and forefinger 
 are placed as in the cut, about J^ inch from the front of the breast-bone, the flesh will be 
 below the breast-bone, as shown by the mark on finger in Fig. 23. This would indicate 
 that the hen was one finger less capacity. If three-fingers now, she would be four fingers 
 capacity when in condition, etc. 
 
 Fig. 21 is still thinner, as reader can see by the breast-bone, 
 call her two fingers out of condition. 
 
 We 
 
 Fig. 21 — Showing hen two fingers out of condition. The flesh is shrunken away 
 from the breast-bone to about the depth indicated by the middle line on the finger in 
 Fig. 23, which is about the middle of the first joint. This shows that she is two fingers 
 less in abdominal depth than when in good condition. 
 
 Fig. 22 is still thinner. This we call three fingers out of condition, 
 and is about as thin as a hen usually gets, if there is any chance for her 
 ever being of any use. 
 
46 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN, 
 
 Fig. 22 — Showing hen three fingers out of condition. This hen would be three 
 fingers less in abdominal depth than when in good condition. 
 
 Fig. 22a — This shows you just where to place your finger on the keel or breast- 
 bone in order to measure or determine the condition of the hen. In order to properly 
 determine this fact, place your finger about 1 inch back from the front point of the keel 
 or breast-bone, as you see illustrated above. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 47 
 
 Fig. 23 shows about how the first joint of an index finger must 
 be divided up to determine the three degrees of condition. The first 
 joint of the index finger is divided into three parts, each line or division 
 representing what we call "one finger" in measuring or determining 
 condition. If a hen had- a three-finger abdomen or capacity and was 
 one finger out of condition, that would mean that she would have a 
 four-finger abdomen or capacity if she was in condition. 
 
 Fig. 23 — Showing where the imaginary lines should be drawn on the first joint of 
 the forefinger in order to judge the condition of the hen or pullet. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Type. 
 
 We now come to "Type." This is indicated by the thickness of 
 the pelvic bones, together with the flesh, fat, gristle, and cartilage on 
 same. (See page 17.) 
 
 Fig. 24 shows a hen whose pelvic bones are one-sixteenth (^/le) of 
 an inch thick, that is about as thick as a piece of cardboard that paper 
 boxes are made of, and the reader must bear in mind that the measure- 
 ment oi the pelvic bone does not mean the bone alone, with the skin, 
 flesh, gristle, and fat scraped off, as some may suppose, but with all the 
 "above included. 
 
 Fig. 25 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-eighth (Vs) of an inch 
 thick. 
 
 Fig. 26 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-quarter (J^) of an inch 
 thick. 
 
48 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 27 shows a hen with^ pelvic bones three-eighths ('/s) of an 
 inch thick. 
 
 Fig. 24 — Vie-inch pelvic bone. Indicating a typical egg-type hen, which means 
 that virtually all the food she consumes above that necessary for bodily maintenance 
 goes toward the production of eggs. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 
 36 eggs in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, she would lay about 180, 
 and if of six-finger abdomen, she might lay 280 eggs in her first laying year. 
 
 
 Fig. 25 — '/s-inch pelvic bone; indicating egg type, but not so typical as the preced- 
 ing. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 32 eggs in her first laying year; 
 if of three-finger abdomen, about 166 eggs; and if of six-finger abdomen, about 265 
 eggs in her first laying year. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 49 
 
 Fig. 26— J^-inch pelvic bone; indicating a slightly more beefy£heri than the preceding 
 types, but still of the egg type. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 24 
 eggs in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, ^bout 138 eggs; and if of six- 
 finger abdomen, about 235 eggs in her first laying year. 
 
 Fig. 27 — '/s-inch pelvic bone; indicating that the hen uses a larger proportion 
 of the food she consumes in making flesh and less in the production of eggs. A one- 
 finger abdomen hen would lay about 16 eggs; a three-finger abdomen hen, about 110 
 eggs, and a six-finger abdomen hen, about 205 eggs in the first laying year. 
 
50 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 28— J^-inch pelvic bone; indicating a still more beefy hen than the preceding 
 — that is, a still larger proportion of the food consumed is used to make flesh and less 
 to produce eggs. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 8 eggs; and if of three- 
 finger abdomen, she would lay about 82 eggs; while if of six-finger abdomen, she would 
 lay about 175 eggs in the first laying year. 
 
 Fig. 29 — J^-inch pelvic bone. A pretty good specimen of the beef type. We 
 find no two-finger abdomen hens that have pelvic bones so thick, because they cannot 
 consume enough food with such pelvic bones. A two-finger abdomen hen is virtually 
 a non-layer; a three-finger abdomen hen will lay about 24 eggs, and a six-finger abdomen 
 hen will lay about 115 eggs in the first laying year. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 51 
 
 Fig. 30 — 1-inch pelvic bone. A very beefy type. Almost all the food consumed 
 above that required for bodily maintenance is used in the making of flesh. We find 
 them in the hens that have abdomens from four to six fingers deep. They lay very few 
 eggs. 
 
 Fig. 31 — IM-inch pelvic bone. This indicates that the hen is of the typical beef 
 type. She is an enormous feeder, hence only found in hens of about six-finger capacity. 
 She will lay practically no eggs. 
 
52 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 28 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-half (J^) of an inch 
 thick. 
 
 Fig. 29 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-quarters (^) of an 
 inch thick. 
 
 Fig. 30 shows a hen with pelvic bones one (1) inch thick. 
 
 Fig. 31 shows a hen with pelvic bones one and one-quarter (134) 
 inches thick. 
 
 Fig. 32— Crooked pelvic bone. "A, A," Poation No. 1 
 
 Now, please bear in mind that everything shown and related here 
 refers to Leghorns and applies to other breeds as well, only in a lesser 
 degree — so small that it amounts to almost nothing, as I will show later. 
 
 A, A, Fig. 32, shows the pelvic bones with flesh cleaned off. 
 
 B, B, Fig. 33, shows the pelvic bones with flesh stripped off farther 
 and painted black so they will show up better. You will notice that 
 the pelvic bones in Fig. 32 and Fig. 33 are crooked. The majority of 
 poultry have more or less crooked pelvic bones. Sometimes the bones 
 come close togtether, which is an obstruction in laying, and should be 
 bred away from as much as possible. 
 
 Fig. 34 shows perfect pelvic bones. In this form they are very 
 easy to take between the thumb and finger; also, when the hen wants 
 to lay the vent has a chance to fall down between the pelvic bones. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 53 
 
 which allows the egg to be delivered without straining on the part 
 of the hen. Not every poultry man, but every poultry woman has seen 
 cases where a hen has gone on the nest and after a couple of hours com- 
 menced to cackle her head off. Presently wq hear the whole flock take 
 up the chorus, and going to see what the trouble is, we find the hens 
 
 Fig. 33 — Crooked pelvic bone, "B, B," Position No. 2. Hens with bones curved 
 like this will lay about 20 per cent less than hens of the same type and capacity with 
 straight pelvic bones, as in Fig. 34. 
 
 holding an "Old Maids' Convention" and declaring they will never lay 
 another egg, it hurts them so much to do so. On examining them, we 
 find the pelvic bones so crooked they come together like the horns on a 
 Jersey cow, and when the hens lay, instead of the vent dropping down 
 between' the pelvic bones, allowing the egg to be released in an easy 
 manner in a few minutes after the hen goes on the nest, the egg is forced 
 to be delivered between the pelvic bones and tail bone, thus prolonging 
 the agony of the hen sometimes for hours, when, if she was built right, 
 as in Fig. 34, she would be relieved of the egg without pain in a few 
 minutes. And instead of wasting vitality in getting relieved of the egg, 
 she would be rustling around for material to build another one, and thus 
 add at least 20 per cent to her egg-producing value. This matter of 
 crooked pelvic bones is more frequent in some breeds than in others, 
 and is a serious matter that is very easily remedied by breeding only 
 from birds with the straightest pelvic bones, especially looking after 
 the male birds, as one male bird with crooked pehic bones will trans- 
 mit this defect to all of his daughters. 
 
54 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 When I came to Petaluma, I found whole flocks of thousands of 
 hens with crooked bones; now they are very rare. The poultry breeders 
 soon caught on to my straight-and-thin-pelvic-bone idea; and I think 
 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should recognize 
 my services in relieving millions of hens of the agony of parturition. 
 
 The reader will please bear in mind that Fig. 34 represents 100 
 per cent pelvic bone and holds the same relation to pelvic bones in gen- 
 eral that a bird that scores 100 in the showroom holds to all other high- 
 class birds. 
 
 A 250-egg type cock bird or cockerel with pelvic bones like Fig. 
 34 would be of inestimable value. The writer has cock birds like the 
 above that he would not part with for any money, for the reason that 
 it would take several years' breeding to produce their equals. 
 
 Fig. 34 — Most perfect pelvic bones, "C, C." Hens with pelvic bones like this 
 will lay about 20 per cent more than those having bones like Fig. 33. 
 
 If the reader has male birds whose pelvic bones are far enough 
 apart that he can grasp the ends with thumb and finger when measuring 
 the thickness, he should be satisfied until he can do better. 
 
 So long as the pelvic bones are comparatively straight after leaving 
 the frame and do not curve abruptly toward the ends, 5ie birds may be 
 used as breeders, with the assurance that some of the offspring' will 
 show a wonderful improvement in this respect. Figs. 32, 33 and 34 
 are extreme cases. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 55 
 
 FIG. 33— MEASURING THE THICKNESS OF THE PELVIC BONES 
 There is little or no actual difference in the thickness of the pelvic bones in differ- 
 ent hens, but there is a great difference in the apparent thickness, which is produced by 
 the fat underlying the skin and surrounding the bones. The good layer on the reader's 
 left has comparatively little fat and the skin is thin and pliable to that there is 
 a limited amount of tissue between the bone and the finger. In the poor layer on the 
 right, the skin is thick, with a heavy layer of fat underneath, thus making the pelvic 
 bones appear more than twice as thick as in a good layer. Photo from New Jersey 
 Experiment Station. , 
 
 FIG. 61— HIGH AND LOW PRODUCING RHODE ISLAND REDS 
 Posed to show difference in spread of pelvic bones. The high-producing hen is 
 shown on the reader's left in the illustration. Photo from Storrs Experiment Station. 
 Note the large moist vent of the good layer on the left. 
 
56 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The First Laying Year. 
 
 What is meant by "the first laying year?" All old poultrymen- 
 know what the above means, and I have no doubt some of my readers 
 may be impatient with me for explaining little things that are so familiar ^ 
 to them, but they will remember that poultry parlance is not all con- 
 tained in the dictionary, and a great deal of the contents of this book 
 may be Greek to the beginners in the poultry business who will read 
 this work. jFor this reason I cannot be too plain in my langucige or too 
 careful of details in explaining matters. The first laying year* has 
 nothing whatever to do with the age of a hen or pullet. I have had 
 hens that had passed their first laying year when they were sixteen 
 months old. On the other hand, I have seen hens that were over four 
 years old that had not commenced on their first laying year. The hen 
 that had passed her first laying year when she was sixteen months old 
 had commenced to lay when she was four months old, while the hens 
 that were over four years old had never laid an egg. So the reader 
 will see the first laying year commences with the first egg a pullet lays 
 and ends one year from that date, when her second laying year com- 
 mences. Some pullets will commence to lay at four months old, while 
 others of exactly the same type, fed and cared for in the same manner, 
 will not lay before they are eight months old, owing to different en- - 
 vironment. Everything else being equal, poultry will develop faster 
 on a warm, dry, sandy soil than they will on a black, damp, heavy soil, 
 and they will mature much sooner in a good corn country, where it is 
 warm in the shade and warm at night, than they will in a poor corn 
 country, where it is cool at night and cool in the daytime in the shade. 
 I have raised Leghorn pullets that were fully developed in size and form 
 and laid a full-sized" egg when they were four months old. 
 
 It can be done in Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and 
 Minnesota, and in parts of California, where the nights are so warm 
 that one can sleep comfortably under a sheet only, but not where you 
 have to cuddle under a lot of blankets on a summer night to keep warm. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Selection of Types. 
 
 If the reader has practiced handling a hen as in Figs. 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 
 10, and 11, we will proceed with a lesson in judging hens as to the number 
 of eggs they will lay their first laying year. 
 
 We will look for a small hen to commence with, as she will be easier 
 to handle. Having our hen, we will hold her as nearly as we can as 
 in Fig. 5, and try to have her head as in Fig. 6, so she can see nothing. 
 She will then be easier to handle. Place hand across her abdomen, 
 as in Fig. 7. She may be a one-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. 
 Then hold her as in Fig. 8. Her breast may be as in Fig. 19; if so, she 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 57 
 
 will be in good condition. Next go through movements as in Figs. 9 
 and 10 and hold her and examine her pelvic bone as in Fig. 11. Her 
 pelvic bone may be one-sixteenth (Vie) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. 
 Now look on Chart 1. Your hen is. one-finger abdomen, in good condi- 
 tion, and her pelvic bone is one-sixteenth (Vie) of an inch thick. You 
 
 CHART 1, 
 
 One-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vie pelvic bone 36 eggs 
 
 ^/s pelvic bone 32 eggs . 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 28 eggs 
 
 */4 pelvic bone 24 eggs 
 
 ^/i6 pelvic bone 20 eggs 
 
 : '/s pelvic bone 16 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 12 eggs 
 
 ! V2 pelvic bone 8 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 4 eggs 
 
 ;t, '/s pelvic bone eggs 
 
 will see that she is a 36-egg type hen. That means that if this hen is 
 one of a large number on a commercial poultry plant, she is capable of 
 laying three dozen eggs her first laying year, if she is fed and cared for 
 properly, barring accidents and disease. So we will call her a 36-egg 
 type hen. 
 
 We will drop this hen and take another from the crate and go 
 through the same movements. Hold her as in Fig. 5 or Fig. 7, with 
 head as in Fig. 6 (she may also be a one-finger abdomen hen, as in Fig. 
 12), then examine for condition, as in Fig. 8. Her condition may be 
 good, as in Fig. 19; then hold as in Figs. 9 and 10, and measure thickness 
 of pelvic bone, as in Fig. 11. Her pelvic bone may be three-eighths 
 C/s) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 27; in that case she would read like this: 
 One-finger abdomen; good condition; three-eighths ('/s) pelvic bone. 
 Now, look on Chart 1, and you will find she is a 16-egg type hen. 
 
 We will drop her and take another from the crate, and go through 
 the same movements as before. This hen may be a one-finger abdomen 
 hen also, in good condition, with pelvic bone J/^ inch thick, as in Fig* 
 28, and by consulting Chart 1 we find she is an 8-egg type hen. 
 
 We drop her and take another from the crate. She may be a 
 hen with a one-finger abdomen, as in Fig. 12. When we examine her 
 condition we find she is like Fig. 20, which indicates that she is one 
 finger out of condition (the subject of "Condition" is explained in Chap- 
 ter V.) ; her pelvic bone may be ^/le of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. This 
 hen will read different from the other hen that was Vie pelvic bone. 
 This hen is out of condition. She may have been in condition up to 
 a few wepks previous to oiir examination of her; the cause of her lack 
 of condition may be improper food or care, or both, or it may be due 
 to moulting, or she may have been, broody. In any of these cases it 
 would not be the hen's fault that she was out of condition, and she 
 should not be held responsible for it. Her condition indicates that there 
 is something wrong, and it's up to her owner to right the wrong, and 
 when we do right the wrong, the hen will come back into condition, and 
 her abdomen will then measure two fingers instead of one finger. We 
 
58 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 must, therefore, read her as a two-finger abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic 
 bone, when, by looking on Chart 2, we find her capacity would be 96 
 eggs her first laying year, if we kept her in condition. 
 
 • We will drop her, and take another hen out of the crate. This 
 hen may be a one-finger abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. When we examine 
 her for condition, we find her as in Fig. 21; this indicates that she is 
 two fingers out of condition; her pelvic bone may be ^/le of an inch. 
 Under her present condition, she might lay 36 eggs her first laying year, 
 whereas, if she were kept in good condition, she would have a three- 
 finger abdomen. She might lay 180 eggs. 
 
 We will drop this hen and take up another one. She may be two 
 fingers abdomen and her breast-bone may be as in Fig. 19. Her pelvic 
 bone may be ^/le of an inch. We would read her as a two-finger-ab- 
 domen hen in good condition, pelvic bones ^/le of an inch thick. We 
 will look on Chart 2 at '/le-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 96-egg 
 type hen. 
 
 We will drop her and take another from the crate. She may be 
 two fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condition, as in Fig.*21, 
 with pelvic bones J^ of an inch thick. She would read two fingers 
 abdomen and two fingers out of condition. She would be four fingers 
 
 CHART 2. 
 
 Two-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vi6 pelvic bone 96 eggs 
 
 Vb pelvic bone 87 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 78 eggs 
 
 V4 pelvic bone 69 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 60 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 51 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 42 eggs 
 
 V2 pelvic bone 33 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 24 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 16 eggs 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 6 eggs 
 
 '/4 pelvic bone eggs 
 
 abdomen if in condition, and J^-inch pelvic bones. Being a foiir-finger- 
 abdomen hen (if in condition) , we will look on Chart 4 at J^-inch pelvic 
 bone, and find she is a 175-egg type hen. We will drop her. 
 
 Take another. She may be a two-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 
 13, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones ^ of an indi 
 thick, as in Fig. 29. She would read two fingers abdomen , good condi- 
 tion, ^-inch pelvic bones. We will look on Chart 2 for ^-inch pelvic 
 bone, and find this hen will lay nothing. This does not mean that she 
 is an absolutely barren hen, that she will never lay an egg (I will explain 
 this when we get to the six-finger-abdomen hen); she may lay a few, 
 perhaps half a dozen, in the spring when the crows lay; but as a com- 
 mercial proposition she will have no more value than the hen that never 
 laid an egg. Everything she consumes goes to the making of flesh, 
 except what she uses in bodily maintenance. 
 
 We will drop her and take another. She may be a three-finger- 
 abdomen hen, as in Fig. 14. Her condition may be as in Fig. 19, with 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 59 
 
 pelvic bones as in Fig. 24. She would read three fingers abdomen; 
 in good condition '/le-inch pelvic bone. We look on Chart 3 at Vie- 
 inch pelvic bone, and find that this hen is a 180-egg type. 
 
 CHART 3. 
 Three-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vie pelvic bone 180 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 166 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 152 eggs 
 
 Vi pelvic bone 138 eggs 
 
 °/ie pelvic bone 124 eggs 
 
 •/s pelvic bone 110 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 96 eggs 
 
 */j pelvic bone 82 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 68 eggs 
 
 '/g pelvic bone _ 54 eggs 
 
 *'/i« pelvic bone 40 eggs 
 
 •/4 pelvic bone 26 eggs 
 
 "/i6 pelvic bone 12 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone eggs 
 
 We will drop her and take another. She may be another three- 
 finger-abdomen hen, like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like Fig. 
 19, and her pelvic bone may be J^^-inch thick, like Fig. 28. She would 
 read three fingers abdomen; good condition; 3^-inch pelvic bone. We 
 will look on Chart 3 at 3^-inch pelvic bone, and find this hen is an 82- 
 egg type hen. 
 
 We will take another hen. She may be a three-finger abdomen, 
 like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, Uke Fig. 19, and her pelvic 
 bone may be ^ of an inch thick, as in Fig. 29. We will read her as a 
 three-finger-abdomen hen; in good condition; ^-inch pelvic bone. We 
 will look on Chart 3 at %-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 26-egg type 
 hen. 
 
 We will pick up another hen. She may be a three-finger capacity, 
 as in Fig. 14; she may be three fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 22, 
 and her pelvic bones may be '/le of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. We would 
 read this hen as a three-finger abdomen; three fingers out of condition, 
 and '/i6-inch pelvic bone. When a hen is three fingers out of condition 
 she is in a serious way. She may have been sitting or laying heavily 
 and have been underfed. In either case, good care and plenty of the 
 right kind of feed will bring her back into condition, provided she has 
 not contracted tuberculosis (going light) or some other wasting disease. 
 I will cite two cases out of hundreds that have come under my obser- 
 vation. 
 
 One was a Barred Rock hen that I intended to set on duck eggs; 
 she was six fingers abdomen, in good condition when I put her on the 
 nest, and '/'-inch pelvic bones; that indicated that she was a 235-egg 
 type hen. She was on the nest two weeks before the duck eggs arrived 
 and four weeks on the duck's eggs, making six weeks setting. Owing to 
 stress of other work, and being confined in an out-of-the-way place, 
 she was somewhat neglected, and when the ducklings were hatched she 
 was three fingers abdomen and three fingers out of condition, thus 
 
60 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 indicating a 138-egg type hen. Six weeks later she was laying, and had 
 developed to six fingers abdomen, which was her normal condition. 
 
