I'.lfW 



GLEANINGS IN BEK CULTURE 



681 



We all had a big laugh at what he says 

 about having just as much to eat as ever, 

 and just as many teeth to chew it, referring, 

 I suppose, to T. B. Terry and Fletcherism; 

 and the wind-up about the Sunday-schools, 

 flowers, and last, but not least, "prohibi- 

 tion," ought to remind us all that now is the 

 time to rejoice. 



Poultry 

 Department 



By a. I. Root. 



MOISTURE, "FIRELESS," ALTERNATELY 

 "HEATED AND COOLED," ETC. 



Oh dear me! how often we are reminded 

 tiiat there is "nothing new under the sun!" 

 I thought I was original in the use of sponges 

 for imparting moisEire to the inside of an in- 

 cubator; but Mr. Pritchard, who has charge 

 of our basswood apiary, informs me that 

 more than ten years ago Mr. Wm. Stahl sent 

 out with his Excelsior mcubator a lot of little 

 sponges to be moistened and laid on top of 

 the eggs; so it was not my discovery after 

 all. Futhermore, that beautiful little book, 

 " Profits in Poultry," that we have been giv- 

 ing away for a year or two (to everybody 

 who sends a dollar for Gleanings, and six 

 cents for postage) and which was printed in 

 1898, tells about sponges, and says that by 

 putting a few of them in with the eggs we 

 can tell by the rapidity with which they dry 

 out whether the egg-chamber is too dry. 

 This I had already discovered. During a 

 very dry time the sponges will dry out be- 

 tween morning and night; but when it is 

 rainy or damp they will hold moisture more 

 or less for three or four days. This same 

 book also recommends turning the eggs ev- 

 ery eight hours, although I did not know it 

 when 1 struck on it. It describes an incu- 

 bator run with hot water. You draw off a 

 gallon of water and put in another gallon 

 that is hot, once in eight hours, say at 6 a.m. 

 and 2 and 10 P.M. That this ("lampless" 

 incubator) is practicable has been abundant- 

 ly proven (we are told by the book) by the 

 tact that a large poultry establishment has 

 been run successfully for many years on this 

 plan. 



We have fireless cook-stoves and fireless 

 brooders; and when I visited Philo he was 

 thinking of and talking about a fireless incu- 

 bator. This poultry book that has been on 

 the market so long, and that we have been 

 giving to Gleanings readers (if they would 

 simply pay the postage), has been describ- 

 ing all along a "fireless" incubator. When 

 I )ur agricultural papers and all other home 

 papers have been giving us many directions 

 for making fireless cookers, and many testi- 

 monials to their value, it is a little funny that 

 nobody suggested that these same fireless 

 cookers would hatch eggs nicely if there 

 were only some arrangement for keeping up 



the heat, and also affoiding plenty of venti- 

 lation. The insulating arrangement to re- 

 tain the heat is just what is needed for an 

 incubator. yVt the present writing no one 

 has as yet robbed me of my "laurels "by 

 letting me know that I am not entirely origi- 

 nal in my great discovery (?) of moving eggs 

 away from the heat and moving them back 

 again at periods of about eight hours each. 

 It any manufacturer of incubators or any- 

 body else (besides sitting hens) has discov- 

 ered or suggested that eggs hatch better by 

 being alternately heated and cooled I should 

 like to know about it. Now, here is my lat- 

 est discovery: 



"A HOME-MADE" INCUBATOR. 



One of our printers hastily made up the cut above to 

 illustrate my invention. The wooden bowl shown 

 above is rather too shallow, and the eggs, as you will 

 notice, are further away from the kettle than they arc 

 in actual practice. The white lines running up through 

 the kettle indicate the chimney when you have a 

 lamp to keep up the required heat. C C shows where 

 the bowl is to be cut away when a lamp is used. 



You can make an incubator in your own 

 home this very day (or this very hour, al- 

 most, if you choose) , that will hatch chickens 

 and brood them, and do the whole thing 

 nicely. Get your wife's chopping-bowl (such 

 as she uses for making "hash ") or any oth- 

 er wooden bowl. Then heat some water in 

 a tea-kettle up to about 120 degrees. You 

 ought to have a thermometer of some kind; 

 but I think you can get along very well with- 

 out one if you do not have one handy. Have 

 the water in the kettle just as hot as you can 

 bear your hand in. You ought to have your 

 hand quite warm before you try it. Set this 

 kettle of hot water inside of the wooden 

 bowl. Now put your eggs around the bot- 

 tom of the outside of the kettle resting on 

 the wooden bowl. The sloping sides of the 

 bowl will cause the eggs to roll up against 

 and " hug " the kettle. After you finish one 

 row, then lay another outside of the first, 

 breaking joints. That will make 15 or 20 

 more, or 30 to 40 eggs in all; but if you have 

 a good-sized kettle, and a room or cellar that 

 can be kept pretty close to 70 degrees, you 

 can put on still another row of eggs just 

 above the row that rests against the kettle. 

 If the kettle is a little sloping, the eggs in 

 this upper row will rest also against the kettle. 



Chickens can be hatched with the eggs 

 resting directly against the hot kettle; nut 

 my best hatches have been made with a band 

 of cotton flannel slipped over the kettle so 

 the eggs will rest against the soft cloth in- 

 stead of the hard metal. 



Now cover tea-kettle, eggs, and all with 

 another siinilar wooden bowl. To retain 

 the heat, set the apparatus on a big soft cush- 

 ion of some kind, and another light thin 

 cushion can be laid over the top. Well, this 



