EEQUISITES OF A GOOD INCUBATOR. 271 



If there is any instance where saving at the spigot and 

 wasting at the bunghole will apply it is in bestowing 

 valuable time, eggs and oil (and losing the season) on 

 an incubator that gives you only worthless chicks or 

 none at all, the latter much preferable. 



There are two principal modes of heating. One is to 

 warm air by a lamp, and the other is to warm a tank of 

 water over the top of the air chamber, by a lamp, and 

 warm the air by this tank. There is no moisture 

 imparted to the air, of course, by the latter mode any 

 more than by the former, since the tank must be per- 

 fectly water-tight, but the advocates of this method 

 urge that the body of water is a protection against fluc- 

 tuations of temperature. On the other hand the hot- 

 air school say that by their system you can cool or warm 

 quickly when you want to, which, they claim is an 

 advantage. It is certain that there are good incubators 

 of both sorts, though fierce battles of words have been 

 waged between the respective rival manufacturers of 

 each. One objection to a tank is that if of cheap mate- 

 rials it rusts out in a few years and sooner or later 

 encourages profanity by exasperating leaks, while if well 

 made of durable materials the cost is an obstacle. 



The time has passed away when any one or two or 

 four or six makers can claim to offer the only good 

 machines, any more than the production of excellent 

 pianos, plows, cornshellers or mowers is confined to a 

 small number of manufacturers. Mr. Campbell says in 

 the Poultry Keeper : 



" My experiments have never been confined to the use of my own 

 incubators. I have tried all the machines which were popular in their 

 day bxat are never heard of now, and I have tried all the most popular 

 ones of the present, and to sum up the whole matter all that I have 

 learned by so doing is to find out that there is more in the operator 

 than in the incubator, and very much more in the eggs than either." 



It may be asked how the would-be purchaser is to 

 decide if the interested whoopings-up of the dealer are 



