182 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 



WHEN I MEAN TO MARRY. 



Wlien do I inti'iid to marry ? Well, 



'Tis idle to disimtewith fate : 

 But if you choose to he;ir nie tell, 



Pray listen while 1 fix the date. 



When daufrhters haste with eager feet, 



A mother's daily toil to share; 

 Can make the inuUliiii:s which they eat, 



And fix the stoekinys tliat they wear; 



When maidens look upon a man, 



As in himself wiiat they would marry, 



And not as army soldiers scan 

 A sutler or a commissary; 



When Kcntle ladies, who have got 



The otter of a lover's liand, 

 Consent to share his earthly lot. 



And do not mean his lot of land; 



When younef mechanics are allowed 

 To find and wed the farmer girls; 



Who don't expect to lie endowed 

 With rubies, diamonds and pearls; 



When wives, in short, shal] freely give 

 Their hearts and hands to aid their epouses, 



And live as they were wont to live. 

 Within their sires' one-story houses. 



Then, madam — if I'm not too old — 



Kejoieed to quit this lonely life — 

 I'll brush my beaver, cease to scold. 



And look abeut me for a wife ! 



John O. Saxe. 



"We presume the author of the above lines 

 knew exactl)' what he was writing alioiit, and 

 liis readers, if they will, may perceive their 

 sigiiiticanee. The first two lines of the fifth 

 stanza revi\e an alhision made to the same 

 subject, in our presence, on several past oeca- 

 sions. 



" When young mechanics are allowed 

 To find and wed the farmer's girls." 



We know nothing about the practical bear- 

 ings of this question, and have not thought 

 much on it. There are those, however, who 

 allege that in some conmuunties the practice 

 interdicting tlie marriage of mechanics, or, 

 indeed, any citizen of a town, or other occu- 

 pation, with tlie daughters of farmers, Is as 

 arbitrary as tlie class "castes" among the 

 Hindoos. If this ever has been so, which we 

 doubt, as a general ])roiiosition, tliere must 

 hiive Ijeen some reason for it, but neitlier in 

 theory nor in practice, is tliis the case at the 



present day. 



• 



INDIAN SUMMER. 



The question arises, " Wliat is Indian Summer?" 

 and proliably not one person in twenty thousand 

 knows. Almost every warm day in fall is spoken of 

 as being it, and incorrectly, too. The l>ev. John 

 Lyon has expressed himself upon the subject as fol- 

 low s : " The leaves generally liegin to fall in Octo- 

 ber, after the first frost, and eontiime to do so during 

 the month. Then veiy generally, when all the leaves 

 have fallen, there comes a cold rain and a bitter frost, 

 fermentation and decomposition, which adds warmth 

 to the eartli, causing that warm, misty atmosphere 

 which continues until nearly the end of November. 

 And it is during this warm spell in November that 

 tradition says, in this latitude, the Indians laid up 

 their corn for the winter." This cxplanaticm may or 

 may not be correct, yet it is deemed to be as good a 

 one as has yet been advanced. 



The above cause for Indian Summer is per- 

 haps as correct as any tliat has yet been given 

 in so few words; from which "it will be per- 

 ceived that Indian Sunnner is a phenomenon 

 contingent upon a certain combination of 

 meteorological circumstances, and tliat wlien 

 this combination does not exist, a season may 

 pass witliout the occurrence of the phenome- 

 non at all. Up to this date (Dec. 10), we 

 have liad no well-defined Indian Summer this 

 season yet. 



A smart boy, living on the Susquehanna, 

 was once asked his age. He rejilied that on 

 next "ice-going time" lie would be ten years 

 old. When he was born, tlie ice was moving 

 off the river. Accordiuij to his computation 

 of -time and events, if thi; river should not 

 happen to freeze, he would have no birthday 

 amiiversary. The tailure of the necessary 

 meteorological comliinatioii would dejirive him 

 of this, as it does us of an Indian Summer. 



Ask your NEiGUBfiit to subscribe to The 

 Lancaster Farmer for the Centennial year. 



For The Lancaster Farmeb. 

 INCUBATION. 



