416 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 13, 1867. 



each of the fifty-eeven general classes prizes to the amonnt i 

 of £1 and 10s. will be awarded, old birds and chickens of each 

 variety being appointed separate classes. Silver cups cf the i 

 valne of five guineas each will be given respectively for the best 

 pen of Dorkings, Cochins, Brahmas, Spanish, Hamburghs, 

 Game, Game Bantams, Bantams, and also for the best pen of 

 Any other variety of fowls. In Pigeons, besides £1 and 10s. 

 prizes for the respective classes, three five-guinea cups will be 

 given for the best pen of Carriers, Tumblers, and the best pen 



of Any other variety of Pigeons. Besides those named there is a 

 number of local prizes confined to residents only, and to these 

 also, besides the money prizes, three five-guiuea cups will be 

 given. With so tempting and liberal a prize schedule there 

 can be little doubb of a complete success being insured ; and 

 the Committee announce as the Arbitrators the well-known 

 names of Messrs. Hewitt and Teebay. The Show will be held 

 on October "Jth and 10th, the entries closing on Saturday, 

 September 28th, after which date no post entries will be received. 



PORTABLE POULTRY-HOUSES. 



While portable fowl-houses are occupying public attention, 

 allow us to particularise one of those we advertise for sale. It 

 is exceedingly portable, as light as possible consistent with 

 durability, and very economical of space, besides possessing 

 excellent interior arrangements for the comfort of the fowls for 

 roosting, laying, etc. The nests are so arranged that any lady 

 can collect the eggs without going inside the house. The open 

 space under the house affords ample retreat for the inmates on 



wet days. The whole being mounted upon wheels, and pro- 

 vided with side fall-down lever handles, it can readily be moved 

 abont, and these houses represent one of the most useful im- 

 provements in poultry arrangements. 



They are equally adapted to either garden or farming pur- 

 poses, the land becoming enriched and cleared from insects 

 at a small cost with benefit to both proprietor and fowls. — 

 E. & F. Crook, 5, Carnahtj Street. 



INCUBATORS. 



YoDK correspondent, " Brown Bed," seeks for information 

 relative to machines for hatching eggs, and suggests that you 

 should undertake the task of testing the merits of rival in- 

 cnbators. Now, Messrs. Editors, I give you credit (and, indeed, 

 editors generally), for having a vast amount of patience ; but 

 I think a trial of incubators would quite exhaust your stock of 

 that virtue, as we are told it is, and a very great virtue it must 

 be when exercised in relation to hatching eggs by the machines 

 at present invented. To say which is the best incubator would 

 be quite as difficult as to say which is the worst ; they differ 

 Bimply in detail ; the principle in all is the same — viz., hot 

 water— it matters little how the water is heated. Differ 

 amongst themselves as they may about the merits cr demerits 

 or infringements of patents, the manufacturers of incubators 

 have all the same end in view— to puff their individual ma- 

 chines and make money by them ; they leave purchasers to 

 find out the imperfections. The machines at present sold to 

 hatch eggs are perfectly useless as practical and remunerative 

 incubators. They may answer as an amusement, or as a hobby 

 to waste time and money upon ; for all else they are useless. 



I have spent a considerable sum of money, and much time 

 and patience in trials with incubators. I have tried warm 

 water, boiling water, and steam ; machines heated by gas, oil, 

 spirits, and paraffin ; machines where the water flowed and 

 where it did not ; and I have had made on principles of my 

 own some that I thought would be sure to answer, but they 

 simply turned out as good, or rather as bad as the others. I 

 think, instead of testing incubators, if you would kindly open 

 yonr columns to correspondents who have experimented with 

 machines for the purpose of hatching eggs, something may be 

 gained from an account of their failures if not their successes. 



I would remark, that eggs in incubators appear to go on very 

 well until about the fifteenth day. I have generally found that 

 about this time the chickens died ; numbers have I taken out 



of the shells perfectly formed and feathered, but dead. Now 

 as to the cause of this I am quite in the dark : — Too much 

 heat or not enough ; well, I have hatched strong chicks side 

 by side with those dead youngsters. Not enough ventilation — 

 I do not believe in this much-talked-of ventilation in hatching 

 eggs ; I succeed best in hatching under hens when the hens 

 are placed in a greenhouse in close boxes with only a small aper- 

 ture for the hens to enter, and I am disappointed when I do 

 not obtain twelve chicks from thirteen eggs ; I frequently hatch 

 the whole of the eggs. Much ventilation in natural or artifi- 

 cial hatching I have found not beneficial. Want of moisture — ■ 

 now I think we are in the neighbourhood of the mischief; to 

 prevent dry heat in incubators, it is the practice to place water 

 in the machines that moisture may be supplied by evaporation ; 

 if you then place a piece of glass in the incubator the surface 

 of that glass will be found to be wet, or at any rate there will 

 be moisture upon it : place another piece of glass under a sit- 

 ing hen, it will be warm, but will present no appearance of 

 moisture upon the surface. Take two eggs, the one from the 

 machine, the other from under a hen ; try both eggs with a ther- 

 mometer, and they may be both of the same temperature, yet the 

 feel in the hand is perceptibly different. Now, as to whether 

 the contact with the flesh of the fowl has anything to do with 

 this difference or not, I am not satisfied ; at any rate, when I 

 have time I intend to try a substance resembling to the touch 

 the flesh of a sitting hen, and that substance is india-rubber. 

 If a solid india-rubber bag, similar to those used by invalids 

 when travelling (I do not mean stuff waterproofed with india- 

 rubber), be fiUed with warm water, it will be to the touch ex- 

 actly the same as the flesh of a sitting fowl ; there is, in fact, 

 a moist heat without perceptible moisture. I give the idea 

 for others to work upon it they like. 



I have already, I am afraid, made my letter too long, or I 

 could add much relating to hatching eggs by artificial means. 



