The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-08-17
M D N, w o M E N
 A ND T HIN c s

At last there is a bunch of wide awake men in Alabama who are talk Ing the hen seriously, as well she may be, as she is the best little ad- vertiser that ever lived, for when she lays an egg she wants the whole world to know it.
 It Is small wonder. then, that with her push and publicity she has built up over billion-dollar industry in these United States. forcing herself upon the attention of counties, states and even the national governmental self. which is ready to back her ef- forts up in every possible way.
 Not only this, but she has entered the colleges of the land, and houses are being built in her honor, experi- ments are being conducted by ex- perts to catalogue and classify her output, and day and night month by month, yes, year by year, she is be- ing observed from every angle in or der that she may be given chance to do her dead level best in the way of furnishing eggs and meat.
 And she is coming into her own at community, county and state fairs, and many cities are vieing with one
 fA xUhi iob a n give the biggest and best chicken show in the land. It may be far cry from a little exhibit of a few hundred birds in an empty store house in a village to the spacious Madison Square Garden with its thou sands, but there Is the same interest and enthusiasm behind the exhibi- tors.
 Birmingham has the chicken fever, for each year it's local show gets bet ter and better, while the exhibit at the fair gets larger and larger space and draws more people. It may show the way the feathers blow to merely call attention to the fact that the Magic City boasts that at East Lake 1t has the only model chicken farm to be found in any of the parks in the south. And under the charge of my good friend, Miles Bradford. a true chicken fancier 1t Is not only a place of beauty, but provocative of interesting many in the backyard poultry business.
 
 There Is every reason that the hen should get on the front page in Ala bama, since in 1t she finds a natural home and has done we'll almost by herself, and under capable handling is ready to add untold wealth to the state for be it known tkat as little wealth producer in America her out put in dollars and cents is worth more than the minted gold and silver of it's many mines.
 One who has made @ careful study of hens Is my authority for chasing them as conservatives, for conservat- ism is a peculiarity of hen nature and perhaps this may account for the expression, He ain't got any more sense than a chicken" Now, Eddy Is curious, having all of the curiosity attributed to her sex, and approaches any new thing with fear and cSck- ling, but on the whole is an initiative creature.
 And because of this, in conjunction with the fact that a hen has only minimum of reasoning power, almost everything she does being the result of inherited instinct or acquired habit one need not be surprised thd' when she is called upon to face new sit uation, for which as one authority on hen nature says, neither instinct nor habit supplies a precedent, she goes up in an attack of mysteries and her brainstorms become amusing or irri- tating, according to whether you are a mere locker on or responsible for her behavior.
 This is why am studying not only 1 the hen, but the man behind the hen, on my trip through east Tennessee with the Annistonians, for while she may be to some extent q pin headed female, with peculiar habits, fancies, and an alarming fund of obstinacy. yet with kindness and care she can be made to pay big dividends, and l want her to come into her own in Alabama as a wealth producer.