Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/722

 Improving the Imperfect Hen

Ingenious man, after considering the hen, reduces her to a mere egg-laying machine

��IF occasional as- saults upon the jxitcnt office by in- genious, inventive gentlemen from all parts of this coun- Iry are to be taken seriously, Mother Nature made some silly mistakes when she devised and constructed the gallus domeslicits, otherwise known as the barn\ard fowl.

When Nature prf)\-ided the hen with two legs, a head, feathers and a mysterious in- ternal mechanism which disgorges an egg on occasion, she left the poor thing with a woefully ment for living the view of Nature's mightier than the

��By George AVorts

���A hen handle. With it, the fowl may be effectually powdered. The v.'ing-clip clamps the members securely while the germicide is being applied liberally

��incomplete equip- barnyard life. In negligence, brains

hen's now Ijuzz

��through the long da>s, concei\ing api)aratus, mecha- nisms and "de\ic- es" — mostly "de- vices" — for mak- ing the imperfect gallits dotneslicns live a blamelessly chaste and wortl:- while existence.

If the learned opinions of poultry improvers could be combined into a barnyard creed which the hen could study at her leisure, and if it were printed legi- bly and tacked up con s ]) i c u on si y within and wilh- ojt the lien roost, then the hen might raise herself in the estimation of those who consider her imperfect. Why not, indeed? The suggestion is offered freely to the entire iioulirN- uni\erse. \Vli\' not

���An III ]' i! ;i r : ilic rooster's beak will reveal the reason for his apparent peni- tence. Inventive man has muzzled the rooster. The reason being that he (the rooster) occasionally plucked bcakfuls of feathers from the wings of his wives

��The ghost-like figure of a lu-n st-t-u ■ over the hen house mirrors the thoughts and desires of the hen in the foreground. Her wing is clamped to her side by means of a capalile wire clip. She cannot fly; she can only dream of flying

��?«

�� �