652 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Oct. 15 



shows the temperature of the outside row 

 to be about 97 or 98, while the rows resting 

 against the hot-water tank show about 103. 

 My impression is that most of the incubators 

 could be arranged without any great expense 

 so as to double their capacity, or nearly so, 

 and give stronger chicks than where all the 

 eggs are kept constantly near a temperature 

 of 103. My invention does away with all 

 "cooling," and all discussion in regard to 

 amount of cooling, etc. 



Now, my other discovery I consider of equal 

 importance. All incubators, so far as I know, 

 oblige the chickens to breathe in an atmos- 

 phere of 103 and sometimes 104. They do 

 not hke it, and keep tumbling over the eggs, 

 sometimes with open mouth and panting 

 breath, for an atmosphere such as they have 

 under a sitting hen. No incubator made that 

 I know of attempts to remedy this or has at- 

 tempted it, because the tender sensitive body 

 of the chick will not bear cool air. Now with 

 the hen, especially in hot weather, the new- 

 ly hatched chick very soon pushes its head 

 out through her feathers for a breath of cool 

 and invigorating air; and I am happy to tell 

 you that my chicks at this time, Oct. 8, while 

 I am dictating these words, have their pre- 

 cious little heads out in the cool fresh air 

 very soon after they are out of the shell. I 

 managed it this way: When throwing out the 

 unfertile eggs, the top shelf is easily made 

 vacant. This top shelf is covered with soft 

 cloth that comes up to form a little curtain. 

 It is held up by a brass bar that is just far 

 enough away from the top to let the chick 

 get its head out but not so he can climb over. 

 As fast as I have chicks out of the shell I 

 pick them up by one wing* (letting down 

 the brass bar mentioned) and dropping them 

 in on the top shelf. It at once rolls down 

 against the hot-water boiler. This boiler has 

 one thickness of flannel over it^ and the tem- 

 perature (111 to 112) seems to suit exact- 

 ly. It rolls over first to one side and then 

 the other, and in an astonishingly short time 

 it is covered with that beautiful flossy down, 

 gets on its feet, and puts its head out over 

 the brass bar, for a breath of the life-giving 

 pure cold air. While it thus breathes, its 

 body is in contact with the warm boiler. It 

 is just like our baby, all bundled up warm, 

 sleeping out on the porch these October 

 days. Now, chicks kept in this sort of nur- 

 sery for the first 24 or 36 hours show a de- 

 velopment of vigor I have never seen them 

 show before; and I am firmly convinced that, 

 if their little bodies are kept warm while you 

 give them fresh cool air to breathe, they will 

 seldom get " pasted up behind " or be trou- 

 bled with any thing else that so often afflicts 

 baby chicks the first week. May God be 

 praised that it is my privilege to give you the 

 above facts that I have gleaned, and to give 



* I am well aware that we are cautioned not to open 

 an incubator when the chicks are hatching out; and 

 with those ordinarily heated with warm air this cau- 

 tion applies: but when the egg and chick are warmed 

 by contact instead of 103 degrees atmosphere, I have 

 not been able to discover that any injury arises from 

 picking the chicks up soon after they are out of the 

 shell, and transferring- them to the nursery. 



Ihem to you as freely and gladly as the great 

 Father has given them to me within the past 

 few days. 



SPROUTED OATS; GREAT SECRETS; EXTRAVAGANT AD- 

 VERTISING, ETC. 



I inclose $2.00 in payment of subscription to Glean- 

 ings for 1908 and '09. Now I am going to " haul you 

 over the coals." You have been after the fakirs, the 

 whisky and tobacco men, lying advertisements, etc., 

 and many a time I have felt like patting you on the 

 back; but to-day when I picked up the Sept. 15th issue 

 I was reminded of the old saying, "Consistency, thou 

 art a jewel." In the Sept. 1st issue, page 553, under the 

 heading of poultry secrets, etc., you heartily endorse 

 the action of the poultry-journals in exposing the fake 

 advertising of feed at 8 cts. a bushel, etc., and in the 

 issue of the 15th, page 5, you have actually got an ad- 

 vertisement of the same wonderfully cheap feed, only 

 it's 15 cts. a bushel instead of 8; but had that been the 

 worst feature I would have said nothing; but the ad- 

 vertisement as a whole seems to me the greatest lot of 

 " hot air " I ever saw crowded into five square inches 

 of space. If several of the statements are not whopping 

 lies they come so near it that no respectable journal 

 should print them. 



I know a little about the poultry business, and it 

 misfit he possible for some expert, who had had many 

 years of experience, to make $3500 from 1000 hens in 5 

 months if he had several thousand dollars invested in 

 the most complete outfit; but for this company to try 

 to lead the general public to suppose that it is an easy 

 thing, and that any one can do it, is simply trying to 

 get money under false pretenses. 



Let me just say here that I believe sensible men de- 

 test and abhor such expressions as " the best in the 

 world," "excels all others," etc. Compare this won- 

 derful advertisement with the sane, sensible, truth- 

 ful one of W. Z. Hutchinson just above it. [Amen to 

 the above sentence. — A. I. R.] I presume this slipped 

 in some way by mistake. 



I certainly do not think you are to blame for its be- 

 ing there; but in any case I hope I shall not see it again 

 in Gleanings. Arthur Laing. 



Corona, Cal., Sept. 21. 



Friend L., the reason I consented to accept 

 this advertisement is that I have shown up 

 Edgar Briggs and his sprouted oats during 

 the past two years more than any other 

 poultryman or almost anybody else. I pro- 

 tested mostly because he wanted $5.00 for a 

 book giving his secret about sprouted oats, 

 at the same time admitting that the sprouted 

 oats are a good thing if not exactly a new 

 thing. Well, I think I said to Briggs that, 

 when he put the price at $1.00 instead of 

 $5.00, I would be willing to advertise his 

 book, and this he has done — yes, a little more 

 than that; a good poultry-journal for one year 

 is thrown in. The advertisement in ques- 

 tion offers only the book, and that at a fairly 

 reasonable price compared with many other 

 poultry-books; but the idea that 95 per cent 

 of all chicks can be saved, and that everybody 

 can make money out of chickens if he buys 

 the book, is, as you say, preposterous; but it 

 is so much the fashion to advertise every 

 thing in the poultry line in that same way I 

 do not know how we can well call down Mr. 

 Briggs when a host of others are doing the 

 same thing, and perhaps some of them worse. 

 So far as the Briggs " system " is concerned, 

 I have not been able to discover that he has 

 any system. Philo has established a system 

 for growing poultry on small areas; and Fred j 

 Grundy, in his book, has a sort of system; I 

 but Briggs has nothing, so far as I can dis- { 

 cover, in the way of a system unless it is his j 

 sprouted oats. I thank you for your just \ 

 criticism, and the advertisement will not ap- ; 

 pear again. ■; 