 Another case was where a gentleman was in a class that took in- 
 structions. After the close of the meeting he brought a hen that was 
 three fingers out of condition. He said she was his best hen, and asked 
 me how many eggs she would lay. She was three fingers abdomen, 
 three fingers out of condition, and Vis-inch pelvic bone. Her head and 
 actions indicated perfect health. I told him she might lay 180 eggs 
 her first laying year, if her condition had been the same as it is at the 
 present time; but if she was my hen I thought I might be able to make 
 her lay 280 eggs. "You don't feed her half enough." He replied 
 "That is the only hen I have that lays a white egg. I got her when 
 a pullet, before she commenced to lay. She has been laying about 
 a year and has laid 176 eggs. I had a small lot of hens at the time that 
 were so fat they were dying, and I cut down their feed and have fed them 
 sparingly ever since, so they would not get too fat and die." I went to 
 his place, and found he had three types of hens: the typical meat type 
 (one with pelvic bones I'/j inch thick), some with pelvic bones J^- 
 inch thick, and this hen that laid the white eggs, whose pelvic bones 
 were ^/lo of an inch thick. I told him to segregate his hens into three 
 lots, and feed them according to their type. Give the egg-type hens all 
 the grain they coulck clean up each day in the scratching-shed, with a 
 dry balanced mash before them all the time; the dual-purpose hens 
 should be fed all the grain they wished to scratch for, with an occasional 
 mash , and the beef -type hens should be fed what grain they could clean 
 up in the scratching-shed in about an hour. The litter should be good 
 and deep in all cases. I did not mention charcoal, grit, shells, and green 
 stuff, as that is not my business. Every man who takes a poultry paper 
 knows that part of the business, and every person who keeps poultry 
 should take a poultry paper in order to keep posted on current poultry 
 topics. 
 
 The gentleman wrote me over a year later that he had succeeded 
 in bringing the hen up to normal condition, as in Fig. 19, but after 
 laying awhile she went back to five fingers abdomen and one finger out 
 of condition, and had laid 238 eggs her next laying year. 
 
 We will now take another hen. She may be a four-finger abdomen, 
 as in Fig. 15, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones may 
 be Vi« of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. She would read four fingers 
 abdomen; good condition; '/is-inch pelvic bone. If we consult Chart 
 4, we will find she is a 220-egg type hen. 
 
 The next hen may be also four fingers abdomen, as in Fig. 15, 
 in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones J^ inch, as in Fi^. 28. 
 She would read four fingers abdomen; in good condition; J^-inch pelvic 
 bones. We will see by Chart 4 that this is a 115-egg type hen. 
 
 Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen; condition good; 
 pelvic bones 1 inch thick. We would read her as a four-finger abdomen; 
 condition good; pelvic bones 1 inch. If we look on Chart 4 at 1-inch 
 pelvic bones, we will find this hen will lay approximately nothing. 
 
 Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdornen hen, one finger out of 
 condition, '/'-inch pelvic bone. She would indicate a 205-egg type 
 hen under her present condition, but we would read her four fingers 
 abdomen, one finger out of condition; that would mean a five-finger- 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 61 
 
 abdomen hen if in condition, '/>-iiich pelvic bone. We look on Chart 
 5 at V* pelvic bone, and find she is a 235-egg type hen. 
 
 Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 16; 
 she n\ay be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones may be 
 
 CHART 4. 
 
 Four-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vi6 pelvic bone 220 eggs 
 
 ^/s pelvic bone 205 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 190 eggs 
 
 ^1 \ pelvic bone 175 eggs 
 
 */i6 pelvic bone 160 eggs 
 
 '/« pelvic bone 145 eggs 
 
 ^/i6 pelvic bone 130 eggs 
 
 V> pelvic bone 115 eggs 
 
 °/i6 pelvic bone 100 eggs 
 
 V» pelvic bone 85 eggs 
 
 "/i« pelvic bone 70 eggs 
 
 '/4 pelvic bone 55 eggs 
 
 "/iff pelvic bone 40 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 25 eggs 
 
 ''/i6 pelvic bone 40 eggs 
 
 1-in. pelvic bone. eggs 
 
 Vie of an inch, as in Fig. 24. She will read five fingers abdomen; con- 
 dition good; pelvic bones Vis-inch. We look on Chart 5 at Vie-inch 
 pelvic bone, and find she is a 250'egg type hen. 
 
 CHART 5. 
 Five-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vi6 pelvic bone 250 eggs 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 235 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 220 eggs 
 
 ^U pelvic bone 205 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 190 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 175 eggs 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 160 eggs 
 
 V« pelvic bone 145 eggs - 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bqne 130 eggs 
 
 */8 pelvic bone. 115 eggs 
 
 y/i6 pelvic bone 100 eggs 
 
 '/4 pelvic bone 85 eggs 
 
 "/i6 pelvic bone 70 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 55 eggs 
 
 "/i6 pelvic bone 40 eggs 
 
 1-in. pelvic bone 25 eggs 
 
 l^/i6 pelvic bone 10 eggs 
 
 IVs pelvic bone .*. eggs 
 
62 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 16; 
 she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones may be 
 '/s-inch thick, as in Fig. 27. We would read her as five fingers abdomen; 
 good condition, and '/s-inch pelvic bones. Chart 5 would show u6 that 
 she was a 175-egg type hen. 
 
 The next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen; condition good; 
 pelvic bones 1 inch thick. She would read five fingers abdomen; good 
 condition; 1-inch pelvic bones. The chart would indicate that she was 
 a 25-egg type hen. 
 
 The next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 17; 
 she may be in good condition, and her pelvic bones may be 1'/* inches 
 thick as in Fig. 31. I hear the reader say, "What breed of a hen has 
 pelvic bones as thick as that? or do you mean that both of her pelvic 
 bones are l'/< inches thick, counting them both together?" No; I 
 mean that each one of her pelvic bones is IJ^ inches thick. Counting 
 the bone, gristle, fat, and flesh (flank), both of the pelvic bones would 
 be 23^ inches thick. When we speak of pelvic bones being so thick, 
 we always mean one of them. And as to breed, this hen is a Single 
 Comb White Leghorn; she is the typical beef type. You will see by 
 Chart 6 that she will lay practically nothing; and here I will explain 
 this matter. 
 
 CHART 6. 
 
 Six-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Nervous Temperament. 
 
 V16 pelvic bone 280 eggs 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 265 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 250 eggs 
 
 V4 pelvic bone 235 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 220 eggs 
 
 Sanguine Temperament. 
 
 •/» pelvic bone 205 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 190 eggs 
 
 V2 pelvic bone 175 eggs 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 160 eggs 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 145 eggs 
 
 Bilious Temperament. 
 "/16 pelvic bone 130 eggs 
 
 '/4 pelvic bone 115 eggs 
 
 "/le pelvic bone 100 eggs 
 
 '/« pelvic bone 85 eggs 
 
 "/18 pelvic bone 70 eggs 
 
 Lymphatic Temperament. 
 
 1-in. pelvic bone 55 eggs 
 
 l'/i6 pelvic bone 40 eggs 
 
 1V« pelvic bone. 25 eggs 
 
 l'/i6 pelvic bone 10 eggs 
 
 I'/* pelvic bone eggs 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 63 
 
 A man once brought me a two-and-a-half-year-old hen that he had 
 trap-nested for two years, and asked me to tell him how many eggs 
 she had laid her first laying-year. I told him she had never laid an egg. 
 Her abdomen was six fingers, she was in good condition, and her pelvic 
 bones were lV< inches thick. He cautioned me to be careful, as he had 
 always trap-nested his hens, and his record showed how many eggs they 
 had laid. I replied, "If that is the case, her record shows that she has 
 never laid an egg." He said no more then, but brought me another hen, 
 asking me how many she would lay. I examined her for capacity. I 
 found she was a six-finger-abdomen hen; her condition was good; her 
 pelvic bones were Vis of an inch thick; they were both alike as to thick- 
 ness. I questioned him as to how he had fed her, and if she had been 
 sick her first laying year. As he is one of the best breeders in the United 
 States, I could depend on him knowing what he was talking about. I 
 asked him then to take off his hat. I could see by the shape of his head 
 he was a strictly honest man. I then told him that I had never raised 
 that breed of hens, but if it was a Leghorn, it might lay 280 eggs its 
 first year, and if a Plymouth Rock, it might lay 270. He said her trap- 
 nested record showed she laid 276 eggsfrom the time she commenced to 
 lay in her pullet yeair until she had laid one year. "That's all right," I 
 replied; "but what about the first hen we examined?" "We have never 
 found any in the trap-nest from her," he said, "but she might be in the 
 habit of laying in the yard." And as he offered $1,000 for her, he was 
 very anxious to get some chickens from her. I explained to him that 
 while most typical beef hens could be made to lay a very small number 
 of eggs in the spring when the crows laid, by feeding them a little lean 
 meat and shrunken wheat and bran on a grass plot of white clover (if 
 the blossoms of the white clover are clipped off), that his hen could not 
 be made to lay, as she was a barren hen, as indicated by the rigid cord 
 that connected both of the pelvic bones together, thus indicating that 
 nature never intended her to lay. I could name a number of professors 
 and physicians that have told me they have discovered the same condi- 
 tion after they had taken my lessons. 
 
 The reader will please bear in mind that the two pelvic bones of a 
 hen are not always of the same thickness. Some hens may have one 
 pelvic bone thicker than the other; when this is the case, add the two 
 together and half of the number will be the right thickness to judge by. 
 For instance, if one pelvic bone was '/« of an inch and the other one was 
 V4 of an inch, the added thickness would be '/s of an inch ; dividing this 
 would give you '/le of an inch as the thickness of one pelvic bone. Where 
 one bone is thicker than the other, the thinnest one is on the left side of 
 the hen. 
 
 Our next hen may be another six-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 
 17; she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her pelvic bones 
 may be '/» of an inch thick, as in Fig. 25; she would be a 265-egg type- 
 hen. 
 
 Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen in good condition; 
 pelvic bones •/» inch; she would read six fingers abdomen; good con- 
 dition; pelvic bones '/s of an inch. By consulting Chart 6, we will find 
 this is a 205-egg type hen.- 
 
 Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good condition; 
 J^-inch pelvic bones; this hen will be a 175-egg type hen. 
 
64 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 FIG. 124— ILLUSTRATION OF DIFFERENCE IN ABDOMINAL CAPACITY 
 
 Note the large, soft, pliable abdomen of the high producer on the left, as compared 
 
 with the -small, hard abdomen of the low producer on the right. This illustration also 
 
 shows clearly the difference in size of vent in a good layer as compared with a poor 
 
 layer. Photo from New Jersey Experiment Station. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 65 
 
 FIG. 144— OVARY AND OVIDUCT OF GOOD AND POOR-LAYING HENS 
 
 CONTRASTED 
 This remarkable illustration' shows, on the reader's left, the ovary and oviduct of 
 heavy-laying Rhode Island Red heri, and on the right the egg organs from poor-laying 
 hen. Both hens were actively laying, but the poor producer's ovary shows a much 
 ■ lower state of activity — shorter cycles with long periods between — and this is con- 
 firmed by the noticeable smaller size of the oviduct which suggests also that the hen 
 has not been laying for so long a period as the one on the left. Photo from Conn. 
 (Storrs) Exp. Station. 
 
66 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good condition ; 
 pelvic bones 1 inch. We look on Chart 6, and find that 1-inch pelvic 
 bones indicate the 55-egg type hen. 
 
 Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen; she may be two 
 fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 21, and her pelvic bones may be 
 '/i6 of an inch thick. We would read her as four fingers abdomen; 
 two fingers out of condition; this would make her a six-finger-abdomen 
 hen if in condition. We look on Chart 6 at '/le-inch pelvic bone, and 
 find our last hen is a 280-egg type hen, if in condition, and it is up to 
 us to put her in condition and keep her there as nearly as possible. 
 
 I will admit it is a hard proposition to keep the non-setting typical- 
 egg type hen in condition, but the man that comes the nearest doing 
 so is the best feeder. I will have more to say in regard to the matter 
 of condition in the chapter on Judging Utility Fowls at the Poultry 
 Shows. This work is a matter of line upon line, and I must necessarily 
 repeat the same matter in some respects time after time. But as this 
 is an educational more than an entertaining proposition, I hope that 
 my readers will bear with me. 
 
 As I said before, there are three types of hens. The hen listed 
 on Chart 1 as '/is-inch pelvic bone is a typical egg-type hen, because 
 all she consumes over bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. 
 The hen listed as '/s-inch pelvic bone is a dual-purpose hen; half of her 
 vitality is used in producing eggs and half in producing meat. The 
 l^n listed as ^/g-inch is a typical meat- type hen; all she consumes goes 
 to the production of meat, except what she uses in bodily maintenance. 
 The hen listed as ^/le-inch pelvic bone on Chart 2 is a typical egg-type 
 hen ; the hen listed as '/g-inch pelvic bone on same chart is a dual-pur- 
 pose hen; and the one listed as '/s-inch pelvic bone is a typical meat- 
 type-hen; the same rule follows in all the charts. All the hens listed 
 as ^/ 16-inch pelvic bone are typical egg-type hens and they can't be 
 made to pay as a meat proposition. The hens listed iii the center of 
 each chart are the dual-purpose hens; they can be used as an egg and as 
 a meat proposition. The hens listed on the bottom of each chart are 
 the meat-type hens. Nature has fitted them for the production of flesh, 
 and there is no human energy that can change them to a paying egg 
 proposition. 
 
 Between the above three distinct types there are combinations 
 of each adjoining type. This allows sufficient latitude for the preference 
 of each individual breeder. A person can breed the typical egg-type 
 hen and cock bird with pelvic bones */i6 of an inch thick. If he thinks 
 this type is too delicate, he can breed from the '/u-inch pelvic bone 
 stock; this is my favorite type; the hen of this type is better able to 
 withstand the vicissitudes of the poultry yard than her finer-bred 
 sisters. I will have more to say along this line in the chapter on Broilers. 
 I think we have given sufficient examples in Chapters III, IV, V, VI 
 and VII, to enable the reader to examine a hen so he may be able to 
 arrive at her approximate value for the purpose he wishes to use her for. 
 
 In a previous chapter we have said there is occasionally found a hen 
 seven fingers abdomen. If the reader finds one, he can score her by 
 Chart 6 and add 15 eggs to the number indicated. For instance, if the 
 hen is in good condition and measures seven fingers abdomen and her 
 pelvic bones are '/a inch thick, Chart 6 would indicate she is a 205-egg 
 type bird; we then add 15 eggs to the 205, which gives the hen 220-egg 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 67 
 
 capacity. If she is five fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condition, 
 we call her seven fingers abdomen, and proceed as above, which gives 
 us the same results. 
 
 There are two other matters I wish to call the attention of the reader 
 to in this, place. One is, that I have found hens occasionally that laid 
 a great deal better by the trap-nest than they scored by the Hogan 
 test, but it was owing to a mistake made in measuring their abdomens, 
 owing to the rear of the breast-bone turning up, sometimes almost an 
 inch over normal shape, thus indicating a smaller abdomen than really 
 was the case. The other matter is a more serious one — in fact, very 
 serious in some flocks. It is the bagging down of the abdomen over 
 the rear of the breast-bone. Every hen used in the breeding-pen should 
 be examined for this defect, for if one of them is bred from, she is almost 
 sure to transmit her weak ovarian system to her offspring. Some of 
 these hens will make remarkable egg records for a year or so, then will 
 never lay another egg; and again, the eggs are liable to be very infertile 
 and more or less thin-shelled; and if you have great numbers of hens, 
 you can hardly tell when these hens stop laying for good, unless you 
 trap-nest them, as their pelvic bones do not close up as readily as hens 
 in normal condition. 
 
 An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case, as 
 it is very easy to prevent all this trouble. I meet hundreds of the above 
 hens in my visits to poultry plants, but never have a case in my yards. 
 I examine all my pullets when about a year old for possible breeders. 
 If a hen satisfies me as to Capacity, Type, and Prepotency, I then hold 
 her as if I were testing her for capacity, except that I hold her by the 
 right leg only. I then lay my hand on her breast, so that it (my hand) 
 will conform to her shape, and draw it slowly along her breast-bone 
 (or keel) from front to rear. When my hand reaches the rear, if I feel 
 the slightest indication of her abdomen dropping the least bit below the 
 rear of the breast-bone, I reject the hen as a breeder, and thereby save 
 myself a world of trouble in the future. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Prepotency. 
 
 We will take up in this chapter Prepotency, the science of breeding 
 poultry, so that we can breed with a definite knowledge of what we are 
 doing, and not leave it to intuition or chance. It is an old saying that 
 "like begets like;" this seems to be true in some cases, but seems not 
 to be true in other cases. Students of human nature can readily see 
 where it has apparently failed. Some children will resemble and act 
 like one parent and some will resemble and act like the other parent; 
 then again, some children will be like neither of the parents. Breeders 
 of horses and cattle are well aware of the variations in offspring from the 
 type and characteristics of sire and dam. It is more through persistency 
 in breeding than the general knowledge of any scientific principle that we 
 have succeeded in producing the grand types of animals we see at our 
 State fairs. The breeding of poultry is no exception to the above rule. 
 
68 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 FIG. 184— "X-RAY" SKETCH SHOWING PELVIC ARCH AND KEEL 
 
 a. Pubic bones, forming rear part of pelvic arch. 
 
 b. Rear of keel or breastbone, c. Lateral or sternal processes. 
 
 FIG. 191— GOOD AND POOR PRODUCERS CONTRASTED AS TO FLEXI- 
 BILITY OF SKIN 
 The skin of the high-producing hen on the left is much more pliable and freer 
 from abdominal fat than the low producer on the right. Photo from Storrs (Conn.) 
 Experiment Station. The skin of the good producer is soft, loose and pliable. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 69 
 
 While some breeders have good success in breeding for the desired type 
 of bird, whether for fancy, for eggs, or for flesh, others will have very 
 poor success. 
 
 The purpose of this chapter is to explain to the breeder who has had 
 poor success a method that will enable him to breed with the full under- 
 standing as to what he is doing. It is a well-known fact among the 
 clothing trade that if a woolen manufacturer has a sample of cloth 
 presented to him, he can manufacture thousands of yards that will 
 be an exact duplicate of the sample. The same is true in other industries. 
 But suppose the reader gives an order to one of our well-known poultry- 
 breeders for 1,000 pullets, to be delivered at four months old, these 
 pullets to be housed, fed, and cared for as the breeder designates, and 
 to approximately lay a certain number of eggs their first laying year; 
 how many breeders do you suppose could fill the order? Until a ma- 
 jority of them can do so the poultry industry will not be on a business 
 basis, but will be more or less of a gamble. 
 
 I have said that seemingly like does not beget like in some cases. 
 We will take, for instance, a hen that is five fingers abdomen, in good 
 condition, J^-inch pelvic bones. She will scale up as a 205-egg type 
 hen. We will mate up a pen of these hens with a 205-egg type cockerel 
 or cock bird ; we raise 100 pullets from this mating and they may scale 
 175-egg type. We then say, "Like does not produce like." Here is 
 where we make a mistake. In one sense we are right, in another we 
 are wrong. Nature makes no mistakes. We have mated 205-egg- 
 type male and female, and we get as a result 175-egg type product. 
 That's as plain as the nose on one's face, and we throw up our hands 
 in despair and say, "It's all luck and chance." Another party mates 
 up the same type of birds and gets a lot of pullets that average 210 
 eggs their first laying year; still another party mates up the same type 
 of birds and does not get a chick. 
 
 The reader may smile, but this is no dream. A number of such 
 cases have come under my observation. One case was that of a pro- 
 fessor in one of the Southern California public institutions. He had a 
 pen of twelve Black Minorcas, headed by a splendid-looking cock bird; 
 also a pen of twelve Andalusians. He said there was something peculiar 
 about these hens, and he wanted to know if I could detect it. I tgsted 
 all the Andalusians, and told him they should average 140, eggs tlieir 
 first laying year, and I would expect twelve eggs out of ev6ry thit-teen 
 to be fertile. After testing the Minorcas, I told him they would average 
 about 160-egg type, but if they were mine, I would not set any of their 
 «ggs while they were mated to the present cock bird, because I would 
 not expect them to hatch, and if they did hatch, they would be degener- 
 ates. He said, "This is the second season I have bred from the birds; 
 I always get good hatches from the Andalusians; but, although I see 
 the rooster serve the hens, I have never been able to hatch a chicken 
 from the Minorca pen." I replied, "He serves the hens out of sym- 
 pathy." 
 
 Another case was a Barred Rock hen, the only one a neighbor 
 had in a small flock of Houdans. He called me one day, saying he'K|Ld 
 a remarkable pullet at his place, and he wanted me to call and tell hifii 
 how many eggs she would lay her first laying year. She had been laying 
 two months, and he was keeping her record. I went with him, tested 
 the hen, and told him she might lay 250 eggs, but I did not tliink that 
 
70 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 any of them would hatch. After her first laying year was up, he showed 
 me her record. She had laid 258 eggs, and although he had a good 
 Barred Rock cock bird with her, and had set a number of settings under 
 hens, he failed to hatch a single chick. I could cite a great number of 
 such cases. 
 
 In the first of these cases the fault was with the male bird ; in the 
 last case the fault was with the hen ; in both cases the trouble was caused 
 by a lack of prepotency (amativeness), and not through any defect in 
 the anatomy of the birds. Everything in the universe is governed by 
 certain immutable laws. If we understand these laws and can discover 
 a way to control them, we may be able to use them to our advantage. 
 Does the reader ever stop to consider these matters? What, in your 
 opinion, is the greatest effort of Nature? The writer thinks it is the 
 effort to reproduce the species in all their different forms of animate 
 and inanimate life. If the case were otherwise, this earth would be 
 barren of grass and shrubs, of flowers and fruits, and of every'living, 
 moving thing on land and in the sea. What a desolate old world this 
 would be with only bare dirt and rocks and water. And when we consider 
 what a wonderful thing life is, can we doubt that Nature has made 
 some extraordinary provisions for controlling its inception? In the 
 wild state the survival of the fittest prevented degeneracy of the species, 
 but under domestication birds cannot follow their instincts; and their 
 owners should be familiar with Nature's laws in order to be able to 
 breed intelligently. 
 
