6o BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



live was not, as a rule, very fortunate in this particular line of 

 business ? 



Mr. Almy. Oh, the majority of them keep from 300 up to 

 500 or 600. There are a number of them that have a thousand 

 to 1500. 



Question. What percentage of your eggs hatch? 



Mr. Almy. I was coming to that in just a minute. Dr. 

 Wood says that he considers that a fifty per cent, hatch is a 

 good average, but I do not. I think that my eggs, by setting 

 the eggs from my hens, that they will average from 75 to 80 

 per cent, easily. 



Question. That is, of the eggs that go under the hens? 



Mr. Almy. Of all the eggs that go under the hens. 



Question. Your breeding stock is all pullets? 



Mr. Almy. No, sir, pullets and yearling hens. 



Question. How many fowls do you think that one man 

 can take care of? 



Mr. Almy. That depends largely on the man. If a man 

 is willing to get up at four o'clock winter mornings, he can 

 take care of a good many. I can take care of a thousand or 

 fifteen hundred myself. I have done it, but I would not ad- 

 vise anyone to try it unless they have got a pretty good strong 

 constitution and a love for the work. 



Question. How much help do you keep? 



Mr. Almy. I keep one man all the time. Of course, oc- 

 casionally I hire by the day. 



Question. What proportion of your three thousand 

 chickens were hatched by hens? 



Mr. Almy. I cannot tell you exactly, but I should say 

 three-quarters of them were. I have three machines and keep 

 them running all the time during the short season of my hatch- 

 ing. My chickens are all hatched by hens with the exception of 

 perhaps a hundred or two. I set a lot of hens, usually about 

 forty or fifty, and sometimes more, sometimes about sixty, to- 

 gether with a couple of machines, at the same time. As soon as 



