UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 277 3flS 
 
 i 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 Book 45 Section 18 
 

 /(Y 
 
INCUBATION I 
 
 *Si 
 
 A 'GUIDE TO 
 
 Profitable Poultry Raising, 
 
 BY 
 
 E. & C. VON CULIN. 
 
 PRICE, ONE DOLLAR. 
 
 DELAWARE CITY, DEL. 
 
 E. & C. YON CULIN. 
 
 1894. 
 Copyright, 1894 by E. & C. Von Culin. 
 
VON CUIylN. 
 

 
 fj 
 
 C. VON CUI^IN. 
 
This book is written to aid and inform beginners 
 who know little or nothing of artificial incubation 
 and brooding ; to assist those who have learned 
 something about it and wish to know more ; and 
 to supply a handy reference for those who know it 
 all. 
 
 As originally written, it would have made a 
 volume three times as large as the present one, but 
 the people of to-day want everything boiled down, 
 concentrated, concise, convenient. A tiiple ex- 
 tract contains all the perfume and vital qualities of 
 three times its bulk of plain tincture ; so we have 
 rewritten it, carefully eliminating all superfluous 
 matter, and placing the gist of it before our readers 
 in a compact form, convenient for the desk and 
 not too cumbersome for a good-sized pocket. In- 
 stead of using a thick, porous paper, which would 
 increase the bulk fourfold, we have chosen a heavy, 
 superior plate paper and new type, believing that 
 our readers would prefer elegance to unnecessary 
 bulk. 
 
INCUBATION IN EGYPT. 
 
 Artificial incubation is almost as "old as the 
 hills." It was known and practised in ancient 
 Egypt, and is to-day an important industry of that 
 interesting country. 
 
 While no monumental picture of an incubator 
 has been discovered, the authorities are a unit in 
 the belief that the Egyptian hatching houses of the 
 present time are substantially the same as those of 
 prehistoric Egypt. 
 
 Diodorus of Sicily speaks of it as an art that had 
 been in use a long period before his time. Pliny 
 says nearly the same. The Roman Emperor 
 Hadrian found it generally practised in Egypt, and 
 makes special mention of it in his description of 
 the usages and customs of that country. 
 
 A French missionary, who traveled in Egypt in 
 1737, says: "I found there were about four 
 hundred chicken- ovens, each one furnishing about 
 two hundred and forty thousand fowls, making 
 about one hundred millions produced each year 
 5 
 
from this source alone. In selling them, they do 
 not count them, but measure them by the bushel, 
 like grain. Though there are always some 
 smothered, this process saves the trouble of sep- 
 arating them according to quality and size. In 
 attempting to ascertain the origin of this practice 
 of artificial incubation and to explain its success, 
 two facts should be noticed ; first, that it was 
 exceedingly useful to multiply the amount of food 
 as healthy as that furnished by the flesh of birds ; 
 and second, without some such process fowls of all 
 kinds would have become very scarce, for the 
 reason that the heat is so great in the laying season 
 that the pullets abandon their eggs for the society 
 of the cocks. Finally, geese, ducks and other fowls 
 are also multiplied by incubation." 
 
 The Egyptians of to-day are extensive raisers of 
 all kinds of poultry, and as hens do not sit well in 
 that or any other hot country, most of the birds 
 are hatched in artificial hatcheries or incubating 
 houses, which, on account of their necessarily large 
 size and consequent expense of building and man- 
 agement, are not built upon the farms of the 
 poultry raisers, but are owned principally by 
 Copts, who make a business of hatching for the 
 farmers and villagers on shares or for a stated 
 price, the eggs being carried to them by the poultry 
 keepers, who receive the birds, or their share of 
 them, when hatched and ready to remove. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that they cling to their 
 primitive style of incubation, the Egyptians are 
 among the most successful in artificial hatching, 
 6 
 
and it is worth while to note that they use no hot 
 water tanks in their hatching rooms. Hot air 
 suits them better because it is easier to control 
 than hot water, and more economical important 
 items in a hot country and where fuel is high. 
 
 Though slow to adopt improvements, it is proba- 
 ble that they will ultimately make use of the porta- 
 ble incubators which require no night attendant, 
 and with which each farmer may do his own hatch- 
 ing at home. More than ten years ago a French 
 company in Egypt were using portable incubators 
 in hatching ostriches at their ostrich park at 
 Matareeyeh, which lies ten kilometres northwest of 
 Cairo and one kilometre south of the ruins of Helio- 
 polis, not very far from the old railroad which runs 
 direct from Cairo to Suez. 
 
EGYPTIAN INCUBATING HOUSE. 
 
 The ' ' mahmal " or incubating house is built of 
 sun-dried bricks and contains from eight to twenty- 
 four ovens. On each side of a passage is a row of 
 ovens and fire-places. The ordinary size of 
 the ovens is 10 feet long, 8 feet wide and 6 
 feet high. The fire-places are above the ovens, 
 and are the same length and width as the ovens, 
 but not so high. There are doorways to each 
 oven, large enough for a man to enter, and a small 
 opening between the ovens and the fire-places. 
 Besides this there is an opening connecting all the 
 fire-places. The latter have places for the smoke 
 to escape, and there are also chimney holes in 
 the roof of the passage but they are seldom 
 opened. The eggs are placed in the ovens upon 
 mats or in chopped straw, in tiers one above the 
 other, usually hot more than three high. The 
 8 
 
fuel used is " gellah," made of the dung of ani- 
 mals mixed with chopped straw and moistened to 
 form flat, round cakes, which are sun-dried before 
 they are used. Only half of the number of ovens 
 are used the first ten days, and the fires are 
 lighted upon the fire-places above them only. On 
 the eleventh day these fires are extinguished and 
 other fires are lighted on the remaining unused 
 fireplaces. Then some of the eggs are removed 
 from the first set of ovens to the fire-places above, 
 which are, of course, still heated, though the fire 
 has been removed. When the first eggs are 
 hatched and the second half hatched, fresh eggs 
 are placed in the position made vacant by those 
 first hatched. This rotation continues- until the 
 hatching season is over. The chicks are kept in a 
 warm room for two days and then delivered to the 
 various parties for whom they are hatched. 
 
 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his " Popular Ac- 
 count of the Ancient Egyptians, 1854," describes 
 the ovens and the process as follows: "The 
 modern process, like that of ancient times, is this : 
 they have ovens expressly built for the purpose ; 
 and persons are sent round to the villages to col- 
 lect the eggs from the peasants, which, being given 
 to the rearers, are all placed on mats, strewn .with 
 bran, in a room about 1 1 feet square, with a flat roof 
 and about 4 feet high, over which is another cham- 
 ber of the same size, with a vaulted roof and about 
 9 feet high ; a small aperture in the centre of the 
 vault (at /), admitting light during the warm 
 weather, and another (e) of larger diameter, 
 
immediately below, communicating with the oven 
 through its ceiling. By this also the man 
 descends to observe the eggs ; but in the cold 
 season both are closed, and a lamp is kept 
 burning within ; another entrance at the front 
 part of the oven, or lower room, being then 
 used for the same purpose and shut immedi- 
 ately on his quitting it. By way of distinction I 
 call the vaulted (A) the upper room and the lower 
 one (B), the oven. In the former are two fires in 
 the troughs a b, and c d, which, based with earthen 
 slabs, three-quarters of an inch thick, reach from 
 one side to the other against the front and back 
 walls. These fires are lighted twice a day ; the 
 first dies away about midday, and the second, 
 lighted at 3 P.M., lasts until 8 o'clock. In the 
 oven the eggs are placed on mats strewn with 
 bran, in two lines corresponding to, and immedi- 
 ately below, the fires a b, and c d, where they re- 
 main half a day. They are then removed to a c, 
 and b d ; and others (from two heaps in centre), 
 are arranged at a b, and c d, in their stead, and so 
 on till all have taken their equal share of the warm- 
 est positions, to which each set returns again and 
 again, in regular succession, till the expiration of 
 six days. 
 
 11 They are then held up, one by one, towards a 
 strong light ; and if the eggs appear clear, and of 
 an uniform color, it is evident they have not suc- 
 ceeded ; but if they show an opaque substance 
 within, or the appearance of different shades, the 
 chickens are already formed, and they are returned 
 10 
 
to the oven for four more days, their positions 
 being changed as before. At the expiration of the 
 four days they are removed to another oven, over 
 which, however, there are no fires. Here they lie 
 for five days in one heap, the aperture (<?,/) and 
 the door (g} being closed with tow to exclude the 
 air ; after which they are placed separately about 
 one or two inches apart, over the whole surface of 
 the mats, which are sprinkled with a little bran. 
 They are at this time continually turned and 
 shifted from one part of the mats to another, dur- 
 ing six or seven days, all air being carefully ex- 
 cluded, and are constantly examined by one of the 
 rearers, who applies each singly to his upper eye- 
 lid. Those which are cold prove the chicken to 
 be dead, but warmth greater than the human skin 
 is the favorable sign of their success. 
 
 " At length the chicken, breaking its egg, gradu- 
 ally comes forth ; and it is not a little curious to 
 see some half exposed and half covered by the 
 shell ; while they chirp in their confinement, 
 which they show the greatest eagerness to quit. 
 
 "The total number of days is generally twenty- 
 one, but some eggs with a thin shell remain only 
 eighteen. The average of those that succeed is 
 two- thirds, which are returned by the rearers to 
 the proprietors, who restore to the peasants one- 
 half of the chickens ; the other being kept as pay- 
 ment for their expenses. 
 
 " The size of the building depends, of course, on 
 the means or speculation of the proprietors ; but 
 the general plan is usually the same ; being a series 
 ii 
 
of eight or ten ovens and upper rooms, on either 
 side of a passage about 100 feet by 15, and 12 
 in height. The thermometer in any part is not 
 less than 86 or 88 Fahr. ; but the average heat 
 in the ovens does not reach the temperature of 
 fowls, which is 104. 
 
 " Excessive cold or heat are equally prejudicial 
 to this process ; and the only season of the year at 
 which they succeed is from the i5th of Imsheer 
 (23d of February) to the I5th of Baramoodeh (24th 
 of April), beyond which time they can scarcely 
 reckon upon more than two or three in a 
 hundred." 
 
Fig. i, plan of hatching house, A A A A, plan 
 of the upper rooms or fireplaces ; F, passage 
 between ovens ; g g g g, doors ; e e e e, opening 
 between ovens and fireplaces ; G G, rooms for 
 attendants, fuel, etc. Fig. 2, section of hatching 
 house; A, upper rooms or fireplaces; B, lower 
 rooms or egg ovens. Fig. 3, plan of upper rooms 
 or fireplaces ; fire placed at a, b, c, d. Fig. 4, 
 lower rooms or ovens, showing eggs in place. 
 Figs. 5 and 6, sections from back and front of 
 upper and lower rooms. 
 
A GOOD INCUBATOR. 
 
 To succeed in raising poultry, either for broilers 
 or for egg production, it is necessary to have a good 
 incubator. A tolerably good or ordinary one will 
 not do ; you should have the very best you can 
 find, regardless of cost, because the first cost cuts 
 a very small figure when compared with the losses 
 which always follow the purchase of a "Cheap 
 John " incubator (?). Of course, you know there 
 are various kinds of cheap affairs misnamed incu- 
 bators. 
 
 The great demand for incubators and brooders 
 has tempted sash manufacturers, makers of show 
 cases and others, to get out various boxes, cases, 
 tanks and barrels, with various attachments, and 
 call them incubators or hatchers. Some buy a lot 
 of almost expired patents, and boom the new 
 machine on the reputation of the old one, to which 
 the patents originally applied, while the new ma- 
 chine possesses none of the good points of the old 
 one, which to build would cost considerably more 
 than the new one is sold for. 
 
 Many of this class never had any merit, and went 
 out of the market, but new ones bob up along the 
 line, have their day of deceit and disappear. Watch 
 for them. 
 
 The wonderful improvements in mechanism in 
 the last few years have made it possible to procure 
 a first-class machine in almost any line, and incu- 
 bators and brooders have moved in the front rank 
 of progress. There is no difficulty in getting a 
 14 
 
good incubator, provided you are careful to avoid 
 bad ones and are willing to pay a fair price for the 
 best. 
 
 Do not be deceived by a similarity in names of 
 incubators or hatchers. It sometimes happens that 
 a sharper, with plenty of cash to advertise and push 
 a business will drive a rattling trade in a good- 
 looking inferior machine for several years, making 
 thousands of sales and hosts of unhappy purchasers. 
 Then, when complaints pile up like blocks of ice in 
 a gorge, and respectable papers begin to question 
 the wisdom of allowing the advertisement to remain, 
 and the business begins to decline, he gets out 
 another cheap trap and gives it another name, 
 similar to that of a first-class hatcher, which has an 
 established reputation. Sharps or sharks of this 
 kind sometimes hatch out a new firm name with 
 the new machine, and the people make a rush for 
 the cheap affair, many of them confusing or con- 
 founding it with the meritorious machine, whose 
 name it approaches as closely as possible, without 
 possessing a single feature, except the name, which 
 could be called even a weak imitation. These 
 tricksters disappoint their customers and injure the 
 reputation of a good machine. Look out for 
 them. 
 
 HOW TO CHOOSE AN INCUBATOR. 
 
 We are not going to tell you which make of 
 incubator to buy ; but we are going to try to show 
 you how the various kinds of incubators are con- 
 15 
 
structed, their several methods of operation, and 
 the good and bad points of each method, with our 
 reasons for calling them good or bad, as the case 
 may be. Having used nearly all the makes now 
 on the market, and many that have gone out of 
 the market, we should be able to do so very fairly. 
 Then we shall leave you to judge for yourself. 
 This you can do intelligently if you will carefully 
 examine each machine, either by actual sight of it, 
 or by the illustrations which their manufacturers 
 send out to inquirers. 
 
 First look at the machine, or a picture of it, read 
 the description which accompanies it, and be sure 
 that you understand how it works. If the prin- 
 ciples are clear to you, then consider whether or 
 not the application of those principles as shown, 
 will produce the results essential to successful incu- 
 bation if, in your opinion, they will accomplish 
 all that the manufacturer claims for his machine. 
 
 If the construction and principle are correct, the 
 maker can have no good reason for failing to show 
 them plainly to his prospective customers. 
 
 When a manufacturer fails to show and explain 
 the interior work and construction of an incubator, 
 you will be pretty safe in your conclusion that 
 either he has nothing good to show, or he has 
 something bad to conceal. These are enlightened 
 days, and the average man or woman readily 
 understands the artist's lines when accompanied by 
 simple explanations. 
 
 Do not be deceived by handsome appearance, 
 big claims, or miraculous testimonials. Beauty is 
 16 
 
no objection, if it is not made a substitute for util- 
 ity. Good testimonials are highly valuable, but 
 look into them write to a few of the persons who 
 give them. 
 
 Do not be deceived by low prices. The best 
 article cannot be made, much less sold, at the price 
 asked for the poor or bad one. A house is a house, 
 yet no one expects to get as good a house for 
 $1,500, as he can build for $3,000. No one will 
 say that one house is just as good as another, 
 regardless of plan, material or cost. 
 
 DON'T MAKE A FAILURE 
 
 For the sake of a few dollars on the start. 
 So many people say, "Well, I will buy a cheap 
 incubator and try the hatching business, and if 
 I succeed with it, I can then buy a better one." 
 This is false economy. It is like buying a poor 
 horse to go a long journey. The horse fails to 
 carry you to your destination, and when he gives 
 out on the way, you must either buy a better horse, 
 or walk. 
 
 Nine out of every ten failures in poultry raising 
 are due to false economy at the start. No farmer 
 who knows anything about harvesting would use a 
 scythe in preference to a modern self binding 
 reaper because the scythe is cheaper. Nor will he 
 buy any but the very best reaper, even if it does 
 cost a little more than some others. It is true 
 economy to have the best and to start right. 
 
 17 
 
THE BEST SIZE INCUBATOR. 
 
 Many beginners are undecided as to what sized 
 incubator to get. If we wanted a capacity of 300 
 eggs would get three incubators of 100 eggs capa- 
 city each ; if 600 capacity, three of 200 eggs each ; 
 if 750, three of 250 each ; if 1200 capacity, three 
 of 400 each ; if 1800 capacity, three of 600 eggs 
 each. This is much better than getting one large 
 incubator for all the eggs. It costs more for the 
 several smaller machines than for one large one for 
 all the eggs, but the advantages are : You can 
 have fresher eggs for each incubator, you can sort 
 the eggs if you have large quantities, and select 
 those with shells of same kind and thickness for 
 each incubator ; you can place duck, turkey or 
 goose eggs in separate machines, or use a different 
 machine for each variety of hens' eggs. You can 
 keep a record of each kind and quality ; you will 
 learn more about the amount of moisture for each 
 class of eggs, and will soon become able to hatch 
 all kinds of eggs equally well. If you make a 
 mistake you will discover it more easily and can 
 rectify it more readily ; the result of a mistake or 
 an accident will not be as expensive, and you will 
 have a better chance to retrieve any loss which you 
 may sustain through accident, carelessness or 
 neglect of rules in hatching, for it would hardly be 
 likely to affect but one machine, and as that one 
 would only contain one-third of your full quota of 
 eggs, you would have the other two-thirds left 
 even if all in one machine were ruined, and you 
 18 
 
would not be apt to repeat the performance (or 
 non-performance) with either of the other two 
 incubators. * 
 
 HOT AIR OR HOT WATER 2 
 
 A question which is sure to confront the beginner 
 (and the old poultryman who determines to use 
 the incubator instead of hens) is : Which is prefer- 
 able, a hot air or hot water incubator? 
 
 No one can answer that question better than 
 yourself, if you will just look into it, and make 
 good use of your natural intelligence. Hear 
 argument on both sides, but examine the evidence, 
 look at the apparatus, there is nothing hidden, 
 mysterious, or complicated about it. The prin- 
 ciples are as simple as addition and subtraction. 
 You do not have to ask a professor of mathematics 
 whether or not two and two make four, or which 
 is the greater number, one or two ? Neither will 
 you have to depend upon any man's advice in this 
 matter, if you have ordinary intelligence and the 
 self confidence which every man must have to 
 succeed in the poultry (or any other) business. 
 
 The reason that so many intelligent persons go 
 wrong in this matter is that they do not stop to 
 think. 
 
 There is so much nonsense written and pub- 
 lished, that the man who will not do his own think- 
 ing and reasoning will almost certainly get bewild- 
 ered. For instance a writer in a prominent poultry 
 
 19 
 
paper recently wrote advocating hot water incu- 
 bators " because hot water heat is moist" and sug- 
 gested that it was the duty of those possessing 
 " knowledge" to give it to the fraternity through 
 the columns of the poultry papers (and the editor 
 published the nonsense without a word of com- 
 ment). 
 
 In another poultry journal an advertiser of a hot 
 water incubator, says : "Hot air is necessarily 
 foul air. Hot water is next to hot blood, the hen's 
 life giver to eggs." 
 
 Did you ever hear such philosophy ? 
 
 We do not need a sage to tell us that " hot 
 water is moist" but we have yet to discover an 
 incubator in which the eggs are placed in the 
 water. Neither do we know of one in which the 
 hot water tank is open to the egg chamber ; nor 
 would a single chick hatch in an incubator with 
 the heater tank so opened. 
 
 Nor have we any knowledge of blood sweating 
 hens. 
 
 The heating tanks of all hot water incubators 
 are both air-tight and water-tight as far as they 
 connect with the egg chamber, and if they never 
 leaked, not a single drop of moisture would ever 
 get into the egg chamber from that source ; and 
 except in those machines having a top opening or 
 tube from the hot water tank, in which a float or 
 other device is used to operate on a regulator lever 
 or valve, by expansion of water in said tank, the 
 water in the tank would never evaporate or grow 
 less, but would suffice for running the machine 
 20 
 
through one or a dozen hatches, except it were 
 necessary (as is frequently the case) to draw off a 
 quantity when overheated and to add cold water 
 to hasten the reduction of temperature. 
 
 But as far as supplying moisture to the eggs 
 not a drop is supplied by the hot water tank. 
 There is no moisture from the hot water ! Now 
 where is the ' ' moist heat ? " 
 
 How do all hot water incubators, as well as all 
 hot air incubators, get their moisture ? 
 
 From open pans above or below the eggs. 
 
 If moisture oozed from the hot water tank there 
 would be no necessity for moisture pans. 
 
 Now let us look at the hot air incubator. It has 
 a heater over the eggs, just as the hot \Vater 
 machine has. You can call it a tank or a reser- 
 voir, and it is perfectly air-tight in relation to the 
 egg chamber. The egg chamber is heated by 
 radiation from the lower surface of this tank or 
 reservoir, and it gives just as much moisture to 
 the eggs as does the heat which radiates from the 
 lower surface of the hot water tank which is 
 none whatever ! Neither can it give any fumes, 
 because neither gas nor water can penetrate the 
 metal radiator which has no opening whatever into 
 the egg chamber. The heat or hot air does not 
 pass from the lamps to the egg chamber any more 
 than it does in the hot water incubator. 
 
 The moisture is supplied from open pans above 
 or below the eggs, just the same as it is in the hot 
 water machine. 
 
 Now in the face of these facts is it not ridicu- 
 
 21 
 
lous, not to say insulting to the intelligence of 
 poultrymen, to assert that the heat from a hot 
 water tank is moist heat. 
 
 We will go farther and say that the best hot 
 water incubators use moisture pans with from four 
 to ten times the area of evaporating surface used 
 in the modern hot air incubator. If the heat from 
 the hot water tank is moist, why use more water 
 in the egg chamber than is used in the hot air 
 machine? 
 
 Now, let us see what logic there is in the asser- 
 tion that "hot air is necessarily foul air," when 
 applied to an incubator. 
 
 The egg chamber of a modern hot air incubator 
 contains atmospheric air which is drawn into it 
 from the room in which the machine stands, 
 through ventilators having no connection whatever 
 with the heat reservoir, and the heat reservoir has 
 no opening whatever into the egg chamber. The 
 bottom of the heat reservoir is sheet metal and 
 forms the top or ceiling of the egg chamber. 
 
 When the lamps are lighted the latent heat in 
 the oil is gradually evolved, and passes up through 
 the fire proof conductors into the reservoir. When 
 a sufficient quantity of this heat or caloric accu- 
 mulates in the reservoir being supplied faster 
 than it can pass out through the draft tubes of the 
 reservoir, which is open to the outer air above it, 
 it begins and continues to radiate from the metal 
 bottom of the reservoir and is diffused throughout 
 the egg chamber. Nothing passes through this 
 metal radiator but the heat ; no air, no gas, no 
 22 
 
odor simply the mysterious agent which chem- 
 istry has named caloric. 
 
 Suppose we fill the heat reservoir with water, 
 coffee, milk or wine, and heat the liquid say, to 
 150, what follows? Why the heat (caloric) 
 radiates from the metal bottom of the reservoir 
 and is diffused through the egg chamber, just as 
 it does when the reservoir contains air, and this 
 radiated caloric or heat mingles with the air in the 
 egg chamber and is absorbed by the eggs until 
 they and the air immediately surrounding them 
 are heated to 102, 103 or 104, according to the 
 desire of the operator. 
 
 The air in the egg chamber thus becomes warm 
 air or "hot air," and if there is good ventilation 
 in the egg chamber, the hot air is not foul air. 
 
 Now, what becomes of the assertion that "hot 
 air is necessarily foul air." 
 
 When it comes to the question of hot water 
 heaters or hot air furnaces for heating houses, an 
 entirely different principle is involved. Although 
 you get no moisture at all from hot water pipes, 
 you get pure heat from them ; but the hot air fur- 
 nace is heated red hot or nearly so, and the current 
 of air which passes over this superheated surface 
 is burned, or loses a greater portion of its oxygen 
 before it enters the room mingled with the heat, 
 and it also has a chance to carry coal gas with 
 it. The hot air of the house furnace passes 
 directly from the furnace into the room. 
 
 Not so with the hot air heater of the incubator, 
 for it will probably be heated to about 150 and 
 23 
 
 \m J J> *b & C& el) fo els els els ejs <J> J3 Js <J* Is ti els ejs els 3s els ej ejj els ejs el els J els c& els els els ejs els els els els 3s to/ 
 
the air which passes up the lamp flues into the 
 heater never comes in contact with the eggs, but 
 keeps passing out the vents and valves of the 
 heater itself. 
 