 When the writer was twelve years of age he took up the study of 
 human nature, and later had help from that great teacher. Professor 
 O. S. Fowler. Years of practice in dissecting and in anatomy and in 
 the study of the skulls of animals and birds gave me the opportunity 
 to study the construction of the different skulls and classify them as to 
 the known habits of the birds or animals under consideration. The 
 knowledge gained in this way was of inestimable value in later research 
 in the selection and breeding of poultry. I am positive that without 
 this early training I never could have accomplished what I have. 
 
 After raising my first lot of Leghorns in 1869, I decided to dispose 
 of all breeds but t^e Leghorns and Light Brahmas. I said I would raise 
 Leghorns for eggs and Brahmas for meat. Up to that time I had not 
 paid much attention to the individual laying qualities of the birds. 
 Experience had taught me that the Light Brahma, when fed right and 
 of the right age, made a delicious table-fowl, and I was led to believe 
 the Leghorns were all great layers. That was a good many years ago; 
 and ■We have made wonderful discoveries and progress in science and the 
 arts since that time. The reader can imagine my surprise when I found 
 by experience that some of my Leghorns laid very few eggs and laid 
 them only in the spring months ; others laid large numbers and laid late 
 in the fall and early winter. In those days we had no cold-storage 
 plants, and while eggs were very cheap in the summer, they were very 
 dear in the winter, and I decided to experiment wiUi my Leghorns, 
 with a view to getting more eggs in the winter. After a few years of 
 study and experiment, I mated the best egg-type birds and from some 
 pens got good results, from other pens not so good, and from still others 
 very poor results. My previous studies in anatomy had enabled me 
 to select the matings from birds that were all of the same type, and I 
 expected to raise a lot of poultry that would be duplicates of their 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 71 
 
 parents, as far as their egg-laying qualities were concerned. But after 
 numerous experiments in mating the 180-egg type cock bird with 180- 
 egg type hens, I found I could not depend on getting definite results. 
 
 Some are born rich, some are born handsome, and some are born 
 lucky. The writer was born with none of these gifts, but with a com- 
 bination of faculties that compelled to invention, to wander and toil 
 and delve in the fields, the by-ways, and the mines of the mysterious. 
 These researches, with the aid received by studying the pioneers in the 
 same lines of investigation, led to the discovery, as the writer thinks, 
 of the fundamental principle that underlies the reproduction of the 
 species. After a number of matings that were more or less discouraging 
 failures, I decided to look to the brain of the bird as the seat of the 
 cause of a great many of the variations between the characteristics of 
 the offspring and those of the parents. I had previously demonstrated 
 by experiment that environment had an influence on the shaping of 
 the skull of the birds. By focusing on this subject the skull-knowledge 
 I had gained in the previous nine years, I was led to think that brain 
 governed' most of the functions of the body, and if so, why not the 
 reproductive function? I reasoned that as I had mated up several 
 pens of the same type of hens with the same type of male birds, and that 
 as there was no difference in their temperaments, that the hens all 
 looked alike, all weighed alike, and were all in the same condition — 
 or, in other words, they were all in perfect conditioii (to be more explicit, 
 the hens were three fingers abdomen, pelvic bone Vie of an inch thick; 
 all hens were in good condition; the cock birds were two-finger abdomens, 
 in normal condition, and pelvic bones Vie of an inch thick; aU- hens were 
 alike and all cock birds were alike, and all were about a year old) ; that 
 there must be something apart from the anatomy and physiology of the 
 hen that governed or in some measure controlled the reproductive 
 functions. As I had exhausted all my resources in the above lines, I 
 was very reluctantly obliged to enter a new field of research — the field 
 of Phrenology. I killed the cock birds that had given us the best 
 results, boiled their skulls until free of flesh, and found them as in No. 
 1, Fig. 35. The skulls of the cock birds that gave the next best results 
 were like No. 2, Fig. 35, and the skulls of the cock birds that gave the 
 poorest results were like No. 4, Fig. 35. 
 
 j The Arrows A, B, C, and D show the base of the brain. If A were 
 continued upward, it would pass through the projection J^ of an inch 
 ^rom the end; if B were continued, it would pass through the projection 
 ibout Vs of an inch from the end ; while C would be at the extreme end 
 of the projection, and D would pass outside the skull. The part of the 
 skull where the arrows 1, 2, 3, 4 point contains the rear lobe of the brain> 
 an examination will show that the develc^ment of this portion of the 
 brain corresponds to the shape of the skull at this point. 
 i And right here is where we were on the point of the second great 
 secret" in breeding that would verify the saying that "Like begets like." 
 The first discovery was, that if we wished to raise pullets that would 
 he good layers, we would have to mate good-laying hens with the same 
 type of male bird, and not with the meat type — that is, the male birds 
 Would have to be of the same temperament, of the same anatomy, 
 knd-QLthajsaiae--pLYsiQlogy_as_the_heo. I fou nd that i f I had jt hen 
 that-laid 180 eggs by the trap-nest, and if I wanted to raise a lot of 
 pullets that would averaige 180 eggs, I could not depend on the trap- 
 
72 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 nest to aid me any farther than to tell me the number of eggs a hen laid, 
 what particular eggs she laid, and the progeny of each hen, both male 
 and female. I also found great variations in type in mature cockerels 
 from each individual hen, which we considered was due to the difference 
 in type of the male bird and the difference in vitality of one or both 
 birds at different times during the breeding season; sometimes the hen 
 
 Fig. 3S — Three degrees of amativeness (otherwise called "prepotency"). 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 73 
 
 at Other times the cock bird, transmitting their characteristics. When 
 I was assured of this through numerous experiments, I reasoned that 
 my failures were because the male birds were of a different type from 
 the hens, and when I had demonstrated that the male birds were of a 
 different physiology by practice and scientific measures, and mated ac- 
 cordingly, I flattered -myself with the assurance that I had discovered 
 all that was necessary in order to breed poultry intelligently. But 
 after more experiments, I was not wholly satisfied with results; and as 
 I had adopted the motto, "Like begets like," I reasoned that although 
 the birds we had mated were alike, as far as we could see, the remaining 
 difference must be some place where I had failed to look for it. My 
 knowledge of the different variations in form of the skulls of animals 
 and birds of the same breed, together with the knowledge I possessed 
 of human skulls, led me to investigate the head as the only remaining 
 factor in the problem. When I reduced this proposition to a method, 
 and when I was able to measure its potentiality, then I assembled the 
 hens and cock birds, mating the 180-egg type hens and the 180-egg 
 type cock birds, each bird with the same degree of prepotency. Then, 
 and not until then, had I ever knowingly mated like to like. For years, 
 like many others, I thought I had mated males to like females, but I 
 was mistaken. And here is where I discovered my second great secret. 
 After this I mated like to like more intelligently, and the results were 
 more satisfactory. 
 
 I consider the selection of the male birds for mating along anatomical 
 and physiological lines, together with the proper understanding and use 
 of the faculty that governs the reproductive function, as the greatest 
 discoveries ever made in the poultry industry. 
 
 The reader may think there is very little difference in the skulls 
 in Fig. 35. If you add an inch to the length of a man's legs, it does 
 not seem to make much difference in his height, but if you add an inch 
 to the end of his nose, it would make a great difference in his looks. 
 I found this expansion on the back of the skull corresponded to the faculty 
 of amativeness in the human family. I found that when it was large in 
 both male and female the parents possessed the ability to transmit their 
 predominating characteristics to their offspring. If the parents were 
 fancy birds, their progeny would in some cases excel their parents in 
 feather, vigor, and other good qualities. If the parents were of the 
 egg type, some of the chicks would be as good andsome better layers 
 and more, vigorous than the parents ; if of the meat type, the progeny 
 would be of a stronger constitution, of a quicker growth, and assimilate 
 their food better — in a word, if both parents have this faculty (called 
 "prepotency" by some) large, the chicks will be more likely to be equal 
 to, and some will, excel their parents along the lines in which the parents 
 predominate. If the parents have the faculty small, the chicks will 
 not be so good as the parent stock, but will degenerate along the lines 
 that the parents excel in. If a hen is a 200-egg type and she has this 
 faculty small, she will be just as valuable as an egg-producer as if she 
 had the faculty large, but she will be of no value as a breeder; she will 
 be an old maid from choice, and her eggs will not be fertile,if she has the 
 faculty, small enough. If the male bird has it small, his eggs will not 
 hatch well, and if totally lacking, they will not hatch at all. I have 
 found a few cases where the cock bird had the faculty of prepotency 
 
74 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 (amativeness) large and failed to fertilize the eggs, but the cases were 
 very rare, and I attributed it to weakened or diseased nerves ; as, for in- 
 stance, the nerves of the teeth or sciatic nerve, in the human being. 
 
 Fig. 36 — Holding hen ready to put in sack. 
 
 Fig. 36 shows how to hold a hen before putting her in~a sack to 
 examine her for prepotency. ~ 
 
 hand 
 
 Fig. 37 — Holding legs with right hand and gathering sack around legs with left 
 
 Fig. 37 shows how to put her in the sack, holding legs with right 
 hand, with back of hen against bottom of sack, and gathering sack 
 around legs with left hand. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 75 
 
 Fig. 38 shows tying sack around legs so that she cannot move while 
 examining her for prepotency. (Cut a little off the corner of the sack 
 — ^just enough to get her head through. Hen in Fig. 38 is too far out 
 of the sack.) 
 
 Fig. 38 — Tying sack around legs so hen cannot move while examining her for 
 prepotency. This method of holding the bird is only necessary while you are learning. 
 If there is someone to hold the hen for you, it would be quicker. When you become 
 skillful, you can hold the bird as in Fig. 43. 
 
 The best way for a beginner to learn how to handle a hen for pre- 
 potency is to select a hen you wish for the table. Cut the corner off of 
 a gunny sack ; hold her as in Fig. 36 ; put your hen in sack and tie her, 
 as in Figs. 37 and 38; then make a hook of wire or a hair pin, attach it 
 to a string with small weight or stone; hang hen up against barn or shed, 
 head down, back against building; take long-bladed pocket or other 
 knife with sharp point, insert in hen's mouth, and draw across the roof 
 of the mouth at the back of the brain at the junction of the neck, severing 
 the blood-veins, then immediately force the knife through the roof of 
 the mouth into the brain. The knife should be forced well into the 
 brain, which will sever the nerves, and the bird wilF feel no pain ; then 
 insert hook in the nostril, and the weight will hold the neck straight. 
 The hen should bleed freely. After bleeding has stopped, clean mouth 
 and surrounding parts of blood, and place hen in some convenient place — 
 on a box or coop. The thumb-nail on the left hand and nail on the 
 forefinger of the right hand should be longer than the thumb and finger, 
 so the flesh on end of thumb and finger will not prevent the nail from 
 entering the slight depression between the skull and neck. 
 
 We will suppose the reader has handled the hen as suggested above. 
 Lay the dead hen as in Fig. 39; take hold of comb or head and pull neck 
 up with right hand, and while holding head up the neck will be stretched 
 out. Turn the head down with right hand, so the back of the head 
 will point up and beak will point down as much as possible. This will 
 make the projection of the brain (arrow 1, Fig. 35) appear more promi- 
 nent, so it will be easier to locate it; then draw ball of thumb of left hand 
 
76 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 down on head until you feel back of skull ; when you feel back of skull 
 with ball of thumb, then turn first joint of thumb down until thumb-nail 
 fits in between end of skull and neck and well up against base of brain; 
 then, while holding left hand and thumb as in Fig. 39, put forefinger of 
 right hand at base of brain behind the ear, as in Fig. 39, between the 
 neck and the skull and against the skull behind the ear, as in Fig. 39. 
 
 Fig. 39 — Showing thumb ■/■ of ^i '"ch ahead of forefinger; indicating hen is total- 
 ly lacking" in prepotency. (See Skull No. 4, Fig. 35.) 
 
 The ear can readily be discovered by lifting up its hairy covering. The 
 thumb-nail must be held perfectly straight across the neck, as in Fig. 39, 
 and not sideways; and the forefinger must be held perfectly at right 
 angles with the thumb, or the length of projection (arrow 1, Fig. 35) 
 from the base of the brain (arrow 4, Fig. 35) cannot be measured accu- 
 rately. 
 
 The reader will notice that my thumb-nail is ahead of my forefinger- 
 nail in Fig. 39; this indicates that this hen is wholly lacking in the ability 
 to transmit any redeeming qualities to her offspring, also that she has 
 no desire for offspring. If this were a male bird, the eggs from his matings 
 would be infertile. Fig. 40 shows thumb on line with forefinger. Mat- 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 77 
 
 ings from this type of head would not produce very fertile eggs, and the 
 progeny would deteriorate each year if they were bred from stock with 
 heads like this. If the parents were 200-egg type, their egg-yield and 
 vitality would be reduced each generation of breeding. If they were of 
 the beef type, their vitality and ability to produce flesh economically 
 would diminish with each generation. If they were a fancy type, the. 
 breeder would be up against a stone wall of discouraging experinients. 
 
 Fig. 40 — Thumb even with forefinger; indicating she has prepotency small. 
 Skull No. 3, Fig. 35.) 
 
 (See 
 
 I would advise the reader to take special notice of Fig. 43, as this 
 cut shows the method of determining prepotency plainer than any of 
 the others. 
 
 Fig. 41 shows a hen with prepotency full — i. e., thumb Vs of an 
 inch behind forefinger. Sometimes a poultryman will be lucky enough 
 to mate up a lot of pens of the right type for his purpose with heads like 
 Figs. 41, 42, and 43. His business prospers, and his neighbors call him 
 "lucky." While others are going bankrupt raising poultry, he holds 
 his own and is making a good living. Figs. 42 and 43 show a hen with 
 an excellent head, for breeding purposes. The thumb in this case is 
 
78 
 
 THE CALL OP THE HEN. 
 
 J^ of an inch behind the forefinger. If this hen is mated to a male 
 bird of the same type and prepotency, her eggs will be very fertile, and 
 a large number of the progeny will be equal to and some will excel the 
 parent stock in the lines that predominate in the parents. By selecting 
 these few 4t>ecimens each season for breeding, it is possible to breed a 
 highly valuable type in the course of time. Fig. 43 shows how to hold 
 a bird between the knees after you become proficient in testing the head 
 while the bird is in a sack. After a little practice you will become so 
 proficient that you can test birds for prepotency without having to put 
 them in a sack. 
 
 Fig. 41 — Showing thumb '/s of an inch behind forefinger; indicating hen has pre- 
 potency full. (See Skull No. 2, Fig. 35.) , 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Testing Hens on a Large Scale, Using Charts 44 and 45, 
 
 I will describe in this chapter how I cull hens when we have large 
 numbers of them, as we have in poultry plants in California. I shall 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 79 
 
 take it for granted that-tbe-reader-lras-no method of selecting the good 
 from the poor layers, except, perhaps, the "Walter Hogan System" or 
 someof its pirated forms that are now used extensively in all parts of 
 the civilized world, and which is based on the theory that the value of 
 a hen as an egg-producer depends on the relative distance apart of her 
 pelvic bones and the thinness of same. We will suppose the reader has 
 300 hens; one lot are about a year and four months old, another lot are 
 about two years and four months old, and another lot are about three 
 years and four months old. Each lot has been kept in separate yards, 
 so there can be no mistake in regari to their ages, or they have been 
 toe-punched or otherwise marked. We notice more or less feathers 
 lying around the yard, thus indicating the season of the year when 
 moulting is near at hand. Everything else being equal, the poorest hen 
 moults first, and if she is a very poor layer, she will stop laying when 
 she begins to moult and will not lay again until the crows lay in the 
 spring. We consider it is about time to cull out the poor layers and send 
 them to market. 
 
 Fig. 42 — Showing thumb J^ of an inch behind forefinger; indicating hen has pre- 
 potency large. (See Skull No. 1, Fig. 35.) 
 
80 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 43 — Showing how to hold bird between knees after you become proficient 
 in testing head while bird is in sack. 
 
 The next thing that comes to mind is the question, "What is a poor 
 layer?" That all depends on the price you get for the eggs, the price 
 of feed, houses, etc. I raised poultry in Todd County, Minnesota, in 
 1886 and 1887, and sold good lumber at the saw-mill for S5.00 per 1,000 
 feet. Wheat was about 1 cent per pound, and wheat screenings for 
 chicken feed could be had for the hauling. It is very evident that a 
 poorer class of layers might have been kept at a greater profit when sup- 
 plies were at that low price than can be profitably kept when supplies 
 are as high-priced as they are at the present time. So the reader can 
 see that the matter of the profitable hen is a local matter. At this 
 writing you can buy nearly two bushels of wheat in some parts of Minne- 
 sota for what you will pay for one in California. I was told a few days 
 ago that you could buy twice as much oats at the present time in Minne- 
 sota as you can in California for the same money. 
 
 When studying Charts 44 and 45 we see there are certain figures 
 lined off from the rest; this is for the purpose of aiding the reader at a 
 certain time each year to select the poor layers from the good ones without 
 using the charts, thereby saving the time necessary to look over the 
 chart and classify each hen. 
 
 Charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 6, as the reader will learn by bearing in 
 mind the following instructions, need be used only to determine the laying- 
 score of the individual hen. 
 
 The first figures underlined in Chart 44 are in the column indicating 
 three firigers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone to '/le-inch pelvic bone. 
 The second are in the column indicating four fingers abdomen, from 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 81 
 
 Vi6-inch pelvic bone to '/le-inch pelvic bone. The third are five fingers 
 abdomen, from '/le-inch pelvic bone to °/i6-inch pelvic bone. The 
 fourth are six fingers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone to "/is-inch 
 pelvic bone. 
 
 We will make a copy of Charts 44 and 45 on a piece of white-card- 
 board and hang it Up in a convenient place in the yard where the sixteen- 
 months-old hens are penned. We will suppose that the ends are all 
 closed in the house or houses. We put catching-coops in position as in 
 Fig. 2, and drive hens in same as in Fig. 1. When there are enough 
 hens in the coop, shut down slide-door that holds them in. In this 
 case it is necessary to keep only four figures in mind; any four you 
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82' 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Here in California we use the figures 5, 7, 9, and 11 for the hen sixteen 
 months old, meaning by. this that hens having pelvic bones */i6, '/le, 
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 five-, and six-finger-abdomen hens. For the forty-months-old hens we 
 
 
 
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THE CALL OF THE HEN. 83 
 
 use the figures 1, 3, 5, and '/le for the three-, four-, five- and six-finger- 
 abdomen hens. You perceive that the older the hen the greater the 
 number of eggs she must have laid in her first year. Here in California 
 we keep large numbers of hens, and in this way we can sort out and 
 market here each year in a short time, as we do not have to stop and 
 figure out the percentage of loss for each year of age, as these figures 
 come near enough to suit our purpose. If they do not suit the local 
 market, the reader can use any figures that will. 
 
 I shall give a few examples only to show how we would proceed to 
 cull out the hens. The reader must be familiar with the general principles 
 of capacity, condition, and type. He should by this time have familiar- 
 ized himself with the charts. Now, if he prepares the figures as I have 
 directed, he will experience no difficulty in determining in a moment 
 just where and what to do with each individual hen. We establish a 
 certain standard of production for the first laying season, in order to 
 know how long to keep her. You may take 80 eggs for one season, 120 
 eggs for two seasons, and 150 eggs for three seasons, or any other set 
 that suits your local coiiditions. Here we take about 120, 150, and 180 
 eggs as the standard ; that is, a hen must be able to lay about this number 
 in her first laying year in order to stay with us for two, three, or four 
 seasons. With this explanation, we shall proceed to cull, putting into 
 the shipping-coop all hens that fall below our standard, and dropping 
 in the yard where we stand any that we desire to keep. 
 
 Now, take a hen out of the catching-coop as in Fig. 3, and hold her 
 as near as possible as in Fig. 5. Place hand on abdomen. She may 
 be one-finger abdomen, in good condition; her pelvic bone may be */i» 
 of an inch thick; her capacity is three dozen eggs her first laying-year. 
 She has laid all these eggs and will lay no more until the next spring 
 when the crows lay, and eggs are cheap; so we decide to put this hen in 
 the shipping-crate, to be sent to market. 
 
 We take another hen from the catching-coop, and go through the 
 same process. She may be a two-finger abdomen hen, in good condition ; 
 her pelvic bones '/le of an inch thick; this indicates a hen that may lay 
 eight dozen of eggs her first laying year. As a rule, when hens are so 
 fed and cared for, they will lay their maximum number of eggs their 
 first laying year; they will, as a rule, lay about 15 per cent l^ss each year 
 after, provided, they are given the same care and feed. In this case 
 the hen in hand might lay about 85 eggs; if you think that wjU pay yoy, 
 let the hen drop out of your hands into the yard where you ar^ standing; 
 if you think it will not pay to keep her, put her in the shipjping-crate 
 for the market. 
 
 The next hen may be two fingers abdomen, one finger out of condi- 
 tion, as in Fig. 20, with pelvic bones J^ of an inch th^ck. If this hen's 
 comb and wattles are red, and the hen is strong and active, being one 
 finger out of condition indicates that she is not being properly cared for, 
 either in food or environment, or both; in the condition she is in at 
 present, if continued the whole year, she might lay about 69 eggs, while 
 if kept in normal condition, she might lay 138 eggs. (See Chart 3.) 
 So we will call her a good hen, and drop her. 
 
