164 THE PEOPLE'S PRACTICAL POULTRY BOOK. 



to have been manufactured for the special purpose, in sheets four or five feet 

 square. Next came a layer of eggs, two deep, all over the shelves, and two 

 of the layers of the blanket paper mentioned. Parts of these shelves were 

 occupied. They felt very warm to the hand. Their warmth was certainly 

 much above that of the atmosphere, the blanket paper protecting them from 

 its chilling influence as well as sudden changes. On some parts of the 

 shelves the eggs were hatching, and the men were engaged, where they were 

 nearly all hatched, in separating them. They tossed the little ones, as well 

 as the eggs which showed signs of animation, very roughly and carelessly 

 into baskets at considerable distance, greatly endangering the strangers' lives 

 from concussion, fracture of limbs, <fcc., in our estimation, but in John's opin- 

 ion it merely broke the shells, and thus enabled them the better to extricate 

 themselves. The ducklings, after remaining a few hours to dry, and extri- 

 cate themselves from the shells, were placed on the floor in little movable 

 basket-work inclosures of bamboo, and supplied with a kind of grass chopped 

 up for food, which they ate with an appetite which showed that they fully 

 appreciated it. This grass was placed in little baskets with broad bottoms, 

 so that they could not be overset, and the vertical splints continued upward, 

 and were tied together at the top, so as to afford slats in the manner of a 

 horse's manger. They could stick in their heads in the scramble for their 

 first breakfast, but could not trample the food under their feet. I presume 

 the young are transferred almost immediately to the boats, as I did not see 

 any which appeared more than a week old. 



" At the back part of their room is a mud wall partition, with a door in 

 the center, and two other walls running back at right angles to it, dividing 

 the back end of the building into three small apartments one for the fur- 

 naces of charcoal, &c., the middle one serves as entrance, and the third is the 

 apartment appropriated to the most delicate part of the process. This has a 

 board floor, raised about four feet from the ground, beneath which are placed 

 the furnaces, if necessary. The apartment itself was very dark and smother- 

 ing ; not much gas or smoke, but high temperature. This apartment con- 

 tained about ten barrels, lined with the flannel paper, stratum super stratum, 

 about three or four inches thick. In these barrels the process begins, and 

 continues till within two or three days of its termination, when they go to the 

 shelves, in the front room. The barrels are almost filled with eggs, a sheet of 

 paper being interposed between each layer of about six inches, and the whole 

 covered with three or four sheets of the flannel paper, and a thick light lid, 

 composed in part of the same material. The whole arrangement seems to be 

 a most perfect protection from sudden changes of temperature, and I am 

 under the impression that the eggs are handled a great deal, as they opened 

 them without any hesitation, and even asked us if we should not like to in- 

 vest capital in the business, for which they offered to pay two per cent, a 

 month, or a share of the profits, which were certain to be equivalent." 



From this description it appears that the first, and possibly the most deli- 



