192 ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 



attached on the east. All the buildings have a sonth front, the whole 

 extending east and west about one hundred and twenty feet, with a 

 separate yard for each apartment, and a sliding door to open into a 

 larger yard, shaded with trees. North of this range of buildings, is a 

 duck yard and house ; the lower part for ducks, the upper part for 

 common chickens, with passage way to the nests, to take the eggs, 

 with an open shed attached, and an artificial pond, supplied with 

 water, by means of a pipe inserted into a wooden pump, six inches 

 below the nozzle, that when the pump is used, a portion of the water 

 runs into the pond, as well as distributes fresh water along the line, 

 into the several chicken yards. In the duck yard are two kettles, 

 holding about fifty gallons, to boil feed in for the ducks and chickens. 

 All these buildings I have found indispensable in breeding the chickens 

 distinctly, and without mingling. 



My first experiment in hatching by artificial means, was with an 

 Eccaleobeon, about four feet long, two feet high, and two feet deep, 

 front to back; legs, twenty inches high, with four drawers, four 

 inches deep, two feet square, placed near ta one end ; the drawers 

 encompassed with a sheet of water three inches thick, connecting 

 with a larger body, two feet square each way, through which a small 

 iron stove passes, to heat the water. In the top drawer are two 

 openings, one front, and one back, with valves, connected by a small 

 iron shaft ; in the front valve there is inserted a glass tube, with a 

 bulb at each end, nearly filled with mercury, so regulated, that when 

 too warm or too cool, the mercury will expand or contract, throwing 

 the weight from one end of the valve to the other, opening or closing 

 the valve, as required. This self-regulator of the heat in the drawers, 

 removes the necessity of so close attention to the heat. I hatched 

 eggs that had been partly under a hen, and produced the chickens 

 from the first warming of the eggs, up to the eighteenth day, when 

 the tin case sprang a leak, and all the water ran out ; but I had suf- 

 ficient evidence that the eggs would have hatched, had the case been 

 made of copper, perfectly tight. I then had recourse to bricks, piled 

 around the stove, in place of the water. I found the heated air would 

 pass around the drawers as well as the water, and keep up a uniform 

 heat that would have hatched eggs equally well, but attended with 

 more personal care, which led me to experiment with horse-dung as a 

 means of generating heat, which has resulted in perfect success, in 

 producing fine healthy chickens in twenty-one days from the com- 

 mencement of their heating. This mode will be more useful to the 

 farmers, as they have the material at hand, and the only cost attend- 

 ing it would be a little labor, to accomplish the hatching of eggs to 

 any desired extent. 



This Mammel, (to use the Egyptian name,) I will now give a minute 

 description of, that every farmer may build one for himself, and be 

 able to perfect the hatching of eggs and rearing of chickens, without 

 the aid of the hen. 



^ It is a building thirteen feet by sixteen, with a tight, grooved par- 

 tition dividing it into two apartments, the front one seven feet, the 

 other nine feet. In this partition are two openings to receive the 

 front ends of the ovens. These ovens are six and a half feet long, 