 The temperature of the water in the hot water 
 tank would be about the same if said tank was 
 the same distance above the eggs. 
 
 It does not require a profound intellect to com- 
 prehend this, and persons who are deceived in the 
 matter owe it to their own carelessness. 
 * If hot air is foul air, why do not some of those 
 wise fellows try cold air in the egg chamber of 
 their incubators? 
 
 The man who spoils his own affairs through 
 ignorance has our sympathy, even if he does not 
 deserve any ; but the man who undertakes to in- 
 struct others in matters which he does not at all 
 comprehend, is almost a rascal. 
 
 The writer of a book for poultry raisers, pub- 
 lished within the last three or four years a man 
 who poses as an expert in artificial hatching, and 
 charges for his advice, says, in explaining his 
 preference for hot water incubators over hot air 
 machines : 
 
 " The reason for this, to our mind, is that the 
 hot water gives more of a moist air, etc." 
 
 We expect to hear of this man writing a book 
 for farmers, advising the use of butterflies and 
 grasshoppers the butterflies to make butter and 
 the grasshoppers to make grass. 
 
 The advantage of the hot water tank in the 
 incubator is, that when the water in the tank is 
 24 
 
heated it takes a long time for it to cool off, and 
 it is thus a protection to the man who is too lazy 
 to fill the lamps, for his eggs are not apt to cool 
 off enough to kill the germs in them. But if he is 
 too lazy to fill the lamps, he is apt to be too tired 
 to go turn them down or add some cold water dur- 
 ing the hot part of the day, and when he goes to 
 look at the machine he finds the temperature 5 or 
 10 too high. How about the advantage then ? 
 If this happens on an extra warm night, or while 
 he is away from home, what becomes of the hatch ? 
 Which do you think most disastrous, underheat or 
 overheat ? We say overheat. 
 
 The advantages of the hot air incubator are, that 
 the heat or hot air can be turned away from and 
 out of the hot air reservoir easily, quickly and 
 automatically, without disturbing the condition of 
 the egg chamber. The entire contents of the reser- 
 voir can be ejected by change of current, and re- 
 placed with cool air in a few minutes ; and by action 
 of the automatic regulator the heat currents are 
 again turned into the reservoir and the temperature 
 raised therein to the desired degree. This is done 
 by the action of a thermostat in the egg chamber, 
 controlling to a certainty and quickly the temper- 
 ature within the heat reservoir. This is an utter 
 impossibility with the hot water tank, so that when 
 it becomes overheated, as is often the case, you 
 must either turn down the lamp and wait for the 
 water in the tank to cool, draw off some of the hot 
 water and ,pour in some cold, open a large venti- 
 lator from the egg chamber and let the heat and 
 25 
 
moisture escape together, open the door and risk 
 chilling the eggs, take out the eggs and sprinkle 
 them with tepid water, or let the eggs cook. In 
 a properly constructed hot air incubator (not one 
 with single wall or thin walls) the heat is easily 
 confined and controlled, being automatically sup- 
 plied or cut off by the regulator, which acts as 
 does the safety valve of a steam boiler. It also 
 consumes less oil than the hot water machine. 
 
 The disadvantages of the hot air incubator are 
 that the kzy man who cannot look at it once in 
 24 hours may let the lamps burn out and the 
 machine cool down. Then, if somebody should 
 deliberately put the lamps out, it would cool off, in 
 the course of time. 
 
 But how about if somebody deliberately (or 
 otherwise) turned up the lamp of the hot water 
 incubator, would it not go to the other extreme ? 
 
 The sage who says water in the heater tank is 
 like the hot blood in the hen, knocks the " moist 
 heat" theory in the head, for a setting hen does 
 not sweat. Neither does a very warm dog. The 
 overheated dog pants, and drops of moisture fall 
 from his tongue ; an overheated hen also pants. 
 
 But there is a time (we almost forgot to mention 
 it) when the water tank gives moisture to the eggs, 
 and that is when it springs a leak, which, in the 
 majority of hot water machines, and especially 
 cheap ones made by contract, is as likely to occur 
 in the middle of a hatch as at the beginning or 
 end or may happen as easily at midnight as at 
 daybreak. If you are on the spot just at the time 
 26 
 
and have another (empty) incubator heated up 
 and ready, you can transfer the eggs to it, and 
 send for a plumber or tinsmith at leisure. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the water tank is that 
 when the lamp does go out unexpectedly, either 
 by reason of neglect to fill or trim, or from the 
 clogging and sticking of the lamp trips used on 
 most hot water machines, and the water gets 
 cooled off, it takes a long time to get it heated 
 again ; whereas, the temperature in the hot air 
 reservoir can be raised from minimum to maximum 
 in oner-fourth the time. 
 
 From the opening of the incubator exhibit at the 
 World's Fair, Chicago, until the day before it 
 closed, we had three hot air incubators there in 
 constant operation, hatching chickens. 
 
 In the hottest weather all the other incubators 
 in operation in the building were obliged to put out 
 their lights at some period of the day, but the 
 lights on our machines were never extinguished, 
 from start to finish of the exhibition, except when 
 the gas fixtures in the building were being repaired 
 or altered by the authorities. A new guard once 
 extinguished the light on a hot water incubator, 
 about six o'clock in the morning, but as the oper- 
 ator arrived soon after, no harm was done. This 
 incident was made the stock of many good-natured 
 jokes on the guard, and the nucleus of several 
 funny newspaper paragraphs. A certain hot water 
 incubator concern (not the one whose light was 
 put out) has made it the subject of a grand fairy 
 tale, in which they make it appear that all the 
 27 
 
incubator lights were put out, that the men who 
 were operating the three hot air machines admitted 
 that their eggs were ruined, but that no injury was 
 done the eggs in their own machine. As the lights 
 on our machines were never put out by a guard, 
 we never had any complaint or admission of the 
 kind to make, nor did we ever hear of any other 
 lights than the one noted being put out by the 
 guard. 
 
 MARKING EGGS. 
 
 The man who is in the poultry raising business 
 for profit, will use every known means to make it 
 a success. By a few marks upon the eggs he 
 makes it possible to know all about each hatch, 
 the causes of success or failure and the direct 
 means by which to improve. 
 
 FIG. 14. 
 
 Fig. 14 shows one side of an egg marked for 
 record. 2 indicates the month (February being 
 the second) in which the egg was set ; 4 the day 
 28 
 
of the month * 25 the day of the month when it is 
 due to hatch ; T indicates that the egg was tested 
 on the 5th or 6th day of incubation, and that it 
 contains a strong live germ, as shown in Fig. i, in 
 article on testing eggs ; L indicates that the egg 
 was tested again on the loth day ; and 4 that the 
 air space is about the same as shown in Fig. 4, in 
 article on testing eggs. A different figure would 
 indicate that the air space on loth day corres- 
 ponded with that shown by a Fig. of corresponding 
 number. 
 
 FIG. 15. 
 
 Fig. 15 shows the opposite side of Fig. 14. A 
 should correspond with the name of the party or 
 yard which furnished the eggs ; S indicates a thick 
 shell. If the letter T were substituted it would 
 indicate a thin shell. 
 
 We have said in another place that the different 
 shells require different treatment to obtain the best 
 results. You will notice that while, as a rule, dark 
 shells are thicker than white ones, you will find 
 some thin shells among the dark ones and some 
 thick shells among the white ones. 
 29 
 
FIG. 16. 
 
 Fig. 1 6 shows a different egg marked on the 
 same plan of Fig. 14. 2-28 indicates that the egg 
 was set on 28ih day of 2d month (February 28th) ; 
 3-20 that it is due to hatch on 2oth day of 3d 
 month (March 2oth) ; D a doubtful or weakly fer- 
 tilized egg when first tested on 5th or 6th day ; W 
 that it has been tested on loth day ; 8 that the air 
 space on loth day corresponds with that shown in 
 Fig 8. 
 
 FIG. 17, 
 30 
 
In placing eggs in the trays elevate the large end 
 as shown in Fig. 17, so that the head of the chick 
 will form in that end. If the head forms in the 
 small end there are nine chances to one that it will 
 never get out of the shell. 
 
 TABLE FOR KEEPING RECORDS. 
 
 The accompanying table will be found very use- 
 ful for recording hatches, and such records will 
 enable the poultryman to discover and explain in- 
 telligently the causes of his successes or failures in 
 hatches ; to anticipate and avoid the poor material, 
 and to classify and properly treat that which he 
 does use. In marking or recording air spaces 
 make it as near as you can, but do not attempt to 
 measure them all. 
 
BECOBD OF HATCHES. 
 
 < Eggs from, 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 c 
 
 D 
 
 M 
 W 
 
 S 
 
 ON 
 
 "ocT 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 '. 
 
 
 Number of eggs, .... 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 4 Variety, 
 
 L 
 50 
 50 
 
 M 
 
 B 
 
 100 
 
 PR 
 
 
 1 Dark esrsrs, 
 
 100 
 
 5 
 95 
 
 100 
 
 r^ 
 
 M 
 
 "vO~ 
 
 p-i 
 
 ~0 
 
 
 
 
 1 Lisht egers 
 
 95 
 
 
 I Thick shell, . . . 
 
 60 
 40 
 ^5 
 
 -I 6 
 
 4 
 90 
 
 ~5 
 
 Tj- 
 " CO 
 M 
 
 ^S~ 
 
 ^ON" 
 
 00~ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j Thin shell, 
 
 5 
 92 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 ' 
 
 J Fertile . . 
 
 90 
 
 i 
 7 
 
 
 Doubtful, 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 Tested out, ...... 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 . 6 
 
 5 
 
 t^ 
 
 vO 
 ID 
 
 "^ 
 CO 
 
 M 
 
 HH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Air space loth I,., . . . 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 ~~8 
 4 
 
 Airspace loth D., . . . 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 ii 
 
 80 
 
 10 
 
 Airspace i6th L,., ... 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 Airspace i6th D., . . . . 
 
 ii 
 
 ~87 
 
 Hatched strong, . 
 
 84 
 
 90 
 
 DAY . 
 
 HYGROMETER , WET BULB 
 
 DRY ' ' 
 SPIRAL 
 
 Hatched weak, . . 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 Died about days, .... 
 
 5 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 2 
 19 
 
 Died about days, .... 
 
 I 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 "89 
 
 10 
 
 Ji. 
 10 
 
 ~8o 
 
 Unfertile, 
 
 13 
 
 
 Per ct hatched F. E., 
 
 85 
 
 90 
 
 * 
 
COOLING THE EGGS. 
 
 Cooling the eggs, or airing them, as it is gen- 
 erally termed, is a very important part of incuba- 
 tion, and careful attention to it will be repaid by an 
 increased percentage and stronger chicks. 
 
 "I do not need to cool the eggs," says some- 
 one, " my incubator has all the ventilation they 
 need." It may have plenty or too much ventila- 
 tion, yet for best results the eggs should be cooled 
 once a day, beginning on the second day and con- 
 tinuing to. the eighteenth, inclusive. 
 
 The hen leaves her nest once a day, if allowed, 
 and in exceptional cases where she does not do so 
 voluntarily, she should be taken off once a day. 
 The hen that leaves and returns regularly to her 
 nest, hatches much better than the one that does 
 not. In moderate weather in the spring the hen 
 does her best hatching. She leaves her nest for a 
 limited time and returns ; the eggs do not get 
 chilled, but are properly cooled. 
 
 In hot weather the hen is often driven from the 
 nest by lice or mites. The eggs get plenty cooling, 
 but do not hatch well. This is partly due to 
 neglect of the hen and to a lack of vitality in the 
 eggs. It cannot be all laid to too much cooling, 
 because eggs will stand considerable exposure in 
 hot weather. And it is so with eggs in the incu- 
 bator. They may be left out much longer in hot 
 weather than in the spring or winter. In early 
 spring and winter the hen sits closer ; she moves 
 the eggs from centre to outside, and they are 
 33 
 
cooled quicker than in warm weather. When she 
 leaves her nest once a day for food she returns 
 quickly. The same course must be pursued with 
 the incubator, i. e., the eggs must not be exposed 
 as long in cold as in warm weather. 
 
 Once a day, beginning with the second and end- 
 ing with the eighteenth day, the eggs should be 
 cooled to about 80 Fahrenheit, not cooler. This 
 can be done after turning them in the morning. 
 One soon learns to tell the degree of heat by lay- 
 the hand on the eggs or by holding an egg against 
 the face. When the surface of the egg indicates 
 80 the inside is of course warmer. 
 
 The incubator should always be closed while the 
 eggs are out cooling, for it is not desirable to cool 
 the machine. When the hen leaves her nest she 
 does not dive into the water or sit upon a cake of 
 ice. When the eggs are out of the incubator it 
 takes more heat to keep the egg chamber at the 
 proper temperature, and the regulator, if it is a 
 good one (and an incubator without a regulator is 
 behind the times), will turn on extra heat, and 
 when the cooled eggs are replaced, will turn on 
 still more, automatically, which is turned off again 
 in the same way when the egg chamber recovers 
 its proper temperature. 
 
 Nine-tenths of the successful users of incubators 
 cool the eggs ; so do the manufacturers of incu- 
 bators when they want to make a good hatch. 
 Cooling the eggs is one of the important items in 
 incubation, but not the only one, you will not suc- 
 ceed if you neglect the others. 
 34 
 
TESTING EGGS. 
 
 This is a very important part of the business, 
 and if properly attended to will throw a flood of 
 light upon many perplexing problems in natural 
 as well as artificial incubation. It not only eluci- 
 dates but proves the truth or fallaciousness of our 
 theories in the line of hatching. 
 
 Men are frequently heard to say that they never 
 bother with testing eggs. That they cannot replace 
 the unfertile eggs with others, and therefore noth- 
 ing is gained. They are told by the best authori- 
 ties that boiled eggs are not good food for chicks, 
 and as for themselves, of course they would eat 
 only fresh eggs. Then there is a risk of taking 
 out hatchable eggs ; so they run all the eggs 
 through together. They say that they can break 
 the unhatched eggs when the hatch is over, and 
 see which were unfertile and who cares whether 
 they were or were not fertile if they did not 
 hatch ? 
 
 To those men we can only repeat. "Where igno- 
 rance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." 
 
 To attain the best results it is absolutely necessary 
 to test the eggs in process of incubation. If the 
 eggs all come from one farm or yard, and they 
 prove a large per cent, unfertile, weakly fertilized, or 
 stale, you will notify the party from whom you got 
 them, and he can look into the matter and rectify 
 it, if he will, and afterwards serve you with vigor- 
 ous fresh ones. If he will not do so, then you 
 can avoid him, and procure better (or worse) ones. 
 
 35 
 
If the eggs are from your own stock, and you 
 know that they are fresh, and they prove unfertile 
 or lack strength, you will know it, and can pro- 
 ceed at once to remove the cause, and thus save 
 time, eggs, and complaints from your customers to 
 whom you sell eggs for hatching. 
 
 If you have several yards, you should mark the 
 eggs from each yard so that you can tell which are 
 the best and which the poorest, and then treat the 
 stock in each yard according to the requirements 
 indicated by the testing of their eggs. There is a 
 cause for each imperfection, and you should dis- 
 cover and remove it. 
 
 You may test your eggs this month and find 
 them all right ; next month they may be all wrong, 
 suppose that you wish to set two hundred eggs, 
 and get several lots of eggs from different yards or 
 persons, to make up the number. One or two lots 
 may be first-class, while of other lots nine-tenths 
 are unfertile and the balance too weak to hatch. 
 If the separate lots were not marked you would 
 condemn the whole lot and the parties from whom 
 you bought them ; and if you did not test them, . 
 you would probably condemn the incubator or the 
 hens. 
 
 In selecting and marking eggs it is well to avoid 
 extremely large or very small ones, odd shaped 
 ones and those with cracked shells. 
 
 In testing you can very often trace a number 
 
 of unfertile eggs to a particular hen by a peculiarity 
 
 in shape and a uniformity of size that is where a 
 
 considerable number of eggs of a uniform size all 
 
 36 
 
possess the same peculiarity of shape, you can be 
 reasonably sure that they were all laid by the same 
 hen. You can use that hen's eggs for market 
 instead of putting them in the incubator next time 
 (unless you remedy the defect in the bird), and 
 leave room for better ones. 
 
 Among the causes of unfertile and weakly fer- 
 tilized eggs are an insufficient number of cocks for 
 the hens, or, which is just as bad, too many cocks 
 to a yard or colony : old or worn out cocks, ill 
 conditioned or debilitated cocks ; overfat or aged 
 hens ; too close confinement of breeding stock, 
 lack of green food, too much meat, forced egg 
 production by the use of condiments ; low vitality 
 of stock, from neglect to feed properly or protect 
 from the weather, or diseases. 
 
 Stale eggs are almost as bad as unfertile ones. 
 After an egg is eight days old it begins to weaken, 
 both the germ and the sac or tissues which en- 
 velope the yelk. The older the eggs are, the 
 fewer the chicks that hatch, and the weaker are 
 those which do hatch. The percentage of deformed 
 chicks increases with the age of the eggs. 
 
 As the yelk forms no part of the chick, but is 
 absorbed or taken into the chick just before hatch- 
 ing, and is its natural nourishment for the first 
 twenty-four hours after hatching, it is important 
 that the egg should be as fresh as possible when 
 placed in the incubator. If the yelk should be 
 stuck fast to the skin of the egg, the chick must 
 die, although it may break the shell. 
 
 Persons have written to us, saying that they 
 37 
 
have had from one to six chicks hatch on the 
 second and third days after placing the eggs in the 
 incubator ; that they knew the eggs were perfectly 
 fresh, having taken them out of the nests each 
 day, and that they would like us to explain the 
 cause of the " premature " hatches. 
 
 They were simply mistaken. There was no 
 doubt that the eggs hatched at the times stated, 
 but that they were all fresh laid could not be true, 
 unless a miracle had been wrought. Human 
 ingenuity has dispensed with the hen as an incu- 
 bator, but it is and ever will be beyond human art 
 or science to shorten the period of incubation. 
 Newly laid eggs of certain breeds of vigorous 
 fowls hatch from twelve to forty-eight hours earlier 
 than eggs from some other breeds, or older eggs 
 from the same fowls ; but that is natural, and can- 
 not be changed by man. 
 
 Those "premature" eggs had certainly been 
 under a hen or hens, or subjected to a heat of at 
 least 101 for from sixteen to seventeen days pre- 
 vious to being placed in an incubator. 
 
 Now, if a few of the eggs were sixteen or seven- 
 teen days old, we may reasonably presume that 
 some of the others were nearly as old, and ii 
 those which hatched on the second and third days 
 had live chicks in them, might not some of the 
 others have had dead chicks in them, chicks 
 that had started and, after being taken from the 
 nest, died before they were placed in the incubator ? 
 
 If these eggs were tested on the fifth or sixth 
 day, any large chicks would show, and they would 
 38 
 
ordinarily be taken for bad eggs, if dead ; if alive, 
 they would be taken for eggs previously started. 
 But if the germs had died at any time between the 
 thirty-sixth hour and the tenth day, an inexperi- 
 enced person would probably call them fertile 
 eggs and let them go, then wonder why they did 
 not hatch. This happens more frequently than is 
 generally believed. Such eggs are easily avoided 
 by using the tester before setting the eggs. 
 
 Chilled, limed, scalded and cold storage eggs 
 sometimes find their way into the incubator ; but 
 persons should not allow themselves to be fooled 
 so badly. 
 
 While the majority of persons who have good 
 incubators make good hatches, there are some 
 who would make decidedly better ones if they 
 would just post up a little on a few important points 
 which are easily learned by practice of simple and 
 inexpensive experiments. 
 
 Few persons understand testing eggs properly. 
 Some have a very imperfect tester ; some are 
 unable to detect the fertile eggs closely they can- 
 not distinguish a dead germ from a live one, nor a 
 weak from a strong one. 
 
 All eggs should be tested on the fifth or sixth 
 day ; at this test all clear or unfertile eggs should 
 be removed. 
 
 To become expert in testing eggs during incuba- 
 tion, it is necessary to have a good tester. 
 
 By the use of a good egg-tester and the engrav- 
 ings shown here, any person can, with a little 
 practice learn to test eggs rapidly and accurately ; 
 39 
 
the engravings show exactly how the eggs look in 
 the tester. 
 
 To become an adept at testing eggs for hatching 
 one has only to use a good tester, his eyes and a 
 little judgment. Break in separate saucers (care- 
 fully) one which you suppose to be a good, strong, 
 fertile egg; one which seems to be fertile, but 
 
 A STRONG FERTILE EGG, 
 
 On the fifth or sixth day, as shown with a good tester. 
 
 weak ; one that is doubtful that is, one which you 
 cannot decide whether it is fertile or unfertile, and 
 one that seems decidedly unfertile. Break one at 
 a time, and examine it carefully, making note of it. 
 This should be done on the fifth day, or at the first 
 test. 
 
 A strong, fertile egg will, on the fifth day, (tem- 
 40 
 
perature having been kept at 102, 103 or 104) 
 show a dark spot which will float and show veins 
 running from it, looking somewhat like a spider ; 
 a weaker one will show a spot but is cloudy look- 
 ing and muddled. The above are supposed to be 
 fertile. Those which look clear are unfertile. Do 
 not mistake the yelk for the germ or chick. All 
 unfertile eggs are not perfectly clear. By breaking 
 a few tested eggs and studying their contents, carry- 
 ing in your mind's eye (so to speak) the appear- 
 ance presented through the shell prior to the 
 breaking ; having broken an egg, say of the strong 
 fertile ones, select another from the unbroken 
 eggs, and see how it compares with the former. 
 Then having opened a fertile but weak egg select 
 another from the unbroken ones and see how well 
 you can match the germ before you. Then break 
 a few apparently clear and unfertile ones, and you 
 will be surprised to find some fertile eggs among 
 them if your tester is inferior, or you are careless. 
 You will also be surprised to find how easy it is to 
 train the eye to detect and classify minute things 
 by a little systematic practice. 
 
 There is decided economy in this egg-breaking 
 business, for it will save eggs and chicks in the end. 
 
 Do not blame the sitting hen or the incubator, 
 unless you know that your eggs refresh as well as 
 fertile. We would not have eggs for hatching 
 that are over eight days old at any price. We 
 would not use them if given to us. We prefer 
 them not over five days old, and would like them 
 still better at or under two days old. 
 
It is not hard to remember thatfres/i eggs from 
 healthy hens, fertilized by vigorous cocks> MUST be 
 used if we are to hatch a large percentage of 
 strong, healthy chickens. 
 
 Fig. i shows a strong fertile egg as seen in the 
 tester on the fifth or sixth day. B, the dark spot, 
 is the live germ ; A A, are the blood vessels extend- 
 
 AN EGG TO BE DISCARDED 
 
 On the fifth or sixth day. Weak or imperfectly fertilized, as 
 shown ou the fifth or sixth day. 
 
 ing out from it. This germ B, is seen by placing the 
 egg against the aperture of the tester and revolv- 
 ing it between the thumb and ringer until the side 
 on which the germ has formed comes nearest the 
 eye. The spot B, will be seen plainly, often sur- 
 rounded by a small cloud, as shown ; the germ at 
 this time is quite lively, and can be seen to move 
 42 
 
up and down. This is a strong, fertile egg, and 
 should hatch under a good hen or in a good incu- 
 bator. In a well fertilized egg the blood vessels 
 should show plainly, but the germ is not always 
 seen as plainly, varying with the color and thick- 
 ness of the shell and the power of the tester used. 
 C, shows about the average air bulb in an egg on 
 
 A STALE EGG. 
 
 As shown on fifth or sixth day : clouded, doubtful ; many such 
 should be broken. 
 
 the fifth or sixth day of incubation, though it may 
 vary according to the freshness of the egg, and 
 some eggs have larger air bulbs than others. 
 
 Fig. 2, shows a weak or imperfectly fertilized 
 egg as seen in the tester on the fifth or sixth day. 
 H, is an oblong or circular blood vessel which has 
 43 
 
started, but nothing more, there is no heart, nor 
 any part of a chick started. This egg 1 will not 
 hatch, but will decay if left in the hatcher. G, 
 shows a small dark spot, a weak germ, without 
 blood vessels, only partially fertilized ; it has died, 
 after a start, and, of course, will not hatch. Both 
 H and G, may sometimes be seen in the same egg. 
 It will not hatch. F, the air bulb, may be seen in 
 the same egg. The egg may be comparatively 
 fresh, and yet show both G and H. See the follow- 
 ing notes which explain why such eggs are found. 
 
