The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1920-04-16

A poultry expert writes the Kan
a City Star warning chicken rails
ers who want to get the best results,
especially in the egg yield, not to
join in the annual swat the rooster
campaign started by the thoughtless
several years ago. Hens, he declares,
do much better when there are roos-
ters around, lay more eggs, and as a
result are more profitable. He bans
the roosterless flock, not only as an
econmoic mistake, but as doing ac-
tual violnece to the natural order and
the dual principle on which it rests.
He intimates wisely, as a nan who
knows his business, that p%ropinquin-
ity prevails in the feathered world
and that there should be enough
ROSTERS to go around, at least to af-
ford some variety and to add spice to
the lives of the hens, which one feath-
cred Solomon cannot provide. Mo-
notony is no better for hens, we gath
err, than it is for other feminine crea-
lures. They tire under it, become
careless, indolent and frowsy, neglect
their personal appearance and quit
work entirely. On the contrary, the
rooster, where there are enough of
him, provides the necessary urge, in
deed we might say inspiration" and
the hens bestir themselves to win
his approval. 1t is with absolute re-
joicing that we greet the announce
ment. 1t not only vindicates the roos-
ter, but the whole male tribe, in dan
ger for several years past of being
relegated to a physiological role alone
IA mere vulgar necessity in the ere
alive scheme and beyond that, save
as to the scratching he does, in the
barnyard, the store and the factory,
entitled to small consideration. To
have him redeemed from this igno-
BILE role and to establish him as at
least a contributing factor in the
"inner life" of the dominant female,
to say that he is at once her star and
her hope, her urge and her inspira-
ton, the very apple of her eye, "of
her very soul a part" to lift him into
reams psychological and remove from
him the garments of humiliation
which he has been compelled to wear
as a mere physical necessity in a nat
ural order, which, to say the least of
it; might have been simpliied, salves
a primordial vanity and is indeed
gratifying To declare that he is far
more than a biological accident, and
that the divine "she," "the Giver of
Life the mysterious one, the pre-
scient, brooding life principle incar-
nate, not only strives for him, preens
and prims for him, smooths her feath-
ers or shortens her skirts to arrest
his changing fancy, but pines for him,
and even neglects her job when the
stimulus OF his presence is lacking,
is an admission beyond all expecta-
ton and gives roosters of every kind
an excuse at least for remaining alive.
With swatting and voting, belief had
become general that the rooster was
about to be dispensed with entirely,
but the discovery that he is a very es-
s%ential, If purely incidental, factor ! n
the life of the hen, will no doubt
serve to check the movement aimed
at his obstruction. It is at least nee
essary TO hen morale that he be
kept around" and inview Of the fact,
the heretofore cryptic reply made by
the little brown hen TO the little red
rooster becomes ineligible. What
she meant to say was that life was
empty and meaningless without him,
a fact not difficult to imagine, but the
very admission Of which is calculated,
be he eve so old and so wise a roost-
er, to make him sharpen his claws
and continue scratching until he drops
in his tracks.-Pari Mercury.