70 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ARTIFICIAL HATCHING. 



THE artificial hatching of chickens, as is well known, has been 

 practised as quite an ordinary thing in Egypt for thousands of 

 years, and with the most complete success; yet, strange to say, 

 is only a very modern experiment in Europe. 



To give a history of all, or even of the principal attempts 

 that have been made to hatch chickens by heat artificially 

 applied, would far exceed our limits, and would be of no 

 practical use. It will be enough to say that Reaumur was the 

 first who really took the matter up in earnest. His method 

 was to place the eggs in wooden casks, or other vessels, and 

 then to surround the whole with fresh dung in a state of 

 fermentation, which was renewed as often as necessary. For 

 obvious reasons this system is never likely to be popular ; but 

 it is mentioned by Mr. Geyelin as still employed with success 

 in France, and it has also been followed in America. 



Since Reaumur's time, more or less elaborate machines have 

 been constructed by Cantelo, Minasi, Valise, Carbonnier, and 

 others in France ; and by Brindley, Schroder, and others in 

 England. We refer here merely to the old school. All were 

 costly machines, and all were more or less successful in hatch- 

 ing with skilled management, but none were generally 

 successful. We believe M. Valise to have been the first to 

 employ a self-acting valve to regulate the temperature j and 

 Mr. Schroder was, we believe, the first to provide free ventila- 

 tion from the centre of the egg-drawer, and, above all, a cold- 

 water tank under the eggs to provide a moist atmosphere, a 

 point further experience has shown to be of capital importance, 

 though actual tanks of water are no longer employed. 



After Mr. Schroder's machine many others were brought 

 forward, and in the United States Mr. Graves and Mr. Halsted 