 Fig. 3, shows a stale egg, a clouded egg, a 
 doubtful egg. A stale egg is generally distin- 
 guished by the air space E, being very large on the 
 fifth or sixth day, as shown in Fig. 3, though all 
 stale eggs do not show a very large air space ; but 
 when an egg does show it, it is very good proot 
 the egg is stale. When an egg shows a clouded, 
 muddled appearance as indicated by D (which gen- 
 erally moves about when the egg is turned before 
 the tester), it is certainly stale, and will not hatch. 
 Do not confound the fresh egg which is not fertile 
 with the stale egg ; in an unfertile fresh egg you 
 can see the yelk, which will look somewhat darker 
 than the rest of the egg, but does not look mud- 
 dled. 
 
 Fig. 4, shows a live egg on the sixteenth day. 
 K, is the space occupied by the chick ; the lines 
 I and J, show the air bulb, which may be on top 
 or at the side, as indicated by the respective lines. 
 This is about the average air space on the six- 
 teenth day, but it will vary according to the thick- 
 44 
 
ness of the shell and age of the egg when set ; 
 then some eggs are not as full as others. At this 
 stage of incubation (sixteenth day) a live chick 
 darkens the egg, except the air bulb, when seen 
 with the tester, and by watching the line I or J, 
 the chick may often be seen to move. 
 
 Eggs should be tested in a warm room, one tray 
 at a time. 
 
 A LIVE EGG. 
 The air space on the sixteenth day. 
 
 The chick is harder to see after the seventh day, 
 because the egg becomes more clouded by the 
 growing chick. 
 
 NOTE. In regard to G, in Fig. 2, "a partially 
 fertilized germ" means one that from one of sev- 
 45 
 
eral causes was not strong enough to live and 
 grow. Among those causes are cocks that are 
 too old, an insufficient proportion of male birds 
 for females ; old or debilitated hens, over-fat hens, 
 too close confinement of breeding stock, etc. 
 
 Again you may find G (Fig. 2), among eggs 
 which you believe or know are not over a week 
 old, and ordinarily the eggs were good and fertile. 
 It frequently happens that an egg will remain in 
 the nest, while several, or maybe a dozen hens lay 
 there, and the succession of layers keep the egg 
 warm enough to start incubation, or it may happen 
 that some eggs may have been subjected to a heat 
 of 100, in some warm place, unknown to or un- 
 noticed by you. In either case, these eggs are 
 taken from the nest or warm corner to a cooler 
 place, and kept a few days, or over night, until a 
 sufficient number has been accumulated to set, they 
 become cold, and the germ dies before they are 
 put under the hen or in an incubator. 
 
 In testing the first time, on the fifth or sixth day, 
 a dead germ may be mistaken for a live weak germ, 
 and if left in the incubator for three weeks would 
 decay ; so it is always best to test the eggs again 
 on the tenth day, and remove all that have been 
 marked doubtful and prove not good. 
 
 Some persons think it is just as well to leave all 
 of them in until hatching is finished, but this is not 
 right, the decaying eggs generate objectionable 
 gases, and if broken are very offensive. A dead 
 egg or an unfertile egg, does not contain the 
 animal heat that live ones do, and are apt to have 
 46 
 
an undesirable effect upon the egg next to it, either 
 under the hen or in the incubator. 
 
 An unfertile egg one which has not been im- 
 pregnated, and in which life will never start or 
 develop is clear when shown at the tester. This 
 egg under the powerful lens of a first-class tester, 
 will show the yelk, which must not be mistaken 
 for a doubtful or fertile egg. 
 
 Use only the very best egg- tester. 
 
 HOW THE CHICKS DEVELOP. 
 
 Fig. 7 shows the heart and minute arteries and 
 veins in a circle on the yelk which is enclosed in a 
 thin sac. They are plainly seen by the naked eye 
 when a strong fertile egg is carefully broken into a 
 
saucer or plate, after thirty-six hours' incubation. It 
 should be done in a warm room, and in a strong 
 light, when the pulsations of the heart will continue 
 from five to ten minutes, and may be counted. 
 Blood can be seen in the veins, but very faintly. 
 The veins gradually surround the yelk. The chick 
 derives nourishment from the yelk during incuba- 
 
 tion, and what is left of it is drawn into the 
 abdomen just before hatching. 
 
 Fig. 8 represents the interior of the incubating 
 egg on the fifth or sixth day, when the live -germ 
 can be seen with a tester moving up and down and 
 around, and will float to the top when the egg is 
 laid on its side. In testing, the large end of the 
 egg is held up, as in Fig. i, which shows exactly 
 how the egg looks in the tester, through the shell. 
 48 
 
Fig. 8 is seen with shell partly removed, or with 
 the egg broken into a saucer. 
 
 Fig. 9 shows appearance on ^seventh to eighth 
 day. 
 
 Fig. 10 represents the tenth day, when eggs 
 should be tested the second time. 
 
 Fig. 1 1 shows the development on the fourteenth 
 
 day. Notice the increased air space at the different 
 stages. 
 
 Fig. 12, the sixteenth day. 
 
 Fig. 13, the eighteenth day, the yelk being 
 nearly absorbed. 
 
 Fig. 5 shows the egg from the nineteenth to the 
 twentieth day, when the chick is breaking the 
 shell. At this stage the yelk should be entirely 
 absorbed. The chick turns around in the shell, 
 breaking as it goes. 
 
 49 
 
Fig. 6 shows the shell parted and the chick 
 ready to come forth. 
 
 As the yelk is the principal nourishment of the 
 chick during incubation, it is desirable that the egg 
 be perfectly fresh as well as well fertilized. The 
 last part of the yelk absorbed is food for the chick 
 for from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after 
 hatching. 
 
 Stale eggs, though fertile, will not make hardy 
 chicks ; if they do hatch, the percentage will be 
 small. 
 
 Break a few eggs that are not fresh, on a plate, 
 and you will notice that in most of them the sac 
 which confines the yelk will break and allow the 
 yelk to mix with the white. A few which, being 
 very carefully broken, retain the sac unbroken, 
 50 
 
present a mottled appearance and spread out flat, 
 unlike the yelk of a fresh egg, which stands up and 
 looks firm. 
 
 If the yelk is not in first class condition it will 
 not make a first-class chick. When eggs are stale 
 many chicks will die in the shell on the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth days of incubation, even when 
 strongly fertilized. 
 
 Deformed chicks are due to stale eggs, eggs 
 irom ill-conditioned stock, and overheat. Over- 
 heat will sometimes cause the chicks to break the 
 shell before the yelk is entirely absorbed, and if 
 you help them out in that case they will die. 
 
 Insufficient air space will prevent a chick from 
 turning in the shell and from getting out. 
 
 When eggs have been crowded and some of the 
 
shells are broken almost around yet the chicks do 
 not break out with the majority in due time, you 
 may then pull the shell gently apart, but leave the 
 chick to free itself ; for a chick which cannot free 
 itself is not worth keeping. 
 
'fe ja tfcq;. tfc tp ife cfr <fe tfe sfe cfc <fe 
 
 D 
 
 53 
 
ANIMAL HEAT. 
 
 Animal heat during incubation is not noticeable 
 until about the tenth day, though a fresh, strongly 
 fertilized egg, having been subjected to a tempera- 
 ture of 103 for thirty-six hours, and then broken 
 in a saucer, will reveal a live, pulsating heart, the 
 beats of which may be counted, and it will make 
 about sixty before it stops or dies. 
 
 As the animal heat increases less artificial heat 
 is required to keep up the proper temperature in 
 the egg chamber. On this account it is generally 
 necessary to occasionally adjust the regulator a 
 little the last week of incubation ; but the lamp 
 flame or flames should be gradually (a little at a 
 time) lowered if it appears that you are using more 
 flame than is necessary to supply just a little sur- 
 plus heat. 
 
 Although it does not require as much artificial 
 heat during the latter part of the hatch to keep up 
 the right temperature, it should be distinctly under- 
 stood, that the temperature must be kept up just 
 the same as at the first part until every hatchable 
 egg is hatched. [See When Hatching.] 
 
 WHEN HATCHING. 
 
 When the chicks are breaking and coming out 
 of the shells, remember that the doors of the incu- 
 bator should not be opened but twice in a day, to 
 take out chicks that have hatched and are dry. 
 
 54 
 
Also remember that when you take out a lot of 
 chicks you take with them a lot of animal heat, 
 and you should raise the lamp flame a little, for 
 the temperature must be kept up to the same point 
 until the hatch is finished, if you want the best 
 results. 
 
 DEAD IN THE SHELL. 
 
 Why do chicks die in the shell ; what is the 
 cause of it ? 
 
 This question is asked again and again in all the 
 poultry papers. It is asked not only in regard to 
 those that die in the mechanical or artificial incu- 
 bator, but those also that die in the shell while 
 under the sitting hens, ducks, turkeys, geese, etc. 
 But the person who has just commenced running 
 an artificial incubator, loses sight of this fact, and 
 thinks that if some eggs hatch, every in egg the 
 machine should hatch, or that certainly all eggs 
 which start to incubate should bring out chicks. 
 
 While in a great many instances the majority of 
 cases of " dead in the shell ' ' may be justly charged 
 to the incubator or the sitting hen, it is not always so. 
 
 Again, though there are first-class incubators 
 which do hatch well, it must not be taken for 
 granted that all incubators are good. There are 
 good and bad incubators as there are good and 
 bad hens and good and bad eggs. 
 
 The fact that some hens steal their nest and bring 
 out a chick from every egg, or do nearly that well, 
 55 
 
XAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX 
 
 is no proof that it was on account of having had 
 their own way. Other hens steal their nest and 
 only hatch one or two chicks ; sometimes they fail 
 to hatch any. A hen that steals her nest generally 
 sits on the eggs laid by herself. If her eggs are 
 strongly fertilized, and she is a good sitter and has 
 a good place to sit, she will bring off a good hatch. 
 If the eggs are not well fertilized she does not 
 make a good hatch, but brings out perhaps six, 
 two, or no chicks. The unhatched eggs may 
 prove all unfertile, or most of the chicks may be 
 dead in the shell. 
 
 What is the cause ? 
 
 On the first event no impregnation ; in the sec- 
 ond, imperfect or weak fertilization. A bad sitter 
 or poor incubator might cause the same result with 
 good eggs. 
 
 When a good, quiet hen sits steadily on fifteen 
 fertile eggs and hatches seven of them, is it not 
 reasonable to suppose that the other eight must 
 have differed somehow, in quality, at the begin- 
 ning, or they, too, would have hatched? All 
 having been subjected to the same conditions and 
 treatment, why did not all hatch, or else all fail to 
 hatch all being fertile or containing the germ 
 of life? 
 
 The answers to this question are legion ; but 
 most writers agree that it was lack of vigor in the 
 germ, traceable to the parent stock, or to a mal- 
 condition of the laying stock, which produced the 
 eggs. Had all the eggs failed to hatch we might 
 reasonably suspect that the sitting hen had neglected 
 56 
 
her nest ; but as seven of them hatched, the sit- 
 ting hen is clear of blame, for the seven chicks 
 could not have been produced without the favor- 
 able conditions for incubation to which they were 
 subjected together with those which failed to hatch. 
 Is it not plain that something was wrong with the 
 eggs which contained chicks, in all stages of 
 development, but failed to hatch ? If the incu- 
 bator (hen) was wrong, none would have hatched ; 
 if all of the eggs were right, all would have hatched. 
 Now, the causes of unfertile and imperfectly fer- 
 tilized or weak eggs are numerous, but easily 
 removed or guarded against, provided we know 
 what they are. 
 
 Too close inbreeding will make weak offspring. 
 Inbreeding is excellent to a limited degree, but 
 must not be carried beyond a few generations, it 
 stamina and vigor are to be retained. 
 
 Over-fat hens do not produce eggs that will 
 hatch well ; no matter how good the male may 
 be, the germs do not seem to receive the proper 
 nourishment to develop strength to break out of 
 prison, even if they grow to full size. 
 
 Stale eggs, however vigorous they may have 
 been, do not hatch well. 
 
 Eggs may be both fertile and fresh, yet lack the 
 vigor required to develop a chick. 
 
 Hens over two years old take on fat too easily, 
 besides losing qualities requisite to good breeders. 
 This is the rule. Of course there are exceptions ; 
 but you had better go by the rule than by the 
 exception. 
 
 57 
 
Some cocks retain a fair amount of vigor and 
 procreative power after the second year, but nine 
 out of ten do not. 
 
 If you want eggs to hatch well and to get the 
 maximum profit from your poultry business, kill 
 all the males and females at two years of age. 
 Don't keep a fowl simply because it is fine look- 
 ing. You cannot afford to keep simply orna- 
 mental birds in your flocks. 
 
 Fowls in too close confinement lose their vigor, 
 and that, together with the practice of keeping 
 fowls that are too old, is what causes nine- 
 tenths of the "dead in the shell" cases which 
 owe their origin to the breeding stock. Some 
 people think a yard ten by twelve feet is large 
 enough for the accommodation of a dozen fowls. 
 They must have a reasonable amount of exercise. 
 
 As there are two classes of poultry raisers, there 
 are two ways to effect a remedy. 
 
 The man who must raise his poultry on a limited 
 area of ground, should keep fewer fowls. Is it not 
 better to keep one hundred fowls from which you 
 can produce eggs that will hatch from seventy-five 
 to ninety-five per cent, of the fertile ones (seventy- 
 five per cent, of all being fertile), than to house, 
 feed and care for two hundred fowls to produce 
 eggs of which fifty per cent, are unfertile, and only 
 from thirty to forty-five per cent, of the fertile eggs 
 hatch? Wriggle around it as you please, you 
 cannot disregard this advice and succeed. 
 
 Those who have large tracts of land, but, because 
 of keeping several breeds or varieties of fowls, are 
 58 
 
obliged to keep them in yards, should either 
 enlarge their yards beyond (apparently) all reason, 
 or at least beyond any size you ever saw before, 
 and allow plenty of range for exercise and cleanli- 
 ness, or reduce the number of varieties, and give 
 each yard of fowls an extra grassy yard to pasture 
 in for two hours each day; or, better still, keep 
 but one variety and make kindling wood of your 
 fences. Colonize your flocks on the Stoddard 
 "no fence" plan, and you will have eggs that, 
 with proper assignment and division of males and 
 females (fowls), will show up ninety per cent, of 
 fertility, and, in good incubators, produce from 
 eighty to ninety- eight per cent, of strong, healthy 
 chicks. 
 
 How do we know ? 
 
 We have done it. The proof of the pudding is 
 in eating it. 
 
 Now let us look at a few other causes of chickens 
 dying in the shell ; for you know it is quite possible 
 to kill a vigorous germ or even a full grown chick 
 by improper treatment. A poorly contrived incu- 
 bator or a bad hen can easily destroy the life in the 
 shell at any stage of incubation ; or a careless or 
 headstrong operator of a good incubator can spoil 
 the hatch by what may seem to him a very insig- 
 nificant deviation from the instructions of the 
 maker of the machine. 
 
 Too much or too little moisture, heat or ventila- 
 tion may ruin a hatch. Lack of moisture at the 
 time it is needed, or excess of moisture when none 
 is needed will injure or destroy life in the hatcher. 
 59 
 
If the machine is deficient in any of these particu- 
 lars, do not use it, but get one that you can depend 
 upon. 
 
 You will also remember- that eggs of various 
 breeds vary considerably in shell, some shells 
 being thin and porous, some thick, yet porous, 
 while others are thick and dense or hard, and still 
 others are hard and thin. 
 
 The treatment of these various shells is of 
 importance, but will be discussed under the head 
 of " moisture." 
 
 Chilling the eggs, especially during the last 
 part of the hatch or while chicks are breaking the 
 shell, causes many to die in the shell. See article 
 on testing eggs. 
 
 Right here a little plain talk may be of some 
 value. 
 
 In almost every poultry paper you will find com- 
 plaints and queries about chicks dying in the shell. 
 The correspondents, as a rule, wish, to know the 
 cause and the remedy. If the editor knows the 
 cause he does not hesitate to prescribe a remedy ; 
 but there is where the trouble comes in. If we call 
 in a physician to treat a case of illness,we give him 
 an exact history of the case and all the symptoms 
 and particulars ; otherwise he could not prescribe 
 to our advantage. 
 
 Are all poultrymen careful to do likewise when 
 they ask advice from a poultry editor or expert, qr 
 incubator manufacturer ? 
 
 We say no ! Many of them do not know, or fail 
 to mention the fact that a visitor " monkeyed ' ' with 
 60 
 
the regulator, or that on one certain day they for- 
 got to fill the incubator lamps and the lights were 
 out for fourteen hours ; or that they forgot about 
 turning the eggs, or left them out to air while attend- 
 ing something else, and they got chilled ; or that 
 they forgot to put in moisture at the proper time ; 
 that one of the children slipped into the incubator 
 room and turned the lamp up or down, or put it 
 out ; or that a neighbor, who was looking at the 
 machine, forgot to close the doors of the incubator ; 
 or that the attendant accidentally set a tray, stick 
 or some other trifle on the top of the machine in 
 such a manner as to cover or rest on the closed 
 valve of the heat escape, and the temperature got 
 up to 1 10 before it was discovered. It is folly to 
 omit or conceal these facts when they are known 
 to the party who asks advice, because it cheats him- 
 self out of the chance of obtaining the remedy he 
 seeks. 
 
 As we have intimated above, many poultrymen 
 fail to give exact details, either because they have 
 failed to see or notice some of them, or because 
 they think they are not important ; and while we 
 cannot advise them with as good effect as if we 
 knew the real state of affairs, they cannot be said 
 to deliberately deceive. 
 
 But what about that class of individuals who are 
 so foolish as to deliberately lie when presenting 
 their case of failure to the maker of the incubator, 
 which they happen to be using ? What help can a 
 man hope to get, who, having bought a lot of 
 store eggs which produce forty per cent, of weak 
 61 
 
chicks and sixty per cent, dead in the shell, in his 
 incubator, into which he placed all the eggs he 
 bought, when he writes to the maker of the 
 machine as follows: "My hatch was forty per 
 cent, of sickly looking chicks, and the balance of 
 the eggs had dead chicks in them some seeming 
 to have died on the tenth day and others at various 
 stages of development, many being full grown and 
 just ready to hatch. I cannot understand it, as the 
 same eggs placed under hens hatched ninety- eight 
 per cent. I followed your directions to the 
 letter." 
 
 Now if the manufacturer knows from years of 
 severe test that his machine will always hatch a 
 good per cent, of halchable eggs, every time, when 
 operated by his directions, he also knows to a cer- 
 tainty that his correspondent either failed to oper- 
 ate the machine as directed, or that his statement 
 about hatching some of the same lot of eggs under 
 hens is false. He knows it as certainly as the 
 painter would know that we were speaking falsely 
 if we told him that by mixing equal proportions of 
 red and blue we produced green. Suppose we 
 did write such a statement to a painter, and asked 
 his advice, assuring him that our neighbor had 
 used the same colors and produced purple. Would 
 he not know beyond a possibility of a doubt that 
 either we were color blind, or liars, or fools, or that 
 we thought him a fool when we presumed that he 
 would not know any better than to believe the 
 statement. 
 
 All the advice he could give us would be to dis- 
 62 
 
card the yellow (which we called red) and replace 
 it with red if we wished to produce purple by mix- 
 ing with blue. And so would the maker of the 
 good incubator have to tell his correspondent to 
 hunt up a lot of fresh eggs from a place where the 
 breeding stock is healthy, vigorous and mated with 
 good proportion of males. 
 
 Other parties who have really first-class hatch- 
 able eggs, imagine that they can improve on the 
 directions which are sent with the incubator (not 
 having given those directions one fair trial) and 
 will run the machine to suit themselves, and when 
 they kill a lot of chicks in the shell, condemn 
 either the eggs or the incubator. If they write for 
 advise, they tell the truth about the eggs, but omit 
 to mention the fact that they paid no attention to 
 directions. Some of them, we regret to say, will 
 even assert that they did follow the directions. 
 
 These persons are as foolish as the man who, 
 suffering with cholera morbus, would tell the 
 physician that he had toothache. 
 
 PERIODS OF INCUBATION. 
 
 Chickens, twenty-one days ; ducks, twenty-eight 
 days ; geese, thirty days ; turkeys, twenty- eight 
 days ; Guinea fowls, twenty-five days ; pea fowls, 
 twenty-eight days ; pheasants, twenty- five days ; 
 partridges, twenty-four days ; ostriches, forty to 
 forty- two days. 
 
 In connection with the above table we should 
 remember that a strictly fresh laid egg will hatch 
 
 63 
 
several hours earlier than a stale one, and that the 
 fresh eggs of some breeds of the same species of 
 fowls will also hatch from twelve to forty-eight 
 hours earlier than those of other breeds, under the 
 same conditions. 
 
 Some hens sit closer on the eggs and keep the 
 temperature more regular than others do. These 
 hens generally bring off their chicks in due time. 
 Other hens are poor sitters, do not settle down on 
 the eggs nicely, and frequently vacate the nest. 
 Such hens are sometimes one or two days later 
 than schedule time in completing their hatch. 
 
 The same principle applies to incubators. Those 
 which maintain an even condition of requisite heat, 
 moisture and ventilation, will, if the eggs are all 
 right, complete the hatch on time ; while the irreg- 
 ular machine, now hot and then cold, now dry 
 and then moist, will of course be behind time. 
 
 MOISTURE IN HATCHING. 
 
 How much moisture should be used in an incu- 
 bator ? 
 
 Why not ask, " How much lumber will it take 
 to build a house?" The question is as compre- 
 hensive. 
 
 The question of how much moisture should be 
 used in an incubator, never has been fully and cor- 
 rectly answered. 
 
 "Oh, yes, it has!" exclaims somebody, "Mr. 
 A. says he uses no moisture at all ; B., none until 
 the fourth day ; C., none until the seventh ; D., 
 64 
 
none until the tenth ; E., until the sixteenth ; F., 
 until the nineteenth. G. uses water surface equal 
 to three-fourths the area of the egg chamber ; H., 
 five-eighths; I., one-half; J., three-eighths; K., 
 one- fourth ; L., one-fifth ; M., one- twelfth. N. will 
 evaporate twelve quarts of water in the egg cham- 
 ber during one hatch ; O. will evaporate one pint. 
 
 Any one of the above may be exactly right for 
 some incubator, at some particular time, in some 
 certain place, climate or season, and with certain 
 kind of eggs, and it may never, in the experience 
 of the operator, be right again. 
 
 How then are we to know the amount of moisture 
 to use ? If it is right at one time, why not always ? 
 
 It might be right always . with one particular 
 incubator and the same kind of eggs, if the tem- 
 perature and humidity of the outside atmosphere 
 were always the same ; but you know that is not 
 the case. You cannot find two periods of three 
 weeks each in which the twenty-one days of one 
 will even average the same as the twenty- one days 
 of the other, in any location, in a lifetime. There- 
 fore there must be a vast difference in hatching, 
 both with incubators and with hens. 
 
 For instance, we take a hot water incubator 
 which has an opening valve for the escape of hot air 
 from the egg chamber when the heat rises above a 
 given point. No matter what size the opening 
 may be, how large or small the moisture pans, or 
 when the moisture pans are filled, on a hot day or 
 when the lamp flame has been a little too high, 
 this valve or escape will open, and from ten to 
 65 
 
twenty times as much air will be circulated through 
 the egg chamber as there was the day previous or 
 on a cooler day, and the next day it may be more 
 or it may be less. 
 
 If there is no water in the moisture pans on the 
 very warm day, then there is from ten to twenty 
 times the amount of evaporation from the eggs ; if 
 the pans are filled, you will not have the same 
 amount of moisture when the valve is open as you 
 have when it is closed. 
 
 Let us suppose, for argument sake, that we 
 have more moisture in the egg chamber with the 
 valve closed than with it open ; then, when the 
 valve opens to cool off the egg chamber, the 
 moisture escapes with the heat, and we have from 
 ten-fold to twenty-fold reduction of moisture on the 
 hot day, or when the machine is overheated. 
 
