li)09 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE. 



385 



beino^ able to see the heart beat inside of the 

 shell, but I had never seen it before. I have 

 not time now to ^ive you a picture of this 

 egg-tester, but I think I can describe it so you 

 can make one in a few minutes. Go to your 

 grocer and buv a package of "cream of 

 wheat." I think you can get it at any first- 

 class grocery. Cut off one end, and then 

 cut away the pasteboard (on one side) on a 

 curve so as to come against your forehead. 

 On the opposite side make a V-shaped open- 

 ing to fit the nose; in fact, you want to fix 

 this pasteboard box so it will come up tight 

 I and close around the eyes, nostrils, and fore- 

 f head.* When put up against your face you 

 have a dark box. In the opposite end of the 

 box make, with a small-bladed knife, an oval 

 opening. It should be just about the size and 

 shape of a good-sized spectacle-glass. The 

 egg is to be neld up agamst this opening on 

 I the outside; but in order to have it fit tight 

 against the pasteboard you want to paste 

 around the opening a circle of dark-colored 

 woollen cloth. The idea is to shut out every 

 l)article of light, especially any gleam of light 

 that might get in around the egg; then if the 

 light is cut off in the same way when the 

 pasteboard box comes up against your face, 

 you will have a little "dark-room." With 

 this instrument you can tell whether a white- 

 shell egg has the germ started, generally, in 

 4S hours. In 72 hours, or three days, you 

 can tell very plainly. Point your egg-tester 

 right toward the sun; or if after night, hold 

 the egg near a strong lamp or electric light. 

 It is, m my opinion, Tar ahead of any of the 

 tin eg^-testers sent out with incubators, and 

 it ougnt to be made by some enterprising 

 manufacturer fully as cheap as the tm ones 

 or cheaper. 



POULTRY SECRETS— HOW TO TELL WFilCH HEN 

 LAID THE EGGS. 



Everj' poultryman wants to know which hen laid the 

 eee without havintr to watch nests all the time. I have 

 discovered and protected a system showinsj absolutely 

 which hen laid the enu. You can feed your fowls in the 

 niomintr, visit yards at nisrht. and immediately recotr- 

 nize every hen that laid, and each individual eaii- 

 Remember you can be away all day and still have an 

 absolute record of every hen in your flock. No ttuess- 

 work, examination, nor catchintr hen. Any one can 

 do it. Cheap to install, no expense afterward, and will 

 last a lifetime. Get rid of the drones; breed from the 

 heavy layers, and double your profits. Booklet telliny 

 how you can construct and operate this system sent 

 iirepaid upon receipt of $1.00. Endorsed by members 

 i>f the Hemdon Poultry Association. Address 



M. F. Hutchison, Herndon, Va. 



The above very taking advertisement 

 is now running in several of the poultry 

 journals. It is accompanied by a very pretty 

 picture of a hen looking at the egg she has 

 just laid. Of course my dollar went prompt- 

 ly for the great "secret;" but before I receiv- 

 ed it I had figured out that this man was go- 

 ng to have a little yard for everv hen; and 

 this little book, the size of a postal card, con- 

 taining 12 pages, tells you that you are to 

 make as many little dooryards, 4x6 feet, as 

 vou have hens. Each of these yards is to 

 nave a gate so the owner can get in and out, 



■The stiff paMUrboard xlileUI atla<'lie<t to a common flereo- 

 -"ope llIiiKtrate* about what Is wanted. 



and in each gate is a smaller one, something- 

 like the picture on page 70, Jan. 15th issue. 

 This little gate is on the trap-nest or bee-es- 

 cape principle, so the hens can get in but 

 not out. As the owner is not expected 

 to get around until night to let his hens out 

 of these little pens, each one has food, water, 

 and a place to scratch. By the way (although 

 he does not say so), this is an arrangement 

 for hatching chickens with a great lot of sit- 

 ting hens. Now, this is all very pretty, and 

 it will work all right, without any question; 

 but when you come to open a hundred gates, 

 and shut them, just to get a single egg each 

 day in each one of the little yards, you will 

 conclude you have a pile of work on hand. 

 In order to get the record without catching 

 the hen, looking at her leg-band (as the ad- 

 vertisement states), you are to provide your 

 hens with leg-bands of different colors. After 

 you have exhausted all the colors, then give 

 the rest of the hens two leg-bands or three 

 with different combinations. Yes, this will 

 work all right; but the man or woman or girl 

 or boy who runs the institution will find 

 there is work, without question. Our wood 

 friend Philo recommends a nice little poultry- 

 house for every six hens; but this new ar- 

 rangement needs a poultry-house and door- 

 yard for every single hen in the flock. In 

 fact, he says somewhei^e in the book that 

 there ought to be a little bit of roof over the 

 nest and part of the yard to protect the hens 

 during a storm. On the last page he tells 

 us if we are keeping 300 laying hens we shall 

 not need to have 300 trap nests with door- 

 yards, etc. We can take a hundred pullets at 

 a time and sort out the layers, and in that 

 way make up a flock consisting entirely of 

 choice layers. 



On the first page of the book the author 

 says he will prosecute to the fullest extent of 

 the law any person adopting his system with- 

 out first buying the right. He does not give 

 a copy of his patent, nor even mention a 

 patent elsewhere. But I wish to say that, if 

 the Patent Office has commenced giving a 

 patent to everybody who invents a hen's 

 nest with a little dooryard attached, it is a dis- 

 grace to that Department. 



Perhaps I should mention that the book 

 tells us we can save expense by having the 

 dooryard only two feet high; but in that case 

 we shall have to use a frame on top covered 

 with poultry-netting 4x0 feet; and handling 

 sucli a frame just to get one egg is about as 

 much work as making a whole big gate so 

 you can pass througn. I know something 

 about it, because I have operated such ar- 

 rangements. The greatest objection I have 

 found to the Philo system is the time occupi- 

 ed in opening and shutting so many doors; 

 and this is where you have a house and yard 

 with six hens. When it comes to having a 

 house and dooryard for each single hen, I 

 think I prefer to be excused. He says, how- 

 ever, in closing up, that the gain in twelve 

 months, over the way poultry is ordinarily 

 managed, would more than pay for the equip- 

 ment in one year. But how about the ex- 

 pense of manipulating all this machinery? 



