CHAPTER XXVIII. 



REQUISITES OF A GOOD INCUBATOR. 



To understand the points needed in an incubator, the 

 changes which take place in the egg from the first to the 

 twenty-first day of the hatching term should be studied. 

 It is, however, not necessary to know all the details, 

 which are of such wonderful complexity that to master 

 them would need a lifetime. A farmer may fatten 

 steers or raise wheat about as well (not quite) by atten- 

 tion to a few prominent principles, as if he was versed 

 in all the intricacies of animal and vegetable physiology, 

 and a few general considerations of heat, moisture and 

 ventilation will enable an operator to run an incubator 

 almost as successfully (not quite) as if he had taken so 

 thorough a course in comparative and ornithological 

 embryology that he could describe all the successive 

 marvelous changes in the egg from the first to the last 

 stage of incubation. The close study of these stages is 

 to be recommended, however, because of the intellectual 

 gratification in tracing out such matchless processes of 

 nature, while, if no direct practical benefit inures to the 

 poultryman from such study, indirect benefit he will be 

 sure to receive on account of the increased admiration 

 he will have for the wonderful masterpiece of nature, 

 the egg, and the wonderful process of its incubation. 



John Randolph said on the floor of congress that he 

 would walk a mile to kick a sheep. There are too many 

 poultry raisers who would walk two miles to kick a sit- 

 ting hen, not appreciating the wondrous nature of her 

 labors nor admiring her beautiful maternal instincts cel- 



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