 But suppose we say that when the valve is open 
 there is from ten to twenty times as much water 
 evaporated as there would be with it closed, and 
 that this water or moisture passes over the eggs ; 
 then we have practically from ten to twenty times 
 as much moisture with the valve open as we have 
 with it closed. 
 
 Clearly we cannot have the same amount of 
 moisture with an open valve as with it closed no 
 matter which condition of valve gives the most, 
 and, as this valve may open and close once a day 
 or fifty times a day, how is it possible to maintain 
 an even condition or degree of moisture in an egg 
 chamber which is thus " regulated ?" 
 
 Then why use a moisture gauge ? 
 66 
 
A moisture gauge of the best make will show 
 that the humidity of the egg chamber fluctuates as 
 we have stated, under the said conditions. 
 
 Wherever there is a circulation of air in the egg 
 chamber and there must be a circulation of fresh 
 air to hatch successfully there will be some varia- 
 tion of humidity, because the humidity of the out- 
 side atmosphere changes, and it is this outside air 
 which furnishes the fresh air for the egg chamber ; 
 but with the valve closed the variation is reduced 
 to a minimum degree. 
 
 The modern hot air incubator has no use for the 
 big trap-door valve opening from the egg chamber 
 of most hot water machines, because the heat is 
 controlled in the heater or hot air reservoir before 
 it reaches the egg chamber ; but it has a circula- 
 tion of fresh air in the egg chamber by means of 
 bottom ventilators and small outlet at top. These 
 inlets and outlet are always open and always the 
 same, so that the variation is reduced to a mini- 
 mum, being about equal to the variation in the best 
 hot-water machines with its valve closed. 
 
 The variation of humidity in the best hot- water 
 machine with closed valve and in the best hot-air 
 machine just as it always is, is from ten to twenty 
 times less than when a large valve is being opened 
 and closed from the egg chamber every now and 
 then, as described, and the causes for the minimum 
 variation which cannot be entirely overcome are 
 two, the variation in humidity of outside atmos- 
 phere and the variation of temperature of outside 
 air. 
 
 67 
 
We all know that heat ascends. As long as the 
 air in the egg chamber is warmer than that outside, 
 the heat of the egg chamber will seek an outlet, 
 and the colder the outside temperature the faster 
 the current of air will circulate through the incu- 
 bator (the greater the volume of air that will pass 
 through in a given time), but the moment the out- 
 side temperature gets as warm as that of the egg 
 chamber the current ceases. Then it follows that 
 more air passes through the egg chamber on a cold 
 day than on a warm one, consequently there is 
 more moisture supplied from the outside on a cool, 
 damp day than on a warm, dry one. 
 
 When you look at all these facts and think ot 
 the difference in incubators, the wonderful variety 
 of climates and altitudes on this vast continent, the 
 different kinds of shells which envelop the eggs 
 thick, hard shell, thin, hard shell, thick porous, 
 and thin porous each requiring different treat- 
 ment (the hard shell requiring more moisture than 
 the porous shell), you will appreciate the difficulty 
 of giving a direct answer to the question of 
 " How much moisture should be used in an incu- 
 bator? " It is impossible, in the ordinary instruc- 
 tions which accompany an incubator, to give 
 directions which will fit every case in every 
 locality, therefore the incubator manufacturer who 
 would conscientiously perform his duty to each of 
 his patrons must have an actual knowledge, 
 which can only be acquired by actual experience, 
 of the action and requirements of his own incubator 
 in the various altitudes and climates of this country 
 68 
 
under the various conditions of the seasons. 
 Having gained this experience he can then give 
 directions with each incubator to suit the locality 
 to which it is sent. These directions would (or 
 should) be such as will give the best average 
 results with that particular machine in that 
 locality. 
 
 For the benefit of new acquaintances who may 
 wish to inquire if we practice what we preach, we 
 will state that during the years of our experiment- 
 ing we paid our compliments personally to the 
 chief points of interest lying between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific oceans, the great Northern lakes and 
 the Gulf of Mexico not making a flying trip, but 
 spending months and sometimes years in climates 
 and altitudes of peculiar interest to poultrymen 
 who practice artificial incubation and brooding. 
 
 As we have said, follow the printed directions 
 sent with the incubator, and then at your leisure 
 study and experiment for yourself. If you find 
 that the manufacturer's directions give satisfactory 
 results, the knowledge you have acquired from 
 study and experiment will enable you to see why 
 they do ; and if, on the contrary, they do not 
 satisfy you, you may then be able to improve upon 
 them. 
 
 Someone will say, "What a lot of fuss about 
 moisture ! Let me give you the whole thing in a 
 nutshell. Find out just what degree of humidity 
 is needed in the egg chamber for each week or 
 day, make slide covers for your moisture pans, 
 place a hygrometer or moisture gauge in the egg 
 69 
 
chamber and hang up your moisture schedule beside 
 the machine. When you want more moisture slide 
 open the- covers, and when you want less, close 
 them. Isn't that simple ? " 
 
 Yes, dear friend, wiser heads than yours or ours 
 thought of that years ago, but it would not work 
 then, and it will not work now. 
 
 Why? 
 
 For various reasons ; among them : the Great 
 Ruler of the Universe will not permit us to slide 
 the covers of His moisture pans ; and while we are 
 obliged to circulate fresh air in the egg chambers 
 of our machines, we are obliged to have it more or 
 less humid or dry, just as it comes from the breath 
 of nature. 
 
 The hygrometer is useful to experiment with, pro- 
 vided it is a good one, but few of those which are 
 sold to poultrymen are reliable. 
 
 Still someone says, "Well, I know that the 
 humidity of the atmosphere varies some, but I still 
 believe I can work it with the moisture gauge and 
 the sliding covers on moisture pans." 
 
 Very well, we will ask you for one demonstration, 
 and if you make that satisfactory, we will ask for 
 one or two more but one will probably be all you 
 want at a time. 
 
 Let us suppose that you conclude that you want 
 thirty degrees of moisture in the egg chamber the 
 first week, thirty- five the second and part of the 
 third, with ninety degrees from the pipping of the 
 first egg ? All right. We will take for granted 
 that your gauge is correct. Well, here we are at 
 70 
 
the beginning of the first week. You have not 
 yet put any water in your pans but your moisture 
 gauge indicates sixty-five degrees of humidity, and 
 your thermometer one hundred and three degrees 
 of temperature. What is the matter ; why don't 
 you reduce the humidity? You place another 
 moisture gauge in the room where you operate 
 your incubator, and you find that the humidity 
 there is ninety degrees. You hang a gauge in the 
 open air out of doors and it registers ninety-five 
 degrees. You only want thirty degrees in the egg 
 chamber ; how are you going to reduce it to thirty ? 
 
 There are some places in which, at certain times, 
 some kinds of eggs an be hatched without addi- 
 tional moisture, in certain incubators, but the 
 attempt would result in failure at other seasons. 
 
 It is surprising how little some manufacturers of 
 incubators know about moisture. When you 
 attend a show where incubators are on exhibition 
 question the several exhibitors on moisture. The 
 machines are generally managed by the manufact- 
 urers or inventors or the purchasers of some 
 almost defunct patents. 
 
 While exhibiting at the World's Fair, Chicago, 
 '93, we were astonished at the replies of some 
 of the manufacturers and exhibitors when asked 
 "why do you use moisture? What is it for?" 
 One said, "Oh, the hen sweats and moistens the 
 eggs, that is the reason." Another said, "We 
 imitate the hen ; she goes off in the grass and gets 
 the dew on her feathers and dampens the eggs ; we 
 must supply it.' ' Another said, * ' We use moisture 
 
to rot the shell of the eggs." Another, "The 
 evaporation of the water purifies the air. ' ' 
 
 We supposed that everybody knew that moisture 
 is used in an incubator to prevent undue evapora- 
 tion of the egg, and to keep the skin which lines 
 the shell from becoming dry and tough while the 
 chicks are breaking the shells. 
 
 HATCHING DUCKS. 
 
 Duck eggs require about the same treatment, 
 during incubation, as hen eggs, except that the 
 addition of moisture is deferred one week. Duck- 
 lings are longer getting out of the shell after 
 it is broken than chicks are from twenty-four to 
 forty-eight hours is the time they require to work 
 their way out. If, after waiting forty-eight hours 
 after the eggs are pipped and ducklings are not free, 
 you may help them out gently. There is not as 
 much danger in thus helping them as there is in 
 assisting chicks out. A chick which cannot free 
 itself from the shell is not worth saving, but a duck- 
 ling is. Ducks and ducklings should have water 
 when eating and water to drink at all times. Keep 
 ducklings from bathing or getting wet until feath- 
 ered. Celery fed to ducks one week before fattening 
 is supposed to improve their flavor. In killing ducks 
 hang them up by the legs and extend the head or 
 bill to prevent soiling the feathers. With a sharp 
 knife cut across the back part of the throat and up 
 into the brain. Ducks are easier picked when 
 72 
 
scalded. After picking, put them in ice water until 
 thoroughly cooled. N. B. Make the drinking ves- 
 sel deep enough for the duckling to wet his nostrils, 
 or they will become clogged with dirt or soft food 
 and make him sick. 
 
 HATCHING GEESE. 
 
 Geese develop as well in the incubator as under 
 geese or hens, but goslings are not very dexterous 
 in breaking the shell, hence many are lost, because 
 few persons know how to help the process. When 
 the hatch is due hold the egg in a strong light 
 and try to see where the gosling is tapping the shell, 
 which you can often do. Make a small hole with 
 the point of a penknife, and if no blood oozes out 
 make another hole in the large end of the egg, and 
 chip away the shell between the two points first, and 
 then gradually break away enough to free the bird. 
 If you cannot see where the bill lies, put the egg in 
 warm water, mark the spot which lies uppermost, 
 and make the first incision there. With gentle care 
 nearly all may be saved. Feed goslings the same 
 as ducklings, adding green food early, and keep out 
 of the water until feathered. 
 
 HATCHING TURKEYS. 
 
 There is no difficulty in hatching good turkey 
 eggs in a good incubator. Treat the eggs precisely 
 as you would hen eggs, except that the moisture 
 
 73 
 
must not be added until a week later than directed 
 for hens' eggs. There is a general opinion that 
 young turks are hard to raise, but the great diffi- 
 culty is that few persons know how to treat them, 
 and others do not have a large range for them from 
 the time they " shoot the red " (the head begins to 
 turn red) until they get their growth. Young tur- 
 keys must be kept dry until they show the red. 
 Running in wet grass, or exposure to rain, will re- 
 tard their growth and prove fatal to many. Brood 
 them as you would chickens. Their food for the 
 first week should be stale bread crumbs (not sour) 
 soaked in milk. Broken water crackers soaked in 
 milk for a variety. Give them all the sweet milk 
 they will drink (by "sweet" we mean new milk). 
 After the first week give them all the clabber they 
 will eat, but do not scald it. In addition give once 
 a day a small feed of well cooked corn meal, some- 
 times in the shape of mush, and again as baked corn 
 bread. By draining the clabber through a cheese- 
 cloth strainer it becomes nice and crumbly, and is 
 easily picked up. Keep them in brooding yards 
 until about eight weeks old, then give as much 
 range as possible. After eight weeks give no sloppy 
 food, but good grain corn or buckwheat at night, 
 and a variety of food in the morning. They will 
 gather at least half of their living in the insect sea- 
 son if they have good place to forage. A turkey is 
 unhappy in close confinement and will not fatten in 
 a pen like other fowls. Liberty and good feeding 
 will give the weight to a well bred bird. 
 
 74 
 
75 
 
>444 44 4444 4444 4444444444444 444 4444 44 44 4444** 
 
 76 
 
77 
 
HATCHING OSTRICHES. 
 
 HE introduction ol 
 artificial hatch- 
 ing has added 
 materially to the 
 profits of the 
 ostrich parks 
 and farms of 
 Africa, Asia and 
 America. S i t - 
 ting is injurious 
 to the valuable 
 
 plumage of the parent birds ; and then the eggs 
 may be used for hatching without consulting the 
 convenience of the layers. The period of incuba- 
 tion is from 40 to 42 days, and little more care 
 than is required in hatching chickens is necessary 
 in hatching ostriches. The young birds are as 
 tender as young turkeys, and should be kept in the 
 brooding house until the sun has dried the grass. 
 They must also be returned before the dew falls. 
 They need shade in the heat of the day, but the 
 more sunshine they get, that is not too hot, the 
 better they will thrive. The eggs weigh from 3^ 
 to 3^ pounds, and one before us measures 15^6 
 inches by 17^ inches around each way. They are 
 palatable and wholesome when boiled, but are too 
 precious for ordinary table use. 
 
 The African ostrich is superior in size, weight 
 78 
 
and quality of plumage to the Cassoway of New 
 Zealand, the Rhea of South America, or the Emu 
 of Australia, and is the kind bred on the Southern 
 California ostrich farms at Anaheim and Fall 
 Brook. 
 
 The first successful ostrich farms were those of 
 the Cape in Africa, which started about 30 years 
 ago. Later Madam Carriere established a series of 
 ostrich parks at Kouba, Algiers, views of which 
 were drawn by M. L,ouis Say, and which, through 
 the courtesy of Messrs. Munn & Co. of the Scien- 
 tific American, we reproduce here. Some idea of 
 the development of ostrich culture may be drawn 
 from the fact that the number of adult birds on the 
 Cape farms in 1865 was 85; in 1875, 32,000; in 
 1879, 160,000. 
 
 E;. & c. VON CUUN, 
 
 Publishers of 
 
 " The Art of Incubating and Brooding" 
 Price $1.00. 
 
 DELAWARE CITY, , 1894. 
 
 Dear Sir: We wish to illustrate the different kinds of 
 incubators, brooders and poultry appliances. Will you 
 please send us cut or cuts of your machine or machines, 
 together with directions for operating and your catalogue. 
 No cut to be larger than 3 by 3 inches. 
 Please be prompt, as we are ready and waiting. 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 B. & C. VON CUUN. 
 
 The above letter was mailed to forty manufacturers 
 
 of incubators. We presume they all received it, 
 
 as none were returned, though our printed address 
 
 was on each envelope. We waited a month. Five 
 
 79 
 
responded ; some of them sent cuts, but only one 
 sent directions for operating. We give these facts 
 as an answer to those who may wish to know why 
 we have not described all incubators, as well as a 
 few. Without directions for operating, the simple 
 picture of the exterior of a machine, is no more 
 than you can see in the advertisements in poultry 
 papers and in the catalogues of the manufacturers. 
 
 80 
 
cp j^cp sg cp gp ^ i g P ^ fifc gp cp eg cp sp*!^ 
 
 FIG. i. 
 
 THE THERMOSTATIC INCUBATOR. 
 
 The Thermostatic Incubator was patented July 
 31, 1877, by E. S. Renwick. It was one of the 
 finest hot water incubators made in its day. It is 
 
 81 
 
no longer manufactured. The prominent and best 
 feature was its valve engine with a chain weight 
 (similar to a clock weight) for its motive power. 
 The paddles of the valve engine worked in water 
 and glycerine, with a few drops of carbolic acid to 
 keep it from spoiling. N, N, were water foun- 
 tains supplying water to the moisture pans. From 
 i to 2 quarts was evaporated in 24 hours. 
 
 FIG. 2. 
 
 Fig. 2 shows the thermostat and its connections 
 with the valve engine. The weak points of this 
 machine were its thin walls and imperfect ther- 
 mostat, but it was superior to nine-tenths of the 
 incubators on the market to-day. In fact, with 
 four exceptions, the incubators of ten years ago 
 were ahead of the ones now offered for sale. In 
 1885 a 216 egg capacity Thermostalic incubator 
 sold for $100. We think it could not have cost 
 82 
 
less than $25 to make it, as built then, and prob- 
 ably it did cost between $35 and $50. 
 
 Now what do you think of the same machine 
 being "improved," and one of 150 egg capacity 
 with a brooder attached for the sum of $12.50? 
 Eight of the latter for the price of one of the 
 former ! If you can swallow the "improvement," 
 don't kick if it gives you a pain. 
 
 The Thermostatic has been sold twice since Mr. 
 Renwick invented it. Show him one of the "im- 
 proved" Thermostatics (with a new name) and 
 ask him what he thinks of it. Ask him to point 
 out one of the good features of the old Thermo- 
 static in it. He is a mechanical engineer and ex- 
 pert, and if he were to put an incubator in the 
 field to-day, it would be a leader among high class 
 machines. 
 
 The following picture represents the oldest hot- 
 water incubator now manufactured. The egg 
 chamber is heated by a hot- water tank. It has 
 double trays, one above the other. The ther- 
 mostat works a lamp trip to draw a sleeve over the 
 wick to reduce the flame and back again to 
 increase it. It also opens a valve from the egg 
 chamber to let off surplus heat. The clock is used 
 to turn the eggs. This machine is made of good 
 material and with good workmanship. It has a 
 nursery below. One holding 144 eggs, steel tank, 
 sells at $62.50; with copper tank, $68.50. Mr. 
 Campbell owns his factory and makes machines in 
 large numbers, therefore can and does sell them 
 as low as consistent with good material and work- 
 83 
 
manship. Then why is it that other incubators 
 are offered at such low prices ? Simply because 
 the material in one of Mr. Campbell's incubators 
 costs more than many of the gaudy rattle-trap 
 machines are sold for. The craze to get something 
 for nothing creates a lively market for worthless 
 so-called incubators. 
 
 THE EUREKA INCUBATOR. 
 Manufactured By J. I,. CAMPBELL, West Elizabeth, Pa. 
 
 The Improved Simplicity Hatcher consists of 
 an egg chamber enclosed on four sides, top and 
 bottom by double walls, six inches thick, four inches 
 of which are packed with a light non-conductor of 
 heat. Above this egg chamber is a heater (hot- 
 84 
 
air), also enclosed by the double walls, supplied 
 by lamps through fire-proof conductors. In the 
 centre of the egg chamber and on a level with the 
 eggs is a thermostat which controls the tempera- 
 ture in the egg chamber and at the egg level. It 
 is connected by a brass rod and lever with a valve 
 on top of the hatcher, operating in such a manner 
 that just as soon as the temperature in the egg 
 chamber reaches 102 (or such degree as it may 
 be set at) the valve begins to open, turning the 
 
 THE EUREKA BROODER. 
 
 heat currents away from and over the heater, 
 instead of into it, and drawing cold air into the 
 heater; and when the temperature in the egg 
 chamber starts to fall below 102 it cuts off 
 the cold air and turns the currents of hot 
 air into the heat reservoir again, thus making 
 a commutual or reciprocal action between the 
 mechanism of the egg chamber and that of the 
 heater, by means of which the temperature is kept 
 85 
 
absolutely under control. The ventilation Is from 
 the bottom, fresh air being diffused and escaping 
 automatically through a minute tube in the top, 
 without perceptible draught, and unaltered by the 
 action of the regulator. Moisture is also supplied 
 from below, at the time and in quantity suitable to 
 the location. 
 
 Fig. i. The general exterior of hatcher, showing 
 
 FIG. i. 
 
 IMPROVED SIMPLICITY HATCHER. 
 
 the position of lamps, the glass door and the 
 double packed outside door. The rod on the right 
 shows the thermometer drawn out to observe the 
 temperature ; when replaced, the bulb is in the 
 centre of the egg chamber and level with the eggs. 
 Fig. 2. Is a view in perspective, showing the 
 body with top and outer walls removed. 
 86 
 
Fig. 3. Is a longitudinal section on the line XX 
 of Fig. 4, showing the thermostat and its connec- 
 tions. 
 
 Fig. 4. Is a view in cross section on the line YY 
 of Fig. 5. 
 
 Fig. 5. Is omitted, as the four figures shown 
 are sufficient to explain fully. 
 
 FIG. 3. 
 
 Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout 
 the several views. 
 
AA are inlets for conducting hot air into the 
 heater S through pipes BB. When E is opened, 
 it allows the hot air to pass up AA and CC, 
 through D, and out at E, making a draft which 
 draws hot air out of the heater S at BB, at the 
 same time drawing cold air into the heater S at 
 
 mi. 
 
 D is a discharge pipe of double the capacity of 
 C, and carries off hot air from CC out at E when 
 E is open. 
 
 E is the main outlet for hot air, S is the hot air 
 heater five inches deep. 
 
 FIG. 4. 
 
 H is the egg chamber. 
 
 Ill I are tubes running through the top of heater 
 S, through which cold air is drawn into heater S, 
 when E is open. 
 
 K is a thermostat in the egg chamber and is on a 
 level with the eggs. 
 
 L is a metal rod connecting the thermostat with 
 the lever M. 
 
 J is a ball or cover suspended at the outer end of 
 the lever M, and is made to open or close the out- 
 let E by action of the thermostat K. 
 88 
 
P is a tube running from the egg chamber H 
 through the heater S, and through which the rod 
 L passes. A constant discharge of air flows 
 through this tube, from the egg chamber. It is 
 never closed. 
 
 X is one of the lamps, two being used at diag- 
 onally opposite corners of the incubator. 
 
 YYY is a five-inch space between the inner and 
 outer wall of the improved incubator and is 
 packed with mineral wool and granulated cork. 
 All of the hot-air pipes are incased in asbestos or 
 mineral wool. 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOR OPERATING 
 
 THE VON CULIN IMPROVED SIMPLICITY HATCHER. 
 
 HHBO 
 
 THERMOSTAT 
 
 Light the lamp or lamps, turn the flame to ordin- 
 ary height, with regulator as shown above, except 
 that the perpendicular rod which connects the lever 
 with the thermostat in the egg chamber by means 
 89 
 
of two brass pins must be left out (not connected) 
 until the temperature in the egg chamber rises to 
 102. Then insert the rod, and connect as shown 
 in the illustration. When heating up the machine 
 let the cover J rest on the escape E. To raise the 
 temperature of the egg chamber, raise the two nuts 
 on the perpendicular rod ; to lower the tempera- 
 ture, lower the same nuts. Run the machine 
 between 102 and 103. The cover should be raised 
 from the escape about one-sixteenth of an inch at 
 102. This will give a surplus heat which will not 
 rise above 103, but if the temperature of the room 
 should fall 40 degrees, and the temperature of the 
 egg chamber should fall one-half a degree, ttte 
 closing of the escape valve will change the current 
 of the escaping heat at once, making it impossible 
 to cool down ; at the same time the cutting off of 
 the excessive outward draft increases the flame of 
 the lamp, without turning the wick or using any 
 device upon the burner or wick. It is done by the 
 change of draft alone. 
 
 The thermostat in the egg chamber opens and 
 closes the escape valve to decrease or increase the 
 heat in the heat reservoir, but does not open or 
 close any valve in the egg chamber. The brass 
 " guide" straddles the lever. The "support" 
 holds the lever by a brass pin on which it works. 
 The nuts on the perpendicular rod are to adjust 
 the regulator. The nuts on the end of lever are to 
 balance it to the makers' adjustment, and must not 
 be moved. Run the machine between 102 and 103 
 let 102 be your low point, and 103 your high 
 90 
 
point. Run it empty for 24 hours to get well 
 regulated, then put in the eggs. Always fill the 
 lamps in the morning, if possible. After the eggs 
 have been in 24 hours, turn thenTtwice a day with 
 the extra tray. Fill the moisture pans on the tenth 
 day, unless otherwise directed for special location 
 or altitude. Test eggs on fifth or sixth day (see 
 (< Testing Eggs"); test again on tenth day. If 
 you wish to gain knowledge, test again on sixteenth 
 day. Test one tray at a time. If the room is very 
 cold take them into a warmer room to test them. 
 Do not have a fire in the room where you keep the 
 incubator, but have the room well ventilated at all 
 times. Never turn up the lamp flame when the 
 cover is raised from the escape. If the cover is 
 raised high, say ^ inch or more, and the tem- 
 perature is right, you are wasting oil, and should 
 lower the flame. If the cover is down and the 
 temperature is too low, raise the flame. Always 
 close the doors of machine when you take eggs or 
 chicks out. You will not need to look at the 
 hatcher more than twice a day, night and morning. 
 After the first day cool down the eggs to about 80 
 or 85 once a day (when turning), until the chicks 
 begin to break the shell, then do not turn or cool 
 them anymore, but place the "chicken guards" 
 on the trays. Take out the chicks morning and 
 night (only those that are strong enough) and place 
 in a brooder. Do not open the machine often 
 when the chicks are hatching. Remember that 
 when you lake out a lot of live chicks you also 
 take out animal heat, and turn the flame up a little 
 
more. After filling the water pans see x that they 
 do not get dry. Trim the lamps once a day and 
 keep the burners clean. 
 
