No. 4.] POULTRY CULTURE. 245 



Hatcheries. 



The Mammoth incubator has come to supply the demand for 

 baby chicks. There are thousands of people who are not 

 equipped to incubate their eggs, either by natural methods or 

 artificially, so the hatchery is supplying a long-felt want. A 

 large number of these are scattered throughout the State. 

 Here eggs can be sent for hatching and baby chicks returned 

 by express. Some of these hatcheries are run by men who 

 make a regular business of hatching for other people, while 

 others have their own breeding flocks for supplying eggs. At 

 this writing the largest hatchery in the United States is being 

 built at Holliston, Massachusetts. Its capacity is 166,000 eggs 

 at one sitting or about 1,000,000 eggs annually. 



The Baby Chick Business. 



There are a number of poultrymen who make a business of 

 selling baby chicks. Some of them find a market for these 

 throughout the entire year, while others supply them only dur- 

 ing the main breeding season. This business has developed to 

 such an extent that some of the poultry supply houses in Bos- 

 ton deal in baby chicks just as in grain and other supplies, and 

 many thousands pass through their hands annually. These 

 houses are a source of supply for a large number of back-yard 

 poultry keepers. 



Poultry Breeding. 



This line of specialized poultry keeping requires the greatest 

 amount of knowledge and skill, and yet it is generally the first 

 to be taken up by amateurs. We have now two classes of 

 breeders, the exhibition and what I like to term the "standard 

 utility" breeders. The former breed exhibition stock almost 

 exclusively, and furnish breeders and eggs to others in their 

 class, and also the foundation stock for most of the utility men. 

 Many of these do well, as they usually begin in a small way 

 and learn the business by hard knocks. It is a side line with 

 them for a number of years at least, and as soon as they find 

 they can succeed with poultry, they drop their other employ- 

 ment. 



