388 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



To illustrate the difference in conditions, I will quote from one more 

 of my visits, where the party was not satisfied with his hatches. He 

 had an incubator cellar, stoned up to the roof, with three small win- 

 dows, about 10 by 20 inches on each side, but those on the lee side were 

 the only ones that were ever opened, and those only a little at the top, 

 and this was all the ventilation there was; there was also a cement 

 floor, which made it very dry. In this room there were some 18 in- 

 cubators, and, while everything was kept nice and clean, one was very 

 glad to get out and get a good breath of fresh air. The same party had 

 6 incubators in a very damp cellar, with not much provision for venti- 

 lation, but it was very large and roomy, and he had not taken off any 

 hatches from these machines; but the writer told him at once that 

 this was the place to hatch chickens, the other place was too close 

 and too dry, and it proved just so. So it is very plain that one must 

 learn just what is best to do under his own conditions. This is not to 

 be construed that one is not to get other jjeople's ideas, either verb- 

 ally or through the papers, — do so by all means; but also learn 

 what their conditions are, then take them home and apply them if 

 necessary. 



In the artificial rearing of chickens by the amateur there are many 

 obstacles if he undertakes to work them all out himself; but if he so 

 elects, he has many advantages over the beginner of fifteen or twenty 

 years ago, because where he has a chance to imitate, the other had to 

 feel his way in the dark and make many costly experiments; and 

 even now, while there are plenty of parties that are successful in this 

 business, making a good thing out of it, it is very doubtful if there is 

 one single party that is all through experimenting and trying to do 

 better, which simply shows that there is still chance for improvement. 



The first requisite in the artificial raising of chickens is the brooder; 

 and when one considers that the most important factor that brought 

 the chicken into this world as a living being was heat, and that that 

 heat had to be about right in order to produce a strong, healthy chick, 

 it will be easy to understand that the temperature in the brooder 

 must be about right to have the chicks live and do well, because that 

 important factor does not cease as soon as the chick gets out of the 

 shell but remains in full force for several weeks. No one would think 

 of taking a little chick out of an incubator, where the temperature is 

 above 100°, and turning it loose to shirk for itself with no old hen to 

 cuddle up to, to warm itself; so it was necessary that some way be 

 devised to supply the proper heat. But the next question is. What is 

 the proper temperature, and how shall we provide it? The writer 

 works on the plan that, if there is a suitable place provided that is a 

 little too warm, and if the temperature is gradually and continuously 

 decreased to a place that is too cool, the chick will instinctively find 

 the place that is just right, providing it is healthy. 



Plate 1 shows the interior of a 60-foot brooding house. It is 14 feet 

 wide, 6 feet 3 inches high between a cement floor and plastered ceiling, 



