Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-10-25
THE HEN VS.. SCIENCE.
How the Barn.Yard May be Cured
Of the Desire to Incubate.
Bill Nye, Laramie Boomerang.

l
Dear reader, did you ever wrestle
with hen that had a wild, uncon-
trolable desire to incubate? Did you
ever struggle on, day after day, try
ing to convince her that her mission
was to furnish eggs for your table,
instead of lowering all day on door
knob, trying to hatch out litter of
front doors
VIM. II. Root. of this place, who
has made the hen a study, both in
her home life and while lying in the
embrace of death, has struck upon an
argument which the average hen will
pay more attention to than any other
he has discovered in his researches.
He says the modern hen ignores al
most everything when she once gets
a notion that she has received call
to incubate. You can deluge her
with the garden hose, or throw UNI
brellas at her, or change her nest,
but that don't count with the firm and
stubborn hen. You can take the eggs
out of the nest and put Hooded
bulldog or nest of new-laid bum
ble-bees il place Of them, and she
| will hover over them as assiduously
as she did before. William H. Roots
hen had shown, some signs Of this
mania, so he took out the eggs and
let her try her incubator on a horse
rake awhile, just so she could taper
off gradually, and not have her mind
shattered. Then he tried her at
Matching out four tined forks, and at
last her taste got so vitiated that she
took the contract to furnish the coun-
try with bustles by Matching out an
old hoopskirt that had gone to seed.
Mr.. Root then made an experiment.
We were one of board of scien-
fists who assisted in the consulta-
ton The owner OF the hen got Il
strip of red flannel and tied it
around her tail. The hen seemed
annoyed as soon as she discovered
it. No hen cares to have sash hung
on her system that doesn't match her
complexion. A seal brown hen with
a red flannel polonaise doesn't seem
to harmonic, and she is aware of it
just as much as any body is. That
hen seemed to have thought Of some
thing all at once that had escaped
her mind before, and so she went
away. She stepped about nine feet
at a lick on the start, and gained
time as she proceeded. When she
bumped her nose against the corner
of the stable she changed her mind
about her direction. She altered
hercourse little, but continued her
rapid style of movement. Her eye
began to look wild. She got so pref
ty soon that she didn't recognize the
faces of friends. She passed Mr..
Root without being able to distinguish
him from total stranger. These
peculiar movements were kept up
during the entire afternoon, till the
hen got so fatigned that she crawled
into a length of old stovepipe, and
| the committee retired to prepare a
report. 1t is the opinion of the press
that this is triumph of genius in
the line of hen culture. 1t is not Sc
we're, though firm, in its treatment,
and while it, of course, annoys and
humans the hen temporarily, it is sa-
lutary in its results, and at the same
time it furnishes pleasant little
matinee for the spectators. We say
to those upon whose hands time hangs
heavily these long days that there is
nothing that soothes the rutfled mind
and fills the soul with a glad thrill of
pleasure like the erratic movements
of a decorated hen. 1t may not be a
high order of enjoyment. but it af-
fords great deal oflaughter to those
who are not very accomplished, and
those who laugh at things and then