 THE SIMPLICITY COMPARTMENT HATCHER. 
 
 This machine is like the Improved Simplicity in 
 every respect except the position of the lamps, and 
 is divided into from two to ten compartments, each 
 compartment having a separate heater and regu- 
 lator, and may be run independent of the other 
 compartments. One, two or all the compartments 
 may be used at a time. Persons who cannot fur- 
 nish a large number of fresh eggs at one time can 
 fill one or more compartments and start them to 
 hatching, and fill up each of the remaining com- 
 partments at their convenience, thus setting fresh 
 eggs every time. They may also be used to 
 advantage by persons who wish to hatch several 
 different breeds or varieties of chickens, or for 
 chickens, ducks, geese, guineas, turkeys, pheas- 
 ants, quails, etc. 
 
 WATER EXPANSION REGULATORS. 
 
 In erder that you may get a fair understanding 
 of the water expansion system of regulating an in- 
 cubator, we will give the claim made by one of the 
 manufacturers of that class of machines, and insert 
 our opinion in Italics said opinion being based on 
 92 
 
93. 
 
experience of one season with one of these ma- 
 chines (in California), and a season with three of 
 them (in Pennsylvania). 
 
 " REGULATION." 
 
 " This machine is regulated by the expansion ol 
 water. At one end of the tank, which contains thirty 
 gallons of water, is attached a regulating tube 
 some three or four inches in diameter. In this 
 tube is inserted a float made of thin brass foil, 
 weighing perhaps one ounce, but displacing water 
 to the amount of one and one-half pounds. 
 This float, with the expansive and contractile 
 force of thirty gallons of water behind it, 
 works with the regularity and precision of a 
 steam engine. [Regardless of what the heat 
 may be in the egg chamber, which must vary 
 according to the outside changes of temperature.'} 
 When the water expands it raises this float, which 
 forces up a small level bar to which is attached the 
 extinguishers on the lamps. When this float rises, 
 as it must do with the least expansion of water, the 
 heat is cut off on the lamps. [ The flame is lowered, 
 provided the lamp trip does not stick ; but if the 
 temperature of the room rises, you must be there to 
 add more water to make it lower the flame more 
 than usual, or to put out the light entirely. ] Should 
 the water cool and contract, the blaze is turned on 
 in full force. [If the room should become cold, the 
 operator must draw off some water , much or little, 
 according to circumstance s.~\ Now, as the tank is 
 the source of heat for the egg chamber, one can 
 readily see that it is impossible to injure the eggs by 
 94 
 
too much heat. [ The tank being the source of heat 
 and there being no regulator in the egg chamber to 
 control that heater, even though you should be able 
 to keep the water in the tank at a stationary tempera- 
 ture forjthree weeks, the temperature of the egg 
 chamber will vary every time the temperature of the 
 room changes if it gets much warmer it will over- 
 heat the eggs ; if much colder, they will not have 
 enough heat. Overheating is the most dangerous] 
 Indeed, so delicate is the action, that this incuba- 
 tor has been known to run a week without varying 
 one degree of heat. [ When the temperature of the 
 room has not varied. ~\ There are no sleepless nights 
 connected with the use of this machine. [ We have 
 lost lots of sleep with them (and so have many 
 others).] This makes the most perfect regulator 
 ever invented, \water must be added to or drawn 
 from the tank according to changes of outside tem- 
 perature'} giving the operator absolute control not 
 only of the heat in the egg chamber, [as ' absolute" 
 as with no regulator at all\ but of any given egg 
 tray as well. As we depend upon the expansive 
 and contractile force of the water in the tank to 
 regulate the heat, [when we did, and the outside 
 temperature changed, we got left.] of course it 
 makes the principle which generates the superfluous 
 heat provide for its own escape. \_If the outside 
 temperature does not change] For instance, the 
 machine running at a given point, the water being 
 the source of heat, you cannot get any more heat 
 in the egg chamber unless you heat the water hot- 
 ter, and that is impossible unless you expand it, 
 95 
 
[Let the outside temperature rise 20, 40 or 50 
 jj/<? wz// yfodf w0re heat than you want in the egg 
 chamber, and you will not wait for the water to ex- 
 pand if you wish to save the eggs, but will draw off 
 some hot and add some cold water to the tank. ] and as 
 the expansive force of one- fourth of a degree will cut 
 the lights entirely off, it makes it simply impossible 
 to overheat the machine or eggs. [It is possible at 
 times to blow out the lamps entirely and still over- 
 heat a hot water incubator , especially during the 
 last week, when the animal heat in the eggs is in- 
 creasing rapidly. ~\ Manipulating the lamps does 
 not affect the heat in the egg chamber at all. 
 [Rats !] All the operator has to do is to see that 
 he has enough of flame, and the regulator will 
 take care that he does not get too much. [Some 
 operators depend entirely upon manipulating the 
 lamps, and dispense with the regulator. If the tem- 
 perature of the room would not change, the regula- 
 tor might control the temperature of egg chamber ; 
 but if the temperature of the room is kept stationary, 
 why not hatch in the room instead of buying an in- 
 cubator f\ We use two lamps on our largest ma- 
 chines, though usually one is all sufficient to furnish 
 all the heat required. We call one our safety 
 lamp ; for instance, should the operator forget to 
 fill one lamp, and the light should go out, the 
 water cools contracts the float is lowered, the 
 heat is turned on in full force on the other lamp 
 and the heat is not changed at all in the egg cham- 
 ber. Suppose he forgets to attach the extinguisher 
 to one lamp, and double heat is turned on ; the 
 96 
 

 water heats expands the other extinguisher rises 
 and promptly puts out the other light, and still the 
 heat remains unchanged in the egg chamber. 
 Suppose both lights go out, for want of oil ; the 
 thirty gallons of water, packed with an inch of 
 hair felting all around and over it, as it is, in a 
 double cased machine, packed with the same in- 
 sulating material, does not lose more than one or 
 two degrees of heat during the whole night. [/$ a 
 person likely to Jill one lamp and forget the other, if 
 both are together? If you forgot to attach one ex 
 tinguisher on a very warm day, you would risk 
 spoiling the eggs, as the turning down of one flame 
 would not compensate for the one at full blast at the 
 latter part of a hatch. A person who has not time 
 and memory to fill the lamp or lamps once in 24. 
 hours should not use an incubator .] Now an incu- 
 bator has got to be run three weeks, night and day. 
 All of the above mistakes often occur through the 
 carelessness, forgetfulness or inexperience of the at- 
 tendant ; so that the superiority and safety of our 
 regulation above all others is manifest. The 
 superiority of this principle of regulation over 
 that on hot air machines is manifest. [ We fail to 
 see it.~\ Their only means of reducing heat is by 
 ventilating when the heat is excessive ; [ This, if 
 applied to the heat in the egg chamber (and thai is 
 the vital place}, is a mistake or a misstatement, as 
 the best hot air incubators do not regulate the tem- 
 perature of the egg chamber by opening and closing 
 ventilators therein or therefrom it is the Hot 
 Water machines that do that. The hot-air machine 
 97 
 
takes away the SUPPLY of heat from the heater 
 and PRE VENTS the heater from overheating the 
 egg chamber at any time. See Hot-air Incubator J\ 
 Again, other makers decry our lamp trips, saying, 
 'They are unreliable' [Not only unreliable, but 
 dangerous, from their inclination to clog and stick, 
 causing smoke, overheat, etc^\ when this is the 
 safest and surest part of the whole thing, \_At par 
 with the other details. ~\ as it is nothing more or less 
 than an adjustable wick tube to reduce the flame. 
 Instead of turning down the flame, the tube is 
 drawn up over it the action different, but the 
 result the same." 
 
 TWO REGULATORS. 
 
 Some incubators have two regulators. Why ? 
 Because one is not sufficient. The regulator which 
 raises and lowers the flame of the lamp does not 
 entirely control the heat, especially when the tem- 
 perature of the room rises. To remedy this diffi- 
 culty a second regulator is added, one to open and 
 close a valve in the egg chamber. As we have 
 used such machines, we will tell you how they 
 worked for us, and you can decide whether or not 
 two regulators are an advantage. 
 
 For instance we set the lamp trip regulator to 
 lower the flame at 103^ and the egg chamber 
 ventilator to open at 104^ both thermostats 
 being in ^the egg chamber. The temperature of 
 the room in which the incubator is operated is 55 
 at 7 o'clock A. M. We have filled and trimmed 
 98 
 
the lamps and turned the eggs, so we leave the 
 incubator and go about our other business, not 
 expecting to have to attend to the incubator again 
 until 6 or 7 P. M. If the temperature of the room, 
 remains at 55 and the lamp trip does not clog or 
 stick all may go well ; but by n A. M. the tem- 
 perature of the room has risen to 70, the tempera- 
 ture of the egg chamber rises to 103^ and the 
 lamp flame is lowered. The temperature of the 
 room keeps rising until it reaches 80, and not- 
 withstanding the fact that the flame is lowered, the 
 heat in the egg chamber rises to 104^ and the 
 second regulator opens a damper valve in the egg 
 chamber. Now the cooler air of the room (at 80) 
 rushes in the egg chamber, acts on the thermostat 
 and closes the valve. It also acts on the other 
 thermostat and causes the flame to be turned up, 
 while the water in the tank has not cooled a 
 degree. The higher flame now makes the water 
 still hotter, and the air in the egg chamber is 
 reheated, down goes the lamp, open flies the 
 damper, the cooler air rushes in, the damper closes, 
 up goes the flame, and hotter still gets the water 
 in the tank. The up and down and opening and 
 closing process goes on at an increased rate 
 (shorter intervals) while the egg chamber goes 
 through a course of chills and fevers with fluctu- 
 ating ventilation and moisture the latter being 
 affected by every change of ventilation, until the 
 temperature of the room declines towards evening 
 to 55 or 60 or to the point at which it stood 
 when the regulators were set or adjusted. If you 
 99 
 
can keep an even temperature in the room, you 
 may be able to control a hot water incubator with 
 two regulators ; but in that case why not hatch in 
 the room without an incubator ? 
 
 HOCUS POCUS REGULATORS. 
 
 The old game of "hocus pocus," or, "now ycu 
 see it, and now you don't," may serve very nicely 
 as an innocent amusement for children, but when 
 applied to the regulator of an incubator, is not 
 particularly amusing to the operator of such incu- 
 bator. The following review of a regulator farce 
 in four acts running through four editions of an 
 incubator catalogue (our observations being 
 inserted in italics}, is to the point. 
 
 HOCUS POCUS; 
 
 OR THE MAGIC REGULATOR. 
 
 FIRST ACT (from Catalogue No. 5). 
 "OUR REGULATOR." To control the heat 
 through a course of hatching at a temperature of 
 103 within the egg chamber, has been the perplex- 
 ing question with all incubator manufacturers. 
 Methods consisting of electricity, mercury, water 
 expansion, thermostat, lamp trips and other devices 
 we have personally and practically tested, which 
 enables us to know from experience the great 
 advantage of an incubator with a large water capa- 
 city, to produce the amount of heat necessary with- 
 
 100 
 
out bringing it to a boil, {Notice how they slide off 
 of the regulator question into a large tank of water} 
 which is the case where small and shallow tanks are 
 used. {A large tank of water will not cool off as 
 easily as a smaller one, and the possibility of over- 
 heating is greater and more dangerous. To produce 
 a temperature of 103 in the egg chamber the body 
 of water must be so hot ; if the temperature of Ihe 
 room rises or falls, the water in the large tank must 
 be made hotter or cooler, as the occasion demands, 
 and if a large body of water gets too hot, it stays 
 too hot longer than a smaller body of water. If it 
 gets too cold, it takes longer to reheat it. What has 
 that to do with the regulator f) 
 
 The is supplied with FOUR exhaust 
 
 ventilators, one at each corner of the machine, and 
 so arranged that during incubation a continuous 
 and evenly distributed current of warm air passes 
 through the egg chamber, carrying with it all gas 
 and poisonous vapor which accumulates during the 
 process of hatching, and exhausts the heat as it 
 reaches the point of 103. ( With no motive power 
 to open or close these four ventilators, will any sane 
 person imagine that they will control the temperature 
 of the egg chamber any more than four windows 
 will control the temperature of a room, unless an 
 attendant watches and opens and closes them partly 
 or entirely as the O2itside temperature changes ? On 
 the contrary, the ventilation will be greater on a 
 cold than on a warm day, the amount of air passing 
 through being governed by the changes of tempera- 
 ture of the room). By this method we have a 
 101 
 
 T*- -T- -T, .> JE ^^s^ 
 
regulator which is simple, perfect and absolutely 
 reliable, ( The machine as described has no more 
 regulator than an ordinary tea kettle has, and on 
 the following page of same catalogue they not only 
 admit that they have no automatic regulator, but 
 you will see them say that there is no absolutely self- 
 regulating incubator. Nothing slow about this 
 farce /), and one that produces a gradual and even 
 ventilation, and avoids all chilly drafts which occur 
 in incubators ventilated by the constant opening 
 and closing of large swinging dampers, claimed to 
 regulate the heat, and placed immediately over the 
 egg drawer. We have fully demonstrated the 
 good qualities of our hatcher, and the reliability 
 of our regulator to the people in this whole section 
 by completing two hatches in succession, in one of 
 the largest and most extensively decorated show 
 
 windows in the city of , with good success. 
 
 Would respectfully ask : Could we, in any way 
 
 better explain what the will do? or the 
 
 accuracy of our regulator. {Have you, thus far, 
 found any explanation as to HO W this ' regulator* 
 regulates ? How it manages the big body of water 
 when it gets too hot and sends the temperature of the 
 egg chamber up to IIO Q , as we have seen it ; or 
 how it warms it up again when it gets too cool f 
 No f Well neither have we ; but we can tell you 
 how its manufacturers did it at the World 's Fair : 
 They turned the light up or down and waited 
 several hours, or got others to do it for them. Had 
 the four ventilators at the corners exhausted the 
 heat at 103, there would have been no danger of 
 102 
 
overheating in the night, and had it been self -regu- 
 lating, there would have been no occasion to have 
 persons on the lookout to turn the lamp up or down .) 
 Many will say, after reading the description 
 
 given herein : The Incubator is undoubtedly 
 
 a good machine, but would prefer one with a self- 
 regulator connected with it. {Here is an admission 
 that it is not automatic and has NO REGULA- 
 TOR, and you must regulate it entirely by hand, 
 raising or lowering the lamp flame with each 
 change of temperature, if you happen to get there in 
 time. ) RIGHT HERE permit us to call your attention 
 to the fact that there is not an incubator in existence 
 that is absolutely self- regulating (No, there is no 
 perpetual motion that will fill the lamps and attend 
 to the requirements without human aid, but there are 
 incubators that regulate as perfectly as one could 
 wish, and need no attention, except for a few min- 
 utes twice a day.}, it makes no difference what 
 superior claims the proprietors set forth, or the 
 device or arrangement used for adjusting or gov- 
 erning the heat in the egg chamber. (7s not this 
 a contradiction of their claim just made, of the 
 accuracy of their regulator. The farce abounds 
 with funny situations.} Experienced incubator 
 operators will bear us out in this statement. (Not 
 if they have used the best makes of modern incuba- 
 tors ; hundreds prove to the contrary.} From one 
 of the many books of directions for operating Self- 
 regulating Incubators, which we have in our 
 possession, we quote the following paragraph. 
 " No matter how much of a self- regulating machine 
 103 
 
4444 4444 4444 4444 4444 44 44 4 444 44 4 4 44 44 # 
 
 it is, the SUPPLY of heat must be regulated by 
 hand more or less, as the temperature of the room 
 changes. You must understand the working of 
 the regulator and see that it is set at the proper 
 degree before you put ANY EGGS in the ma- 
 chine." (No person would start to fire up a new 
 boiler without properly adjusting the safety valve, 
 nor would an engineer attempt to start his locomo- 
 tive before getting up steam to the required pressure. 
 A baker would not put his bread in an oven before 
 it was thoroughly heated. Certainly an incubator 
 manufacturer with common sense would not direct 
 you to put eggs into an incubator before you have 
 the heat up to lof and the regulator set to control 
 it. Such argument (?} is ridiculous}. The fore- 
 going leaves you to judge the real value of self- 
 regulators, which is materially the *same advice 
 given to all purchasers, after sending their cash for a 
 self- regulating incubator. (All so-called self -regu- 
 lating incubators are not self -regulating, but there 
 are some which are.) 
 
 We most emphatically state that the 
 
 is as near perfect in this respect as a machine for 
 hatching eggs can be made, unassisted by motive 
 power, thermostat, clock-work, electricity or any 
 secondary appliance whatever. (No motive power, 
 no automatic regulation; and where there is no 
 automatic regulation you must depend upon regu- 
 lating by hand, that is by turning the flame up or 
 down; if you are not at hand at the proper time, 
 which may be at midday or at midnight, you get left 
 on the hatch, your eggs get cooked or chilled?) Our 
 104 
 
machine is in every sense practical and reliable, 
 readily understood and easily managed. After a 
 short experience with one of our hatchers, we will 
 guarantee that you may be absent from the machine 
 from seven in the morning till seven in the evening 
 and it will take care of itself, unless (Jia /) an un- 
 usual and extreme change of temperature takes 
 place. A change of from seven to ten degrees will 
 have no material effect on our incubator." {If no 
 extreme change of temperature takes place / Well, 
 extreme changes do take place in twelve hours, even 
 in daytime, but what about leaving it alone all 
 night, when changes of from ten to forty degrees 
 frequently occur f In some parts of this country 
 a change of fifty degrees within 24. hours is not 
 unusual?) 
 
 SECOND ACT (from Catalogue No. 6, early edi- 
 tion.) 
 
 " OUR REGULATOR." For ten years the 
 
 Incubator has been manufactured. Each year it 
 has rapidly advanced in popularity and to-day 
 stands in the front rank with the best. This has 
 been accomplished by adding new features but 
 only when such features are proven practical and 
 consistent with other important appliances which 
 must be used to constitute a first- class hatcher, as 
 an imperfect regulator will derange and seriously 
 affect both moisture and ventilation. In equipping 
 
 our with regulator, we have been very 
 
 careful to avoid all puzzling contrivances. (After 
 105 
 
a constant war against regulators they conclude 
 that they need one. That they did put their foot 
 into a puzzling contrivance will be evident when 
 you observe that in a later edition of catalogue No. 
 6 their regulator is discarded has disappeared in 
 twenty gallons of water.) Methods consisting of 
 electricity, mercury, water-expansion, lamp-trips, 
 and numerous other devices, we have practically 
 tested. {Can we believe that they had tested the 
 regulator which they now claim to have adopted, 
 when they did not have one on their incubator at 
 World' s Fair, during the latter part of which they 
 announced that they had a regulator, after examin- 
 ing the regulators of other machines on exhibition, 
 and asking where and by whom they were made. 
 Did they have it on the two incubators outside the 
 fair grounds, hatching chicks for their brooders?), 
 but find nothing so complete in every particular as 
 the late improved combined thermostat, which is 
 as sensitive to the heat's action as the thermometer 
 itself. {How does that sound after what they said in 
 the first act about self-regulating incubators? A 
 month or so previous they were no good ; now there 
 is nothing so complete and bear in mind they claim 
 to add only such features as are proven practical. 
 Here the farce borrows a feature of the pantomime, 
 and the clown turns a somersault) 
 
 A thermostat bar twelve inches long, (too short) 
 composed of steel, brass and rubber, all especially 
 prepared for our hatchers. {The combination is 
 something new, indeed. We do not say that they 
 did not attempt to use such a thermostat, but we 
 106 
 
were told by a lady that she bought one of these 
 incubators shortly after the World 's Fair, under- 
 standing from the catalogue that it had such a 
 regulator, but found that there was no thermostat 
 in the machine. That she wrote to the makers 
 about it, and they told her that the party who made 
 them for them had failed, and they could not get 
 any more ; but thai she should remember that it was 
 not the regulator that hatched the chicks, but the 
 incubator. She said that she returned the machine 
 to its makers and asked for her money. We pre- 
 sume that she got it.} The bar is securely fastened 
 to the under side of frame which supports the tank 
 and on a level with the upper surface of the eggs. 
 At the unfastened end of the bar it connects with 
 lever and a brass rod, which opens and closes a 
 small ventilating tube. This ventilating cap is 
 easily adjusted by means of two little set- screws, 
 one above and one below the cap, on outside and 
 on top of tube, and can be set to open or close at 
 any desired degree of temperature in the egg- 
 chamber. With our regulator no rods or bearings 
 are attached to the outside of the machine. ( We 
 have not found any person who has yet seen them on 
 the inside.} We have known of serious accidents 
 occurring where the regulating attachments are 
 exposed to the meddling of children, and one 
 instance especially, where 600 nice eggs were 
 ruined two days before they were due to hatch by 
 a rat running over the top of the incubator and 
 dislocating the regulator. {Rats ! It is a case of 
 sour grapes. Notice later, in the fourth act, cata- 
 107 
 
logue No. 10, where they claim to have another 
 regulator this time on the outside, they forget to 
 mention the mischievous rat, or the meddling chil- 
 dren ; but such an important character as Mr. Rat 
 should be made to play his part to the end of the 
 farce) 
 
 THIRD ACT (from Catalogue No. 6, later edition.) 
 
 "As TO THE MATTER OF REGULATION." The 
 
 Incubator has been on the market NINE 
 
 consecutive years. (Glance back to beginning of 
 second act.) Its growth in public favor has been 
 rapid. It is to-day the most popular incubator in 
 existence. It has won this high rank strictly on its 
 merits. Its wide-spread popularity is, we claim, 
 absolute proof of its merits of its real value as a 
 hatcher. The proof of the pudding is in the eat- 
 ing ! In reply to all envious assertions made by 
 competitors, we have this to say : Mere assertion is 
 one thing ; actual results, as described and sworn 
 to by men and women who have bought and are 
 
 now using hatchers, are very different 
 
 things. The one is the boasting of men who have 
 something to sell ; the others are the disinterested 
 statements of persons who have paid out their 
 good money for artificial hatchers and have put 
 them to the test. ****** The real 
 safety of the heat governor on a successful incu- 
 bator depends upon the amount of water used. 
 
 That is the secret of success. The holds 
 
 twenty gallons of water, 200 egg capacity. (Here 
 108 
 
they fall back again into the twenty gallons of water. 
 
 Where, oh, where is that 12 -inch thermostat? 
 
 Where is the new feature which they had proven ; 
 the thermostat that was as sensitive to the heafs 
 action as the thermometer itself? Did a rat carry 
 
 FOURTH ACT (from tenth annual catalogue, first 
 
 edition). 
 
 "* AUTOMATIC HEAT REGULATORS." The 
 , as originally patented, was not 
 equipped with an automatic regulator. The value 
 of a trustworthy regulator was appreciated, how- 
 ever, ( What about the twenty gallons of water and 
 the four ventilating holes, which in First Act, cata- 
 logue No. 5, was a regulator simple, perfect and 
 absolutely reliable ?) and during a number of years 
 extensive experiments were made by us along this 
 line. ( We should say so, when within one year four 
 different catalogues were used to convince pro- 
 spective customers that the machine had a simple, 
 perfect and reliable regulator, while they were 
 ringing the changes on the twenty gallons of water 
 and four ventilators, the 12 inch rubber, brass and 
 steel thermostat, the twenty gallons of water and 
 four ventilators again, and then the severed band cf 
 brass and soldered steel wires.) So-called lamp 
 trips were tried and found to be untrustworthy. 
 The rubber thermostat, or rubber bar was faithfully 
 tried, but was found to lose its power after three or 
 four hatches and thus become worthless. (Less 
 than a year before they said they had a complete 
 109 
 
regulator the expansive power of which was, 
 we believe, rubber. Now they say it is worthless. 
 Then they declared that they added only such 
 features as had ' ' proven practical? ') A regulating 
 device which depends on a rubber bar for its power 
 will not last, as the rubber, when continually 
 exposed to a temperature of 103, dies, as the 
 scientists say, or loses its power of regular expan- 
 sion and contraction. It is like the rubber in a 
 pair of ordinary suspenders, in the heat of summer 
 the rubber gives out. A steel strip is used with a 
 view to correcting this loss of power in the rubber 
 thermostat, but with only temporary results. 
 ( Was this true when they claimed it "proven" 
 " complete in every particular and as sensitive to 
 the heat' s action as the thermometer itself" ; or do 
 the laws of nature change within a year to suit the 
 convenience of these punsters ? Verily, the farce is 
 a merry one!) We know exactly what we are 
 talking about in this respect, for the simple reason 
 that we once adopted this same device and had to 
 discard it as being worse than no regulator at all. 
 {But say, while we are proud to see them own up 
 for once, we cant exactly see how they are going to 
 explain the fairy tale in one of the catalogues No. 
 6, where they declare that they added only such new 
 features as have PRO V EN practical and consist- 
 ent, and give the public to understand that the said 
 device had been thoroughly tested and proven, and 
 found practical and accurate. 
 
