Poultry Problems and Profits. 411 



produced by and radiating from the living body and applied in the 

 proper manner. The degree of this heat is stated to be 103 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, as shown by placing a thermometer under a 

 setting hen. But the question arises, is the same degree of heat 

 maintained all the time during natural incubation? And is this 

 amount of heat as radiated from the hen modified or raised by 

 any known cause? Has it been proved that this law as applied 

 by artificial incubation is exactly the same as supplied by nature? 

 Is the knowledge of this law a positive one and its action a scientific 

 fact? Again, take another of nature's laws, moisture. How 

 much of this is supplied by the hen? Has or can this be measured 

 exactly during the entire time of incubation? How much is neces- 

 sary to obtain the desired results? In what way does this mois- 

 ture affect the growing chick? Is this law scientifically applied? 

 We know that within the egg nature stores, a csrtain amount of 

 air for the sustenance of the future bird, and that when the hen 

 leaves the eggs to provide herself with food and water, that air 

 passes through the shell, and carbonic acid gas passes out, but 

 have we as yet determined positively the exact amount of this 

 interchange of gases? A positive knowledge of this may aid us 

 in determining how long we should cool the eggs. As the chick 

 develops in the shell, by a chemical process, carbonic acid gas is 

 formed and by the method of exosmosis, this passes off in the air. 

 Shut up in the incubator it accumulates unless proper exits are 

 provided. Do we keep the air in the incubator as pure as the 

 natural process? Here, again, we need scientific knowledge in 

 order to copy nature." 



CARE OF THE CHICKS. 



The problem of keeping chicks alive and healthy is one more 

 difficult of solution than is that of how to get a good hatch. It 

 often happens that an unusually fine hatch is followed by the 

 death of a large per cent of the chicks. In fact, chicks of phe- 

 nomenal hatches seem harder to raise than are those hatched when 

 only average records have been made. Such chicks may seem es- 

 pecially bright and active at first, only to chill, sicken and die 

 later. They are usually sensitive to cold, caused, some authorities 

 contend, by the incubator having been kept too hot, and perhaps 

 too dry. Such chicks may hatch earlier than others, this fact 

 leading the beginner to believe that he has been unusually suc- 

 cessful. 