This word conies from the Latin "Incuba- 

 tio," (( hrddlirKj, or what we call "liatching. " 

 Artificial incubation has been jiractised from 

 a remote period by the Egy|)tiaiis and Chinese ; 

 the former, indeed, have carried tliis process 

 to such a liigli degree of perfect inn. as in many 

 instances to have entirely superseded the use 

 of the hen in hatcliiiig. It is etfected eitlier 

 by means of an oven, stove or steam, theprin- 

 cijiles of which will be found detailed in Ure's 

 Dkliimarn af Arts, iVc. This process lias re- 

 ceived considerable attention from the French 

 philosophers ; but jierhaps the best exemiilica- 

 tion of its results witnessed in P2nrope is given 

 by the Mxakiiliori, or egg-hatching machine, 

 exhibited both in London and the Unitid 

 States, ]irior to the invention of Mr. Boyle, of 

 London, England, a figure of which is' given 

 in Munn & Co. 's Science Kecord for 1875, on 

 page ;i7<j, and may b(^ examined. In Rees' 

 American Cyclopedia or Universal Dictionary, 

 Vol. XIX., twenty-five large octavo jiages are 

 devoted to the subject of incubation, and which, 

 old as the work is, contains a great amount of 

 valuable information in rmiqxirnlh-e anntduiy, 

 gleaned from the writings of Aristotle, Hip- 

 pocrates, Fabricius ab Aquapendente, Aldro- 

 vandus. Colter, Vestling, Harvey, Langly, 

 Schrader, Theodorus, Aides, Stenon, Keeil- 

 liam, Malpighi, Maitre Jan, Haller, Hunter, 

 JNIonroe, and numerous other respectable phy- 

 siologists, whom I have no inclination to quote 

 or follow in their explanation of the mem- 

 branes, vesicula umbilicalis, air-cells, external 

 liquid or liquid white, yelk-bag, chalaze, am- 

 nios, auricular canal and daily changes up to 

 the 20th or 480tli hour, when the shell is bro- 

 ken, &c., and the diverse specidations, how- 

 ever interesting, are too e-xtensive to follow. 

 I will therefore confine my quotations to those 

 records of a more recent date, and omit many 

 interesting experiments and observations, 

 which those who desire may find more at large 

 in the works referred to. 



Boyle's machine is so constructed that when 

 once set to any degree of heat within the limits 

 of 40^ and ^OO*^ Fahrenheit, it will maintain 

 the same for any length of time without vari- 

 ation. It is adapted to the control of hot- 

 water pipes in hot houses, or any other place ; 

 to the opening and shutting of stove-dampers; 

 and, in fact, to any use which requires a sim- 

 ple \\\i and down motion in connection with 

 the heat. 



It is intended to act perfectly untouched for 

 an indelinite time, and there will be no per- 

 ceptible variation in the heat. 



The heat of an' incubator is 106*^'. The hen 

 does not raise the thermometer by the heat of 

 her body over 104'-, when she sits upon her 

 eggs. In those birds who do not sit constant- 

 ly but trust to the heal of the sun, the temper- 

 ature of the eggs is probably below l{l4^. 

 Twenty-one days is the allotted jieriod for in- 

 cubation by the hen. In warmer climates it 

 is said to be a day or two less. The period of 

 iiiculiation varies much in differt^it siiecies of 

 birds. The swan 42 days ; goose, 30 ; duck, 

 30 ; turkey, 30 ; peacock, 20 to 27 ; pheasant, 

 20 to 25 ; hen, 18 to 21 ; pigeon, 17 to 18. So 

 I might enumerate that of other birds. 



The egg will always be found, if broken im- 

 der a thermometer, to be 104-, and the under 

 side of the egg will be found consideralily cooler 

 than the upper: and experience shows that at 

 lOG'^ constant heat, (the heat of the hen) the 

 eggs will die either before or on chipping the 

 shell, while at 108'-', constant heat they die at 

 once. These data are given from many ex- 

 periment. 