 There are no secrets connected with the 
 
 incubators, none whatever. In this book we aim 
 no 
 
to explain and describe every part and feature of 
 our machines so that there need be no misunder- 
 standings. We want our patrons to know before- 
 hand precisely what they are to get. ( The bass- 
 drum and trombone put in a staccato note here.} 
 We are willing to leave it to their judgment 
 whether or not our machines are honest goods 
 built on correct principles. {Soft cadences of 
 harmony from second violin, flute, clarionet in E 
 flat, French horn and violoncello. Ladies in the 
 parquet and dress circle weep in an undertone. 
 Lights low?) 
 
 The regulator we now use {For how long f) on 
 all our machines, depends for its power on the 
 expansion and contraction of metals, brass and 
 steel, under a change of temperature a natural 
 law that is as certain as that a stone when thrown 
 into the air will fall back to earth. ( The old steel 
 and brass combination was discarded years ago by 
 parties who now manufacture good incubators, and 
 a third tumble into the same old twenty gallons of 
 ivater will probably be a feature in the next cata- 
 logue. Unfortunately the new customers very rarely 
 see the old catalogues?) 
 
 Tableau Colored lights Lively music. 
 
 CURTAIN. 
 
 There are numerous ' ' hocus pocus " regulators (?) 
 placed on so-called incubators. While nobody 
 objects to would-be inventors experimenting with 
 every new contrivance offered them as regulators, 
 provided they do the experimenting at their own 
 in 
 
expense, before placing the machine or contrivance 
 on the market, most persons do object to having 
 an experimental regulator palmed off on them for 
 a thoroughly tested and proven one. A mariner 
 is just as safe with a deficient compass as a poultry- 
 man is with a faulty regulator on his incubator. 
 If it occurs to you that we seem to be finding a 
 great deal of fault, we would call your attention to 
 the fact that when a surveyor makes a chart of a 
 river or bay, he does not stop at lining out the safe 
 courses and deep channels, but is equally particular 
 to designate the dangerous rocks, treacherous 
 shoals and sunken wrecks. Did we fail to do the 
 same in this line you would censure us. 
 
 OTHER METHODS OF REGULATION. 
 
 Take a machine with a thermostatic bar close to 
 the heater, not level with the eggs, and the bottom 
 of the incubator being nothing but one thickness 
 of galvanized iron, with water pans made in the 
 iron ; a change of temperature in the room will, 
 through this thin iron, affect the temperature of 
 the egg chamber below the thermostatic bar,' and 
 as high as the level of the egg centre, before affect- 
 ing the bar, and under some circumstances the 
 variations do not reach the bar at all. The chilling 
 of the water through this thin bottom is also fatal 
 to good results. The flame of the lamp must be 
 raised or lowered as the temperature of the room 
 changes to any extent. 
 
 Another incubator, partly double wall, one-inch 
 112 
 
wood with galvanized iron inside ; a thermostatic 
 bar as in the former, or nearly so, only made in 
 different shape and applied differently to open a 
 damper in the top and to raise the lamp trips to 
 lower the flames. This damper opens, and out 
 rushes the heat and the moisture. The eggs and 
 the water are thus cooled. 
 
 This damper is supposed to open at 103^ or 
 104 and to close at 102, and under certain cir- 
 cumstances it will do it, but you cannot depend 
 upon it. It may open at 103^ and close at 101 
 for a week, and it may open at 103 and not close 
 until the temperature falls to 95, and again it will 
 close at 101 and. will not open until 1 10 is reached 
 we have seen them go up to 115 before opening. 
 Can this be called " self- regulating ?" Can the 
 right amount of moisture be applied by this 
 arrangement ? 
 
 Another class have a water tank over the eggs, 
 with thermometer immersed in the water, and the 
 operator is directed to keep the water at a certain 
 temperature. We have seen eggs cooked in this 
 kind-of a machine with water kept as directed. 
 
 Another lined with paper, and having a regulator 
 four inches above the eggs, and water on top of 
 the heater, with a damper over the water, which 
 damper is supposed to open and close at the desired 
 temperature. It does not do so with any regularity, 
 and when it does open, it is liable to stay open all 
 day and, of course, the moisture goes out. We 
 have run three of this kind with bad results, after 
 which they were stored away. 
 
Another has a very pretty appearance, glass 
 doors, etc., with thermostatic bar, single wall, 
 clock-work and battery ; dampers in the top to 
 open and close (often six or eight times in an hour), 
 lamp trips to lower the flame ; it is quite a piece of 
 machinery and quite likely to get out of order, 
 both the clock-work and the thermostatic bar, as 
 well as the battery. When these all work right it 
 gives very good results ; but it requires skill, 
 experience and a mechanical turn to operate this 
 class of machines successfully. 
 
 Another has splendid arrangements for moisture 
 and ventilation ; but the thermostatic bar is affected 
 by the swelling and shrinking of the machine and 
 change of outside temperature ; in some climatesj 
 we find it almost impossible to control it in an 
 ordinary house. 
 
 We have found where lamp trips are used the 
 wick becomes charred much quicker. 
 
 Another kind has a tank to pour hot water into 
 above the eggs, which are placed in a drawer. 
 The water must be drawn out and heated every 
 day, sometimes several times in a day, and is not 
 reliable for profitable work . 
 
 There are others which we might mention, but* 
 space forbids, nor is it necessary. 
 
 Most of the so-called "self-regulating" incu- 
 bators that we have seen have to be governed ; 
 principally by the lamp and some judgment of the 
 operator. 
 
 Example : We have a large room made of one- 
 inch boards, with a stove in it, which, in moderate 
 114 
 
*A.A.&A.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.AAAAAAAAAl*AA/y 
 
 weather with a moderate fire, will heat it comfort- 
 ably. In cold weather it takes a larger fire to heat 
 it, and in extremely cold weather the hottest fire 
 we can make in this stove will not heat it properly. 
 Why ? Because the outside temperature penetrates 
 the thin wall. If this same room was to be heated 
 for chicks, the chicks to run on the floor, and you 
 wanted the temperature on the floor at 70, would 
 you for a moment think of putting the regulator at 
 the ceiling and calculating the temperature below ? 
 
 THERMOSTATS. 
 
 Air, water, alcohol, ether, iodine, kerosene, 
 mercury, gold, silver, iron, steel, brass, rubber and 
 many other substances have been used in making 
 thermostats, with varying success. A thermostat 
 combining the right quality of vulcanized rubber 
 with a grade of brass made suitable for this purpose, 
 is the best one yet made. It took years of experi- 
 ment to determine the exact quality and grade, 
 and it requires an expert to put them together so 
 they will work true and correctly, and neither lose 
 power nor take a back or reverse action. 
 
 A thermostat may work near enough to control 
 the heat of a furnace or to ventilate a house, and 
 yet fail to give satisfaction on an incubator ; for a 
 very small variation of the thermostat may ruin 
 the entire hatch. 
 
 Each year some manufacturer of metal goods, 
 agricultural implements, show cases, washing 
 
machines or novelties, announces to the incubator 
 people that he has just perfected a regulator that 
 he will put on his incubator this season, and that 
 he would like to furnish it at a low cost to the 
 manufacturers of incubators. The mushroom 
 concerns that have a regulator which does not 
 work, and some of those that have none at all 
 (which is far better, because you know you have to 
 watch them) jump at it, and then whoop that they 
 have something that they have tested for years. 
 They seldom know a good thing when they see it, 
 but the bitter complaints of customers cause them 
 to cast about for something else, and they are 
 ready for the next fake that comes along. 
 
 Manufacturers of thermostats for fire alarms 
 have failed to produce one for incubators. 
 
 Air, water, alcohol, and most liquids are affected 
 by atmospheric pressure, etc., and are not reliable. 
 Alcohol is rarely used in thermometers now, except 
 where extremely low temperatures are to be taken, 
 when mercury fails to act. Zinc expands well, but 
 fails to contract ; it gradually grows longer and is 
 useless. Mercury, if not confined, will evaporate ; 
 even when confined it is affected by moisture, and 
 is not a perfect material for a thermostat. You 
 may say, "If moisture affects a mercury thermo- 
 stat, why will it not affect a mercury thermometer? " 
 It does ; but a comparatively small amount of 
 mercury is used in a thermometer. As a proof of 
 this assertion, look at the very best hygrometers, 
 which are made by using a wet and a dry bulb 
 thermometer. Notice the difference between the 
 116 
 
temperatures of the wet thermometer and the dry 
 one. If moisture affects a small amount of mer- 
 cury that much, what will it do with from twenty 
 to forty times the bulk? Iron and steel are too 
 slow to contract, or return. Gold and silver are 
 too expensive, and are not equal to brass as a 
 metal part. Remember that there are many kinds 
 of brass, and all kinds will not answer. Liquids 
 are not safe ; besides the danger of a leak, the 
 expansion and contraction of the metal in which 
 they are confined must be overcome or compen- 
 sated for. 
 
 MOISTURE GAUGES AND HYGROMETERS. 
 
 We have experimented with many moisture 
 gauges and hygrometers both inside and outside 
 of incubators, and have not found them of any 
 practical use inside of an incubator. The majority 
 of those offered to poultrymen are not at all 
 117 
 
reliable, and many of them should be classed with 
 toys. For instance, we have two of the same make 
 and kind, and placed them side by side, and found 
 them indicating different degrees of humidity. 
 We have then placed a high-priced hygrometer 
 between them and corrected both to correspond 
 with the high-grade instrument. In a few hours 
 No. i would mark 70 while No. 2 would point to 
 90 while the standard instrument indicated 55. 
 Again, when No. i was at 90 No. 2 was pushing 
 past 100, and later when No.. 2. was at 40 No. i 
 was at 55. There was no regularity or .method 
 in their variations, as one would be higher than 
 the other one day and lower than the same the 
 next day. Of what use would either of those 
 instruments be in an incubator even if you could 
 control the moisture ? The old-fashioned way of 
 putting a cigar in the incubator would be just as 
 serviceable. You tell by the feel of the cigar about 
 how moist or dry the air is. 
 
 There are, of course, hygrometers that are cor- 
 rect, but few of them are adapted for use in an 
 incubator. Some are too long or high for the 
 space between the egg tray and the heat radiator, 
 while others have a scale so small that it cannot be 
 read without removing it from the egg chamber to 
 a stronger light. 
 
 It is well to have a good hygrometer in the incu- 
 bator room and to keep a record of its readings, 
 daily, for it will be a valuable guide, taken in con- 
 nection with the record of kinds and condition of 
 eggs in the incubator, in determining when to fill 
 118 
 
the moisture pans and the amount of evaporating 
 surface required. The time and quantity are 
 figured out for your location and incorporated in 
 the general directions sent by the manufacturer of 
 a good incubator, but as he cannot know the 
 exact kind, quality and condition of the eggs you 
 may use, his directions are given for the best 
 results from an average lot of mixed eggs and an 
 average condition of outside temperature and 
 humidity. 
 
 Here is the record of a little experiment, using 
 the wet and dry bulb hygrometer and a spiral 
 moisture gauge in the incubator room, and two 
 spiral moisture gauges inside the incubator, the 
 temperature of the egg chamber being 103 the 
 spiral instruments all being compared and set by 
 the wet and dry bulb hygrometer, to within one- 
 fifth of a degree, or as near as possible with such 
 instruments : First day, in room, dry bulb 79 
 wet 71 spiral 30 ; inside of incubator, No. i, 60 
 No. 2, 90. Second day, room, dry 70 wet 
 76 spiral 100 ; in incubator, No. i, 95 No. 2, 
 65 ; Afternoon of same day, room, dry 70 wet 
 76 spiral 85 ; in incubator, No. i, 60 No. 2, 
 95. Third day, room, dry, 75 wet 72 spiral, 
 95 ; in incubator, No. I, 100 No. 2 index 
 against 100, and did not start back until No. i 
 reached 75. The same degree of heat, same ven- 
 tilation and same exposure of water surface were 
 kept in the incubator all three days. We have 
 kept these and other tests going for years, but 
 have given enough to illustrate the point without 
 119 
 
tiring the reader. Try them yourself. The ordi- 
 nary moisture gauges are not reliable, and if they 
 were, you could not control the outside humidity. 
 
 From one-sixth to eighteen-twenty-firsts of the 
 incubation there is no water in the egg chamber of 
 a majority of incubators, to create moisture. 
 Suppose then the gauge indicates more moisture 
 than is called for, what will you do ? What use is 
 the gauge there? If the gauge is not correct you 
 will know no more than without one. If the water 
 pans were full and the gauge indicated too much 
 moisture, and you reduced it, you would probably 
 do exactly wrong ; for the gauge would fool you . 
 There is no rule by which a given amount of 
 moisture can be used through an entire hatch, or 
 for a part of it, by any gauge. A correct gauge 
 will indicate the degree of humidity, but thus far, 
 it has never been perfectly controlled in an incu- 
 bator, nor is it likely to be as long as ventilation is 
 a necessity. We can regulate it to a great extent 
 so as to make very good hatches ; but the man 
 who expects to control the moisture in the egg 
 chamber must look beyond a moisture gauge. 
 
 There is more moisture when the chicks are 
 hatching than at any other time ; they also need 
 more then. The tray of wet chicks increases the 
 moisture. 
 
 Some eggs require more moisture than others. 
 Some eggs will stand more moisture than others. 
 Thick shell eggs require less than those with thin, 
 soft shells. You will often hear a person say that 
 their thin shell eggs hatched splendidly, but that 
 
 120 
 
the chicks died in those with thick .shells. It is 
 generally the case that they had just the right 
 amount of moisture for the thin shell eggs, and too 
 much for the thick ones. Would the moisture 
 gauge help the thick shell eggs in that instance ? 
 As the majority of persons have a mixed lot of 
 eggs, general directions must be given that will 
 give the best results, as a rule. If directions with 
 incubators were made to fill a dozen or twenty 
 pages, a great many beginners would slight them 
 and omit some of the most vital points; or they 
 would reject them entirely as too complicated. 
 But those who wish to get all there is in the busi- 
 ness, should try to have eggs as nearly alike in 
 character of shell as possible, to fill an incubator. 
 This is impracticable to many, but comparatively 
 easy where one has two or more incubators. 
 
 Mason's Hygrometer consists cf two thermome- 
 ters, as nearly as possible alike, mounted parallel 
 upon a frame and marked respectively "wet" 
 and "dry." The bulb of the one marked wet is 
 covered with thin muslin or silk, and kept moist 
 from a fountain which is usually attached. The 
 principle of its action is, that unless the air is satu- 
 rated with moisture, evaporation is continually 
 going on. And as no evaporation can take place 
 without an expenditure of heat, the temperature 
 of the wet bulb thermometer, under the evapora- 
 tion from the moistened bulb, falls until a certain 
 point is reached, intermediate between the dew- 
 point and the temperature of the air, as shown by 
 the dry bulb thermometer. To find the dew-point, 
 121 
 
the absolute dryness, and the 
 weight in grains of a cubic foot 
 of air, tables have been con- 
 structed empirically from experi- 
 ments at Greenwich, combined 
 with Regnault's tables of Vapor 
 Tension, for the use of which we 
 are indebted to the courtesy of 
 MESSRS. QUEEN & Co., Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 If the air be very dry, the dif- 
 ference between the two. ther- 
 mometers will be great ; if moist, 
 less in proportion, and when fully 
 saturated, both will be alike. For 
 different purposes, different de- 
 grees of humidity are required, 
 and even in household use, that 
 hygrometrical condition of the 
 atmosphere most beneficial to one 
 person, may frequently be found altogether unsuit- 
 table for another. " Dry" bulb 70 and "wet" 
 bulb 62 to 64 indicate average healthful hygrom- 
 etrical conditions ; any other relative condition re- 
 quired may easily be found by experiment, and 
 then, dispensing with calculations, or reference to 
 tables, it is only necessary to see that the two ther- 
 mometers stand in the required relation to each 
 other. 
 
 The price of Mason's Hygrometer ranges from 
 $2.00 to $17.50. 
 
 MASON'S HYGROM- 
 ETER. 
 
 122 
 
TABLES FOR THE USE OF MASON'S HYGROMETER. 
 
 TABLE OF DEGREES. 
 
 in 
 
 Degrees -f- e"x- 
 cess x 2 -= ab- 
 
 1 
 
 III 
 
 Degrees + ex- 
 cess x 2 = ab- 
 
 <y 
 
 5 
 
 1^ 
 
 solute Dryness. 
 
 O*? 05 
 
 
 solute Dryness. 
 
 Sl& t/5 
 
 Eg 
 
 
 bc-a'a 
 
 ^ w 
 
 
 Si'o'o 
 
 Degrees of 
 Dryness 
 Observed. 
 
 Excess of 
 Dryness to 
 be added. 
 
 1 
 
 .! 
 
 r. 
 
 Degrees of 
 Dryness 
 Observed. 
 
 Excess of 
 Dryness to 
 be added. 
 
 Absolute 
 Dryness 
 existing. 
 
 M ^ c/; 
 
 Si 5 
 
 r 
 
 o 
 
 o.o 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 1.5 
 
 1.9165 
 
 26.833 
 
 69 
 
 0.5 
 
 0.083 
 
 1.166 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 2.OOO 
 
 28.0 
 
 72 
 
 i 
 
 0.166 
 
 2.332 
 
 6 
 
 12.5 
 
 2 083 
 
 29. 166 
 
 75 
 
 1.5 
 
 0.2495 
 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 2.166 
 
 30332 
 
 78 
 
 2 
 
 0-333 
 
 4 666 
 
 12 
 
 13-5 
 
 2.2495 
 
 3' 499 
 
 81 
 
 2-5 
 
 3 
 
 04165 
 0.300 
 
 5833 
 7.0 
 
 15 
 18 
 
 14 
 J4-5 
 
 2-333 
 2.4165 
 
 32666 
 33.833 
 
 84 
 87 
 
 35 
 
 0.583 
 
 8.166 
 
 2t 
 
 15 
 
 2.500 
 
 35 o 
 
 90 
 
 4 
 
 0.666 
 
 9332 
 
 24 
 
 15-5 
 
 3.583 
 
 36.166 
 
 93 
 
 4-5" 
 
 0-7495- 
 
 10 499 
 
 - 27 
 
 16 
 
 2.666 37.332 
 
 96 
 
 5 
 
 0.833 
 
 11.666 
 
 30 
 
 165 
 
 2-7495 
 
 38.499 
 
 99 
 
 5-5 
 
 09165 
 
 12.833 
 
 33 
 
 17 
 
 283^ 
 
 39-666 
 
 102 
 
 6 
 
 I 000 
 
 14.0 
 
 36 
 
 175 
 
 2.9 65 1 40.833 
 
 105 
 
 65 
 
 7 
 
 1.083 
 1.166 
 
 15 166 
 16332 
 
 39 
 
 42 i 
 
 18 
 18.5 
 
 3.000 
 3083 
 
 420 
 431^6 
 
 108 
 III 
 
 75 
 
 1.2495 
 
 17 499 
 
 45 
 
 19 
 
 3.166 
 
 44332 
 
 114 
 
 8 
 
 1.333 
 
 18.666 
 
 48 
 
 195 
 
 32495 
 
 45499 
 
 117 
 
 8-5 
 
 1.4165 
 
 I9.833 
 
 
 20 
 
 3-333 
 
 46.666 
 
 1 2O 
 
 9 
 
 1.500 
 
 2I.O 
 
 54 
 
 205. 
 
 3-4165 
 
 47.833 
 
 123 
 
 9-5 
 
 1.583 
 
 22 166 
 
 57 
 
 2t 
 
 3-500 
 
 490 
 
 126 
 
 10 
 
 1.666 
 
 23.332 
 
 60 
 
 21-5 
 
 3.583 
 
 50.166 
 
 12 9 
 
 10.5 
 
 1-7495 
 
 24499 
 
 63 
 
 22 
 
 3" 666 
 
 5L332 
 
 132 
 
 ir 
 
 1833 
 
 25.666 
 
 66 
 
 225 
 
 37495 
 
 52.499 
 
 135 
 
 By the TABLE OF DEGREES is shown, without 
 calculation, the absolute dryness of the atmosphere, 
 in degrees of Fahrenheit's Thermometer. 
 
 Observe the NUMBER OF DEGREES THE TWO 
 THERMOMETERS DIFFER, which are here called 
 "degrees of dryness observed," and found IN THE 
 FIRST COLUMN, of .the table. 
 
 The second column merely contains the figures 
 which, have been added to the degrees of dryness 
 123 
 
in the first, and multiplied by 2, to obtain THE 
 
 ANSWER PUT DOWN IN THE THIRD COLUMN. 
 
 EXAMPLE. Temperature of the air 57, wet bulb 
 54 = 3 degrees of dryness observed ; then add 0.5 
 excess of dryness = 3.5 and multiply by 2, which 
 will give 7 degrees of absolute dryness existing. 
 
 To find the dew-point Subtract the absolute 
 dryness from the temperature of the air. Example 
 57 7 50 dew-point. 
 
 To find the actual quantity of vapor by weight 
 in the atmosphere. Proceed as directed in the 
 TABLE OF QUALITY. 
 
 The comparison of Mason's with the *Dew- 
 point Hygrometer, and of Sir John Leslie's, will 
 be seen in the same line of the ist, 3d and 4th 
 columns of the Table. 
 
 TO FIND THE QUANTITY OF TAPOR BY WEIGHT 
 EXISTING IN THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 PROBLEM. The Temperature of the Atmos- 
 phere in the shade, and of the dew-point being 
 given, to find the quantity of vapor in a cubic foot 
 of air. 
 
 If the temperature of the air and the dew-point 
 correspond, which is the case when both ther- 
 mometers are alike, and the air consequently satu- 
 rated with moisture, then in the table of quantity 
 opposite to the temperature, will be found the cor- 
 responding weight of a cubic foot of vapor ex- 
 pressed in grains. 
 
 * Professor Daniel's Hygrometer is registered by the 3d column. 
 124 
 
EXAMPLE. Let the temperature of the air be 
 70 F., and the dew point the same. Then op- 
 posite the temperature you have the weight of a 
 cubic foot of vapor 8. 392 grains. 
 
 But if the temperature of the air be different 
 from the dew-point, a correction is necessary to find 
 the exact weight. 
 
 EXAMPLE. Suppose the dew- point 'be 70 F., as 
 before, but the temperature of the air in the shade 
 be 80, then the vapor lias suffered an expansion due 
 to an excess of 10, which requires a correction. 
 
 We find in the table of corrections for 10 is 
 1.0208. 
 
 Then divide 8.392 grains at the dew-point, viz., 
 70 by the correction, corresponding to the degrees 
 of absolute dryness, viz. , 10, and you have the 
 actual weight of vapor existing. 
 
 8.3920 
 
 EXAMPLE. 8.221 grains existing, which 
 
 1.0208 
 
 substracted from the weight of vapor, correspond- 
 ing to the temperature of 80 F., gives the number 
 of grains required for saturation at that tempera- 
 ture. 
 
 EXAMPLE. 11.333 gr. at the temp, of 80 F. 
 8.221 gr. contained in the air. 
 
 3.112 gr. required for saturation. 
 To find the relations of these conditions on the 
 natural scale of humidity [complete saturation 
 being i.ooo], divide the weight of vapor at the dew 
 point by the weight at the temperature of the air, 
 125 
 
the quotient gives the parts of 1:000 the degrees of 
 saturation. 
 
