FARMERS' REGISTER 



4S 



tions. Isf. Because ihey cannot ever be cultivated 

 by large planters in annual staples, and hence 

 they requite perennial staples adapted to small 

 cultivators. The reasons are evident j because the 

 eurfaces of these islands are so rocky that the 

 plough cannot be used, and because the sub- 

 stance here called soil being nothing but calca- 

 reous powder colored by vegetable mould, the 

 latter is liecomposed and the Ibrnier blown away 

 by exposure to the sun and wind; 2ndly. because 

 the kidney-seed cotton yields its staple during the 

 dry season from November or December to April 

 or May ; and can hence be picked by even the 

 poor invalids who will certainly visit these islands 

 every winter, when the government of the United 

 states shall remove the obstacles to their inter- 

 course by the establishments of pons of entry ; 3rd. 

 because, like all other perennial shrubs, when once 

 planted it is planted Ibrever; and because, like the 

 moras mullicaulis, when it grows too high lor con- 

 venient picking, the shrub may be cut down, and 

 fresh stems will spring from its roots. When I 

 arrived at Campeachy in 1827, 1 found a shrub 

 orrowing in the yard of Col. Toro which was still 

 bearing cotton on ni}' departure in 1837. In my 

 articles on the morus multicaulis in the Key West 

 paper, I have endeavored to show that if the cul- 

 ture of silk be worth pursuing in any of our slates, 

 it will be immensely more profiiable in the slerd 

 islands of the Florida Reei] and that they alone 

 can supply all the raw si:k requisite lor home con- 

 sumption and foreign export. In future articles I 

 shall endeavor to show that I lie perennial cotton 

 shrub for small cultivators will be still more desi- 

 rable than the perennial mulberry tree. But I 

 shall leave to time and experience the demonstra- 

 tion of the fact, that for these islands the most pro- 

 fitable of all perennials will be the tibrous-leaved 

 agaves and other plants which yield Ibliaceous 

 fibres and propagate themselves on the most arid 

 «oiIs> Very respectfully yours, &c., 



H. Peruine. 



•EGG-HATCHIiVG EXHIBITION- 



From tlie New Genesee Farmer. 



A short time ago, while in London, I went to 

 .see, among other " sights," the much-talked-of- 

 egg-hatching-apparalus, or, as it is called by its 

 proprietor, the Eccaleob'wn — a word from the 

 Greek, signifying to bring to life. The establish- 

 ment is situated in Pall-Mali, opposite the Italian 

 Opera-House, and consist of a large handsome 

 back aparment, entered by a passage from the 

 street. The first feeling on entering the room is 

 that of rather a warm atmosphere, along with 

 the slight smell of a poultry yard, which the place 

 literally is. On one side on your left is a huge 

 oblong case airainst the wall, elevated three or lour 

 feet from the floor, and used as a hatching oven ; 

 on the opposite side, running nearly the length of 

 the room, is an enclosure Ibrmed of paling,separated 

 in distinct divisions for difl'erent sizes of birds, and 

 containing, close to the wall, a row of coops or 

 houses for the little creatures to run into. At the 

 farther end of the room is a glass-case on a table 

 in which the birds of one day old are kept and 

 nursed; and in the centre of the room is a table 

 with a number of saucers in which lie the yolks of 

 eggs at different stages of advancement toward 



maturity, but which being broken are of course 

 useless lor hatching; they only exhibit the pro- 

 gress of the chick. Such is the general outline 

 of the establishment, which is fitted up with iron 

 steam-pipes running round the room to preserve 

 a certain temperature; and with a man, who 

 attends the oven, and a woman to look alter the 

 poultry-yard or enclosure, the whole is before the 

 eye of the visitor. 



The first thing we do is to take a peep into the 

 oven, where the process of incubation is perlbrm- 

 ed. This oven executes the office of the parent 

 hen, and in a remarkably perfect manner ; in fact 

 nuich better than most hens could perfbrm the 

 operation. — Every botiy, who has any thing to do 

 with hatching poultry, knows iha: the great dif- 

 ficulty consist in keeping the hen upon her eggs. 

 Some hens are better hatchers than others, but. 

 generally speaking, they are loo apt to leave their 

 eggs to get cool ; and this, by checking the incu- 

 bation, at once destroys the unborn chick. B_v 

 the Eccaleobion process, this chance of loss is en- 

 tirely avoided. If the egg be a fresh good egg, 

 it must give up its chick ; nothing can keep it firom 

 being batched. The oven or case, as we have 

 said, is a large oblong box projecting from the 

 wall. It is to be divided into eight compartments, 

 like the floors of a house, and each exposed to 

 view by means of a glass door. To satisly our 

 curiosity the door of one of the compartments was 

 tljrown open, and on looking in we perceive that 

 the interior is a sort of shaliow box lined with 

 cloth, heated with steam-pipes, and the bottom 

 covered with etrgs lyi^g at an easy distance from 

 each other. A jug of water is placed among the 

 eggs, for the purpose of supplying the air of the 

 box with a necessary degree of moisture. Thus 

 each compartment or box is a distinct oven with 

 its own eggs, anil in each the eggs are at a par- 

 ticular stage of advancem'Mit. In one box they 

 may be but newly put in, and in another they may 

 be in the act of being hati'.hed. The meaning of 

 having eight boxes is to insure a batch of chicks 

 every two or three days. Each box holds from 

 two to three hundred eggs, or the whole upwards 

 of two thousand. 



An egg requires from twenty to tvventy-threiB 

 days to hatch according to its quality and other 

 circumstances; the exact time is allovyeil to be 

 twenty-one days ; but such is the variety of eggs, 

 that a batch will require three days in entirely 

 chipping. The progressive series of phenomena 

 during incubation, as exhibited in the broken egga 

 on the table of the room, are exceedingly inter- 

 esting, particular!)' that in which the heart is seen 

 beginning to beat on the surface of the yolk, and 

 are as follows : 1 quote from a pamphlet handed 

 to visitors : — 



" 1st. day. In a few hours after exposure to 

 the proper tem|)erature the microscope discovers 

 thai a humid matter has formed within the linea- 

 ments of the embryo: and at the expiration of 

 twelve or fourteen hours, this matter bears some 

 resemblance to the shape of a little head ; a num- 

 ber of new ve.-icles also suddenly appear rudimen- 

 tary of dillerent parts of the future body of the 

 chick ; those first formed, and most easily distin- 

 guishable, may afterwards be rf»cognized as assum- 

 ing the shape of the vertebral bones of the back. — 

 2d day. The eyes begin to make their appear- 

 ance about the thirtieth hourjand additional vcsselj? 



