ARTIFICIAL HATCHING USELESS. 57 



out for cleaning, and a long narrow trough along the 

 front, resting on two very low stools, for holding their 

 food. PERCHES are to be fixed in the basket for the 

 more advanced to roost on. A flannel curtain is to 

 be placed in front, and at both ends of the mothers, 

 for the chickens to run under, from which they soon 

 learn to push outwards and inwards. These mothers, 

 with the wicker basket over them, are to be placed 

 against a hot wall, at the back of the kitchen fire, or 

 in any other warm situation, where the heat shall not 

 exceed 80 degrees of Fahrenheit. 



" When the chickens are a week old, they are to 

 be carried with the mother to a grass plat for feeding, 

 and kept warm by a tin tube filled with hot water, 

 which will continue sufficiently warm for about three 

 hours, when the hot water is to be renewed. Towards 

 the evening the mothers are to be again placed against 

 the hot wall. Their food, as before observed, is to 

 consist of coarse barley-meal, steamed till quite soft ; 

 steamed potatoes minced quite small, and occasionally 

 pellets of course wheaten flour : these articles may be 

 given to them alternately." 



This description is certainly superior to mine, in 

 variety of particulars and precision, if not in real use. 



It will readily appear why, although we were per- 

 fectly satisfied with our success in hatching a consi- 

 derable number of eggs artificially, we did not yet 

 wish to continue the practice. The fact is, there is 

 no adequate motive in this country, where a quantity 

 of poultry, fully equal, and even superior to the de- 

 mand, may be raised by the natural means : were it 

 otherwise, there is no doubt that the artificial process 