 8.392 gr. at the dew-point 70 
 
 EXAMPLE. = 
 
 1 1.333 gr. at the temp, of the air 80 
 7.40 degrees of humidity, saturation being i.ooo. 
 
 The principles of these calculations will be found 
 in Professor Daniel's Meteorological Essays ; in 
 Mr. Anderson's Essays on Hygrometry ; in the 
 Edinburgh Encyclopedia, Vol. XI, and in the 
 Edinburgh Journal of Science, Vol. VII, page 43, 
 in an excellent article on the Dew-point Hygrom- 
 eter, by Mr. Foggo, from which the table of cor- 
 rections has been partly subtracted. The table of 
 quantity by weight has been taken from Professor 
 Daniel's Work on Meteorology, to which the 
 reader is referred for further particulars. 
 
 126 
 

 
 , 
 
 TABLE OF QUANTITY. 
 
 SHOWING THE WEIGHT, IN GRAINS, OF A CUBIC 
 
 FOOT OF VAPOR, AT DIFFERENT TEMPERA- 
 
 TURES, FROM TO 95 F. 
 I 
 
 < 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 . 
 
 < ^ 
 
 w 
 
 d 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 *j ^ 
 
 d 
 
 s 
 
 d 
 
 **d.2 
 
 
 w 2 .5 
 
 
 b/j 3 ^ 
 
 
 ^ fl 
 
 9 
 
 53 S g 
 
 
 '53->-i cs 
 
 p 
 
 C-2'rt 
 
 C" 
 
 - S 
 
 * H 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 ^ O 
 
 
 
 
 
 *- 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ I 
 
 H 2 
 
 0856 
 0.892 
 0.928 
 
 24 
 
 3 
 
 1.961 
 2.028 
 2.096 
 
 48 
 
 49 
 50 
 
 4.279 
 4.407 
 4535 
 
 72 
 73 
 74 
 
 8924 
 9.199 
 
 9484 
 
 H 3 
 
 0.963 
 
 27 
 
 2 163 
 
 
 4084 
 
 75 
 
 9-780 
 
 H 4 
 
 0.999 
 
 28 
 
 2 229 
 
 52 
 
 4.832 
 
 76 
 
 10.107 
 
 5 
 < 6 
 
 1.034 
 .069 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 2.295 
 2 3 6I 
 
 53 
 54 
 
 5003 
 
 5-173 
 
 
 10.387 
 10.699 
 
 H 7 
 
 .104 
 
 3i 
 
 2.451 
 
 55 
 
 5342 
 
 79 
 
 11.016 
 
 1 ' 8 
 
 139 
 
 32 
 
 2539 
 
 56 
 
 55H 
 
 80 
 
 Ji-333 
 
 < 9 
 
 173 
 
 33 
 
 2.630 
 
 57 
 
 5.679 
 
 81 
 
 11.665 
 
 -1 10 
 
 .208 
 
 34 
 
 2.717 
 
 58 
 
 5.868 
 
 82 
 
 12.005 
 
 i ii 
 
 254 
 
 
 2805 
 
 59 
 
 6.046 
 
 83 
 
 12.354 
 
 12 
 
 308 
 
 36 
 
 2 892 
 
 60 
 
 6 222 
 
 84 
 
 12.713 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 359 
 i 405 
 
 38 
 
 2-979 
 3.066 
 
 61 
 62 
 
 6-399 
 6-575 
 
 
 13.081 
 
 13-458 
 
 15 
 16 
 
 I-45I 
 M97 
 
 39 
 40 
 
 3-153 
 3239 
 
 63 
 64 
 
 6.794 
 7.013 
 
 87 
 88 
 
 13-877 
 14-230 
 
 17 
 
 I-54I 
 
 4 1 
 
 3371 
 
 & 
 
 7-.230 
 
 89 
 
 14.613 
 
 < 18 
 < 19 
 
 < 20 
 
 I.S&6 
 1.631 
 
 1.688 
 
 42 
 43 
 44 
 
 3502 
 
 i?4 
 
 66 
 
 7447 
 7.662 
 7899 
 
 90 
 92 
 
 15-005 
 15.432 
 15-786 
 
 < 21 
 
 i 757 
 
 45 
 
 3-893 
 
 69 
 
 8-135 
 
 93 
 
 16.186 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 1.825 
 1.893 
 
 46 
 47 
 
 4,022 
 4-151 
 
 70 8.392 
 71 8 658 
 
 94 
 95 
 
 16-593 
 17.009 
 
 \ 
 
 f 
 
 -< ..-'- 
 
 * 
 
 H 127 
 
 l| 
 
TABLE OF CORRECTIONS. 
 
 TO BE USED WHEN THE TERM OF DEPOSITION, OR 
 
 DEW-POINT, DIFFERS FROM THE TEMPERATURE 
 
 OF THE AIR IN THE SHADE. 
 
 s! 
 
 Correc- 
 tion. 
 
 d< 
 
 5J 
 
 fl 
 
 H 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 Correc- 
 tion. 
 
 o 
 
 o.oooo' 
 
 13 
 
 I.027I 
 
 26 
 
 I 0542 
 
 39 
 
 1.0813 
 
 I 
 
 .0020 
 
 14 
 
 1.0291 
 
 27 
 
 1.0562 
 
 40 
 
 1.0834 
 
 2 
 
 .0041 
 
 15 
 
 I.O3I2 
 
 28 
 
 0583 
 
 41 
 
 .0854 
 
 i 
 
 .0062 
 
 16 
 
 1-0333 
 
 29 
 
 0604 
 
 42 
 
 0875 
 
 4 
 
 .0083 
 
 17 
 
 1.0354 
 
 
 .0625 
 
 43 
 
 .0896 
 
 5 
 
 .0104 
 
 iS 
 
 1-0375 
 
 31 
 
 0646 
 
 44 
 
 .0917 
 
 6 
 
 .0125 
 
 19 
 
 .0396 
 
 32 
 
 0667 
 
 45 
 
 0937 
 
 7 
 
 .0146 
 
 20 
 
 .0417 
 
 33 
 
 .0687 
 
 46 
 
 .0958 
 
 8 
 
 .0167 
 
 21 
 
 0437 
 
 34 
 
 .0708 
 
 47 
 
 .0979 
 
 9 
 
 .0187 
 
 22 
 
 .0458 
 
 35 
 
 0729 
 
 48 
 
 .1000 
 
 10 
 
 .0208 
 
 23 
 
 .0479 
 
 36 
 
 .0750 
 
 49 
 
 .1021 
 
 ii 
 
 .0229 
 
 24 
 
 .0500 
 
 37 
 
 .0771 
 
 50 
 
 .1042 
 
 12 
 
 .0250 
 
 25 
 
 .0521 
 
 38 
 
 .0792 
 
 51 
 
 1062 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 .1083 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 1 
 
 
 RULE. To find the weight of moisture in a 
 cubic foot of air at any time. Divide the weight in 
 grains found opposite to the temperature, corres- 
 ponding to the dew-point at the time, in the table 
 of quantity, by the correction found opposite to 
 difference of temperature in the table of corrections, 
 corresponding to the absolute dryness existing at 
 the time. 
 
 128 
 
MASON'S PATENT HYGRODIKE. 
 
 This instrument is on the principle of Mason's 
 Hygrometer, but arranged with dial and pointer 
 so that the absolute and relative dryness and the 
 dew-point may be read off without calculation. 
 The price is $15.00 
 
 129 
 
REGNAULT'S HYGROMETER, WITH ASPIRATOR. 
 
 These instruments consist of a thin and highly- 
 polished tubular vessel of silver, having one end 
 somewhat longer than the other. A very delicate 
 thermometer is introduced into the tube at the 
 smaller end, to which end of the tubular vessel, 
 also, a flexible rubber tube with ivory mouth- 
 piece is attached. A sufficient quantity of ether 
 to cover the bulb of the thermometer, being 
 poured into the silver vessel, the ether is agitated 
 by breathing through the flexible tube. A rapid 
 evaporation ensues until at the moment the dew- 
 point is reached, the moisture is seen to condense 
 upon the exterior surface of the polished silver 
 tube. The reading of the thermometer at this 
 precise moment gives the dew-peint. Complete in 
 case, $75.00. Too high priced for ordinary use, 
 but a splendid addition to an experimental outfit. 
 130 
 
BROODING. 
 
 For the first day after the chicks are taken from 
 the incubator they should be confined to a brooder, 
 to get them used to it, so they will go in and 
 out. 
 
 The brooder or nursery should be so constructed 
 that they can go in and out at will, and not be 
 compelled to stay under the hover when too warm 
 or outside when cold, as is the case with too many 
 brooders, the chicks in the middle being made 
 prisoners by those on the outer edges and injured 
 or suffocated, while at the same time those near 
 the outer edges are perhaps suffering with cold. 
 
 The illustration shows a very nice arrangement 
 for a nursery or indoor brooder, and is convenient 
 to have even when you have large brooding houses 
 heated by hot water pipes. This brooder can be 
 made by anyone who is handy with tools the 
 metal heater and chimney can be made by any 
 tinsmith. 
 
 A brooder is supposed to take the place of a 
 good hen. To do this successfully it must be made 
 as nearly like a hen as possible. Now how is a hen 
 built? Where does the heat come from ? Where 
 do the chicks hover? How do they get to and 
 from the heat, and receive fresh air? Look at the 
 illustration of a brooding hen, and see for yourself. 
 Is not the heat which the chicks get from her 
 principally side heat? By chance a chick may get 
 caught under the breast bone or under the foot of 
 a hen, but not often. The wings, feathers and 
 132 
 
down of the hen retain the greater part of the 
 heat from the body. The brooding chicks can put 
 their heads out for fresh air, instead of being 
 crammed into a bunch and surrounded by from 
 fifty to a hundred other chicks. If they are too 
 warm they can get out, if not pinned down under 
 the breast bone or foot of the hen. 
 
 The heat from the hen certainly cannot te 
 termed "bottom heat," nor yet "top heat." It 
 is as she squats down and her body is surrounded 
 by the chicks principally "side heat," with some 
 top heat retained by her feathers. Nature pro- 
 vides a covering for the chicks to nestle under, 
 and a brooder should have something soft and 
 heat retaining for them to huddle under ; not 
 simply a top, compelling them to squat down on 
 the floor, but something to take the place of the 
 feathers of the hen. 
 
 For the first week the temperature of the brooder 
 should between 80 and 90 at about two inches 
 above the floor. After a few days' practice one 
 easily learns to test the heat under the hover of 
 brooder by the feel of the hand, and the ther- 
 mometer is then unnecessary. When we say that 
 the temperature should be between 80 and 90, 
 we mean that it should be that warm under the hover 
 without any chicks under it. As the chicks grow 
 older they require less artificial heat, because they 
 furnish more animal heat as they increase in size, 
 so you should gradually decrease the heat ; but 
 never have it lower than 70 with chicks under the 
 hover, as long as they require brooding. This 
 
minimum degree of heat should be reached at 
 about the sixth week. 
 
 It is not necessary to use the thermometer after 
 once adjusting the heat supply of a brooder, 
 because (with a proper brooder) you can tell by 
 the action of the chicks if they are too warm or 
 too cold. If too warm they will put their heads 
 out from under the hover or come out entirely. 
 If too cold they will chirp in a tone which no one 
 can mistake for a signal of satisfaction. Learn 
 to tell the right temperature by placing your hand 
 under the hover it is very simple and easy, and 
 less trouble and more satisfactory than a ther- 
 mometer. Some persons will advise you to have 
 a brooder too hot rather than too cold. We say 
 have it just right. If the brooder feels comfort- 
 ably warm to the hand, and the chicks stay under 
 the hover (at hovering time), seem contented and 
 do not cry out, you may be sure they are all right. 
 
 Brooders with either "top heat" or "bottom 
 heat," and having a square or oblong hover, say, 
 eighteen to twenty-four inches square or wide, 
 either with or without flannel or woolen drapery, 
 are open to very serious objections. When the 
 chicks in the middle get too warm they try to 
 move to the outer edges or to get outside entirely, 
 but those on the outer edges, being comfortable or 
 just a trifle cool, refuse to stir, and the ones in the 
 centre must remain there and become overheated 
 and sick. Or, if the chicks on the outer edges 
 become cold they crowd toward the centre and 
 crush or smother .the chicks that are there. You 
 
say, why not have the heat just right, so they will 
 have no occasion to push or crowd? How can 
 you, with that kind of a brooder ? Place a crowd 
 of people under a shed the floor of which is heated, 
 and will not those in the middle be uncomfortably 
 warm if those on the outside edges are just warm 
 enough? Or, if those in the middle are just warm 
 enough, will not the outer ones be cold, particu- 
 larly if the weather is extra warm or extremely 
 cold? It would be the same if the heat came 
 from the top. But let chicks surround either a 
 square or oblong heat reservoir or heater, so 
 arranged that the hover projects only far enough 
 to shelter two or three rows of chicks (only 
 two or three deep from the outer row of flannel 
 drapery to the wall of the heat reservoir), and 
 crowding is impossible ; the inner chicks can get 
 out or the outer ones can get closer in. If a chick 
 is pushed from under the hover, another takes its 
 place, and the ousted chick finds the vacant spot 
 and occupies it. The inner row of chicks are only 
 about six inches from the outside air and do not 
 suffer for want of pure ventilation. 
 
 You can place a hundred men in rows two or 
 four abreast and they will be comfortable, but place 
 them in a square or round room just large enough 
 to hold them, and, no matter whether it be winter 
 or summer, at least one-third of them will be un- 
 comfortable. Is not the argument conclusive? 
 Still we do not give this from theory, but from ex- 
 perience after burying bushels of chicks from 
 both " bottom heat" and ''top heat "brooders. 
 
Since adopting "side heat" we have not lost over 
 five per cent. 
 
 The flannel or woolen drapery which hangs 
 down from the hover and helps retain the heat and 
 gives a feeling of cosy comfort to the chicks is 
 essential. Nature gives them side heat (from the 
 hen) and soft covering (the feathers of the hen), 
 and so must we. if we want them to be comfort- 
 able and thrifty. Heated floor or ceiling is not 
 enough. Would you like to heat a bedroom up 
 to 70 or 80 and lie on the bed or floor with no 
 covering ? We think you would prefer to have the 
 room at 30 or 40 and put on a few blankets. Use 
 your best judgment in the matter of brooding. 
 If your present system is not satisfactory, or if you 
 have not begun, try the side heat, which combines 
 partial top heat, as shown by the illustration of the 
 brooding hen, with narrow hover well draped with 
 something to take the place of feathers, and you 
 will solve the problem of brooding. This plan 
 takes from one-third to one-half less fuel than other 
 styles of brooders. 
 
 After the chicks have been in the brooder or 
 nursery one day and night they should be allowed 
 more run, and if the weather is fair they should 
 have out-doors runs. Keep them from the grass 
 until the sun or wind has dried it. If the weather 
 is cold, watch them the first day and see that they 
 do not stay out and get chilled ; but after they have 
 learned to go in and out of the brooder, they may 
 be let out in winter as well as in warmer seasons, 
 but you must use some judgment. 
 136 
 
Keep the brooder clean by using sand or earth 
 on floor of brooder and house. Do not use the 
 very fine, dusty kind of sand if you can get any- 
 thing else. 
 
 As soon as the chicks show an inclination to 
 roost get them out of the brooding house and into 
 less expensive houses, if you have them, and make 
 room for others, besides giving them more range. 
 
 BROODING HOUSES. 
 
 A continuous brooding house, divided into 
 rooms, should have a passage way through it, and 
 if thirty feet long, or longer, should have a hot 
 water stove to furnish heat for the brooders, so as 
 to save attention to so many lamps. 
 
 If the house is furnished with single brooders, 
 each room should be five and one-half feet wide 
 and nine feet long the length being parallel with 
 the divisions or dividing fences of yards. If heated 
 by continuous hot water pipes, the rooms should 
 be nine feet wide at right angles with the dividing 
 fences, and five and one-half feet long parallel 
 with dividing fences. The reason for this arrange- 
 ment will be apparent on examining the different 
 brooding apparatus. These rooms will accommo- 
 date from fifty to one hundred chicks, each. 
 
138 
 
BROODING HOUSE 
 
 WITH HOT AIR BROODERS. 
 
 This brooding house is fitted with the Von Culin 
 Indoor Hot Air Brooders. The rooms may be 
 five feet wide and nine feet long, or may be made 
 wider, if desired. The position of each brooder is 
 shown (B). The floor is elevated one foot above 
 the ground, to allow brooder floor to be on a level 
 with the room floor. The top frame shown around 
 the hot air brooder is moveable, and may be taken 
 away after the chicks get used to the brooder. 
 Or, it may be covered with fine wire netting and 
 placed on at night where there is danger from rats 
 or other vermin. 
 
 BROODING HOUSE 
 
 WITH HOT WATER SYSTEM. 
 
 This brooding house is fitted with the Von Culin 
 system of hot water piping and brooders. The 
 drawing shows the arrangement of the pipes and 
 brooders, the division of rooms and yards, the 
 arrangement of base board and wire divisions, and 
 the passage way back of the rooms. The second 
 drawing gives details of the brooding system. 
 
 Each room should be nine feet wide ; this gives 
 a brooder nine feet long. The depth or width of 
 139 
 
140 
 
fooms, five feet, with yards as large as you can 
 make them. The base boards should be two feet 
 high, and on top of that four feet of wire netting, 
 
 O 
 
 a 
 
 \ 
 
 VON CULIN S BROODING SYSTEM. 
 (For Hot Water Circulation.) 
 
 two inch mesh. If base board is only one foot 
 high, then use one inch mesh. Posts should be 
 ten feet apart. Passage, two and one- half feet 
 
 141 
 
wide. It does not cost any more to build rooms 
 this size and shape than to build them long and 
 narrow. The wide room gives a better shaped 
 yard. 
 
 The preceding illustration represents the Von 
 Culin system of brooders, heated by circulation of 
 hot water for houses of all sizes. The illustration 
 on page 140, shows the application of the same. 
 Y, shows the passage of house; D, the floor; P, 
 the base board above the brooder ; S, wire netting 
 which divides the passage from rooms ; H, the 
 main hot water pipe ; K, return pipe ; L, the box- 
 ing of pipes, forming the heater ; M, wire netting 
 to keep chicks from 'pipes ; W, flannel covering 
 the wire, a"nd strips of flannel hanging from hover ; 
 N, hover, which is hinged, and can be raised for 
 cleaning ; V, divisions to separate each brooder 
 heater ; R, S, are two one and one-half-inch holes 
 opening from heater box into passage, and having 
 a round button, to regulate the heat for each 
 separate brooder, to suit chicks of any age. All 
 pipes are run on a dead level ; and all hovers the 
 same height, though the hover can be lowered to 
 any desired degree to accommodate chicks of any 
 size. It is not necessary to be continually shifting 
 chicks from one room to another ; the height and 
 temperature of each or any hover may be changed 
 at will. 
 
 142 
 
HOT WATER STOYE 
 
 WITH CONTROLLING APPARATUS. 
 
 This Hot Water Stove, which has a water jacket 
 around it, supplies the heat to the hot water pipes 
 of brooding system, or for other purposes ; the 
 
 water flowing out 
 through the upper 
 pipe and returning 
 through the lower one 
 to be reheated, keep- 
 ing up a continual cir- 
 culation. The tank 
 above is to 
 supply any 
 escape of 
 water in the 
 form of steam 
 which may 
 occasionally be gener- 
 ated by overheating. 
 The safety valve pre- 
 vents a pressure of 
 over five pounds, as 
 pressure above that 
 point would stop the 
 circulation of water. 
 Each day the valve below the tank is opened to 
 supply any waste which may have occurred, and 
 then closed again, and kept closed while heating 
 the brooding house. If hot water is needed, to 
 mix feed, scald chickens, etc., the two valves from 
 
the brooder pipes are closed and the valves to and 
 from the tank are opened, thus causing a circula- 
 tion through the tank and boiling the water. To 
 turn the circulation through the brooders again, 
 you simply close the valves nearest the tank and 
 open those leading to and from the brooders. 
 With the Von Culin system two pipes only are 
 used in the brooders ; other pipes may be run into 
 the rooms or passage. With the "top heat" 
 system four pipes are used. Either system is 
 simple, and may be laid by any handy mechanic 
 or plumber. Many poultrymen make and fit up all 
 their brooders and houses. 
 
 SINGLE OUT-DOOR BROODERS. 
 
 Where the climate will permit and you have 
 plenty of ground, the outdoor brooders can be 
 used without division fences, and in most places, 
 without any permanent fence at all, by simply hav- 
 ing one or two portable fences to place around the 
 brooder for two or three days, to colonize the 
 brood, then taken away and used for other brood- 
 ers. Scatter the brooders around the field or lawn, 
 and the chicks will have grass and larger range 
 than otherwise, which always reduces the expense 
 of raising them, gives them quicker growth and 
 better health. It is a profitable way to raise 
 broilers. 
 
 144 
 
145 
 
'fe. sjs^f? <!* <ri qg eg j*^gp 
 
 146 
 
OUT-DOOR HOT WATER BROODER. 
 
 This illustration shows a brooder with six com- 
 partments, each of which holds one hundred chicks. 
 The brooders are made of various sizes, to hold 
 two hundred, four hundred or six hundred chicks, 
 and are heated by a lamp. The drop runs are 
 shown on one side, while those on the other 
 side are up. The runs are kept up the first- 
 day, until the chicks get used to the brooder, then 
 lowered. 
 
 Moveable runs are made to keep the broods 
 separated. They can be made wide at the farther 
 ends by placing the corner yards at an angle. If 
 these runs are made near a division fence some of 
 the larger chicks may be let out into a larger yard 
 or a free run at your convenience. These brooders 
 need no houses, but may be placed in a field, 
 orchard, or yard. In severe climates they may be 
 put under a shed in the winter, and moved out 
 later in the season. They are principally side heat 
 with moderate top heat. It is impossible to over- 
 heat, or for the chicks in them to crowd and 
 smother. It is the same principle as used in our 
 Hot-water System in Brooding Houses. 
 
 The brooder which has a number of compart- 
 ments should have a yard for each compartment, 
 or for each brood; but should be made movable, 
 so that the whole plot or group of runs can be 
 plowed or spaded, or the entire arrangement 
 moved to new ground. 
 
 147 
 
BROODER YARDS. 
 
 All brooder houses should have yards or runs, 
 the larger the better. The fence should consist of 
 a base board one or two (two preferred) feet high, 
 nailed to posts, two by four inches, placed ten feet 
 apart and two feet in the ground and six feet above 
 ground, with wire netting above it. If the base 
 board is two feet high the mesh of the netting may 
 be one" and a half inch or two inches, but if the 
 base board is only one foot high, then you should 
 have one inch mesh netting at least one foot above 
 the board, and finish above with larger mesh. The 
 same kind of fence should divide the yards or 
 runs. If possible have an independent gate at the 
 outer end of each yard. You will soon recognize 
 its usefulness. Besides keeping the chicks separated 
 and at peace with neighbors, the base board breaks 
 the wind in winter. 
 
 FEEDING CHICKS. 
 
 Give them no food for the first twenty-four hours, 
 as the yelk of the egg is absorbed by the chick 
 just before it breaks from the shell, and supplies 
 nourishment for at least twenty-four hours after 
 hatching. Cramming other food into the stomach 
 before the yelk is digested is injurious. 
 
 Give them fresh, clean water from the start. 
 Have it in a fountain so they cannot get into it. 
 148 
 
If water is given them in open vessels they will 
 stand in it, splash themselves and get chilled, which 
 is dangerous in cold weather and undesirable at all 
 times. They will also make the water filthy and 
 unfit to drink. 
 
 We have tried the plan of giving no water for 
 the first three weeks, with very good results ; but 
 the trouble which begins when water is first given 
 to them makes the method undesirable and very 
 risky, as they will often drink until they fall over 
 or froth at the mouth. 
 
 For the first week give millet seed, as much as 
 they will eat up clean, every two hours. If you 
 cannot get millet seed (which is sold by all seeds- 
 men), or will not use it because you think it is 
 too high, give finely cracked wheat, corn, or the 
 grain which is raised in your section. Sieve 
 out the coarser parts for larger chicks as it would 
 be wasted if fed to chicks under a week old. 
 Place granulated charcoal and grit where they 
 can get it at will. Grass is good for them at all 
 times. 
 
