254 



POULTRY CULTURE 



FIG. 281. Stone incubator house on plant 

 of E. O. Damon, Hanover, Massachusetts 



but considering such points in 

 their general relation to his work, 

 the poultry keeper will find that 

 he cannot afford to leave undone 

 anything that it is in his power 

 to do in order to hatch, at the 

 most favorable season, the young 

 stock that he needs. Special 

 emphasis has been laid upon 

 this point, because economy of 

 attention which amounts to neg- 

 lect of incubators is the great stumblingblock of the small operator. 



Selection of an incubator. The 

 choice of an incubator is a less 

 important matter than is com- 

 monly supposed. Although there 

 are manufactured in America 

 over a hundred differently named 

 incubators, most of them are imi- 

 tations of popular machines, the 

 imitation being sometimes infe- 

 rior in construction or different 

 in some particular, but as often 

 equal to, and occasionally an im- 

 provement on, the model. It is notorious that some of the best- 

 known incubators on the market 

 are substantially identical and as 

 nearly equal as may be in hatch- 

 ing results, the differences in 

 hatches of machines of different 

 makes being no more noticeable 

 than differences in hatches from 

 machines of the same make. It 

 is not unusual to find poultrymen 

 in the same locality preferring dif- 

 FIG. 283. Laboratory building at Massa- ferent machines. Even men oper- 



chusetts Agricultural College. Incu- , . , . 



bator room in cellar. (Photograph from atm g m the Same r m > Wlth the 



the college) same eggs, may not agree in their 



FIG. 282. Laboratory building at Mary- 

 land Experiment Station. Incubator 

 room in basement. (Photograph from 

 the station) 