 The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, '/le-inch pelvic bone, 
 and in normal condition. If this hen were in Fetaluma, we would drop 
 her, as she would be a paying hen. By referring to the chart, you will 
 see that she is a 124-egg type hen. You must bear in jnind constantly 
 
84 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 that a thick bone in a hen of small abdominal capacity would mean a 
 practical non-producer, while the same thickness of bone in a hen of 
 much larger capacity would mean simply a more beefy hen. 
 
 The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
 as in Fig. 19, and pelvic bone '/s of an inch thick. This hen has the 
 same abdominal depth as the preceding, but her pelvic bones being 
 •/s of an inch thick would make her a 110-egg type hen, and with us no 
 hen that lays 120 eggs pays to keep two seasons. We put this hen in 
 the shipping-crate for market, as it will not pay to keep her any longer, 
 if in Petaluma. She will not pay for her board after this time and leave 
 enough profit. 
 
 The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in .normal condition, 
 and '/i6-inch pelvic bone. She, being a 130-egg type hen, it will pay 
 to keep her another year, so we drop her. 
 
 The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in norm'al condition, 
 and 3^-inch pelvic bones; this hen will lay approximately 115 eggs her 
 first laying year, but not enough her second year; so we put her in the 
 shipping-crate for market. 
 
 The next hen may be five-finger abdomen hen and in good condi- 
 tion; '/i6-inch pelvic bone. She is a 130-egg type hen, so we drop her. 
 While this hen has a pelvic b^ne '/lo of an indi thick, she has the abdom- 
 inal capacity to supply herself with food enough to lay a profitable number 
 of eggs and put on flesh at the same time. 
 
 The next hen is five fingers abdomen, in normal condition, and 
 ^'/^-Inch pelvic bones; this is a 115-egg type hen, so we put her in the 
 shipping-crate. The hen we had just before this one was kept; but when 
 we come to the ^/g-inch pelvic bone, we decide that we have reached 
 th€ lowest-limit of egg-production. 
 
 The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
 and "/i6-inch pelvic bone; she will be a 130-egg type hen, so we drop 
 
 her. , 
 
 Jt 
 
 Ttie rle^t hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal condition; 
 pelvic borie^^ of an inch thick; she will be a 115-egg type hen, so we 
 will put'fii^t'jih the shipping-crate. 
 
 The^eJcthen may be three fingers abdomen, three fingers out of 
 conditjoft', Sira '/g-inch pelvic bones. If her comb and wattles are pale 
 and blqpdl^, she is no doubt diseased and should be disposed of ; but 
 if her eorfiD'and wattles are red, it indicates, as a rule, that she is out of 
 condltfonb?! account of accident or lack of feed. In her present condition 
 she fecor'6s'^i66-egg type. If we get her in one finger better condition, 
 she wilL measure four fingers abdomen, and score 205-egg type; if we 
 can ^et Tier in two fingers better condition, she will measure five fingers 
 abdomen and may be '/le-inch pelvic bones, on account of becoming a 
 little more fleshy, and score 220-egg type; and if we get her in three 
 fingers better condition, she would then be in normal condition, and her 
 pelvic bones might be '/le or J^ inch thick; if the latter, she would 
 score 235-egg type. (We will have more to say on the changing of thick- 
 ness of the pelvic bone in the last of Chapter XVIII.) 
 
 We will continue selecting or separating the good from the poor 
 layers in the same manner, keeping every hen for another year in the 
 three-finger-abdomen class that is '/le-inch pelvic bones and thinner, and 
 sending every hen to market that is over '/le-inch pelvic bone in the three- 
 finger-abdomen class; keeping every hen in the four-finger-abdomen class 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 85 
 
 that is */i6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
 that is over '/le-inch pelvic bone in the four-finger-abdomen class; 
 keeping every hen in the five-finger-abdomen class that is '/le-inch pelvic 
 bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market that is over '/le- 
 inch pelvic bone; keeping every hen in the six-finger abdomen class that 
 is ^Vi6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
 that is over "/is-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 scbre the sdrrie 
 egg-capacity and would all be in thesaine condition, and each poultryman 
 feed and cafe='for his 100 birds for four years the best he knew how, 
 and very few M them'%ouId agree on a set of figures that would give th6 
 percentage 6f "decrease in egg-production each year. The one who fed 
 the heaviest'^ and produced'the most eggs would have the largest per- 
 centage of @^cr ease, while the ones who fed for hatching eggs and did 
 not force their hens with condiments and stimulants would get the 
 least numbeir 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^ 
 
86 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 The writer does not claim that he has discovered a system that will 
 infallibly give results just as he has written them. No poultryman needs 
 to be told this, but for the benefit of the amateurs I have inserted the 
 above caution. The writer claims, by years of investigation and prac- 
 tice, to have formulated a poultry code as contained in this book that is 
 commercially the approximation of perfection. 
 
 We will return to our two-year-old hens. We said all one- and two- 
 finger-abdomen hens should be sold and we will consider them no more 
 than to put them in the market crates when we find one. The reader 
 will remember that in selecting the sixteen-months-old hens we retained 
 only those in the three-, four-, five-, and six-finger-abdomen columns 
 that measured Vui '/i6, '/le, and "/is of an inch or less, and everything 
 below these lines went to market. In the show room, when the writer 
 judges utility birds, we use the charts, so as to score each bird according 
 to its capacity for egg-production; but when we cull the poultry on 
 commercial plants, in order to save the time of looking on the charts, 
 we keep in mind only four figures for the hens of any age that we are 
 examining. For hens about sixteen months old, we use the figures: 
 5, 7, 9, and 11, which represent that many sixteenths; for hens with 
 three-finger abdomens, we use the figures ^/le; for four-finger abdomen 
 hens, '/le; for five-finger-abdomen hens, '/is; and for six-finger-abdomen 
 hens, "/i6. All under three-finger abdomen go to the market and all 
 under the line go also. 
 
 For the two-year-and-four-months-old hens we keep in mind the 
 following figures: 3, 5, 7, and 9 sixteenths. For the three-finger-ab- 
 domen hen, '/i6-inch pelvic bone; four-finger-abdomen hen, '/le-inch 
 pelvic bone ; five-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bone. Everything 
 below these figures goes to the market; also all one- and two-finger- 
 abdomen birds there may be in the lot. 
 
 We now go to the hens that are three years and four months old. 
 Any one- and two-finger-abdomen birds that we may find go to market 
 and all the three-finger-abdomen birds below Vie-inch pelvic bones. For 
 the three-years-and-four-months-old birds we bear in mind 1, 3, 5, and 7 
 sixteenths. Three-finger-abdomen hen, Vu'inch pelvic bones; four- 
 finger-abdomen hen, '/i6-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, 
 '/i6-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bones. 
 All below these lines go to market. 
 
 If the reader has some good hens that he wishes to breed from, he 
 can use the figures: 1, 3, and 5 sixteenths. 
 
 The fourth year, when he wishes to select from the four-, five- 
 and six-finger abdomen hens, it will be: Four-finger-abdomen hen, */i6- 
 inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, '/le-inch pelvic bones; and 
 six-finger'abdpmen h^ni '/if.inch pelvic bones. Very few will want to 
 keep hens as Ipng an this. They will ba five years and about four months 
 old when you will sell them. Most people h^re sell tljjijp about the 
 time they commence to moult — after they are two yejiFi pld; but I 
 selected the hens used at the California State Poultry Ejfppfjpient Sta- 
 tion to test this method as far as the egg-laying qualities w^rp poncerned, 
 and the hens I selected as hens that would pay at four yc^rs made a 
 good paying record. 
 
 The reader will understand that the way we have just been selecting 
 the paying hens ig the way we select when we have large numbers; this 
 is the way I selected 1,600 hens in six hours at the poultry farm of the 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 87 
 
 Ukiah State Hospital, Mendocino County, California, and at other 
 State hospitals and poultry plants. We do not have to stop to figure 
 out the percentage of loss of each bird. You can take any combination 
 of figures you wish, as J^-inch, '/g-inch, J^-inch, '/g-inch, forsixteen- 
 months-old birds; Vie-inch, '/u-inch, '/le-inch, '/le-inch, for twenty- 
 eight-months-old-birds. You can figure out the percentage of loss each 
 year and take a combination of figures that will suit your purpose. You 
 have only to carry four figures in your mind. The percentage of loss 
 each year is computed by good poultrymen to be from 10 to 20 per 
 cent in egg-production on plants that are run for hatching eggs. If you 
 force your hens with an excess of meat and condiments, the loss will be 
 according to how you feed them, and no one can tell what it may be 
 but yourself. Some poultrymen will get practically all there is in a 
 hen out of her the first season, then sell her. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Male Bird. 
 
 This is not a treatise on cattle or horses, but we have to use them 
 very often to illustrate the. matter in hand. Stock-raisihg has been 
 brought to more of a science than poultry -raising, and is well understood 
 by thousands of our progressive farmers. I have met hundreds of them 
 who could describe to me the points I would have to consider in selecting 
 a good-paying butter-fat, beef or milk proposition, both in dam and 
 sire; and while there may be as many poultrymen who understand the 
 selection of poultry, both male and female, for egg- and meat-production, 
 I have failed to meet them, and while I was made the butt of ridicule 
 by the poultrymen when I issued my first pamphlet, entitled the "Walter 
 Hogan System," in March, 1905, the stock-raisers who were interested 
 in poultry stood by me to a man. The reason was, that the cattlemen 
 had been studying along the utility lines in both sire and dani in order 
 to develop the milk, butter-fat, and beef-producing capacities of their 
 cattle. It was a comparatively easy proposition for them. The form 
 of the animals was plg-inly to be seen. They were not covered with a 
 coat of fluff and feathers that hid the shape and form of the subject. 
 It was easy to distinguish between the cat ham of the butter-fat type 
 and the full, deep ham of the beef type. It was no trouble to compare 
 the udders, milk-veins, and wedge-shape type of the Jersey with the 
 full, rounded build of the Hereford or Polled Angus. 
 
 On the other hand, the poultrymen, to some extent, were deceived 
 by the appearance of their hens. Take, for instance, the Cochin and 
 the Bantam; they would hold about the same relation to each other as 
 the lordly Durham would to the fine-bred Devon, yet I have found 
 Bantam hens with as deep abdomen as a great Cochin hen; and it is 
 my opinion that if poultry were as bare of feathers as cattle are, the 
 poultry industry would be as far advanced at present as is the cattle 
 business. 
 
 The greatest impedinient to the successful breeder of poultry has 
 been the inability to select the male bird of the required type. The 
 custom in vogue at the present writing with most poultrymen is to trap- 
 nest their hens and raise cockerels from the best layers as indicated by 
 
88 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 the trap-nest. The trouble with this method is, that while the hen 
 may lay a large number of eggs, she may not have the faculty to transmit 
 her laying qualities to her offspring, and her cockerels may be deficient 
 in both egg-laying qualities and the ability to transmit what good 
 qualities they may possess to their progeny. 
 
 Again, I have seen a great many cases where poultry-farmers would 
 send away and buy a lot of cockerels. The man that raised and sold 
 them had no knowledge of how to classify them, and the man who 
 bought them knew he was buying cockerels and that is all he did know 
 about them. He could not be sure whether they would increase jhis egg 
 yield or not. He had to pay his money and take chances. It was 
 nothing more nor less than a gamble; but the days of gambling in the 
 poultry business are passed for the intelligent, progressive poultryman, 
 no longer will he be obliged to trust to luck or intuition. He will be able 
 to select his male birds with as much assurance as his hens, and instead 
 of groping in the dark, he will have the satisfaction of seeing and knowing 
 just what he is doing by bearing in mind the instructions in this chapter. 
 
 The reader will by this time be faniiliar with the different types and 
 capacities of hens, and will not be surprised to learn there is a similar 
 number of variations in the male birds; and if one wishes to produce a 
 certain type and capacity in a pullet or cockerel, he must select the 
 parent birds that will produce that type. We know how to select the 
 hen ; we will now take up the study of how to select the male bird. 
 
 We go through the same movements in selecting or testing the male 
 bird as we do in selecting the hen, but we use a different set of charts. 
 For example, it is possible for a hen to change from six to three fingers 
 in abdominal capacity within a month and be healthy and active, and 
 in another month to return back to her original six-finger capacity 
 but it is not so with the male bird after he is mature. I have tested male 
 birds at nine months of age that scored four fingers abdomen, '/le-inch 
 pelvic bone, that did not change for four years, except that their pelvic 
 bones being '/is of an inch thick at nine months old, I have found them 
 to be '/s of an inch thick at eighteen months old. They had increased 
 in thickness of bone from '/le to '/g inch. These were egg-tjT)e male 
 birds; the meat-type will vary more or less in the thickness of the pelvic 
 bones — depending on how much flesh they put on or lose between the 
 different times of examining them. 
 
 It will be easy to distinguish the egg- type cock bird from the meat- 
 type bird; the former has thin pelvic bones, whether in flesh or not, 
 while the latter has thick pelvic bones with a more or less lump of gristle, 
 on the end of them, whether he is thin or in good flesh. I have found 
 that in classifying the male bird as we have the hen as to t3T)e and 
 capacity for a certain egg-yield it requires less abdominal capacity in 
 the male bird than in the female. For instance, the male bird that is 
 two fingers abdomen and '/le of an inch pelvic bone is the same type and 
 capacity for breeding purposes as the three-finger-abdomen hen, '/le-inch 
 pelvic bone. The male of the same class, as regards capacity, does not 
 require as large an abdomen as the female; this is so self-evident that it 
 would be a waste of time to try to explain the reason for it. 
 
 I have heard poultrymen say that the male bird is half of the flock. 
 I wonder if they stop to consider whether this is so or not. My birds 
 are wonderful layers, and I mate one male bird to every twelve hens, 
 and from a breeder's point of view I consider my male birds a great 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 89 
 
 deal more than half the flock. If I mate 100-egg type cock birds with 
 200-egg hens; the progeny may lay about 150 eggs, thus reducing my 
 egg-yield about 25 per cent in the progeny of each of the twelve hens. 
 For this reason I have given as much thought to the male bird as I have 
 to the hen ; and in arranging the charts for the male birds have experienced 
 a great deal of difiSculty, as it takes years of time and hundreds of matings 
 to arrive at conclusions that would be approximately correct. In any 
 one case, everything else (type, capacity, and breed) being equal, care 
 and environment have a dominating influence on the product, whether 
 eggs or meat; consequently, if a number of investigators were working 
 on this proposition, using the same system of selection, they could not 
 help but arrive at somewhat different conclusions as to figures, but that 
 would not affect the value of the system. 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART A. 
 
 One-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vi6 pelvic bone 84-egg type 
 
 V» pelvic bone 75-egg type 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 67-egg type 
 
 V4 pelvic bone 58-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 50-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 41-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 33-egg type 
 
 Va pelvic bone 24-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone '. 16-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 7-egg type 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 0-egg type 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART B. 
 
 One-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vx6 pelvic bone '...,.. 132-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 120-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 109-egg type 
 
 V4 pelvic bone 98-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 87-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 75-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 64-egg type 
 
 V2 pelvic bone 53-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 42-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 30-egg type 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 19-egg type 
 
 '/4 pelvic bone 8-egg type 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 0-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 0-egg type 
 
90 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART C. 
 
 Two-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vi6 pelvic bone 180-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 166-egg type 
 
 '/i6 pelvic bone 152-egg type 
 
 V4 pelvic bone 138-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 124-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 1 10-egg type 
 
 '/18 pelvic bone 96-egg type 
 
 V2 pelvic bone 82-egg type 
 
 °/i6 pelvic bone 68-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone ' 54-egg type 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 40-egg type 
 
 '/< pelvic bone 26-egg type 
 
 "/ J6 pelvic bone 12-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 0-egg type 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART D. 
 Two-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 
 
 V16 pelv 
 Vs pelvi 
 Vie pelvi 
 V4 pelv: 
 Vie pelv: 
 '/s pelv; 
 V16 pelv: 
 V2 pelv; 
 V16 pelv: 
 Va pelvi 
 "/le pelvi 
 '/4 pelv 
 'Vie pelvi 
 Vs pelv 
 'V16 pelv 
 
 c bone 200-egg type 
 
 c bone 185-cgg type 
 
 c bone 171-egg type 
 
 c bone 156-cgg type 
 
 c bone 142-egg type 
 
 c bone 127-egg type 
 
 c bone 113-egg type 
 
 c bone 98-egg type 
 
 c bone 84-egg type 
 
 c bone 69-egg type 
 
 c bone 55-egg type 
 
 c bone 40-egg type 
 
 c bone 26-egg type 
 
 c bone 1 1-egg type 
 
 c bone 0-egg type 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART E 
 
 Three-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vie pelvic bone 235-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 220-egg type 
 
 '/18 pelvic bone 205-egg type 
 
 V4 pelvic bone 190-egg type 
 
 ^/i6 pelvic bone 175-egg type 
 
 '/a pelvic bone 160-egg type 
 
 Vie pelvic bone 145-egg type 
 
 Va pelvic bone 130-egg type 
 
 '/16 pelvic bone 115-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone 100-egg type 
 
 "/18 pelvic bone 85-egg type 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 91 
 
 '/4 pelvic bone 70-egg type 
 
 "/"-pelvic bone 55-egg type 
 
 '/g pelvic bone 40-egg type 
 
 "/i6 pelvic bone 25-egg type 
 
 1-in pelvic bone 10-egg type 
 
 "/u pelvic bone 0-egg type 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART F. 
 Three-and-orie-half-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vie pelv: 
 Vs pelv: 
 Vi6 pelv: 
 Vi pelv: 
 Vi6 pelv 
 '/a pelv: 
 Vi6 pelv 
 Vz pelv: 
 «/i6 pelvi 
 Vs pelv 
 "/u pelvi 
 '/i pelvi 
 'Vi6 pelvi 
 '/s pelvi 
 'Vi6 pelv 
 1-in pelv: 
 "/i6 pelv 
 I'/s pelv: 
 
 c bone 257-egg type 
 
 c bone '. 242-egg type 
 
 c bone 227-egg type 
 
 c bone 212-egg type 
 
 c bone 197-egg type 
 
 c bone 182-egg type 
 
 c bone 167-egg type 
 
 c bone 152-egg type 
 
 c bone 137-egg type 
 
 c bone 122-egg type 
 
 c bone 107-egg type 
 
 c bone 92-egg type 
 
 c bone 77-egg type 
 
 c bone 62-egg type 
 
 c bone 47-egg type 
 
 c bone 32-egg type' 
 
 c bone 17-egg type 
 
 c bone 0-egg type 
 
 MALE BIRD— CHART G. 
 
 ^ Four-finger Abdomen. 
 
 Vie pelvic bone 280-egg type 
 
 Vs pelvic bone '. 265-egg type 
 
 '/le pelvic b6ne 250-egg type 
 
 V4 pelvic b^ne 235-egg type 
 
 ^/le pelvic bone 220-egg type 
 
 ^/s pelvic bone 205-egg type 
 
 '/le pelvic bone 190-egg type 
 
 V2 pelvic bone 175-egg t>-pe 
 
 '/18 pelvic bone 160-egg type 
 
 '/s pelvic bone 145-egg type 
 
 "/le pelvic bone 130-egg type 
 
 ^/i pelvic bone 115-egg type 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 100-egg type 
 
 '/a pelvic ^jone 85-egg type 
 
 "/16 pelvic bone 70-egg type 
 
 1-in pelvic bone 55-egg type 
 
 "/u pelvic bone 40-egg type 
 
 iVs pelvic bone. 25-egg "t^^pe 
 
 l'/i6 pelvic bone 10-egg type 
 
 IV4 pelvic bone 0-egg type 
 
92 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN.. 
 
 We consider the male bird of so much importance that we have 
 made seven charts for his classification as to egg and meat types. See 
 Charts A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. While Chart A may not be needed 
 and Chart B used very seldom, we thought it best to include them. 
 All old poultrymen and stock-raisers know that so many considerations 
 enter into the breeding and raising of live stock of all kinds that it is 
 impossible to lay down hard-and-fast rules that can be depended upon 
 beforeharfd to bring definite results in all parallel cases. This is written 
 as a caution to beginners, especially to those whose experience has been 
 at the desk or behind the counter. 
 
 Fig. 46 shows a cock bird four fingers abdomen and Fig. 47 shows 
 the same bird Vs-inch pelvic bone, making him a 265-egg type bird. 
 
 The reader will see by Figs. 46 and 47 that we use the same methods 
 to determine the egg-value of a male bird as we use for the hen, except 
 that we do not think it advisable to take the matter of condition into 
 consideration, or rather it is better not to lay down rules in the matter, 
 as it is very hard to keep the egg-type birds in good condition; but I 
 try to keep my cock birds in good flesh and not over one finger out of 
 condition at any time. There are times before the male birds are a 
 year old and while their bones are soft that their abdomens will contract 
 and expand, it depending on whether they are stinted in their feed, or 
 whether they are fed liberally. Egg- type cockerels selected for breeders 
 should have the best care and food (see chapter on Selecting Cockerels 
 for Breeding). In examining the male birds for prepotency, the reader 
 should select them with the greatest care. I cannot impress this on the 
 
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 9H 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^^^^H^^^^^^^^^H 
 
 
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 ■ 
 
 B^^t :^^H 
 
 1 
 
 Fig. 46 — ^Showing four-finger depth of abdomen of 26S-egg cock bird. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 93 
 
 Fig. 47 — Showing f-inch pelvic bone of 26S-egg cock bird. 
 
