344 Home Production of Poultry. 



Bromley " Home "), chickens hatched by livings or other 

 " hatching-machines " must be nursed by hens set in this way, 

 or else other birds must be employed as mothers, after a French 

 system to be presently described. One open field for artificial 

 incubation certainly exists in the hatching' of ducks' eggs ; ducks 

 being irregular and whimsical about nesting and sitting, and not 

 to be depended on as mothers, while ducklings can be raised 

 well by hand without nestling under feathers, or requiring a pro- 

 tector to lead them. 



Something simpler and easier than the French turkey-hatching 

 has been furnished by recently invented, or rather by lately per- 

 fected, apparatus. As a curiosity, may be mentioned an ingenious 

 contrivance of M. Manoury, of Mouy, described by Mr. Geyelin. 

 Several trays of eggs are suspended inside a wine-cask lined with 

 plaster of Paris, air being supplied in regulated quantity by 

 vent-holes with vent-pegs in the top ; the cask is surrounded by 

 four feet thickness of horse manure ; and thus chicks are hatched 

 in much the same way as we force early rhubarb and blanch sea- 

 kale. However, mechanical " Incubators " of different kinds, de- 

 riving their temperature from lamps, hot-water, 6cc., appear to be 

 no further advanced among the French than they are here. The 

 great difficulty is to preserve a steady degree of heat, without 

 slavish attention to the apparatus. At the Jai'din des Plantes, 

 in Paris, the manager of the poultry department, M. Vallee, 

 employs an apparatus of his own invention, in which water is 

 heated by a lamp, and the temperature regulated by admitting 

 more or less cold air, through a valve opened or closed by a mer- 

 cury float. At the Jardin d'Acclimatation, two different plans 

 are in use ; one has a lamp and hot water with a valve to regulate 

 the admission of cold air, the adjustment of the valve being 

 effected by a piston, acted upon by the expansion and condensa- 

 tion of air at different temperatures. The other apparatus 

 is merely a zinc box, covered with non-conducting materials ; it 

 requires neither lamp, regulator, nor thermometer ; the hot water 

 being renewed every twelve hours. All these incubators are 

 declared to work perfectly, and to maintain an even degree of 

 heat in the eggs, provided the room in which the apparatus is 

 placed be kept at one invariable temperature day and night, and 

 independent of all changes of weather — conditions, of course, 

 which cannot be secured except in purposely fitted buildings and 

 with incessant personal care. Mr. Geyelin describes an apparatus 

 (I suppose of his own invention) in which the eggs are laid on a 

 stratum of silver sand in a tin vessel which floats in a tank of 

 hot water, the heat being supplied by a gas burner or oil-lamp 

 below. At Bromley 1 have seen an incubator, constructed by 

 Mr. Geyelin, which will hold 2000 eggs. The Company have 



