6 14 



Reading-Course for Farmers. 



ing for the breeding flocks a deep litter of stra'.v or other scratching 

 material, by feeding all whole grain in the litter and by providing a large 

 range to encourage exercise in the fresh air the year round. 



(7) Carelessness in methods of keeping eggs for hatching. It is apparent, 

 from experiments made at Cornell, that the fertility and hatching power 

 of eggs can be impaired, or entirely lost, by -UTong methods of holding 

 eggs for incubation. Presumably, loss of vitality in the egg may affect 

 a chicken through life. Ordinarily, eggs held for incubation should be 

 turned each day, kept in a cool place, 45 to 55 degrees, and should not 

 be incubated when over one, or, at most, two weeks old. 



Fig. 7. — Four chickens of the same variety, age, and method of rearing. The differ- 

 ence in size is apparently dtie to an inherited weakness. 



(8) Improper systems of incubation. Apparently, faulty incubation 

 is accountable for much of the loss of vitality in chicks. This may apply 

 to both the natural and the artificial systems, although more frequently 

 the latter is at fault. This is because so many things that will injure the 

 chicks may happen with good machines in the hands of poor operators, 

 with poor machines and good operators, or with poor machines and 

 poor operators. Since so many of these combinations of unfavorable 

 conditions exist, it appears that much injury to the health of the flocks 

 may result. It should be said, in justice to the most modern systems 

 of artificial incubation, that good incubators in the hands of good opera- 

 tors have caused no apparent loss of vitality even when artificial incuba- 

 tion has been practiced continuously for inany years. 