 Fig. 48 — Showing 1-16-inch pelvic bone of 280-egg type hen. 
 
94 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Fig. 49 — Showing six-finger depth of abdomen of 280-egg type hen. 
 
 Fig. so — 280-egg 'type hen and 265-egg type cock bird. Tail of cock is somewhat 
 cramped for want of room. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 95 
 
 reader too strongly. They should be as good or better if possible than 
 No. 1, Fig. 35, and do not forget that the thumb nail on the left hand 
 and the nail on the forefinger of the right hand (reverse the order if 
 left-handed) must be somewhat longer than the flesh, if you expect to 
 take correct measurements. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Selecting the Cockerels at Broiler Age. 
 
 I have tried to impress on the reader the importance of the careful 
 selection of the male birds, and perhaps he is fully alive to the value 
 of doing so. He starts out at the first opportunity and visits all the 
 poultry plants far and near, with the determination to purchase the best 
 male bird he can find. Before starting out, he decides he will have 
 nothing less than 200-egg types. Imagine his disappointment when, 
 after handling perhaps fifty or more, he can find nothing that will come 
 any way near the 200-egg type ; while if he examines the same number of 
 hens, he will very likely find at least one or perhaps more that will come 
 somewhat near what he is looking for. Then he will say that there is 
 no such bird as the chart describes as a 200-egg type cock bird. I wish 
 to say here that I think I have at least fifty male birds at the present 
 writing that will scale from 200 up, according to the charts. I have 
 over a dozen that will scale from 250 to 265, and these have all been 
 developed within six years from hens with three-finger abdomens and 
 J^-inch pelvic bones, mated to cockerels with IJ^-inch finger abdomens 
 and '/i6-inch pelvic bones. 
 
 The first season in California we raised about 300 cockerels up to 
 three months of age, which is within the broiler age for this section. 
 We arranged our house and catching-coop as in Figs. 1 and 2, and we 
 went through the same movements that we do when testing the hens, 
 except that we do not have to use all the tests on each one of the cockerels 
 that we use on the hens. We hold the cockerel as in Figs. 5 and 6 and 
 lay our hand on his abdomen as in Fig. 7. As soon as we lay our hand 
 on his abdomen we can feel instantly whether his pelvic bones are straight, 
 like Fig. 34, or crooked, like Fig. 33. If his pelvic bones are like Fig. 33, 
 we have no use for him as a breeder and put him in the shipping-crate 
 for market; if his pelvic bones are straight, like Fig. 34, we measure the 
 depth of his abdomen; if it is less than two fingers, we put him in the 
 shipping-crate ; if two fingers or over, we examine him for prepotency^ 
 and if the projection on the back of his head, as in No. 1, Fig. 35, is less 
 than Vs of an inch behind a line drawn at right angles from the back 
 of the ear (see Figs. 41, 42 and 43) we put him in the shipping-crate, 
 no matter how good he is in other points. We take no chances with 
 him, because if we have made no mistake in measuring his head lines, 
 abdomen, and pelvic bones, it will be a waste of time to breed from him ; 
 but if his head measures up good, we keep him as a prospective breeder. 
 We say "as a prospective breeder," as it is very evident it will not pay 
 to raise all the cockerels to maturity. 
 
 Here in Petaluma, where there are over 600,000 cockerels raised to 
 broiler age in a season, it would be impossible to raise them all and test 
 their breeding qualities, neither is it necessary. If a person has a 
 
96 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 delicate touch, the comparative value of chicks for prepotency can be 
 judged as well when they are three days old as at any time later. Then 
 again, we are obliged to keep our chicks until we can distinguish the 
 males from the females, and as a rule we will lose nothing if we keep 
 them until they are at least ten weeks old, when, if they have had the 
 right care and feed, they will be old enough to test. If their pelvic 
 bones are thick at this age, it indicates they are more or less of the meat 
 type; if their pelvic bones are crooked, it indicates that they never will 
 be straight; and if they lack prepotency, it indicates that they will always 
 lack it, for they come out of the shell with this organ relatively large or 
 small, just as a baby is born with a nose on its face. 
 
 I want to impress on the reader the importance of using the utmost 
 care in measuring the head for prepotency, as it is very easy for a person 
 to think he has measured the head right when he has not done so; 
 especially if he has large self-esteem, he then thinks everything he does 
 must be right; it would be impossible for him to do anything otherwise 
 than the right way. In my classes I have found workers in the ma- 
 chinists' trade made the most correct measurements, especially if they 
 had the faculty of human nature large, while I have found that profes- 
 sional men who had human nature small make the poorest measure- 
 ments; this was owing to prejudice, and not to the absence of the com- 
 bination of the necessary mental faculties. I suppose there will always 
 be found those who will discredit the most obvious fact, if it puts them 
 at a disadvantage from a mental, moral, or financial point of view; 
 but in this case it would be cutting off your nose to spite your face to 
 be careless in any of these tests. 
 
 I have never yet, in my. investigations of hundreds of poultry plants, 
 found a degenerate lot of poultry but that they were small in prepotency. 
 But to return to the cockerels: As we said on page 83, we raised 300 
 cockerels the first year I was in California. After testing them air three 
 months old, as described, I found eighteen that I considered \%orth 
 keeping to the age of nine months, when I would give them the final 
 test. When they were eight months old I tested them again, and while 
 I found that they all had good depth of abdomen and good prepotency, 
 six of them had crooked pelvic bones. The pelvic bones on twelve of 
 the cockerels had continued to grow straight, while the pelvic bones 
 on six of them had grown crooked and were coming together at the points 
 like the horns on a Jersey cow. I had to discard these six breeders and 
 send them to market. 
 
 The reader will see that, out of 300 cockerels, I had only 12 that 
 were capable of improving my flock. Last year (1912), out of about 
 1,200, 1 had only 200 that I considered good enough to keep for breeders; 
 and while all my birds have been more or less squirrel-tailed, one of last 
 year's 200 is a very well-formed, low-tailed bird, but he lacks the pure- 
 white ear-lobes. He scores 250-egg type, and I have refused $50.00 
 for him. I am going to see if I can breed a low-tailed type of Leghorn 
 in quantities that will conform to the present American Standard, and 
 average about 200 eggs per year in large flocks. The reader will under- 
 stand that the parents of these cockerels were selected with the greatest 
 care as to capacity, type, and prepotency. Type and prepotency are 
 more or less hereditary traits or features, distinguishable in the sub- 
 jects, if we have the knowledge necessary to discern them. But the 
 individual inherent or innate potentiality of any one or each bird cannot 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 97 
 
 be increased or diminished by the breeder; that is to say, feed and 
 environment will not materially change the impotent bird into a potent 
 bird, qeither will it change the typical meat-t3rpe into the egg-type 
 bird. ,. 
 
 "But," I hear some sarcastic reader say, "we certainly can diminish 
 or increase their prepotency by alternately starving and feeding them 
 well.".*-3rhat is begging the question. You could affect their fecundity 
 very readily; but what the writer wishes to impress on the reader is, 
 that while type and prepotency are fixed before birth, and also the 
 ability to govern capacity, and while type and prepotency can be procured 
 only by selection, capacity can be governed more or less by environment 
 — in other words, feed, care, the right kind of houses, ground, etc. We 
 will say, for instance, the reader has a pen of egg-type birds, both male 
 and female, with large prepotency and capacity, and suppose they were 
 all 200-egg birds. There would be no difficulty in raising chickens from 
 them with the skme degree of type and prepotency; but if he should 
 stint them in feed of the proper kind and quantity while growing, they 
 would lose in capacity each generation. I develop the capacity of both 
 pullets and cockerels from the time they are three days old to the fullest 
 extent by the most liberal feeding, care, and surrounding conditions. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, I would say that the bird with the desired 
 characteristics is more or less of a sport, and the value of the "Hogan 
 Test" lies in the fact that with this knowledge you can discover the sport 
 and perpetuate it through intelligent breeding. Again, I want to say 
 here that my best cockerels measure four fingers abdomen at three 
 months old. All my stock is developed as much as possible at this 
 age, and I try to prevent the cockerels from shrinking. But the pullets 
 will develop until some of them are six fingers abdomen. 
 
 The following article from the Petaluma Weekly Poultry Journal 
 emphasizes what we have said in regard to the feeding and care of young 
 stock. These cockerels were not crammed or penned up and fed, but 
 were taken off free range and sent directly to market. I wish to remind 
 the reader here that in examining the cockerels for prepotency he may 
 be prpficient enough in the matter to examine them by holding them 
 between his knees and not be obliged to put each one in a sack. ' The 
 article follows: 
 
 "Walter Hogan Can Raise Chickens. 
 
 "Walter Hogan backs up his system of selecting the good layers 
 from among the poor ones, but he has never made much fuss about his 
 ability as a poultry-raiser. For that reason some people have absorbed 
 the idea that he is more of a theorist than a practical man. But he 
 now has a flock of his own, and evidently he is making good, for he is 
 getting results that will convince any one from Missouri or anywhere 
 else who must be 'shown' before believing. For instance, last week 
 there was a spell of most discouraging depression in the prices which 
 dealers were willing to pay for young poultry. There were large arrivals 
 of Eastern poultry in San Francisco besides heavy receipts of California, 
 and nobody wanted any more. Just the same, Mr. Hogan received 
 $4.00 a dozen for sixteen dozen cockerels just three months old, when 
 
98 THE CALL OF THE HEN, 
 
 the same dealer was paying but $1.50 for birds of the same age. Now, 
 what do you think of that? And Mr. Hogan says these cockerels were 
 not descendants of the beef type of hens, but were hatched from eggs 
 laid by hens selected as the egg type. They were not especially fed or 
 in any way prepared for market. They cost 22 cents each for feed, 
 and thus the profit on the bunch was $21.76. 
 
 "In speaking of this matter, Mr. Hogan made the point that if all 
 poultrymen would pay especial attention to producing fine broilers for 
 market — that i-^, in preparing the broilers that they are obliged to produce 
 in order to have a corresponding number of pullets — they would benefit 
 themselves greatly. Not only would they get a better price for the birds, 
 but they would greatly increase the demand, as many people who now 
 care nothing for the common dry-meated birds would become pleased 
 consumers of the improved broilers. The Poultry Journal man knows 
 by personal experience that the broilers turned out by Mr. Hogan are 
 simply delicious when properly cooked, and far ahead of the ordinary 
 article." 
 
 CHAPTER XI n. 
 
 Selecting the Setting Hen. 
 
 "How can I select the best hen for the purpose when I want to hatch 
 chickens with hens?" 
 
 The writer is asked the above question very often. It is a serious 
 matter with the poultryman when he has a small number of choice eggs 
 he wishes to hatch and gives them to a hen that is apparently setting 
 well only to have her spoil most of them. He very naturally lays the 
 cause to mites or lice, or both. While it is true that the nests and sur- 
 roundings must be kept free from mites and the hens kept clean from 
 hen lice, the trouble is not all here by a good deal. Sometimes a great 
 deal of the fault lies in the hens. Some are born layers, some are born 
 mothers, and some are born too lazy to get off the nest at the call of 
 Nature. The hen born a typical egg type is of no use as a setter, neither 
 is the hen that is born a typical meat type; she is too lazy to care for her 
 chicks, even if she is fortunate enough to hatch any and not kill them 
 all by standing on them. She is too stupid any way, and the typical 
 egg-type hen is too nervous and has no time to attend to them. She 
 thinks of nothing but manufacturing eggs. So we will have t© look 
 for a hen between the above types, which we have in the dual-purpose 
 type, with the following characteristics: 
 
 First, she must have prepotency large; that gives her the mother 
 instinct; next, she should be in normal condition, as indicated by her 
 breast-bone; that is self-evident, for a hen out of condition lacks more 
 or less of the animal magnetism, that is an aid to successful incubation. 
 I need not mention good health, as indicated by good red comb and 
 wattles, as everyone knows that. The hen should be four fingers ab- 
 domen, since anything heavier is more or less liable to break the eggs 
 and anything less than that would not be large enough to cover sufficient 
 eggs. If the hen is a three-finger abdomen hen, her pelvic bones should 
 be about '/le or Y2 of an inch thick; if she is a four-finger abdomen hen, 
 her pelvic bones should be about J^ or '/i« of an inch thick. If you 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 99 
 
 can find hens such as described here, you will have hens with the mother 
 instinct. They will not be too lazy to take proper care of themselves 
 and their chicks, nor will they want to lay so soon as to neglect their 
 chickens. The nearer you can get to procuring the above type of hens 
 the better success you will have raising chicks with them. 
 
 . CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Selecting THE Stock for Raising Broilers. 
 
 A great many of niy friends have requested me to write a chapter 
 on how to raise broilers, but as there are so many excellent books on the 
 market that describe the process of the feeding, caring for, and raising 
 of broilers a great deal better than I could do it, I will confine myself 
 to the selection of the breeding stock only. The writer has raised Light 
 Brahmas and White Plymouth Rocks for years, and has experimented 
 with them to get the greatest amount of meat from the smallest amount 
 of feed; to get the greatest weight of meat at three months old in the 
 White Rocks and the greatest weigfit of meat in the Light Brahmas at 
 maturity. In the process I have run up against two distinct proposi- 
 tions: One was a success from a commercial point of view, and the other, 
 while not a financial success, was a success from an epicurean point of 
 view. I will describe the financial proposition first : 
 
 We will select a pen of hens from our favorite breed, or from Wyan- 
 dottes, Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, or Rhode Island Reds. The hens 
 must have large prepotency; they must be six or seven fingers abdomen 
 and their pelvic bones should be '/s of an inch thick, in good condition. 
 Now you have hens that should lay twelve dozen eggs their first laying 
 year, and they are a paying proposition. Do not breed from them the 
 first year, but wait until they are over one year old ; then mate them with 
 a mature cockerel or young cock with large prepotency, with abdomen 
 four fingers deep or more and pelvic bones from 1 inch to IJ^ inches 
 
 Fig. 51 — The dry- mash hopper we use, closed. 
 
100 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 thick. You should feed the pen for eggs, and keep them as healthy as 
 possible. If they are fed right, you will get lots of eggs and good, healthy 
 chicks, capable of putting on flesh rapidly and fattening very easily. 
 As a paying proposition for market broilers I have never found any 
 combination that would equal it. 
 
 Fig. 52 — ^The dry-mash hopper we use, open. 
 
 But for my private use, without regard to profit, I would take the 
 same combination as the above, except that the pelvic bones of the hens 
 would be 1 inch thick, instead of about '/a; this would give a broiler 
 that would put on flesh much faster, consequently it would be more 
 tender. I have raised broilers the flesh of which would almost melt in 
 your mouth. I have a few secrets in the raising of them which I have 
 never divulged, but may do so in a few years. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Using the Hogan Test in Judging Poultry at the Poultry Shows. 
 
 From the Live Stock Tribune, Los Angeles, California. 
 
 (Now Pacific Poultry ctaft.) 
 
 "Inglewood Poultry Show. 
 
 "A poultry show will be held in the Inglewood Poultry Colony on 
 March 13th and 14th. This show will be the first of its kind ever given 
 in the United States. All poultry shows that have been held in this 
 country heretofore have awarded prizes according to the color, markings, 
 and shape of the fowls only. The show at Inglewood will be unusual 
 in that prizes will be awarded irrespective of the color, variety, shape, 
 size or age of the fowls in competition. 
 
 "Birds in competition will be judged as to their egg-laying capacities 
 and reproductive abilities only. The judging will be done by the system 
 discovered and perfected by Walter Hogan and now used in practical 
 poultry-raising by the members of the Inglewood Poultry Colony. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 101 
 
 "First, second, third, fourth and fifth prizes will be awarded to 
 the best males and females entered from Inglewood; first prize being 
 $5.00 cash, second priza»being $3.00 cash; all winners receiving ribbons. 
 In addition to the foregoing, there will be *the Jaffa Grand Prize of 
 $25.00 in gold, which will be awarded to the hen in the show which shows 
 the greatest capacity as a layer, combined with the ability to reproduce 
 her kind. 
 
 "Entries for the regular prizes will be limited to fowls from Ingle- 
 wood, but competition for the Jaffa Grand Prize will be open to all comers. 
 Entries from poultry-raisers outside of Inglewood will be limited to two 
 birds each. No entry fee will be charged, but all birds entered will be 
 sent at the owner's risk, as is usual at all shows. 
 
 "The birds entered will be cared for and reshipped to the owners 
 by the White Wyandotte Farm, under whose auspices the show will be 
 given and to whom all entries should be sent. No entries will be received 
 after 10 o'clock a. m. on March 12th. 
 
 "This show will be unique in that it will present the commercial 
 side of the poultry industry to the exclusion of fancy breeding. Every 
 step in the poultry business from the hatching of the chick to the prepara- 
 tion of the mature fowl for market, and the packing of the eggs for 
 table use will be illustrated by actual demonstrations on the famous 
 White Wyandotte Farm, where the exhibition will be given. Incubators 
 will hatch not less than 2,000 chicks during the show, and chickens in 
 every stage of development, from one day old to ten weeks old, will 
 be shown as raised in the best brooders with the best care. 
 
 "There will.be demonstrations on both days of the show of killing, 
 picking and preparing fowls for market, as well as of packing fancy eggs. 
 The best and latest in poultry supplies, fittings, and equipment will 
 be shown as actually used by. the capable, successful men who are in 
 the business for revenue only. 
 
 "No admission fee will be charged, the show being given for the 
 purpose of exploiting and demonstrating the poultry business as it is 
 being developed in Southern California. 
 
 "The Jaffa Grand Prize is given and njftmed in honor of Professor 
 Jaffa, of the University of California, who was the first man in public 
 life in this State to test and verify the excellence of the system discovered 
 by Mr. Hogan. 
 
 "Transportation from Los Angeles to Inglewood will be free, and 
 it is understood that the Board of Trade of Inglewood will make arrange- 
 ments to take those who visit the show around the city of Inglewood in 
 automobiles. 
 
 "Those who visit the Inglewood Poultry Show will see an exhibition 
 that will be more interesting by far than any show that has preceded it in 
 California or in any other State, because one will have an opportunity 
 to see, notthe pedigree, but the money in the chicken and a practical 
 way to get that money out," 
 
 In judging the poultry show at Inglewood the management made 
 the rule that all birds were to be judged according to the condition they 
 were in at the time they were judged, and while this rule may be all 
 right in judging the fancy bird and the beef -type bird, it will never do 
 
 OH— 4 
 
102 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 Inglewpod, which was held in March. 
 A gentleman had entered a White Leghorn he# 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 '/le-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 couM 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, jiidged 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 ad-vised 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 feedi 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 103 
 
 The breeder need not take my word for the above statements. 
 The frontispiece shows five of this type of birds that the writer bred 
 and raised in California. These birds laid the greatest weight of eggs 
 (131 pens of five birds to each pen competing, including three pens of 
 Indian Runner ducks) in the National Egg-laying Contest at the State 
 Poultry Experiment Station, Mountain Grove, Missouri, U. S. A., for 
 the twelve months ending November 1, 1912. These five hens laid 131 
 pounds of eggs, which, reduced to No. 1 eggs as rated in Petaluma, 
 would be 229'/6 eggs for each hen. The eggs these five hens laid while 
 moulting were put on exhibition in the Chamber of Commerce in Petaluma 
 and were pronounced by good judges to be as fine a lot of eggs as they 
 ever saw, and that is saying a great deal, as there are more eggs produced 
 within a radius of ten miles from Petaluma than in any other like part 
 of the world. We have hundreds of letters from our customers testifying 
 to the value of this stock, a few extracts from which we will introduce here 
 to prove to the reader that because a flock of hens are great layers it 
 does not follow that they are of low vitality. 
 
 Extracts from Letters. 
 
 Portland, Ore., June 23, 1912. 
 Received eggs. None broken. Very nice. Fifteen infertile out 
 of 150. C. F. Perkins. 
 
 LiHUE, Hawaii, June 11, 1913. 
 Eggs arrived O. K. None damaged. Have fourteen chicks four 
 weeks old doing fine. Am well pleased. 
 
 E. H. Broadbent. 
 (These eggs were shipped over 2,200 miles by rail and steamer to 
 reach their destination.) 
 
 Watsonville, Calif., April 5, 1912. 
 Eggs received. Finest we ever had. Got forty-nine strong chicks 
 from sixty-four eggs. Ora L. Hill. 
 
 Vancouver, B. C, May 13, 1912. 
 The 100 eggs received. Express and customs ran price to $14.00. 
 Am very well satisfied. Hatched 70 per cent beautiful chicks; doing 
 well. G. W. McLelland. 
 
 QuiNCY, Wash., April 14, 1912. 
 Chicks received; not a dead one in the bunch, which speaks well 
 for the vitality of your stock. 
 
 H. L. Johnson, Treasurer 
 and Manager Quincy Lumber Company. 
 
 Victoria, B. C, Sub. P. 0. No. i, 
 
 April 19, 1912. 
 Received the 100 chicks ; four dead. Think that is very good, coming 
 that journey. James D. West. 
 
104 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Salem, Ore.* April 19, 1913. 
 Received baby chicks; they are just lovely; not one dead, which 
 we think is great. They came in fine shape. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Havre. 
 
 Seattle, Wash., August 25, 1912. 
 Received the 1040 chicks about ten weeks ago; there were five 
 dead in the boxes. Have lost about 75 of them, all told. 
 
