No. 4.] POULTRY KEEPING. 75 



chicks in the shell. I know exactly what the gentleman 

 refers to. Yon pnt the fertile eggs in, and at the twentieth 

 (lay the chick does not come ont of the shell ; perfectly 

 formed, bnt just simply docs not emerge from the shell. It 

 is a greater trouble with eggs hatched in an incubator than 

 in the natural way, under a hen. 



Question. Isn't it duo to a lack of moisture in the in- 

 cubator, rather than under the hen, particularly where the 

 nest is on the ground, the eggs do not get so dry ? 



Professor Paige. Experiments have been conducted all 

 along that line, of increasing and decreasing the amount of 

 moisture in the incubator, but they have not found any 

 remedy for it. Even when moisture is kept in the incubator 

 until the chicks are hatched, it does not seem to make so 

 much difference. Perhaps with one particular make of 

 incubator it may be successful, but when applied to all it 

 does not remedy the defect. 



Question. As to that disease that affects our poultry, 

 incubator-hatched chicks, known as diarrhoea, — they are 

 complaining that they could not get much assistance. That 

 was a year ago. Is there any more light on the subject ? 



Professor Paige. A worker in the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry at Washington has within a few months published 

 a circular, in which he claims to have discovered the cause 

 for that diarrhoea ; and he thinks, beyond question, that it 

 is due to a protozoa that is transmitted by way of infected 

 food and water to the chicks after they are hat(;hed. 



Question. Except looking after the food supply, is there 

 any way of getting rid of it ? 



Professor Paige. No remedy ; he does not claim to have 

 found anything. 



Second Day. 



The meeting was called to order at 10.30 a.m. by Sec- 

 retary Ellsworth, who introduced Mr. John J. Mason of 

 Amesbury as the presiding officer for the forenoon session. 



Without preliminary remarks, the Chair introduced Mr. 

 Charles Stewart of Johnsto^^^^, N. Y., who delivered an 

 address on " Profitable bee keeping." 



