A COMMERCIAL POINT OP VIEW. 109 



The next and last system of artificial hatching I shall 

 notice is that shown to me by M. Manoury at Mouy. 

 It consists of an ordinary wine cask lined on the inside 

 with plaster of Paris. In this cask several trays with 

 eggs are suspended, and the top of the cask is provided 

 with a certain number of vent-holes for admitting air, 

 which is regulated by means of vent-pegs : the cask is 

 surrounded to the top with a thickness of about four 

 feet of horse manure. Though I am assured that this 

 principle answers well, I entertain serious doubts about 

 it for the same reasons as before stated. 



The Natural Hatching 



Differs entirely from what I ever saw before, and in 

 some parts of France forms a special trade carried on 

 by persons called couveurs, or hatchers. These hatch 

 for farmers at all times of the year at so much per 

 egg, or purchase the eggs in the market, and sell the 

 chickens, as soon as hatched, from threepence to six- 

 pence each, according to the season of the year. This 

 system may aptly be called a living hatching machine, 

 and, in my opinion, it is the very best and cheapest 

 way of hatching, as will be seen by the following de- 

 scription : 



The Hatching-Room 



Is kept dark, and at an even temperature in summer 

 and winter. In this room a number of boxes, two feet 

 long, one foot wide, and one foot six inches deep, are 

 ranged along the walls. These boxes are covered in 