 S. K. Suttle. 
 
 Tucson, Ariz., February 17, 1913. 
 Received chicks in good condition; 1 dead, 623 alive and kicking. 
 
 L. E. Smith. 
 
 Reno, Nev., March 11, 1913. 
 Chicks came through fine; 1 dead in 700, which speaks well for their 
 vitality. They surely are a spry bunch. A. L. Rice. 
 
 Reno, Nev., July 22, 1913. 
 Chicks are fine; they are the largest and best-looking ever seen in 
 Nevada. They are just 4 months and 12 days old. One of them laid 
 yesterday. Every poultryman that sees them remarks it's too bad I 
 haven't a thousand. A. L. Rice. 
 
 The preceding extracts are taken from a few of the many unsolicited 
 letters I have received from my customers during the last two yeeirs 
 that I have been selling hatching eggs and day-old chicks. I have 
 repeatedly shipped hatching eggs to the Hawaiian Islands and as far 
 east as Minnesota, and day-old chicks where they would be over seventy- 
 two hours on the road. Last summer I turned down over $6,000 worth 
 of orders that I could not fill at $10.00 per 100 for eggs and $16.00 per 
 100 for day-old chicks. I am aware I will have a hard time convincing 
 some of my readers that what I claim for the 200-egg hen is true, but it 
 seems to me any progressive poultryman would be satisfied with the 
 proof I offer him. I will admit that the eggs and chicks from the 200-egg 
 type hens as now bred are not all we would desire, but that is owing to 
 lack of proper knowledge of breeding. As I have said before, by using 
 the "Hogan Test" the reader can breed as fine or as coarse as his condi- 
 tions require; and by selecting only those birds with large prepotency 
 he will be assured of success. 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 "At Sea Over Mating" — What Shall It Be, the Trap-Nest, 
 Mendelism, or the Hogan Test? 
 
 (From The North American, Philadelphia, Pa.) 
 "At Sea Over Mating. 
 
 "America has some good layers, unheard of and unknown, 'tis true, 
 but we are evidently all at sea in the matter of mating for egg-production. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 105 
 
 "Can it be possible that Mendel's law obtains in egg-production 
 just as it does in feathers and form? Do we eliminate, according to 
 Mendel, the factor governing certain things in egg-production, just as 
 we do in the attempt to control coloring in birds, fowls, animals, and 
 flowers? If a son of a heavy-laying female is mated to a non-layer and 
 this son does not carry the excess of laying proclivity, do we get poor 
 layers or good layers? If a 100-per cent producing hen (200 eggs or 
 more) is mated to the son of a 100-per cent producing female, it does 
 not follow, if Mendel's law applies, that the mate to the second 100 
 per cent female inherited egg-laying proclivities; therefore, why should 
 the offspring of the second mating be prolific egg-producers? 'And how 
 far back must we go to get the excess of female inclination to repro- 
 duction? 
 
 "Predominance of inclination exists somewhere in some tangible 
 form, but we do not seem to be able to find it under our present system. 
 That we will is conclusive, but we must do so quickly, in order to offset 
 the growing increase of foodstuffs." 
 
 The trap-nest identifies and gives you the number of eggs a hen 
 lays and is absolutely necessary if we wish to line breed or raise pedigreed 
 stock. The writer has studied Mendelism since the spring of 1910, as 
 he has numerous other scientific works, in the endeavor to find some- 
 thing that would be of aid in getting out this work. I must confess 
 that the title, "The Call of the Hen" was suggested while on a visit 
 with Comrade Jack London, and that is all I have .been able to find 
 that has aided me in this case. Mendelism may be found an aid along 
 the line of feathers but I doubt if there is anything in it that will aid 
 the poultryman in the selection of breeders for type, stamina, and the 
 production of eggs or meat. It may be that, having eyes, I fail to see 
 it. Even if there should be anything of value in Mendelism, it would 
 take two or more years to get it out, while "The Hogan Test" indicates 
 the value of a bird in a few minutes, at most. It looks to me as if the 
 poultrymen will have to look at the trap-nest and "The Hogan Test" 
 to develop and maintain the high-scoring meat- and egg-producing hen. 
 The best pullets can be selected at maturity by "The Hogan Test" 
 and then trap-nested when the poultryman is breeding pedigreed stock; 
 while the culled pullets, lacking in prepotency and other points, can be 
 kept as market-egg. producers. In this way it will be necessary to trap- 
 nest only the cream of the flock, and thereby save an immense amount 
 of labor. The cockerels can also be selected at three months of age and 
 the most promising saved from slaughter. By this method poultry- 
 breeding will be reduced to a science and become a pleasure, where now 
 it is a brain-racking proposition. 
 
 A Trap-Nest or the Hogan System. 
 By Charles H. Parker. 
 
 March 21st, 1916. 
 To the Editor, 
 
 The Poultry Item, Sellersville, Pa. 
 
 Dear Sir: — Some seven months ago I saw an advertisement in the 
 
 Poultry Item about the Hogan System. I at once wrote for a copy 
 
 and after reading it carefully was so much impressed with the principles 
 
 upon which it was based that I determined to give it a thorough trial. 
 
106 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 The enclosed article gives the results of my six months' test of the system ; 
 these results are so striking that I have ventured to send them to you 
 for publication in your paper. I hope you will be able to use it as getting 
 these facts has involved a great deal of close personal attention and effort. 
 I presented a copy of Mr. Hogan's book to a neighbor poultryman 
 and induced another to send for a copy. The book was entirely unknown 
 in this section. Both of my friends are enthusiastic about the system 
 and have already found it of great value. They are both expert poultry- 
 men, one of them having charge of Mr. C. F. Lewis' poultry yards here 
 and the other having been in the business for fourteen years. The 
 latter has found the chapters devoted to prepotency of cocks especially 
 valuable and now understands why his flock went all to pieces some 
 years ago after five years of careful upbuilding. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Charles H. Parker. 
 
 "Do the physical characteristics of a pullet or hen — the distance 
 between the pelvic bones and the breast bone, the width of the pelvic 
 bones and the condition as indicated by the amount of flesh on the 
 breast bone — enable a poultryman to foretell, with approximate accuracy, 
 the number of eggs that a pullet or hen will lay in a year? This is the 
 question the writer decided to answer for himself after reading Walter 
 Hogan's book 'The Call of the Hen.' 
 
 "If the system as outlined by Mr. Hogan is to be relied upon the 
 use of the trap-nest would not be necessary except for pedigree work. 
 No poultryman needs to be told how valuable, if reliable, such a system 
 would be in enabling him, with a minimum of labor and expense, to build 
 up a flock with a high egg yield, to regulate feeding by separating the 
 egg from the meat type and in many cases to turn losses into profits. 
 
 "This book made such an impression upon the writer that he at 
 once determined to measure his hens according to the directions given 
 by Mr. Hogan, to note the egg-laying capacity as thus indicated and to 
 check this forecast with an actual trap-nest record. 
 
 "Following are the very striking results of this experiment, extending 
 over a period which put* the system to a severe test — the months of 
 September, October, November, December, January and February, in 
 the state of Connecticut. The hens were Fishel's White Rocks, fed 
 during the test, according to the Cornell formula and confined in yards 
 allowing 100 square feet per bird. Each hen was carefully measured and 
 leg-banded, great care being taken that no mistakes were made in the 
 measurements. These measurements and the egg-la5dng capacity they 
 indicated according to the system were as follows: 
 
 
 Capacity 
 
 Condition 
 
 Pelvic bones, 
 
 
 Hen No. 
 
 in fingers. 
 
 in fingers. 
 
 inches. 
 
 Egg capacity, 
 
 RIO 
 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 V. 
 
 235 
 
 G3 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 v« 
 
 235 
 
 G7 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 V. 
 
 205 
 
 R8 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 V. 
 
 .205 
 
 Gil 
 
 5' 
 
 1 
 
 V. 
 
 205 
 
 G8 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 V. 
 
 175 
 
 R4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 V. 
 
 145 
 
 R6 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 V. 
 
 115 
 
 G9 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 V. 
 
 85 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 107 
 
 "According to the measurements given in the above table RIO and 
 G3 were the best hens and would lay, if properly fed, in six months 
 about 100 eggs. On the other hand R6 and G9 were not worth keeping. 
 Following is the actual number of eggs laid during the six months of 
 the test from August 24 to February 23rd, compared with the forecast 
 made according to the Hogan System. 
 
 Hen No. 
 
 Hogan forecast. 
 
 Actual trap-nest record. 
 
 RIO 
 
 100 
 
 104 
 
 G3 
 
 100 
 
 102 
 
 G7 
 
 83 
 
 83 
 
 R8 
 
 83 
 
 82 
 
 Gil 
 
 83 
 
 77 
 
 G8 
 
 73 
 
 60 
 
 R4 
 
 60 
 
 51 
 
 R6- 
 
 48 
 
 21 
 
 G9 
 
 35 
 
 19 
 
 "It will be seen from the above table that the relative egg-laying 
 value of the nine hens was not altered in a single instance. In the case 
 of the first five hens it is remarkably accurate. The next three hens 
 went into partial moult during the test while G9 was sick for a while. 
 
 "These figures speak so eloquently for themselves that no comment 
 is necessary except to emphasize the value of the system from a financial 
 point of view. The profit or loss on the nine hens, figuring the cost 
 of feeding at $1.20 per hen for the six months is as follows: 
 
 Loss. 
 
 
 Profit over 
 
 Hen No. 
 
 cost of feeding. 
 
 RIO 
 
 $2.48 
 
 G3 
 
 $2.47 
 
 G7 
 
 $1.72 
 
 R8 
 
 $1.41 
 
 GU 
 
 $1.53 
 
 G8 
 
 $ .57 
 
 R4 
 
 $ .50 
 
 R6 
 
 
 G9 
 
 
 $0.64 
 $0.70 
 
 "The writer wishes to urge the importance of absolute accuracy in 
 taking measurements and in taking them at the right time — ^when 
 hens are laying well. This is illustrated in the case of R7 which just 
 before going into moult measured 4-finger capacity, 2 fingers out of 
 condition and '/s pelvic bones. This indicated 265-egg type. But 
 her measurements after moulting were 6 fingers capacity, condition 
 perfect, pelvic bones ^/le, indicating 190-egg type. The writer has found 
 that the condition of a hen has considerable influence upon the size of 
 the pelvic bones. 
 
 "In conclusion the writer does not claim that a six months' test of 
 a system either proves or disproves the merits of that system. He 
 merely gives the results of his experiments for the interest or value that 
 may be attached to them. It is his intention to continue this test 
 until the year is finished, when he hopes to be able to offer something 
 more definite and reliable about a system which at least seems worthy 
 of greater recognition among poultrymen." 
 
108 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 "How Can I Tell A Laying Hen?" 
 
 I am asked this question very often, and in reply would say that 
 from a scientific point of view it is impossible to. tell the laying hen 
 except with the X-ray. When I say this I do not mean that you cannot 
 tell in the vast majority of cases, but there are occasionally hens whose 
 formation is such that no known method will tell you whether she is a 
 laying hen or not. I give in the last chapter my original "System" 
 and the later supplement, which caused a great many questions to be 
 asked, which I trust have been satisfactorily answered in this book. 
 
 I was at a place in San Francisco lately where this subject was 
 brought up. There was a small party present, all of whom had my 
 "System." One of the party worked in a large meat-market, where 
 they bought and dressed live poultry. He said that occasionally he 
 dressed a hen that showed no indication of being a laying hen, but 
 upon being opened an egg would be found in her. I told him the hens 
 that he had described were those that laid a very few eggs and laid them 
 only in the spring. Their pelvic bones expanded only while the hen 
 was being delivered of the egg. This hen has practically but one egg 
 under process of development at a time, consequently her abdomen 
 does not have to expand to make room for only one egg. Whereas the 
 hen that lays 150 eggs per year has a number of eggs developing at the 
 same time, and her abdomen expands in proportion to her needs. The 
 200-egg hen has a still larger number of eggs developing and she requires 
 more room for them, hence her abdomen expands in proportion. The 
 250-egg hen has a still larger number of eggs of all sizes developing and 
 her abdomen expands still wider than the 200-egg hen. When the hen's 
 abdomen expands, her pelvic bones, being literally a part of and con- 
 tinuation of her abdomen, must expand and contract with it. When 
 she is through laying for the season her abdomen contracts, and the 
 pelvic bones must come closer together, which they do, although there 
 are exceptions to this rule. We will take the 145-egg hen, for example 
 of the sanguine temperament. She will be four fingers abdomen and 
 •/s-inch pelvic bone, when in normal condition, with pelvic bones of good 
 shape. We draw our hand along her breast-bone (keel) from front to 
 rear, and find her abdomen does not drop down the least bit below the 
 rear of the breast-bone. This hen we might call a "normeil hen." Her 
 pelvic bones will, in all probability, expand and contract in conformance 
 with her condition of laying. If she is in the flush of laying, her pelvic 
 bones may be about 1^ inches apart; later in the season, when she is 
 not laying so frequently, her pelvic bones may close to about IJ^ inches; 
 and when she stops laying for the season her pelvic bones may close to 
 about IJ^ inches. This will very likely be repeated each year. 
 
 Now we will select a hen of the 250-egg type. We draw our hand 
 along her keel, as with the last hen; we find she is all right, dosely built 
 and firm. We drop her and take another 250-egg type hen. The per- 
 formance of drawing the hand along the keel is for the purpose of picking 
 out the future breeders that may later bag down, indicating weak ovaries. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 109 
 
 In this connection I wish to say that in selecting breeders I found that the 
 best way to eliminate the hens that would bpgin to bag down behind 
 was to follow directions as given belchv. Of late years I have not had 
 this trouble to contend with. It is always the heavy layer that breaks 
 down, which indicates weak ovaries, and we do not want to breed from 
 such. 
 
 In drawing our hand along her keel (breast-bone) we find a slight 
 bagging down in the rear. The abdomen seems to drop below the rear 
 of the breast-bone slightly. We will say this is a pullet, perhaps six or 
 eight months old. She is well developed, and you can call her one of 
 your best hens. You are proud of her, and have decided to set every 
 egg she lays. Do not use her as a breeder. This pullet should be put 
 in a yard with others of her formation after she is sixteen months old 
 and trap-nested. She may stop laying any time and never lay another 
 egg, or she may continue to lay another year or so ; in any case, she has 
 been such a continuous layer that her frame has become set to that form, 
 and her pelvic bones, as it were, set and will contract very little; they 
 will indicate that she is laying, when in fact she may not have laid for 
 years. I have kept such hens until they were 6 years old, and some of 
 them have never laid an egg after they were about 16 months, still 
 others after they were 2 years old. This is where a trap-nest will save 
 you money. When you select your hens by Charts 44 and 45 at 16, 
 28, and 40 months of age, the ones that bag down the least bit should 
 be put in a yard by themselves and trap-nested to discover the ones 
 whose ovaries have broken down and \vill lay no more. This is not 
 diificult to discover, as the hen that is over the 205-egg type lays more 
 or less at all times during the first two years of her life, if not stimulated 
 to over-production her first year. "A little learning is a dangerous thing," 
 is an old saying applicable to this case. When a man says, ''Don't 
 kill that laying hen," he should furnish you with an X-ray outfit that 
 will enable you to comply with his request. 
 
 The writer has used the pelvic-bone proposition for over forty years 
 in selecting the laying hen, and has found the following to be a very good 
 method in selecting the hen that is not laying: 
 
 The hen that scores 130 eggs her first laying year would measure 
 about ^/s of an inch between her pelvic bones after she stops laying for 
 the season. The hen that scores 150 eggs her first laying year would 
 measure about 1 inch between her pelvic bones after she stops laying 
 for the season. The hen that scores 200 eggs would measure about 
 IJ^ inches between the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. 
 The hen that scores 250 eggs would measure about 1}4 inches between 
 the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. The 250-egg hen 
 does stop more or less after her second and sometimes after her first 
 season, if not cared for right; but if feed and environment are right 
 she may continue to lay more or less until. 3 years old, when her frame 
 may become set. When she is done laying her pelvic bones may remain 
 2 inches apart. As hens grow older their pelvic, bones become thicker 
 during the winter months when they are not laying. The thickness 
 varies according to their type, the typical egg type changing little or 
 none, while the more pronounced the meat type becomes the more the 
 pelvic bones change, owing to the increase or decrease of flesh on the 
 abdomen (flank) of the fowl as it takes on or loses flesh, as indicated by 
 her breast-bone. 
 
110 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Final Remarks on Constitutional Vigor and Vitality. 
 
 As we have now reached the end of "The Call of the Hen," I wish 
 to impress upon the reader's mind the importance of the five propositions 
 that govern the Selection, Breeding, and Profitable Keeping of Poultry 
 as follows: Capacity, Condition, Type, Prepotency, and Vitality or 
 Constitutional Vigor. 
 
 No doubt you have a good working knowledge of the first four 
 subjects, and you wonder why I have not written a chapter on Vitality. 
 The reason is, that when I decided to write "The Call of the Hen," 
 I told my wife that I would write nothing that even a blind man could 
 not understand and practice. I have tried to do so, for to her patience, 
 perseverance, and untiring zeal I owe much of the success I have had 
 in getting out this book. 
 
 The writer can see only three ways of detecting vitality in a fowl; 
 the most ancient is intuition, then observation, and lastly the trap-nest. 
 A hen may be a typical 250-egg type hen, she may have the very best 
 of care and food, and yet, for lack of vitality, may not be able to lay 
 over 150 eggs per year. Let us take the steam engine for example. 
 There are a great many types of engines besides the high and low- 
 pressure ones, as there are a great many types of hens and cock birds. 
 The diameter of cylinder, length of stroke, and revolutions per minute 
 give you the capacity of the engine, as the length and depth of abdomen 
 in the, fowl gives its capacity. The fuel fed into the fire-box generates 
 the steam (vitality) to run the engine, as the food fed into the hen's 
 abdomen generates her vitality. 
 
 The writer has owned steam engines where there was defective 
 fire-box construction — scale in the boiler and tubes, loose rings in the 
 piston head, cylinder worn out of true, and other defects that reduced 
 the efficiency of the power system a great deal — or, in other words, 
 lowered the vitality of the engine. In just the same way a weak digestive 
 system in a 250-egg type hen will reduce_her egg-yield. But do not 
 think that you can make a 150-egg type hen in perfect condition lay 
 200 eggs by any of the feeding formulas now in vogue. If you try to 
 force her, she will go to flesh and then break down with liver trouble. 
 
 If you lack the intuitive faculty and lack the time to carefully observe 
 individual hens, I would advise you to select the hens by the chart you 
 wish to breed from. When they are about a year old you can breed 
 from them. Then, if you wish to breed from only those with the greatest 
 vitality, trap-nest these hens for the next two or three years. The hens 
 with the greatest vitality will be great layers and strong, vigorous birds, 
 and save the time wasted in trap-nesting a lot of birds that you will 
 eventually have to discard. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Walter Hogan's System. 
 
 This chapter contains "Walter Hogan's Systeta," as written by 
 M. F. Greeley, editor of the Dakota Farmer, to whom I gave the notes. 
 This was published in 1904. At that time Mr. Greeley refused to put 
 in anything about the skull theory. He said that I would make myself 
 the laughing-stock of the world. I am merely putting this old work in 
 this book in order that the reader may know the evolution of the dis- 
 covery. Th€ pelvic bone method of selection was, of course, my first 
 discovery; then later, the relation between depth of abdomen and thick- 
 ness of pelvic bones; after that, the working out of the mathematical 
 relation between egg-laying ability and those points before mentioned. 
 
 When I came to California I gave out merely the "Walter Hogan's 
 System" which had been printed in Minnesota; later I published a 
 "Supplement," which gave a general idea of the capacity and type 
 proposition; still later I issued typewritten charts as they are found in 
 this book. I could have done all this many years ago, but my reasons 
 for not^oing it are explained elsewhere. 
 
 I do not desire any of my readers to make the mistake of considering 
 what comes after this as having anything to do with "The Call of the 
 Hen," except in a historical way. Walter Hogan. 
 
 Petaluma, Cal., July 31, 1913. 
 
 FIG. 162— SPAN BETWEEN PELVIC BONE AND KEEL ILLUSTRATED IN 
 
 • DRESSED FOWLS 
 The bird On the left in this illustration is a high-producing R. I. Red hen, and the 
 one on the right a low producing hen. Note the greater distance between keel and 
 pelvic bone, also the much rounder breast of the heavy layer, caused not by fat but by 
 the more prominent sternal processes. Photo from Storrs Experiment Station. Note 
 the large moist vent in the good layer, on the left. Also the skin of the good layer is 
 soft and pliable. The poor layer on the right is the reverse. 
 
112 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 UTILITY SCORE CARD 
 
 A great many poultry shows now havp their birds judged by the 
 "Hogan System" as well as by the "Standard of Perfection." The 
 score card which is illustrated herewith is used in a great many shows 
 and is recommended by Mr. Hogan. On the front of the card can be 
 recorded the condition, capacity, type and prepotency of both the 
 male and female. On the back of the card the judge can give the owner 
 some idea as to the quality of his bird from a Standard viewpoint. 
 
 The score cards are 8 inches long and 4J^ inches wide. 
 
 UTILITY POULTRY SHOW 
 
 Score Card. 
 COOP No 
 
 VARIETY LEG BAND NO 
 
 FEMALE 
 
 OUT OF CONDITION: 1 2 3 Fingers. 
 
