MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I913. 1/ 



plied in various ways. Some incubators on the market are 

 made with automatic arrangements to supply this water. On 

 the other hand most of the hot air incubators, which are very 

 widely used, lack any such arrangement. In these cases the 

 most satisfactory way of supplying added moisture is by sprink- 

 hng the eggs each time they are taken out of the machine for 

 turning, with water warmed to a temperature of from 108-110 

 degrees. This water may be sprinkled on the eggs by hand as 

 in sprinkling clothes for ironing, or a hand spray-pump may be 

 used for the purpose. The eggs should be put back into the 

 machine when wet. There should be no sprinkling of the eggs 

 after the i8th day of incubation. From this time on the eggs 

 should be left undisturbed until the chicks hatch. 



The Value, Method of Preservation, and Economical Use of 



Hen Manure. 



One of the most valuable by-products of any live-stock in- 

 dustry is the manure. Its proper care and use is one of the 

 distinguishing features of a successful stock farm. Ihe high 

 nitrogen content of poultry droppings makes them in certain 

 respects the most valuable of farm manures. At the same time 

 this quality necessitates special treatment to preserve the nitro- 

 gen and utilize it economically. 



x\ccording to experiments carried on at this Station some 

 years ago the night droppings average 30 pounds per hen per 

 year. They contain .8 pound of organic nitrogen, .5 pound of 

 phosphoric acid and .25 pound of potash. At the present price 

 of fertilizers this material would be worth 20 cents. No data 

 are available on the amount of day-voided dung. Since the 

 hens spend less than one-half of their time on the roosts, and 

 since more dung is voided while the birds are exercising than 

 when at roost, it is estimated that during a year probably 45 

 pounds of dung are voided by each bird wdiile off the roost. 

 Allowing that more than one-half of the fertilizing elements of 

 the day dung are necessarily lost, the value of the total drop- 

 pings, if properly cared for, should be at least 30 cents per bird 

 per year. 



The poultryman or farmer who properly cares for the drop- 

 pings can add a neat further profit to his business. For exam- 



