68 AX EGG FARM. 



pete with incubators. There is another thing about the 

 sitting hen and her stolen nest. The delights of liberty 

 keep her from returning to her nest prematurely. The 

 eggs, and the nest itself, are thoroughly aired and puri- 

 fied from exhalations, and as the sitter keeps her feath- 

 ers bristled nearly all the time, her plumage likewise 

 undergoes as thorough a treatment as did your mother's 

 feather bed when she used to give it a good sunning. 

 The nest and the feathers upon the eggs are sweet in 

 the case we have supposed, but they never are perfectly 

 sweet and fresh when sitters are individually confined in 

 small, separate pens in rows or tiers, an abomination in 

 the sight of men and angels. Running and flying, 

 rather than scratching, are demanded, although all are 

 employed. There is an intimate relation between exer- 

 cise of the legs and normal action of the bowels, this 

 being true not only with fowls, but with all other spe- 

 cies of animals which have locomotion and digestion, 

 human kind included. 



Another objection to separate rooms is, that if feed is 

 placed so that the hen can leave her nest to eat at pleas- 

 ure, rats are baited to the spot, or if each room is made 

 rat-proof, it will be too expensive. To feed and water 

 individual birds in separate apartments takes much 

 time, and if several are placed in one room, they must 

 be looked to, or two will take to the same nest. But if 

 surveillance is attempted, it will be handier to carry it 

 out by placing many in a large room. 



Incubator manufacturers have fattened on the short- 

 comings of sitting hens under improper management, 

 but a little ingenuity will achieve a success that will 

 vindicate the methods of mother nature. Art is at its 

 best not when supplanting nature's ways, but when 

 assisting them to have free scope and be glorified. If a 

 one-hundredth part of the mechanical ingenuity which 

 has been lavished on incubators during the last thirty 



