62 WORK IN THE HATCHING-HOUSE. 



lean, is nearly as good. But as no establishment kills anything 

 like a sufficient number of horses to supply the fry with the tit- 

 bits, the butcher must necessarily be the chief purveyor. Mutton 

 is not suitable. All the fat being carefully scraped off, and the 

 meat being weighed, it is pounded in a large marble mortar, and 

 passed through a coarse sieve. The yolks of hard-boiled eggs are 

 then added, nine eggs being allowed to each pound of meat. The 

 eggs should be several days old, as, if new-laid, it is impossible to 

 boil the yolk until it is mealy. This can be easily arranged by 

 buying foreign eggs from a wholesale dealer by the box, which 

 runs from 120 to 150 dozen, and at Howietoun generally lasts 

 about ten days. When the yolks of egg and meat have been 

 thoroughly mixed in the mortar, they are passed through a fine 

 wire sieve and kneaded into a stiff paste. This is rolled into the 

 shape of a thick sausage, and cut and rolled into large pills, each 

 sufficient to give one meal to five boxes. Theoretically, the weight 

 of each pill should be checked, but in practice it is found that the 

 eye is a sufficient guide. When the food is all prepared, it is taken 

 into the hatching-house, and one pill placed on the edge of the 

 fifth box in each row. One of the girls then goes round with a 

 feeding-spoon, and, beginning at the bottom box, presses the food 

 through the perforated zinc of the feeding-spoon, which reduces it 

 into fine vermicelli. When the threads are about 2 inches long, 

 they are shaken off into the water, and the current keeps them 

 always in motion. The fry, having their attention attracted, seize 

 on the moving filaments, and drag them all over the box, causing 

 the greatest excitement, so that the fry eat quite as much 

 out of jealousy as from hunger. I can compare it to nothing else 

 than a pack of highly-bred hounds breaking up a fox. If the 

 meat has been too fat, the filaments adhere, and lie in the bottom 

 untouched. If, on the other hand, too little egg has been used, 

 they break up into a thin soup, which very soon fouls the box. 

 But when properly prepared, and the fry not over-fed, there is 

 not one particle of waste. 



The feeding-spoon is made out of elm by boring a large hole 

 out of a 1-inch plank, and making a saw-drift through which to 



