224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



The incubator is a gateway between the old methods and 

 the new, between sickness and heahh. It is the Stygian 

 river beyond which communicable diseases and pests cannot 

 go. The present flocks must furnish the eggs, the incubator 

 hatch the young, the brooder raise them, the uninfected fields 

 harbor them. The old flocks, having reproduced their kind, 

 must be kept on limited grounds and finally killed off, not 

 one being allowed with the new. If there must be mixture 

 for breeding purposes, then the younger must be confined 

 with the older and sacrificed when the eggs of the season are 

 secured. What is accomplished by this? Lice and commu- 

 nicable diseases are surely left behind and the chickens grow 

 up, barring the noncommunicable diseases, healthy. If the 

 proper attention is paid to housing and feeding, still another 

 and the larger proportion of the remaining loss will be cut off. 



Since incubation and brooding is largely a matter of per- 

 sonal experience and requires constant attention, a new field 

 is opened in each community for him or her who will under- 

 take to supply chicks for the surrounding farms. Such work 

 requires skill, intelligence, little capital, is light, and should 

 prove fascinating. The chicks could be supplied forty-eight 

 hours, three weeks, or six weeks old, depending on the cir- 

 cumstances of the purchasers. Since every mischance from 

 incubation to six-weeks-old chick means increase in the price 

 of production, those most successful m these branches will 

 produce the chicks most economically. Early maturity, too, 

 being so often desirable, makes early hatching of chicks under 

 conditions not everywhere available absolutely necessary. 



In the last report of the R. I. Experiment Station, experi- 

 ments in raising young broilers have been described at some 

 length, and those who wish to raise a few chicks may find 

 some available suggestions by sending for it. The specializ- 

 ing of incubation and brooding in the hands of experts will 

 reduce the cost of production of the young chicks and enable 

 all to increase their flocks by a definite number of chicks that 

 wall grow thriftily and mature at any desired season, at less 

 expense than by the same methods independently pursued. 



The housing of chicks is important and discussed by every 

 poultry writer. The probability of any expense entailed for 

 building is sometimes sufficient to deprive fowls of sufficient 

 protection. On many farms, however, there are convertible 



