JUNE 15, 1912 



391 



[FCDQilLTri^^ miP^^TT 



MT 



A. I. Root 



"natural-hen incubators," etc. 

 Below are two advertisements that I clip- 

 ped from poultry journals, and which I 

 have decided to insert here without charge. 



MARVELOUS I INCUBATOR WITHOUT LAMPS; USES NO 

 OIL BIG HATCHES. 



A 200-egg size Natural Hen Incubator for $3. 

 Most successful for 10 years. Patented in U. S. 

 and foreign countries. Hen herself controls heat- 

 ing, turns and airs eggs — does everything. No ex- 

 pense of heating. Agents wanted. Write for cata- 

 log to-day. Big money. 



Natural Hen Incubator Co., 1349 Constance St., 

 Dept. 4, Los Angeles, Ca . 



200EGa HATCHER, $3.00. 



Why pay $20 or $25 for a 200-egg hatcher with 

 only a five-year guarantee, when you can now get 

 one for $3 guaranteed to hatch every hatchable egg 

 and last for 50 years? This wonderful invention is 

 called the PARADISE HATCHERY, which is pro- 

 nounced by all to be the greatest hatcher for pro- 

 ducing strong livable chicks ever invented. You'll 

 say the same after you see and use one, and you'll 

 wonder how you ever got along without it. Do you 

 want to eliminate all your hatching troubles, and 

 experience a successful hatching season ? My free 

 circular contains information that will put you 

 right. Write at once. 



Elmer S. West, box 30, Ewing, Ky. 



Please notice that each one of them offers a 

 200-egg incubator at $3.00. Well, on in- 

 vestigation you will find that both parties 

 have no incubator at all to sell, and never 

 did have. What they have to sell is a single 

 sheet of paper, and you are to pay $1.00 

 for this sheet of paper when you ought to 

 have for the money a good-sized book, at 

 least fairly well illustrated, of their inven- 

 tion. The first one of the two, hailing now 

 from California, has been running this bus- 

 iness for perhaps a dozen years past; and 

 although I have shown the parties up 

 through Gleanings every year or so, yet 

 it seems tliey still succeed in raking in suf- 

 ficient dollars from the innocent and unsus- 

 I3eeting to keep on advertising. I have re- 

 monstrated with the poultry journals; but 

 many of them seem to think that, as long 

 as they get pay from the advertisers, noth- 

 ing more is required. What these fellows 

 have to sell is a description of an apparatus 

 to hold a dozen sitting hens or a smaller 

 number. A hen's nest, with a little door- 

 yard attached to keep the hen from straying 

 away, or from being annoyed, is as old as 

 the hills; and a group of these nests, with 

 their little dooryard of poultry-netting or 

 lathwork, is almost as old. It has been de- 

 scribed and pictured in our farm journals 

 time and again in years past. Very likely 

 the venders have some sort of patent right 

 on some detail of the construction of their 

 apparatus. In years gone by, I have sent 

 a dollar for it every little while to see 

 whether any improvement was being made 

 — that is, for the Califoi'nia machine. I 



admit they have some satisfied customers, 

 because there are many people who have 

 never seen the arrangement and do not 

 know that it has been for years before the 

 public. The latter one of the two adver- 

 tisements, coming from Louisville, Ky., is 

 a copy, as I take it, of the California ar- 

 rangement, notwithstanding he says in his 

 advertisement : 



HAVE NOT BORROWED. 



Don't imagine for a moment that my invention 

 is like other inventions or "poultry secrets" that 

 are now being advertised and exploited in poultry 

 journals throughout the country ; for it is entirely 

 original, and unlike any hatching device thus far 

 produced ; and I control the sole right of this won- 

 derful invention ; and all persons infringing on my 

 rights will be vigorously prosecuted. 



Once more, the second man says : 



SIMPLICITY AND PRACTICABILITY. 



The Paradise hatchery is so simple in its con- 

 struction that any person who can drive a nail and 

 saw a plank can, by following our simple written 

 form of instructions and descriptions, together with 

 the plain illustrations, easily construct a hatchery 

 in a few minutes' time, at a very small cost. 



Now, nowithstanding he says any person 

 who can "drive a nail or saw a plank" can 

 make the thing "in a few minutes," I do not 

 believe that the average carpenter can make 

 one in a whole day — that is, if he has to 

 saw out the stuff and nail it together. In 

 fact, I am not sure he could make one at 

 all with the meager diagrams furnished, 

 without the assistance of some poultryman ; 

 for although I have spent considerable time 

 in trying to cipher it out, I am not sure I 

 could tell how to make one at all from ti\e 

 directions. 



The directions that were sent me for my 

 dollar Avere evidently printed wrong. The 

 figures are marked out, and different ones 

 put in with pen and ink. Once more, you 

 will see by the advertisement that he sells 

 the 200-egg hatcher for $3.00. Now, the 

 bill for lumber and material alone, accord- 

 ing to his own figuring in plain printed in- 

 structions, is $4.00 for a 200-egg 12-hen 

 hatcher, to say notliing about nailing up 

 and painting. Once more, both parties 

 make a big point of no expense for lamp, 

 oil, etc. But how about the expense of a 

 dozen sitting hens, keeping them from 

 throwing up their jobs, watching the eggs 

 when they happen to break them, keeping 

 out vermin, etc.? If this sort of advertis- 

 ing is not using the mails for fraudulent 

 purposes, then I am mistaken. 



Just one thing more about the natural- 

 hen incubator. Even after you have read 

 their "spread-eagle" advertisements you 



