Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-23

I have been much interested in
some statistics just issued by the
United States government on the
subject of the American hen, show
ing what this feathered songstress
has done to give us a superior place
among the nations OF the earth. AS
a rule I do not take readily to hand
picked statistics supplied by the
government, as I have better
method of curing insomnia.
But when the United States gov
eminent comes right out in print
and says that our egg crop is
worth more money than our wheat
crop or our cotton crop or our gold
crop or our beef crop or any other
crop, I, for one, am willing to pay
attention. There IS absolutely not
an industry in the whole nation
that produces as much actual
wealth every year as the meek and
bow-legged hen. Without her and
her great literary masterpiece, viz,
the egg, we would be a poor nation.
but with her we defy the world.
AS a general rule we have been in
clined to make light of the hen and
her humble mission in life, but
when we pause to seriously con-
slider what she is doing to uphold
the supremacy Of the nation and
the grand old flag under which she
marches, I think the reader will
agree that she is worthy tribute
OF praise. Mentally the hen is not
strong. She has low, retreating
forehead and weak face. Her
countenance does not denote any
strength of character or will power
and she has no teeth. She cannot
fly and keep her toes off the ground
or swim in water that comes up
above her ankles. She has rich
soprano voice, but she cannot carry
tune. And yet despite these dis
advantages she has toiled on in her
weak way, laying an egg day after
day on the altar of industrial SUI
premacv or behind the woodshed,
until at last she has become the
greatest power in the land and the
United States government has
signally honored her by erecting a
tall and imposing column OF figures
in her memory.
Coming into the world as one OF a
large family, the hen is early in life
thrown upon her own resources.
Her childhood days are cut short
by the stern necessities of an exact
ing egg market, and she soon enters
upon her chosen profession. She
works along day after day, turning
out eggs in pleasing style Of work
manship until she reaches her teens,
when she is suddenly cut down and
placed on the market as a spring
CulCk0u. OOluOUlIllOO CaO ACh LOOIs
called upon to set Then she retires
from polite society for a brief
season, and day after day she sits
upon her nest and refuses to eat,
drink or be merry. But the incu.
bator has very largely supplanted
the hen in the best circles now. AS
gsetter the incubator is not as
Eighty and irresponsible as the hen.
When the incubator wants to set il
does not wander away from home
and forget to leave it's postoffice
address as the hen does, and then
hover for three weeks in the bosom
of an empty coal scuttle or try to
hatch out a setting Of wire nails fo1
total stranger And speaking OF
the uses of the egg calls to mind a
circumstance I witnessed some
years ago in a small town where
the great dramatic masterpiece en-
titled "Uncle Toms Cabin" was be-
ing produced by troupe of talented
actors and actorines. Also some
talented bloodhounds with red ey es
and talented mule.