 CAPACITY: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Fingers. 
 
 THICKNESS OF PELVIC BONE: Vi«, V>. Vi». 'A. Via, V., Vi«, 'A. V«, "A "/». 
 v.. "/i. Vs, 'Vi6, 1 in., IV.., 1V», IVie, 1V4- 
 
 PREPOTENCY: 1 2 3 4. 
 
 TYPE: Egg Dual Purpose Meat. 
 
 Possible egg capacity in present condition .,. . eggs. 
 
 Possible egg capacity represented by this specimen if in good condition 
 
 eggs. 
 Award 
 
 MALE 
 
 CAPACITY: 1 2 ^3 4 S Fingers. 
 
 THICKNESS OF PELVIC BONE: V,., Vs, Vi., V«. Vu, Vs. Vi., V.. Vi., V». "/», 
 Va, 'Vi., v., "/... 1 in-, IVu, IVs, IVi.. IV.- 
 
 PREPOTENCY: 1 2 3 4. 
 
 TYPE: Egg Dual Purpose Meat. 
 
 NOTE — Draw a circle around or check off figures or words designating 
 score in each section. 
 
 Egg type represented by this specimen eggs. 
 
 Award 
 
 Judge 
 
 NOTE — The awards in the Utility class are based entirely on facts given above. The 
 facts on the opposite side are for the information of the owner. 
 
 SHAPE 
 
 Comb and Wattles Tail 
 
 Head and Beak Breast 
 
 Neck -.,... Body 
 
 Back Legs and Toes 
 
 Disqualification 
 
 SURFACE COLOR 
 
 Disqualification. 
 
 Judge 
 
 Secretary 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 113 
 
 EXPLANATION OF SCORE CARD. 
 
 ^ CONDITION refers to the body condition of the bird and indicates whether or 
 not the fowl is being supplied with the right quantity and quality of food and care to 
 furnish the vitality and material necessary to produce the number of eggs or amount 
 of flesh made possible by breeding and Nature. The condition of the male bird is not 
 taken into consideration when judging, as its capacity (depth of abdomen) does not 
 change periodically as does the hen. Each finger represents three-fourths inch. 
 
 CAPACITY indicates the ability of the bird to consume and assimilate sufficient 
 food to produce the desired amount of 'flesh or eggs. Each finger represents three- 
 Jourths inch. 
 
 TYPE indicates the purpose for which the fowl is best suited — eggs, meat or dual 
 purpose. The kind of type is shown by the relative thickness of the pelvic bones. 
 To get the Type divide charts 1-2-3-4-5-6 and a-b-c-d-e-f-g in "Call of the Hen" into 
 three equal parts as nearly as possible, commencing at the top and reading down, 
 the first Part will be Egg Type, the second Part Dual Purpose Type and the third 
 Part Meat Type. 
 
 PREPOTENCY indicates the faculty of the bird to fertilize eggs and to transmit 
 its predominating characteristics. 1 signifies "prepotency very large;" 2 signifies 
 "prepotency full;" 3 signifies "prepotency small;" 4 signifies "prepotency very small." 
 
 By "possible egg capacity" is meant the first year's production in the case of a 
 female. 
 
 All birds judged by this system, with the greatest degree of accuracy, should be 
 mature. 
 
 SHAPE AND SURFACE COLOR. 1, Good; 2, Medium; 3, Poor; 4, Very Poor. 
 
 This bird was judged by the American Standard of Perfection for shape and sur- 
 face color and by the charts and methods described in the "Call of the Hen" for con- 
 dition, capacity, type and prepotency. 
 
 FIG. 182— GOOD EGG TYPE— FRONT FIG. 183— GOOD EGG TYPE— REAR 
 VIEW VIEW 
 
114 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 EGG-PRODUCTION SCORE CARD 
 AMERICAN POULTRY SCHOOL 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 Variety, r. 
 
 Characteristics . 
 
 Body type, 20 points — ^value 60 eggs 
 
 As seen when looking at the bird. 
 Rectangular — deep — well balanced. 
 
 Body conformation, 35 points — value 105 eggs. . 
 Shape from handling. 
 Long-deep-full-showing capacity. 
 Thickness and straightness of pelvic bones. 
 Broadness of back. 
 
 Head and Adjuncts, 15 points — value 45 eggs . . 
 Shape of head and surplus flesh. 
 Shape of eye and eye socket. 
 
 Handling quality, 10 points — ^value 30 eggs 
 
 Soft, pliable skin. Freedom from hard fat 
 
 or coarseness. 
 
 Condition Moult,, Maturity, 15 points — value 
 45 eggs 
 
 Pullets — fitness for production. 
 Hens — freedom from moult — or recovery — 
 depending on season. 
 
 Beak, Legs and Toes, 5 points — value 15 eggs. 
 Color and surplus flesh. 
 
 Total Cuts, 100 points — value 300 eggs. 
 
 Total score 
 
 Egg production — estimate 
 
 Egg production — actual 
 
 Individual Band Numbers. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 115 
 
 BODY TYPE 
 20 Points, 60 eggs. 
 
 A bird of good body is usually well balanced in that the body itself must be deep, 
 showing a nearly rectangular form, well developed in breast and abdomen. Great 
 depth of body is especially desirable, but apparent depth must not be due to loose 
 feathering, which is generally known by an evidence of loose thigh feathers. Cochin 
 and exhibition game type and feathering, are usually associated with poor production. 
 Large capacity is essential if a hen is to lay long and heavily. Such capacity is desig- 
 nated by a body that is deeper at the rear end of the keel than at the front end. The 
 underline should be fairly straight and the back should be comparatively horizontal. 
 Prominent breast development, with evidence of a long keel are desirable qualities in 
 a high-producing hen. The general body conformation of a heavy producer conforms 
 very closely to a rectangle with pronounced angles rather than smooth curves. A male 
 shows the same general characteristics as a female, except that the abdomen is not so 
 deep. 
 
 A small-capacity hen generally stands erect. The body is either very shallow and 
 cut away at the breast and abdomen or in the case of beefy individuals, the abdomen 
 shows a pronounced sagging at the rear of the keel, due to large accumulations of fat. 
 Extremely poor producers frequently show a hump on the back. 
 
 BODY CONFORMATION 
 35 Points, 105 eggs. 
 
 When taken in the hands, a heavy producer will show, by the sense of touch 
 great depth of body, especially at the front and rear of the keel bone. Depth and slab- 
 sidedness may be measured by placing the thumbs on the middle of the back, and 
 the little fingers on the front of the keel bone and the middle fingers on the rear end 
 of the keel bone. Press in with the palms of the hands and do not squeeze the bird 
 up with the fingers. The deeper and more slabsided the bird feels, the better. It is 
 relative depth that is desired and not actual depth. A big hen may be actually deep 
 and yet relatively shallow and hence be a poor layer. Relative depth of front to rear 
 of body may be measured by spanning the body with the thumb and middle fingers 
 from back to breast and sliding the fingers and thumb along the keel and back. The 
 keel must be moderately straight, relatively long and carried well back. The space 
 between the pelvic bones and the keel must be free from excessive accumulation of fat. 
 Birds which are laying heavily can be readily detected by the development of the ab- 
 domen. Such birds will show pelvic arches which are widespread and a keel which is 
 forced down away from the pelvic arches so as to give large capacity. The pelvic 
 bones will be thin and free from fat, straight and widely spread in heavily laying hens. 
 
 The vent becomes large, soft and moist and free from yellow color soon after a 
 bird begins to lay. A non-laying bird has a puckered, hard, dry yellow vent. The 
 condition of the vent gives information as to the present laying condition. 
 
 The poor producer generally shows a shallow body, especially at the front of the 
 keel, a small shrunken abdomen, together with all evidences of small capacity. 
 
116 THE CALL OF THE HEN . 
 
 HEAD, BEAK AND ADJUNCTS 
 
 , 15 Points, 4S Eggs 
 
 One of the best indications in picking high layers is the fineness of the head. 
 The head of a heavy producer is fine, showing a lean face, free from wrinkles and 
 overhanging eyebrows. The wattles and ear-lobes fit close to the head and are not 
 loose and floppy. The face is clean cut, the eye is full, round and prominent, especially 
 when seen from the front. An eye which gives a clean-cut, wide-open appearance is 
 desirable The eyeball of the heavy producer is generally set in the rear of a large 
 oval socket' showing considerable of the white eye membrane in front of the eyeball. 
 The head of the heavy producer should be well balanced, being moderately deep and 
 broad. The extremely fat, full head of the beefy bird, and the long, thin pointed head 
 of the low-vitality bird are both undesirable and should call for heavy cuts in this sec- 
 tion. The low producing bird generally shows a depressed eye with overhanging eye- 
 brows and wrinkled skin at the back of the eye. The extremely long sharp beak is 
 usually possessed by the low producer, while the medium stout, well curved beak is 
 characteristic of the high producer. 
 
 HANDLING QUALITIES 
 
 10 Pmnts, 30 Eggs. 
 
 The skin of the heavy-producing hen is thin, soft and pliable, especially the skin 
 on the abdomen must be thin and loose. The skin of the poor producer is generally 
 thick, hard and rather coarse to the touch, The thin, velvety skin is almost always 
 associated with heavy ovarian activity. 
 
 CONDITION 
 
 IS Points, 4S Eggs 
 
 A bird to be capable of highest sustained production, must be first of all, healthy. 
 She must show vigor and activity and be well fleshed. Late moulting in hens is 
 desirable. Early moulting and slow maturing as shown by the primary feathers, 
 should be cut severely. Late developing and later maturing usually indicate low pro- 
 duction. In applying this section to hens, health and molting conditions should be 
 given primary consideration. In applying this section to pullets, health and maturity 
 should be given primary consideration. 
 
 BEAK, LEGS AND TOES 
 
 5 Points IS Eggs. 
 
 The shanks of a heavy producer are flat, pliable and smooth scaled. In hens at 
 the end of their laying year, or pullets which have been laying heavily for some time, 
 the shanks will be bleached out. The toes should be straight and the toe nails show an 
 indication of proper activity. The shanks of the poor producer are usually round, hard 
 and rather coarse scaled. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 117 
 
 WALTER HOGAN'S SYSTEM. 
 
 WALTER HOGAN, Deceased 
 The Originator of the Walter Hogan System. 
 
 There are two ways of selection, described in this document 
 
 When hens are in flush of laying, selection by the pelvic bones alone 
 is the easier way; but when not in flush of laying, the pelvic bones 
 together with the abdomen will be found the most ready way. (See 
 Supplement, next page.) 
 
 Please bear in mind that the hen with thin pelvic bones and large, 
 soft abdomen is the heavy egg-laying type. 
 
 The hen with thick pelvic bones and large, fleshy, fatty abdomen 
 is the large beef type. 
 
 The hen with medium-thick pelvic bones and large, medium-fleshy 
 and medium-fatty abdomen is the dual-purpose type, and can be made 
 to lay fairly well or made to produce flesh, it being a matter of how she 
 is fed. 
 
 The hen with small abdomen is of small account, either as an egg 
 or as a meat proposition, as she lacks the abdominal capacity to digest 
 and assimilate food enough to sustain the every-day wear of her system 
 and at the same time to produce eggs or flesh in paying quantities. 
 
 Everything related here applies to the male bird as well, only in a 
 lesser degree. 
 
 The remarks in regard to pullets refer to mature pullets, as Leghorn 
 pullets are at five months old in the New England States. 
 
118 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 My birds in Massachusetts were bred for eggs only for years, and 
 their type became set and their pelvic bones contracted, when not laying, 
 to average about 25 per cent; but I find that hens bred promiscuously 
 contract about 50 per cent. 
 
 The points to be borne in mind in using this System are : 
 
 That selection by the pelvic bones alone is best made in the flush 
 of laying. 
 
 That thin pelvic bones and soft abdomen indicate the egg type. 
 
 That thick pelvic bones and hard, fleshy, fatty abdomen indicate 
 the beef type. 
 
 The size of the abdomen indicates the capacity of the bird, either 
 as an egg or as a meat proposition as the case may be — large abdomen, 
 large capacity; small abdomen, small capacity. 
 
 The same rules apply to the cockerel, cock, male bird, or rooster, 
 as he may be called. 
 
 In order to determine the capacity of a hen for egg-production by 
 one selection, she should be in normal condition and not more than a 
 few days broody. 
 
 The estimates in this document refer to hens about one year old. 
 As a rule, they will lay less each year as they grow older — how much 
 less depends on the vitality of the hen, other things considered. 
 
 Supplement to Walter Hogan's System. 
 
 If you will get a little 1-foot rule to check yourself up while getting 
 used to measuring with the tips of your fingers, as in Fig. 4, you will 
 have no trouble in applying its principles right. You can hold the bird 
 feet up and head down between your knees while you are measuring; 
 then hold as in Fig. 4, and learn to estimate the width right. Anything 
 under 1 inch will not pay, all over 13^ inches will pay; from 1 to I'/s 
 inches are doubtful; 2 inches is about the 200-egg type; 2'/8 inches about 
 the 250-egg type, and 2^ inches about the 280-egg type. 
 
 Hens measuring from 1 to I'/g inches should be put in a yard while 
 being fed well and looked over once a week at night in the dark for 
 about eight weeks, if you wish to make a careful test. Any' that come 
 up or down in measurement can be put in the good or bad yards,' as the 
 case may be. Hens will go up or down about 25 per cent in measurements 
 as they are in flush of laying or not. The best time to examine hens is 
 after dark while on roost, which should be about 18 inches from the floor. 
 Place left hand on back of hen, lift up t^il with thumb of right hand, and 
 apply tips of fingers to pelvic bones. With a little practice you will 
 be able to inspect thirty per minute. It is admitted by all physicians, 
 professors, £md students of physiology that I have talked with in regard 
 to this matter that the abdominal capacity of a hen, together with a 
 strong vital temperament, has everytiiing to do with her value as a 
 laying proposition. The pelvic bones (being a continuation of the body 
 structure of the fowl and subject to very small changes in the formation 
 of flesh) are, when comparatively straight and thin, an index to the width 
 of the abdomen, and the best if not the only one we have, as they protrude 
 from the body and may be easily measured. The depth of the abdomen 
 can be taken by placing the palm of the hand crosswise below, between 
 the pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. Sometimes it will be 
 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 fingers. (A finger means ^ of an inch.) Also place 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 119 
 
 fingers between pelvic bones and tail-bone. Sometimes it will take one, 
 sometimes two fingers. In this way you can judge the size of the ab- 
 domen, which, with the pelvic development, will be a rule as to a hen's 
 value as a layer, except in rare cases of misplaced or diseased organs. 
 Sometimes a hen will have a large abdomen, but her pelvic bones will 
 grow crooked and come almost together, like the horns of a Jersey cow, 
 and she will lay better than, the distance apart of her pelvic bones will 
 indicate, but never will do" as well as she should, and should not be bred 
 from. She wastes too much nervous force in laying. The farther you 
 get away from the crow formation the better your hens will be. 
 
 As a rule,, fowls are almost twice as long coming to maturity in 
 California as they are in the Eastern and Middle Western States. What 
 the reason is I suspect, but do not know, but will find, out in the next 
 two years. 
 
 No document purporting to be a copy of "Walter Hogan's System" 
 is genuine without my signature as is set hereunder. Wishing you the 
 best of success, I am, sincerely yours. 
 
 The Walter Hogan System of Increasing Egg-Production by 
 • Selection and Breeding. 
 
 It has been estimated that to add one-half dozen eggs to the annual 
 producing capacity of every hen in the United States would result in 
 additional returns from: our poultry sufficient to pay the national debt 
 within less than a year. Allowing this to be true, we are prepared to 
 show that the method of selection and breeding herein outlined is capable 
 of paying off our great debt several times during a single year, without 
 having to increase the number of hens kept a single bird or the cost of 
 keeping them a single dollar. 
 
 The method — or "discovery," we might call it — has. been tested by 
 the writer in every conceivable way, regardless of expense, time, or 
 trouble, and has been found absolutely faultless in every particular. 
 It has been submitted to one Government Experiment Station (as will 
 be shdwn later) with the same unerring results, and also to a number 
 of the foremost poultrymen of America, who fully and without exception 
 corroborate- all that is claimed. 
 
 Thisj you will agree with us, means a revolution in economical egg- 
 production; it means, too, that no poultryman, however small his flock, 
 can afford to go on in the old way a single year longer. 
 
 Every animal on the farm has a well-defined mission all its own, 
 outside of the general one of producing meat. The great mission of 
 the cow is to produce milk; of the sheep, wool; and the mission of the 
 hen is evidently and pre-eminently egg-production. This being the case, 
 her value varies or should vary largely with her ability to produce eggs. 
 And: still it is a well-known fact that, while every farm animal has been 
 selected and bred for the best there was in it along its own peculiar line, 
 and- all prizes have been awarded accordingly, the hen has been bred 
 largely and prizes awarded her almost wholly for feathers and markings, 
 the judges seldom or never deeming it important tb know whether she 
 was capable of laying at all or not. 
 
 The writer was amazed to find this state of things when, some 
 years ago, he turned his attention from managing woolen-mill interests 
 to trying to manage a poultry-yard. But, in spite of the fact that he 
 
120 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HEN 
 
 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 
 building up a flock that averaged annually considerably over 200 eggs 
 per hen. 
 
 Cut 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 eind 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 
 objection^ and criticisms, which will occur to many readers, had to be 
 answered or met by actual practical experiences. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 121 
 
 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 a loss 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. 
 
 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, I was not long in finding 
 that my great layers were the latter and my barren and nearly barren 
 ones the first meiitioned. 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 
 
122 
 
 -THE CALL OF THE HEN 
 
 Cut No. 3 — Hens of this development are of little or no value as layers. 
 
 
 
 -^ ^l^^^^^^^^^^^l 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1 
 
 i ■ 
 
 
 
 Cut No. 4 — Showing a convenient method of holding fowls when testing them. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 123 
 
 suspicion verified; the indications of large numbers of eggs and ample 
 machinery to go with them, with the wide, pliable pelvic bones; and 
 just the opposite condition with the narrow ones, the very least, or no 
 egg indications whatever, with the bones very close together at the 
 points and unyielding to pressure, hard, thick, and rounded in. This 
 experiment was tried again and again, with different breeds, but never 
 with different results. 
 
 I was satisfied I was on the right trail now, and determined to spare 
 neither time nor money to make sure I was right. For several years 
 following these discoveries I spent much time and money visiting well- 
 knoxvn poultrymen and others, frequently paying as high as $10.00 for 
 best known layers, only to kill them to prove or disprove my conclusions 
 — to photograph the live bird, next her dressed body, then her skeleton. 
 In every instance I found my theory correct. I divided my own flock 
 according to my findings into three flocks, and the very first day's lay 
 proved my theory beyond question, so far as one day could. I then 
 divided other and many flocks; but wherever they -were and whatever 
 breed, without an exception the same result followed. 
 
 Skipping a number of years, I might say right here that in 1904 I 
 divided the flock of Leghorns, Wyandottes, and Plymouth Rocks at 
 the Minnesota Experiment Station at Crookston into three pens: first, 
 the best; second, medium to poor; third, very poor or barren. I was 
 about twenty-five minutes doing this in the presence of C. S. Greene, 
 at that time the manager, whom nearly all the leading poultrymen knew, 
 and Mr. T. A. Hoverstad, then superintendent , of the station. These 
 gentlemen then had absolutely no faith in the method, not knowing 
 anything about it; but were assured by me that if the barren pen laid 
 an egg or either of the others failed to perform as I indicated, they were 
 at liberty to publish the method and me to the world as a fraud. The 
 first day showed pen No. 1, 45 eggs; pen No. 2, 20 eggs; pen No. 3, 
 no eggs, and this continued, with slight variations, the entire period of 
 the experiment, which lasted for weeks; though not a single egg appeared 
 in the barren pen. The per cent of eggs to the 100 hens for the entire 
 time was: First pen, 60 per cent per day; second pen, 37 per cent: 
 third pen, nothing. But for lack of room J might give many more experi- 
 ments and tests fully as startling as the above. 
 
 But to go on : Within a few years after selecting my first layers 
 in this way, I had a flock the larger part of which was laying 200 eggs 
 and above per year, individual layers greatly exceeding this. 
 
 Then came another discovery, fully as important as the first. I 
 noticed that, though I hatched all my pullets from the best layers' eggs, 
 some of them were exceedingly poor layers; now and then one of them 
 barren. I studied upon this for a long time, spent more money, and 
 killed many more birds. Then with another idea, which as suddenly 
 as the first dawned upon me, I made for the slaughter-house once more. 
 I soon had a row of forty or so dressed male birds this time laid out 
 before me ; and then at a glance I saw my long-sought solution. There 
 was the same great difference in the pelvic formation found in the hens. 
 I examined my roosters to find that half of them were absolutely worth- 
 less. Why do I say that the rooster "is MORE than half the flock?" 
 Because later I found, as many know, that the female offspring take 
 largely after the father and the male offspring after the mother. It is 
 so with all animals, and almost always so in the human family. Had 
 
124 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 I used males of my own raising, I should have done better, but I had 
 not. By the way, I found two high-priced and "high-scoring" birds 
 used at the Crookston Station in 1904 absolutely without value, and Mr. 
 Greene now agrees with me fully that they were, although he was at 
 the time quite indignant when I pronounced his costly beauties worthless. 
 
