34 BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 



incubators at the same time, and find so little difference 

 between them that they have no preference. One of the 

 most expert operators I know told me he would be afraid 

 to affirm that any one incubator would hatch better than 

 another, because a number of times in his experience 

 when one season's work seemed to show a certain machine 

 superior to others run with it, the next season's work 

 would entirely change the relative status of the machines 

 used. 



The explanation of this is that machines differing in 

 principle and construction sometimes do their best work 

 under quite different conditions. At one time the atmos- 

 pheric conditions may be especially favorable to one of two 

 machines, and it will do superior work. At another time 

 conditions may be such that another machine will do 

 better. Again, conditions may not be favorable to the 

 best results possible from either machine, and they may 

 work about alike. 



Some men are on the whole equally successful with 

 all the different machines they try, others will be very suc- 

 cessful with one or two kinds of incubators, but always 

 unsuccessful with other makes, while not infrequently we 

 find people who never seem to acquire the knack of run- 

 ning any machine with satisfactory results. One can never 

 tell what he can do or how he will succeed with any par- 

 ticular make of machine until he tries. Still, as the aver- 

 age man or woman with any mechanical knack at all can 

 take almost any incubator and get fair results from it, no 

 one need feel that time and money spent in experimenting 

 with incubators is going to be wasted. It is with incu- 

 bators as it is with breeds, with houses, with methods c.f 