It has been observed that nests made under 

 the hedges, or in any wild situation, produce 

 more and stronger chickens than those cared 

 for in baskets or boxes. Under the former cir- 

 cumstances, the underside of the egg must be 

 much colder than the ujiper side. "And this 

 agrees with the inventor's experience, who 

 finds that in eggs kept in a steady tempera- 

 ture, e(jual on all sides, the chickens usually 

 die on the lOtli or 20th day, and if any'strug- 

 gle out they are very feeble. In the incubator 



it will be seen that this natural irregularity of 

 heat is carefully imitated. Heating the ew 

 from beneath— a plan often tried because of 

 its great facility— is directly subversive of the 

 natural conditions. The receiitacle for the eggs 

 in this incubatcn- imitates all the conditions 

 essential. The next ]ioiiit for consideration in 

 imitating nature, is the daily cooling of the 

 eggs for aliDut twenty minutes, ratlier more 

 tlian less, w hen the hen leavf s to feed. This 

 must by no means lie omitted, and we do not 

 think that eggs suffer from a great deal 

 of cooling (so that they get the fullproper heat 

 between times) ; but they soon die under half 

 measures, such as many hours at 100'^ or 90-'. 



If the eggs be never cooled, most of them 

 will die between the fifteeth and twentieth 

 day, and all farmers' wives are] aware that a 

 " hard sitter," that is, a hen that sits contin- 

 uously, or is fed while sitting on her eggs, does 

 not succeed as well in producing a certain or 

 healthy brood, as do those who leave their 

 nest when being fed or in search of food. 



We must also imitate the action on the egg 

 of damp ground, the air and moisture, by the 

 perspiration of the hen, otherwise the hatch- 

 ing will proceed withoul absorbing the yolk- 

 bag, or only partially, so that on moving about 

 it will again extrude the bag and cause the 

 chick to jierish. But too much moisture tends 

 to addle the eggs. A gentle, natural vapor is 

 preferable to daily sponging of the eggs. 



It is well known that when the hen returns 

 to her nest she turns the eggs over every time, 

 and being an instinct in the mother, it is found 

 of use to imitate this changing in the position 

 of the eggs. 



The hen seems to sit lightly upon her eggs 

 when the chick is ready to chip or break the 

 egg, and allows the little prisoners to extricate 

 themselves, as they are usually strong enough 

 for that purpose, and when not, they will 

 hardlj' be strong enough to survive when as- 

 sisted to make their escape from the shell, in 

 the inculiator mentioned, a chamber is pro- 

 vided in which the egg is placed when chipped, 

 or immediately before chipping, so that the 

 little chick can come out free of any hinder- 

 ing obstruction. 



To imitate the soft feathers of the hen, who 

 covers the chickens for some weeks under her 

 breast and wings, it is e.'^.sential to the comfort 

 of the iirtificial brood, to have artificial moth- 

 ers, for which a kind of cistern is provided, 

 under which the chicks are placed as soon as 

 <lry. They being also jirovided with cotton 

 wool, or flannel, so arranged that the chickens 

 can creep under or nestle in it, and with the 

 warmth against their backs, they will be quiet 

 and contented. Tho fanner's wife gets the 

 young brood often, while others are hatchmg 

 iiy the same hen, and between flannel or cot- 

 ton in a basket under the stove nurses them 

 for a day or two. 



Thus, in all things, by observing the in- 

 stincts of nature, the incubation can be suc- 

 cessfully aieomplished, and any number of 

 chickens raised from the leurenat cyyn (having 

 tht tread) to supply the demands of the market. 



M. Bonnemain was the first person who 

 studied with due attention all the circum- 

 stances of artificial iiiculiation, and mounted 

 the process successfully iqion the commercial 

 scale. So far back as 1777 he communicated 

 to the Academy of Sciences an interesting fact, 

 which he had noticed, upon the raeclianisin em- 

 ployed by chicks to break their shells, and for 

 some time prior to the French revolution he 

 furnished the Parisian market with excellent 

 poultry at a jieriod of the year when the far- 

 mers had ceased to supjily it. It was jiroved 

 by him that "spring chickens " could be bad 

 all the yetir round. Why is it not followed 

 up ? II is process was founded ujion the jirin- 

 eiple of circulation of hot water by the intes- 

 tine motion of its particles, in a returning 

 series of connected pipes; a subject afterwards 

 ilhistratf d in the experimental researches of 

 C^junt Rumf6rd. This is now introduced in 

 many idaces to warm the apartments in build- 

 ings. jSI. Bonnemain sixty years ago per- 

 fectly understood hot water circulation, as well 

 as our stove doctors do at the present day. 



1 