 I may say here that, while I found one very good exhibition bird in 
 this experiment station flock that was wholly worthless as a layer, I am 
 pleased indeed to be able to state that one bird which had taken several 
 prizes for markings, etc., I found to be a priceless layer. I never saw 
 but one bird that came anywhere near being that hen's equal. I found 
 one, however, with very poor markings that outranked any hen biit her. 
 
 From this time on breeding hastened matters fully as much as selec- 
 tion, and I soon had — or rather, to be accurate, at the end of six years 
 from my first start I had a FLOCK AVERAGING CLOSE AROUND 
 250 EGGS EACH PER YEAR; A FLOCK PAYING ME MORE 
 THAN DOUBLE THE PROFIT MY FIRST FLOCK COULD. Dur- 
 ing the last few years of this period I again and again, for experimental 
 purposes, mated excellent hens with narrow-pelvic-boned males, and every 
 time a crop of pullets that varied greatly in egg-yield was the result. 
 Again and again I bred wide-pelvic-boned males with narrow-boned 
 females with the same results. But wide-pelvic-boned males with hens 
 of the same formation (with the exception now and then at far-apart 
 intervals, a freak) brought excellent layers. Occasionally a male bird 
 failed to transmit well, but this I afterwards found was only when it 
 was wholly lacking in masculine qualities, as denoted by the width and 
 depth of head and back of neck, with other indications common to mas- 
 culinity in all other animuls. From this time I began mating wide- 
 pelvic-boned males with my widest hens and a marked increase in the 
 number of great layers was evident — in fact, the third year it was the 
 great exception to find anything but first-class layers among the pullets. 
 
 Its Advantages. 
 
 The advantages of this method for one owning even a small flock 
 of birds are so apparent that space need not be given to discuss it. To 
 one having a large flock it means, must mean, a small fortune, in addi- 
 tional profit, with no more labor or investment; to those engaged in 
 selling eggs for hatching it is bound to mean everything in the near 
 future. It would be simply suicidal for a farmer, or anyone depending 
 upon the eggs of his flock for the profit, to be so unbusinesslike as to buy 
 eggs for hatching from untested flocks. We do not believe it would 
 be possible to find one who would do so, after knowing from experiment 
 stations and otherwise that the method is unfailing. 
 
 Some of the advantages over trap-nesting have been stated; per- 
 haps the strongest being that we cannot trap-nest roosters. In ad- 
 dition, I might call attention to the fact that trap-nesting a single bird 
 must extend over the entire year to be at all accurate, and would take 
 many times the amount of time it would require — by this method — 
 to settle the laying possibilities of >a thousand pullets. A little more 
 time would settle the laying powers of a large mixed flock at mixed 
 laying seasons, which might require two or at least three examinations 
 a week or ten days apart. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 125 
 
 Again, a worthless pullet can be found when she is from five to six 
 months old and fattened and sold without having to keep her a full year 
 in order to do it safely. Besides, handling hens almost always tends 
 to disturb and discourage laying. Trap-nesting will, if persistently 
 followed the entire year, give nearly the exact individual record, which 
 is not material to one egg man in a thousand. It cannot be exact, 
 however, as a shut-jn and otherwise disturbed hen never does her best. 
 
 This method applies to other birds as well — turkeys, for instance. 
 Last fall I bought two turkeys for experiment; one was SMALL, with 
 LARGE egg-development; the other LARGE with SMALL egg-de- 
 velopment. The small bird has laid and hatched out two litters of four- 
 teen each the present season, and has at this date laid twenty- three 
 eggs toward a third litter. The large one laid and hatched fourteen 
 eggs early in the season, and has shown no signs of laying since, but 
 has taken on much more flesh than the laying turkey. This would, in 
 addition to indicating laying turkeys, also show what to breed if large 
 birds only are desired — as would nearly always be the case with turkeys. 
 
 The absolute surety of never killing a bird for market or home 
 consumption that is laying, about to begin laying, or is liable to lay in 
 tbejiear future, is another decided advantage over the trap-nest, and 
 one of the quickest available advantages of the system. 
 
 Again, the process requires no investment in patent nests, leg- 
 bands, or other fixings, which amount, in trap-nesting, to many times 
 the first and only cost of this method. For accuracy in all the ad- 
 vantages claimed for this method, we will most gladly submit to a test 
 with the greatest expert trap-nester that can be selected, if it can be so 
 arranged that some high authority in poultry matters or some Govern- 
 ment Experiment Station shall have charge of it. This unconditional 
 offer we make to the world. 
 
 How TO Select. 
 
 As a basic principle of this method of identifying capacity for egg- 
 production is the width and relative condition of the pelvic bones and 
 surrounding construction, it is obvious that exact measurements cannot 
 be given, unless a distinct breed be designated. A Cochin lays a large 
 egg, and is built accordingly; a Bantam lays a small egg, and its pelvic 
 development in inches is correspondingly smaller. It would be manifestly 
 misleading to apply the same measurements to the two birds. 
 
 While the ability to make this allowance will come to the operator 
 quickly — almost intuitively after a very short experience — I have 
 thought best to confine all my descriptions and measurements here to 
 one breed of fowls only, the Leghorns, these being a medium-sized, 
 representative bird, well scattered over the entire country. It will be 
 easy from the measurements to work up or down, as the birds on hand 
 may be larger or smaller. It is all a matter of comparison, and, all things 
 being equal, the bird with the widest and most pliable pelvic bones will 
 be the greatest layer, while the one with very narrow contracted pelvic 
 formation will lay little, if at all. Behind the pelvic bones lies the egg 
 machinery, and it will be found more abundant and roomy the wider 
 the bones. 
 
126 the call of the hen. 
 
 Selecting Pullets. 
 (Leghorns.) 
 
 Perhaps the best time to select layers for a flock is when the pullets 
 are from four to six months old.- If all are in a uniformly thrifty con- 
 dition at this time, it is next to impossible to make a mistake. The 
 best pullets at that age should show a width of about 2 inches, while the 
 best matured laying hens should show a development t)f about 2^/8 
 inches. (See cut No. 1.) 
 
 Pullets of Plymouth Rocks and their class should be selected about 
 a month later and then show slightly larger, about ^1% inches. The 
 best Asiatic pullet, about 2J^ inches at seven or eight months old; 
 the Leghorns being earlier maturers. At the end of six years of careful 
 selecting and breeding I found my Leghorn pullets quite as wide and well 
 matured at four months as my first ones were at five months. 
 
 Second-class Leghorn pullets from five to seven months old will 
 show a development of about iVs inches. (See cut No. 2.) 
 
 At six months old all Leghorn pullets showing only 1 inch or less 
 pelvic development should be discarded, regardless of feather or comb. 
 They will never make layers. (See cut No. 3.) 
 
 All things being equal, the earlier a pullet begins to lay the better 
 and longer will she lay. 
 
 Selecting Mature Layers. 
 
 The next best time to ascertain a hen's laying qualities is when 
 the whole flock is in the flush of laying — in other words, when about 
 all are at work. Those found then to measure about 2^/8 inches are 
 extremely good layers. Some flocks have very few of these priceless 
 birds in them, while others have good numbers. From this class of 
 layers, and above that measurement, and from these only, should eggs 
 be saved for hatching. 
 
 Occasionally hens are found measuring as high as 2^ inches; 
 these hens, with the best of care, will lay as high as 280 eggs per year; 
 those measuring about 2'/8 inches may be depended upon to go as high 
 as 250. The fact that this kind of hen can be found is ample proof 
 that with proper selection they can be bred in large numbers. 
 
 Hens found at this time measuring from I'/s to 2 inches are real 
 good layers, and should not be discarded, if one wishes to build up a 
 large flock, but they should not be bred from hens in the flush of laying 
 measuring only IM to V/i inches are poor, and those showing from 
 an inch down should be discarded, regardless of shape or color. 
 
 A large enough flock of the first mentioned hens would make any 
 poor man rich ; the second kind would keep themselves and their owners 
 going; while many of the last-named class would make a rich man poor. 
 
 Poor layers, kept well and fed a large variety of scraps and other 
 foods, will sometimes make pretty fair egg records for a short time, 
 and birds of the best quality, under exceptionally hard conditions, will 
 make poor records. There are also occasional freaks in both extremes 
 of measurements, but they are so infrequent as not to be at all important. 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 127 
 
 Approximately 280-egg hens that measure as high as 2V8 inches in the 
 flush of laying will show about '/§ to H inch less when not laying and 
 this shrinkage in measurement will apply to all other grades in about 
 this proportion. 
 
 Selecting for Fall Marketing, 
 
 We do not like to kill birds about to begin laying, that are laying, 
 or really good ones that are just through laying, particularly when there 
 are plenty in the flock that do not come under any of these heads. 
 
 In this alone the cost of this method, when once well understood, 
 can be saved several times in a single season with a good-sized flock of 
 birds. 
 
 While the exceptionally heavy layers can be told readily and at 
 almost any time, laying or not, and an absolutely worthless bird can 
 be told the same way, there is a time, just when the real good layer is 
 resting and the common to poor layer is doing her best, when they come 
 — for a short time only — close together in pelvic appearance. 
 
 While it is not safe to kill a bird that measures l^/g inches or over, 
 it is possible for a very fair layer to not be much wider than that at the 
 close of laying out her litter. Some good layers, that in the flush of 
 laying will measure 1^ to 2 inches, at the close of their laying period 
 will sometimes close up to about IVs inches. A very poor layer in the 
 flush of her laying time might be IJ4 to I'/s inches, so care must be taken 
 at this period not to confound the two conditions, which do not exist 
 at any other time. This is referred to in the Introduction. To wholly pre- 
 vent this — when it is desired to save every at all good layer — it is well 
 to make two or possibly three examinations, a week or so apart. In 
 this way there will be no danger of confounding the one about to begin 
 laying with the one about to quit, and the poor layer can be told from 
 the good one. 
 
 When killing a whole flock at two or three years old, as many do, 
 no hen measuring I'/g inches and under is worth keeping; particularly 
 is this true if the birds have been well fed and stimulated to about their 
 full capacity. No hen of any value for egg-production will have an 
 egg in her at this time and measure so small unless she is a slow, in- 
 frequent layer at her best. Sometimes this kind of a hen with the very 
 small measurements will be found laying an occasional egg late in the 
 season. 
 
 Selecting Roosters. 
 
 We have said how important it is to have males of tlie right for- 
 mation to mate with the great layers for breeding purposes; we need 
 not emphasize this; it is so evident that we cannot trap-nest a rooster, 
 and equally so that years of trap-nesting hens can be ruinously upset 
 in a day by crossing with an inferior male, that it would reflect upon 
 our estimation of the reader's intelligence to say more about it. 
 
 I have found Leghorn roosters that measured 1% inches, but they 
 are rare and priceless. A good matured bird should measure I'/g inches 
 and a pretty fair one 1 inch. I would not use one that measured less, 
 if I could possibly help it. Many fine-looking birds measure only J^ 
 inch, but such ones will ruin the offspring of the best layers and should 
 be discarded, whatever their qualities in feather, tip of comb, or any- 
 thing else. 
 
128 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 Now and then the objection reaches us that the high-type roosters 
 referred to cannot be found. I have found them, as others have, and 
 I believe there are nearly or quite as many in proportion as there are 
 of the 250 and above hens; but we do not save all the roosters as we 
 do all the pullets, and they are correspondingly scarce among mature 
 males. By selecting always from large numbers of males before they 
 are killed off this objection will be largely and quickly overcome. 
 
 The fact that males of this class can be selected is of itself a dis- 
 covery sufficient to revolutionize the whole poultry business without 
 the examination of a single hen — were time enough taken; but the two 
 together bring absolute and immediate results. 
 
 In the hands of a slightly experienced or an at all competent person 
 the element of chance is entirely removed by this method of selecting 
 layers and males; and one is just as sure of the results sought as that 
 a hen will die if her head is cut off. 
 
 We ask but one thing: that judgment be withheld till method 
 be tried. If the tests are fairly conducted, there can be no failure. 
 
 Crude infringements and imitations of this discovery and System 
 — as of everything else of value that has cost years of investigating and 
 experimenting — are liable to spring up, biit the safety and economy of 
 going direct to the fountain-head need scarcely be suggested. 
 
 Dated November 20, 1904. 
 
 Proper Time to Cull Layers and Breeders. 
 
 As far as vitality is concerned, a practical poultryman shofltd cull 
 his chickens from the time they are hatched until they are sold'^8r dis- 
 carded. Continually eliminate sick and diseased birds and thoSe' show- 
 ing weakness of any nature whenever you see evidences of same. * 
 
 As far as culling for egg production is concerned, the best months 
 in which to do this are from June until December 1st. In the warm 
 climates culling should begin in April and May. Other conditions being 
 equal, culling should continue throughout the summer. This will enable 
 you to eliminate your unprofitable birds and greatly reduce your feed bills. 
 
 LESSON 10. 
 
 On Selection and Breeding for Egg-Production. 
 
 .1. What four things influence egg production or largely deter- 
 mines the number of eggs a hen will lay? 
 
 2. What is "capacity," and how is it measured or determined? 
 
 3. What outside factors or environments are largely responsible 
 for the "condition" of any hen? 
 
 4. How does the breast of the hen appear when she is in good 
 "condition?" 
 
 5. The first joint of the forefinger is divided into how many parts 
 for the purpose of determining "condition," or represents how many 
 fingers out of "condition?" 
 
 6. If a hen has a one-finger abdomen or "capacity" and is three 
 fingers out of "condition," about how many fingers abdomen of "capac- 
 ity" would she have if the same hen was in "condition?" or, in other 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 129 
 
 words, each finger out of "condition" means how many more fingers 
 "capacity" or depth of abdomen if the same hen was in normal "con- 
 dition?" 
 
 7. What is meant by "egg-type?" by "dual-purpose type?" by 
 "beef-type?" How do you determine each of the three types? 
 
 8. Do we find all three "types" in all varieties of poultry or are 
 each of these "types" confined to certain varieties or breeds of poultry? 
 
 9. A hen in good condition, with a two-finger abdomen or "ca- 
 pacity" and 3^-inch pelvic bone, should lay about how many eggs during 
 her first year? 
 
 10. A hen in good condition, with a five-finger abdomen or "ca- 
 pacity" and a 1-16-inch pelvic bone, should lay about how many eggs 
 the first year? 
 
 LESSON 11. 
 
 Selection and Breeding for Egg-Production. 
 
 1. Should we breed from poultry with straight or crooked pelvic 
 bones? Why? 
 
 2. What does it indicate, in judging males or females for "pre- 
 potency," as described in this method, if the thumb is 1-8 of an inch 
 ahead of the forefinger? If the thumb is J^ of an inch behind the fore- 
 finger? 
 
 3. Which of the two would make the best breeder in transmitting 
 its good qualities to its offspring? 
 
 4. Some poultrymen mate females with a record of 150 eggs 
 each to males of the 150-egg type of males bred from hens with equally 
 good records, and the offspring from such matings often lay only 100 
 or 125 eggs on the average. In your opinion, what causes this decrease 
 in the number of eggs? 
 
 5. Other things being equal, would you prefer to breed from a male 
 bred from a high-laying hen, or from one bred from a medium layer? 
 Why? 
 
 6. What is meant by "stamina" and "vigor" in poultry? 
 
 7. Which has the most to do with determining the number of eggs 
 a hen will lay — the breeding, the feeding or the housing? Why? 
 
 8. What difference would there be in the probable number 
 of eggs laid by a hen with lots of "capacity," a six finger abdomen, with 
 a thick pelvic bone, 1 inch in thickness, and a hen with but little "ca- 
 pacity," a two-finger abdomen, with a rather thin pelvic bone, 5-16 
 of an inch in thickness, both hens being in good condition. 
 
 9. What, if anything, has the width or the distance between 
 the pelvic bones themselves got to do with egg production? 
 
 10. Do we feed hens for the purpose of feeding eggs into their 
 bodies, or do we feed them to develop the eggs which selection and breed- 
 ing or nature has placed within the hen? 
 
130 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 
 
 THE PASSING OF WALTER HOGAN. 
 
 A Tribute To An Earnest Man and the Work He Did in Behalf of the Poultry Industry. 
 
 By T. E. Quisenberry. 
 
 In the death of Walter Hogan, the poultry world, in my opinion, has lost one 
 of its greatest benefactors. He was the author of the book "The Call of the Hen," 
 which gives a method of distinguishing the good layers from the poor ones by the ex- 
 amination of external characteristics. Mr. Hogan's book has been a great seller and 
 has made him known wherever poultry is kept. 
 
 Unfortunately, Mr. Hogan had been in poor health for a good many years. Dur- 
 ing the year I had charge of the poultry department at the Panama-Pacific Exf)Osition 
 at San Francisco, scarcely a week passed that I did not come in contact with Mr. Hogan, 
 either at his farm or in my office, and I feel that I knew him as well perhaps as any 
 other poultry breeder. He died at his home in Petaluma February 4, 1921, leaving 
 a wife and several grown children. The latter will carry on his work under the title "The 
 Walter Hogan Company." His family has the sympathy and best wishes of the entire 
 poultry world. They are thoroughly conversant with his work for they have had to 
 care for it for several years because of Mr. Hogan's failing health. 
 
 While I was director of the Missouri State Poultry Experiment Station, Mr. Hogan 
 sent me a typewritten copy of his first circular revealing his method of selecting hens 
 for egg production. Little attention was paid to his circular because we felt that there 
 was nothing to it and that he probably was a "crank" on the subject, but Mr. Hogan 
 was persistent in writing personal letters and finally asked me if I would trap-nest a pen 
 of hens which he would test by his method and send to me. Finally he sent me a good 
 male and a poor one to breed from and a good pen and a poor pen to trap-nest and asked 
 me to compare their records with other birds which I had under test. This was 
 done and the results proved to be about what he had predicted, which caused me to be- 
 come interested in his method. That year we had about 1,000 hens in the Egg Laying 
 Contest and before each hen was cooped and returned to her owner, she was tested 
 according to the Hogan method and a comparison made with her trap-nest record. 
 We found that they tallied with Mr. Hogan's system in practically every case. 
 
 About that time I established the American Poultry School and Mr. Hogan re- 
 quested that we publish his book on selection and breeding for egg production, sub- 
 mitting a copy of his book the "Call of the Hen," of which a limited number had been 
 printed. It was poorly bound, poorly printed and poorly illustrated, but confident 
 that it contained worth while facts, I made a contract with Mr. Hogan to revise and 
 improve his book and to advertise and push the sale of it, which I have done from 
 that date. Thousands of copies of this book have gone to all parts of the world. Mr. 
 Hogan authorized us to sell each copy with a "money back" guarantee. Of the thou- 
 sands which have been sold, not one copy has ever been returned. 
 
 The world often hesitates to give credit where credit is due but, in my opinion, 
 no one man has done as much to aid the poultrymen of the world in culling out their 
 drones and nonproducing hens as Walter Hogan. At that time many poultry authori- 
 ties and leading poultrymen made sport of the idea that anything could be told about 
 the productive ability of a hen by her external characteristics, and at the same time 
 anyone who stated he had a hen with a record of more than 200 eggs was regarded with 
 suspicion. A great change has taken place during these seven years and the Hogan 
 method in whole or in part is now in general use. Some new facts are being developed 
 
THE CALL OF THE HEN. 131 
 
 from time to time and no system is perfect, but Mr. Hogan and his book set the poultry 
 world to thinking and to him is due the credit for starting the agitation which has re- 
 sulted in a definite system of culling and selection of layers. 
 
 The value of Mr. Hogan's method lies not in telling to the very egg the number a 
 hen will lay or has laid, but it enables you to tell your good producers from your poor 
 producers, your money makers from your money losers, your layers from your loafers- 
 Undoubtedly the selection and culling that has been done by poultrymen, by government 
 and state authorities during the past few years has saved millions of dollars for the 
 poultry producers of the nation. A thorough study of the methods used and recom- 
 mended will convince the unbiased person that the methods recommended by Mr. 
 Hogan are the basis for practically all other methods of culling. 
 
 Walter Hogan was not a money maker and to him came little return for what he 
 gave to the world. If he felt any bitterness over this fact, he always dismissed the sub- 
 ject with a jest and a smile. He was willing to do what he could for humanity and to 
 wait for his reward. Without making any pretensions to superior goodness, he was a 
 Christian in the true meaning of the word. His book and his system were the pride 
 of his life and I know he would appreciate a tribute paid to his work more than one 
 paid to him personally. He was unassuming and lived a simple life. He has passed 
 from us, but his memory, his methods arid the lesson he has taught will live forever 
 and the poultrymen of the future will be greatly benefited by them. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICE. 
 
 1. Gb into your own poultry yards and handle, test and measure some of your 
 good layers and poor layers from time to time until you become accustomed to the 
 measurements and differences. You will soon be able to apply the test rapidly and 
 accurately. 
 
 2. Make these tests at different seasons and you will see how the birds vary 
 at different times and will learn to make due allowance for same. 
 
 3. After you have culled your flock keep the poor ones in a pen to themselves 
 for a few days. Keep a record of all eggs from the good and bad. If you have 
 done your work properly the eggs laid by the culls will be few in number compared 
 with those laid- by the good females. If this is true you are safe in marketing the 
 culls. 
 
 4. Test your males in the same manner, but remember that the difference is 
 not so great. I would select males with pelvic bones reasonably straight, moder- 
 ately thin and fair capacity and distance between the bones. I would consider color 
 and other desirable points which are wanted in a good breeder. 
 
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