HOUSES FOR SITTERS. 71 



It is essential to have complete control of the sitters 

 and of their nests, and the attendance at every stage 

 must be performed well, quickly and with ease. No 

 operation must be awkward or at a disadvantage, if nat- 

 ural hatching on a large scale is to be made to beat 

 hatching by machine. The maxim must be kept in 

 mind, that whenever a tiling is to be repeated hundreds 

 of times and often, a saving of a second, and also avoid- 

 ing a cramped or laborious position of the worker, is of 

 the utmost importance in lessening expense. 



Inconvenience costs money ; not only is wear of mus- 

 cles to be saved, but wear and tear of brain and patience. 

 It takes too much mental steam to run incubators and 

 brooders, as compared with sitters and brooding hens. 

 Nature has, as we have said, regulated the heat of the 

 latter perfectly, and made most exquisite provisions for 

 ventilation and moisture natural provisions not prop- 

 erly appreciated by poultry men during the incubator 

 craze. Incubators are at their best in the winter broiler 

 business, and as adjuncts to early spring hatching under 

 hens in sections of country where winter is prone to lin- 

 ger in the lap of spring. But the millions of tons of 

 poultry to be needed in the great future will be raised, 

 dressed and shipped, both with and without cold stor- 

 age, where the winters are so short and mild as to be 

 reckoned with but slightly, raised just a little to the 

 south of where the bulk of the cattle, sheep and swine 

 are now fattened. Just where the great district of the 

 cheapest grain in the world touches another district 

 where mild winters prevail, which are of much greater 

 importance for poultry than for beef, pork and mutton 

 production, and where natural incubation is at its best. 



A man can work more hours each day, and have 

 greater peace of mind and live longer on earth, if he 

 attends to natural incubation and rearing when he has 

 the very best conveniences for it, as compared with the 



