ARTIFICIAL HATCHING, 51 



she will scratch up insects for them, which are most nutritious. 

 Economists in poultry, frequently add two clutches together, by 

 putting the second under the hen at night, and then giving 

 another clutch of eggs to hatch, to the second hen, or permit her 

 to lay. The care of the hen is continued to the chickens, till 

 they are enabled to provide for themselves, after which you are 

 to reserve the largest and finest to continue your stock, of both 

 cocks and hens, and use at the table, or send to market, the 

 inferior. 



ARTIFICIAL HATCHING 



Has been practised, in China and Egypt, from an early period, 

 The Egyptian method is mostly confined to the inhabitants of the 

 village of Berne, and a few adjoining places in the Delta. The 

 number of mamals, or hatching ovens, was, in the beginning of 

 last century, 386 ; and the number of eggs hatched is reported to 

 be from 40,000 to 80,000 in each. We have, therefore, to con- 

 clude, that the number of chickens hatched, in Egypt, annually 

 amounts to nearly one hundred millions. They lay their account 

 at two-thirds of the eggs put into the incubator producing birds. 

 The difficulty after incubation, is the rearing of the chicks, which, 

 if found to be successful, would considerably increase the supply 

 of eggs, as the hen would be laying during the time of her hatch- 

 ing and rearing her young. 



Having occasion to visit the great city of centralization, over- 

 grown wealth, and extreme poverty, I was driven out by a friend 

 to Chiswick, to visit Mr. Cantelo's Hydro-Incubator, or egg- 

 hatching, and poultry-rearing establishment, and must confess, 

 though I had no previous faith in it, it astonished me to see, at 

 an inclement season, chickens of all ages, from just emerging 

 from the shell to that of being ready for the table, and, most 

 singular, each in perfect health no drooping of wings, no moping 

 in corners, no pip or roup in fact, no disease to which poultry 

 flesh is heir to. A lot of chickens, in large or small quantities, 

 in such rude health, I have never seen ; and there has been reared 

 up in one building, and at one time, upwards of 1,300, all to be 

 disposed of, from the London poulterers' shelves, and still not 

 equal to the demand. The advantages are many, in comparison 

 to hatching by the hen ; in the first place, they have no hen to 

 devour their dainty food, such as chopped egg, and oatmeal for 

 the young ones; they have no hen to drag them through the 

 ditches ; they have no hen to trample them to death, and they 