 Second week, give millet seed, fine cracked 
 wheat, cracked corn, and occasionally (about twice 
 a week) rolled oats. If millet seed is high in price, 
 discontinue it the second week and keep on with 
 the cracked grain. Let the cracked grain be fine 
 through the day and coarser at the last feeding in 
 the evening. Do not mix the grain, but give each 
 kind separately not two kinds at any meal. The 
 change gives them a relish. Once a day give them 
 a feed of finely ground green bone (fresh), about 
 149 
 
the bulk of a grain of corn for each chick. If the 
 chicks are confined give finely chopped onion tops 
 or onions. Feed every two hours. 
 
 Third week, give the same food as second week, 
 but increase the quantity of green bone one-half. 
 Feed five times a day. 
 
 Fourth week, still feed five times a day, and to 
 the bill of fare add cooked fresh meat, finely 
 ground, once a day, the quantity for each chick 
 being the bulk of three grains of corn. 
 
 Fifth week, morning food, first day, two parts 
 ground corn, two parts ground oats, one part bran. 
 Mix with just enough water to make it stick 
 together (do not have it sloppy). Use hot water 
 in cold weather. Always allow it to stand fifteen 
 minutes after mixing, to swell. Have the corn and 
 oats ground together, they grind better that way, 
 and make a better mixture. Feed cracked grain 
 the balance of the day, that is at noon, in the 
 middle of the afternoon and about a half-hour 
 before they go to the hover for the night, making 
 four meals a day. Second day : soft feed as above 
 for first feed and at noon. Cracked grain balance 
 of the day. Third day : three meals of same soft 
 food, and cracked grain at last feeding. Same for 
 the balance of the week. 
 
 Sixth week : same soft food at each meal except 
 last one at night, increasing the allowance of 
 chopped, cooked meat. Meat should be given 
 between meals, but never give more than the bulk 
 of a chestnut to each, chick. 
 
 Seventh week and until marketed, same as sixth 
 150 
 
week, and give all they will eat up clean at each 
 meal, except meat. 
 
 Grass is wholesome for chicks as soon as they 
 begin to eat. If they do not have access to grassy 
 runs or yards, it is well to cut a few fresh sods as 
 often as convenient, and place them in the runs. 
 If this cannot be done, fresh cut grass is good. 
 When grass is out of season, finely chopped 
 cabbage once a day or every other day to chicks 
 over three weeks old. 
 
 Do not forget the charcoal, grit, and a box of 
 crushed shell for each brood. 
 
 FATTENING BROILERS. 
 
 Fattening broilers by close confinement is a mis- 
 take. Try to put on all possible flesh by giving 
 them all the food they will eat up clean, and the 
 more exercise they have the better their appetite 
 will be, the faster they will grow, and the hardier 
 birds they will make. 
 
 If you undertake to force chicks under four 
 weeks old by soft food, you will impair their diges- 
 tion, cause them to be weak in the legs, and to 
 feather fast. You may gain a little flesh by the 
 soft food from the start, on those chicks which do 
 thrive; but that will be overbalanced by losses 
 from leg weakness, diarrhoea, forced feathers, etc. 
 By any method of feeding some chickens will be 
 
fatter and plumper than others. It is ridiculous to 
 talk of fattening pen broilers. 
 
 Would any sane man undertake to fatten a 
 young pig if he wanted it to grow and put on flesh ? 
 Would you fatten or try to fatten any stock that 
 you wished to grow ? 
 
 You must make bone and muscle first, then put 
 on flesh. To do this you must keep your chicks 
 (or other stock) in good health. By overloading 
 man, beast or fowl with unnatural food you are 
 almost sure to disarrange the system ; and soft, 
 sloppy food is not the natural food of chicks or 
 fowls. If you are determined to give soft food to 
 chicks under four weeks old, bake corn cake in 
 the oven, and make it so that it will crumble. 
 
 Never fe^d boiled eggs to chicks. 
 
 OLD FOWLS AND YOUNG CHICKS. 
 
 Keep old fowls away from the brooders and 
 brooding houses and runs where incubator chicks 
 are kept, and do not mix the chicks which were 
 hatched under hens with those hatched in incuba- 
 tors, because the chances are nine to one that lice 
 or mites will be communicated to the latter. 
 
 Chicks hatched in incubators are (cleanliness hav- 
 ing been observed) free from vermin ; but we have 
 known a whole section of brooder houses to be 
 filled with lice by placing a single brood of eleven 
 chicks, whose mother died, in a brooder with other 
 chicks. The new comers were not suspected of 
 152 
 
being lousy, and the lice multiplied and spread 
 through all the adjoining rooms and yards before 
 being discovered. 
 
 We have also known roup to be spread in the 
 same manner in one instance breaking up the 
 establishment. In the latter instance the proprie- 
 tor was warned, but he knew it all, and had it his 
 own way. 
 
 Things which seem small or trifling sometimes 
 make tremendous results. By watching and direct- 
 ing small matters we control greater ones. 
 
 SELECTING BREEDING STOCK. 
 
 Where a large number of fowls are to be bought 
 at one time it is not easy to get just what is most 
 desirable, but care should be used that no objec- 
 tionable fowls are bought or kept. 
 
 If you are starting a new plant, you want young 
 stock. Do not start with a lot of old hens, for they 
 will certainly give you a set back that will not only 
 dampen your ardor, but kill your profit the first sea- 
 son, and perhaps cause you to make a total fail- 
 ure. 
 
 The old notion that an old hen would produce 
 better and stronger chicks than a young hen, has 
 died a natural death, and is laughed at by the 
 majority of experienced poultrymen. If you want 
 hens to hatch with, the old ones are all right ; but 
 for ordinary use they have the following disquali- 
 
 153 
 
fications : they lay fewer eggs than younger birds, 
 they are more liable to disease or return of previous 
 ailments, very liable to become overfat, have often 
 acquired bad habits, such as feather pulling, egg eat- 
 ing, laziness ; and when killed and dressed for mar- 
 ket do not please the customers or bring new trade. 
 
 By all means select young stock. You will be com- 
 pelled to keep over for the second season about one- 
 half of the stock you start with, if you intend to 
 establish a good system on a large scale, and you 
 will then find that you have plenty stock that is as 
 old as you want it. 
 
 Ordinarily you can tell the young stock by 
 examining their legs, heads, combs and plumage : 
 the legs being smooth and clean, the heads bright 
 and clear, the comb smooth and not too large ; 
 there will be an absence of the short spurs which 
 are found on some old hens. The plumage will 
 be fresh in color, without the brassy or dull appear- 
 ance shown in the plumage of old stock. In old 
 fowls of the white varieties the yellow tinge shows 
 plainly in the males, yet some of the young cocks 
 show it plainly. The novice will find no difficulty 
 in telling old from young males ; but with pullets 
 it is not always so easy. Some pullets have very 
 rough legs, and would be taken for hens two or 
 three years old ; but they are not desirable, so you 
 need not make that mistake. On the other hand 
 you will often find hens four or five years old with 
 as clean legs as pullets have. A young hen or 
 pullet does not generally have as rough a comb 
 or wattles, and is more active. 
 154 
 
CULLING BREEDING STOCK. 
 
 Cull your stock as often as you can find any 
 culls. Culls of any kind are undesirable. If you 
 find a hen that is a poor layer, get rid of her and 
 replace her with a better one. She will generally 
 eat as much as a good layer, takes up as much 
 room, and requires as much care and attention, 
 except in gathering eggs. 
 
 An egg-eating or a feather-pulling hen, no matter 
 how fine a bird or how good a layer, should be killed 
 and marketed or eaten. In a very short time she 
 would teach the other fowls her bad habits. An 
 egg eater will sometimes eat three times as many 
 eggs as she lays. 
 
 The hen that wants to sit quite often may be 
 useful in that line, but no other, and should be got 
 rid of. 
 
 The lazy hen that lingers on the roost late in the 
 day is not the one that lays the eggs. Cull out all 
 of that kind, and either replace them or keep 
 fewer hens ; they ea the profit made by good 
 hens, and are a serious drawback. 
 
 WHEN TO CULL. 
 
 First cull before you buy, next as soon after as 
 you can determine what to cull. Then cull the 
 chicks at broiler age, keeping the best in form and 
 color for breeding or for eggs, then cull as often as 
 you find anything to cull. 
 
 155 
 
THE BUSINESS HEN. 
 
 The business hen is the one that brings the pro- 
 fit. As a rule, you will find that the lively, quick 
 moving hen or pullet is a good layer. A large, 
 bright comb also indicates a good layer. Where a 
 limited number of fowls are kept, the best^and the 
 poorest layers may be discovered by the shape, 
 color and other peculiarities of the eggs, and in 
 such cases the culling and selecting can be carried 
 to much finer points than usual. 
 
 A SECRET. 
 
 We call the following a secret because few per- 
 sons outside the charmed circle of successful 
 poultry culture know it, and only the leaders of the 
 successful make full use of the knowledge of it. 
 
 It is the secret of success with poultry on a large 
 scale, and is practised by the most successful poul- 
 trymen throughout the world. 
 
 Kill and burn all diseased chickens and foivls as 
 soon as discovered. 
 
 Observe the flocks every day and visit their 
 houses every night. If you hear any wheezing or 
 sneezing, or see any shaking of heads, use the 
 vaporizer described elsewhere promptly. 
 
 Feed no carrion or tainted meat nor any spoiled, 
 musty or damaged food of any kind. See that 
 the meat you use is sweet and fresh, the grain good 
 and sound ; the water fresh and clean, cool in 
 summer and not frozen in winter. Supply plenty 
 of gravel or grit, lime in some shape crushed 
 156 
 
shells or otherwise, and granulated or broken 
 charcoal all the time. 
 
 Give your birds clean and comfortable quarters. 
 
 Just as soon as a hen ceases to be profitable 
 market it. When you see a fowl that does not 
 look like a business fowl one that stays late on 
 the roost, stands around by itself, is inactive, over- 
 fat, broken down, walks unsteadily, is pale, or 
 shows signs of moulting, dress and market it 
 promptly, except where you wish to keep moult- 
 ing hens over for the next season, and they are 
 not the most profitable kind to keep. 
 
 Remember that this rule does not apply to dis- 
 eased fowls. The first part of the "secret" dis- 
 poses of them. 
 
 When these rules are strictly followed there will 
 be no danger of diseased fowls. You may say 
 that you do not wish to sell or reduce your stock. 
 Perhaps not, but the birds we have described, the 
 overfat, inactive and moulting fowls are fit subjects 
 for disease, which in every form is more easily 
 avoided than cured, and your risk of loss is far 
 greater with a few such fowls among your flocks 
 than from a reduction in numbers by marketing 
 the same. 
 
 A YILLAINOUS PRACTICE. 
 
 The preceding rules, if strictly carried out, pre- 
 vent and remove all temptation toward the vil- 
 lainous practice of marketing diseased fowls. It is 
 almost incredible, yet a fact, that many extensive 
 
breeders and commission men kill, dress and 
 market diseased poultry. In a State which we 
 need not name, we have seen fowls in all stages of 
 roup, chicken-pox, canker, etc., offered for sale 
 by the poultry dealers and commission men, for 
 table use, in the same markets and stores with fish, 
 meat and game. Hens so badly diseased that they 
 could not eat, and those with heads swollen to 
 almost double their normal size, were dressed 
 heads off. Never sell a fowl that you cannot leave 
 the head on. Never buy one with the head off. 
 
 Of course you indignantly disclaim any idea of 
 selling diseased fowls, and we are inclined to be- 
 lieve that you would not do so intentionally ; but 
 unless diseased fowls are killed and burned as soon 
 as discovered and the utmost vigilance exercised 
 to discover them, you are very apt to be the unin- 
 tentional assistant in such business. For instance 
 you have a lot of fowls to sell, in order to make 
 room for growing stock. A buyer or huckster 
 comes along and makes you an offer for the entire 
 lot. You have not been diligent in examining them 
 of late, and a mild form of some disease has got 
 among them without your notice, or you have a 
 few quarantined, and you let them go just as they 
 are, because, in the latter event, he tells you that 
 he thinks he can cure them ; and they all go into 
 the coopi together. When he gets them to his 
 killing house he cures the worst ones first, with 
 knife or hatchet, whichever way looks best. Some 
 eggs look best scrambled ; some fowls look best 
 " heads off." 
 
 158 
 
Men who deliberately do such things would 
 be more useful to the poultry fraternity with 
 heads off. 
 
 Poultrymen, as a rule, are first-rate people, but 
 there are poultry jockeys as well as horse jockeys. 
 The horse trader who doses and doctors a nag to 
 conceal a dozen imperfections from the innocent 
 purchaser, is a saint in comparison with the man 
 who knowingly sells a diseased fowl for food. 
 
 Of what interest is this to the honorable btgin- 
 ner? It shows him an existing, hidden danger 
 and the means by which to avoid it. If he is on 
 his guard against selling diseased fowls, he will 
 also be on his guard against buying them, and 
 that one point may decide his success or failure 
 in raising poultry. One diseased fowl may spread 
 ruin throughout the establishment. 
 
 THE VAPORIZER AND ITS USE. 
 
 One of the most useful implements on the poultry 
 farm is a vaporizer. If you have not got one, 
 you can easily make one. Take an ordinary hand 
 lamp which has a No. i burner, and make a tin 
 chimney for it, similar to an incubator or brooder 
 chimney, with mica piece in front to show flame. 
 Take a seamless tin box, about six inches in 
 diameter and any convenient depth, having a 
 cover to fit, and, with strips of tin and rivets, 
 
fasten the box to the top of the chimney over the 
 top and about an inch above it, so as to leave a 
 good draft for lamp. If you cannot find a box of 
 convenient size, get a small cake pan or saucepan, 
 and fit a flat tin lid to it. Having your vaporizer 
 complete, keep on hand (in air-tight jar or box) a 
 supply of carbonate of ammonia and gum cam- 
 phor. 
 
 When you discover any colds, wheezing or sneez- 
 ing among your flocks, mark the house or the 
 houses, and after dark cover all the cracks and 
 close the doors and windows, and having put a 
 convenient quantity of carbonate of ammonia and 
 green camphor in the tin box (two ounces of car- 
 bonate of ammonia to one ounce of green cam- 
 phor), light the lamp, and burn it in the poultry 
 house. The two ingredients being volatile, will 
 vaporize and fill all parts of the house. Burn 
 until the fowls move about on the perches and 
 show signs of uneasiness, and the vapor gives 
 a strong, pungent odor. If the birds attempt 
 to leave the roosts, remove the vaporizer. For 
 an ordinary cold one fumigation will generally 
 effect a cure, and the fowls need not be removed 
 from their house ; it is also a good preventive 
 to be used occasionally when colds or roup are 
 prevalent in your neighborhood. Cases of roup, 
 diphtheria, canker, etc., should be removed to 
 a quarantine and treated there. Our advice is 
 to kill and burn them at once ; but as we 
 know that some will not do this, then we must 
 advise what is next best. Having placed these 
 160 
 
cases in quarantine, close the roosting houses and 
 use the vaporizer each night for at least three 
 nights. If in the early stages, three treatments 
 will cure, but later on it requires more. We have 
 repeatedly cured bad cases of roup and diphtheria 
 with the vaporizer, and have never failed when 
 taken in time. When not in use always keep 
 the box containing the ammonia and camphor 
 closed. The success of this treatment depends 
 upon using it promptly > and in bad cases, persever- 
 ingly. Those who have had experience in treat- 
 ing roup by old methods will gladly drop the dis- 
 gusting, sickening processes, and substitute this 
 clean, wholesome, and convenient one. It is a 
 good plan to keep lantern and vaporizer close 
 together, and when you make your night round 
 with lantern, just carry the vaporizer along. 
 
 161 
 
EGG AND BROILER FARM. 
 
 The above engraving shows a section of an egg 
 and broiler farm built by C. Von Culin in 1885, 
 reproduced from a photograph. In the foreground 
 are a group of sixteen brooding houses under four 
 roofs (four under each roof), with yards attached. 
 Beyond are laying and roosting houses scattered 
 at regular intervals. They are built on runners, 
 and may be moved to new ground as often as 
 required for cleanliness and new pasture. There 
 are no fences around these houses ; a small, port- 
 able fence is placed around a house for three days 
 to colonize a new flock, and then removed. Eggs 
 from fowls kept on this plan show a large per cent, 
 of fertility and yield vigorous chicks. 
 162 
 
HE ARSON S AUTOMATIC NURSE. 
 For Nursing Weak or Premature Infants. 
 
 HATCHING DUCKS IN CHINA. 
 
 The artificial hatching of ducks is one of the 
 interesting industries of China, and has been 
 carried on extensively for hundreds of years. The 
 Chinese are very fond of ducks and duck eggs, 
 yet those in America are not far behind the Africo- 
 Americans in their appetite for chicken. Most of 
 the Chinese hatching houses are constructed of 
 bamboo, plastered with mud and thatched with 
 straw. The eggs are placed in baskets which have 
 a tile bottom and a close straw cover. They are 
 arranged around in rows and fire placed beneath. 
 They are tested on the fifth day, and on the 
 fifteenth day are placed on shelves and covered 
 163 
 
with blankets, the animal heat then being depended 
 upon to finish the hatching. The natives along 
 the coast who live on house boats or rafts get the 
 eggs hatched at the hatching house and raise the 
 ducks literally on the water. 
 
 CROCODILE EGGS. 
 
 Even if he does commit fowl deeds on the Nile, 
 the crocodile cannot be classed with poultry. Still 
 it may interest many of our readers to know that it 
 lays an egg smaller than a goose egg, the average 
 size being three inches long and two inches in 
 diameter, equally large at both ends, and very 
 similar in shape to a snake egg. They are laid in 
 the sand and hatched by the sun. On breaking 
 the shell of an egg well advanced in incubation, 
 you will find the young " croc " doubled up with 
 his tail to his nose. 
 
 164 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Incubation in Egypt, 5 
 
 Egyptian Incubating House, 8 
 
 A Good Incubator, 14 
 
 How to Choose an Incubator 15 
 
 Don't Make a Failure, 17 
 
 The Best Size Incubator, 18 
 
 Hot Air or Hot Water ? 19 
 
 Marking Eggs, 28 
 
 Table for Records, 32 
 
 Cooling the Eggs, 33 
 
 Testing Eggs, 35 
 
 How the Chicks Develop, . 47 
 
 Animal Heat, 54 
 
 When Hatching 54 
 
 Dead in the Shell 55 
 
 Periods of Incubation 63 
 
 Moisture in Hatching, 64 
 
 Hatching Ducks, 72 
 
 Hatching Geese. 73 
 
 Hatching Turkeys 73 
 
 Hatching Ostriches, 78 
 
 A Letter, 79 
 
 The Thermostatic Incubator, 81 
 
 The Eureka Incubator, 84 
 
 The Eureka Brooder, 85 
 
 Improved Simplicity Hatcher, 86 
 
 Directions for Operating, 89 
 
 Simplicity Compartment Hatcher, 92 
 
 165 
 
PAGE 
 
 Water Expansion Regulators, 92 
 
 Two Regulators, > . 98 
 
 Hocus Pocus Regulators, 100 
 
 Other Methods of Regulation, 112 
 
 Thermostats, 115 
 
 Moisture Gauges and Hygrometers, 130 
 
 Brooding, 132 
 
 Brooding Houses, 137 
 
 Hot Air Brooding House, 138 
 
 Hot Water Brooding House, 140 
 
 Hot Water Stove with Apparatus, 143 
 
 Single Out-door Brooder, 144 
 
 Out-door Hot Water Brooder, 147 
 
 Brooder Yards, 148 
 
 Feeding Chicks, 148 
 
 Fattening Broilers, 151 
 
 Old Fowls and Young Chicks, 152 
 
 Selecting Breeding Stock, 153 
 
 Culling Breeding Stock, 155 
 
 When to Cull, 155 
 
 The Business Hen, 156 
 
 A Secret, 156 
 
 A Villainous Practice, 157 
 
 The Vaporizer and Its Use, 159 
 
 Egg and Broiler Farm, 162 
 
 Automatic Baby Nurse, 163 
 
 Hatching Ducks in China, ... t ........ 163 
 
 Crocodile Eggs, 164 
 
 1 66 
 
?4 & 4 ! 4- -i 
 
 -< 
 
 I have bred Barred Ply- 
 mouth Rocks exclu- 
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 of years, and believe 
 that I have stock that 
 will please you. My 
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 fully selected this 
 season, especially 
 for their Good Combs 
 andWell Barred Plu- 
 mage, Yellow Leg 
 and Beaks, Large 
 Compact Bodies and 
 Good Laying quali- 
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 and upward; Eggs, 
 $2.00 per setting. 
 Address, 
 
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 83S "(drbzna fitreet, 
 Toledo, bio. 
 
 OF RLL KINDS 
 
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 167 
 
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 NO TAR USED. 
 
 Send for estimate and state size of roof. 
 
 The Roofing that for the longest time puts off the necessity of 
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 Our EAGLE BRAND IHPROVED ROOFING combines the im- 
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 RUBBER GEMENTC. 
 
 A POSITIVE CURE FOR LEAKY ROOFS. 
 
 It is designed expressly for repairing breaks or nail holes in tin, 
 'metal or other Rcofs, pointing up and repairing about chimneys 
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 RUBBER PAINT. 
 
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 1 68 
 
IV 
 
 o 
 
 POULTRY BOOK 
 DAVIS BROS., 
 
 WASHINGTON, 
 
 NEW JERSEY. 
 
 BOOK ISSUED 
 JAN. 1, 
 
 YOUR NAME 
 GETS IT. 
 
 SEND FOR 
 ONE. 
 
 22 VARIETIES OF PURE BRED 
 
 POULTRY, EGGS AND FOWLS. 
 
GROUND BONE AND OYSTER SHELLS 
 
 FOR POULTRY. 
 
 Some of our farming friends appear to be deeply impressed with the notion 
 that hens need no food but corn in some of its forms. But we ought not to for- 
 get that food means the material for everything that comes out of the system r 
 and if any particular race takes up any special branch of manufacture they 
 must have the raw material. All animals consume more or less lime ; it is one 
 of the principal elemeots entering into the composition of the bones, but the 
 hen needs an extra supply. The domesticated hen also needs more than wild 
 stock of any sort, since she is stimulated to a greater production of eggs. In 
 consequence, we must give her more than is contained in the various grains. 
 The most useful forms in which to give lime are in the shape of coarsely ground 
 bone and oyster shells. Feed these articles most abundantly at the time when 
 the hens are laying most freely, and anticipate, if possible, "by feeding early in 
 the season. 
 
 Raw bone has been proven by analysis to contain every part of an egg- 
 white, yolk and of course shell. It should be constantly kept in a special place 
 in the pea or apartment of laying hens, as they will consume large quantities 
 
 of it, and it goes chiefly to egg production. Granulated is the best form in 
 which to place it before adult fowls, and in this shape it keeps fresh longer than 
 when ground into meal. Bone is one of the principal ingredients in the com- 
 " " 
 
 
 FITCH FERTLIZER (DORKS, 
 
 BKV CITY, 
 
 MEDAL AND 
 IPLOMA WA5 
 AWARDED THESE 
 KEEN PONE 
 
 UTTERS AT THE 
 \2RLb'5 FAIR. 
 
 Our $12 Power Green Bone Cutter, over all $26 power cutters. Has 
 been awarded the First Premium at all State, Industrial, County and Local 
 Fairs in this and other States over all competitors. Stands without a peer. 
 Is Self-Feeding. Superior quality. Is not complicated. Easily operated. 
 And stock fed on its cuttings do not fill up in the crops and choke. No knives 
 or screws to become loosened. Best results guaranteed. Try and see how 
 your stock will improve. Green bone cuttings discount grain. Purchase our 
 Cutter and be convinced. Address 
 
 WCBSTGR & HBNNUM, Gazeqovia N. Y 
 
 170 
 
\ti 
 7 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 mm. 
 
 pfio i&<i<*TE3icc i 
 
 This publication is due on the LAST DATE 
 stamped below. 
 
 An 
 
 
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 RB 17-60m-6,'59 
 
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 LD 21-100m-2,'55 
 (B139s22)476 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
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 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley