IIG OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



in it. Tlie baskets witli their couteuts are then taken into a 

 dark room and placed on shelves of lattice-work, which are 

 arrayed in tiers on the walls. Underneath the lowest of these 

 shelves several portable earthenware grates are placed, contain- 

 ing hot charcoal embers. In this dark and heated chamber the 

 eggs are kept for a period of twenty-four hours. They are then 

 removed to an adjoining room, where they are deposited in rattan 

 baskets, which are three feet high, the sides being two inches 

 thick, and lined with coarse brown paper. Here they are allowed 

 to remain for ten days. In order that they may be equally 

 treated, it is usual to alter their position once during the day, 

 and once during the night. If the servants are careful, the eggs 

 which in the day are in the upper part of the basket, will be in 

 the lower part during the night. After fourteen days they are 

 removed, and arranged on long and very wide shelves. Here 

 they are covered uj) for warmth with broad sheets of thick paper, 

 made apparently of cotton. After they have occupied these 

 shelves for fourteen days, hundreds of ducks burst into life. 

 The principal establishments of this kind in the vicinity of 

 Canton are at Fa-tee and Pou-tai-Shuee." 



Ill Europe, the first to attempt artificial hatching 

 was Reaumur, the inventor of the thermometer. His 

 first attempts were with decomposing clung, something 

 after the style of gardener^' forcing-frames ; with this 

 he succeeded in hatching a few. His next attempts 

 were with ovens, in which he was partially successful, 

 and in 1749 he published a book called ^' Art de faire 

 Eclaire,^' but he failed to make it so sure of hatching as 

 to be of any value, and little more was heard of it 

 till 1840, when Mr. Cantilo invented the Hydro- 



