THE BROODER OF THE FUTURE. 325 



division into ten flocks of about 100 each, in five min- 

 utes, if the pens are made right and the doors are of the 

 right size and shape and move at a touch, or eight 

 minutes and no hurry. Afterwards, in a little longer 

 time each flock can be subdivided, by using another set 

 of pens, into smaller flocks of any desired size to prevent 

 crowding. The whole operation can be managed by 

 any person with enough ingenuity to be fit to attend to 

 chickens, without scaring them in the least or hardly 

 letting them know that anything has been done to them. 

 Of course he will shuffle slowly through the crowd of 

 very tame birds, with short steps, and will be provided 

 with a specially coveted dainty, that all will be greedy 

 for, though well fed already, and 100 chicks will get 

 into a pen quicker than one would think possible. 

 There are no bad effects in having young birds sleep 

 with strange bedfellows every night. It would upset the 

 domestic feeling and check the yield of laying hens to 

 consort with a changing crowd, but it makes little dif- 

 ference to chicks. 



As regards the temperature of the sleeping places, it 

 must be 103 first, last and all the time, in the air 

 around the birds when they are very young. The oper- 

 ator's business is to hold the heat right. That is what 

 he is for, and he is supposed to have every facility for 

 doing it, being supplied with as perfect an apparatus as 

 that which was explained in the description of the Incu- 

 bator of the Future. He can start currents of air at 

 will, coming from outdoors and warmed before admis- 

 sion. We said "sleeping places," not hovers, because 

 we would, as practiced at the plant of Mr. Loughlin, 

 have no covers over the hot- water pipes the chicks stay 

 under o' nights. The floor they sleep on should be a 

 little higher than the floor of the main room and made 

 of wire cloth to let filth through and admit air from 

 below for breathing. Thus, close air, exhausted of oxy- 



