688 Hatching Chickens in a Bark-bed. 



he has found, in digging up the second crop, that such herb- 

 age of the first crop, although immersed in the soil, had 

 produced many minute potatoes : an effect unwelcome to 

 those who, like myself, desire to grow their successive crops 

 unmixedly. It is scarcely necessary to add, that this effect 

 does not result from the buried herbage derived from ripened 

 potatoes ; and those of my first crop were quite ripe previous 

 to the 13th of July, the date at which my second crop was 

 planted. 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



John Denson, sen. 

 Water beach, near Cambridge, Nov. 1832. 



Art. XXI. Minor Communications. 



HATCHING Chickens in the Bark-bed of a Hot-house. — A 

 friend of mine was very successful last year in hatching 

 chickens in the tan pit of a hot-house. His method was to place 

 a half-hogshead barrel in the tan, which was brought up all 

 round it nearly to the top of the cask, and was merely covered 

 with a flat board. The eggs were placed in a basket at the 

 bottom, and covered with a piece of flannel. The heat re- 

 quired is 104° of Fahrenheit ; a degree or two above or below 

 that point will not destroy the eggs, but the nearer it is kept 

 to that heat the better. It may be supposed that it will re- 

 quire a great deal of trouble to keep it up to this nicety, but 

 it is not so troublesome as may at first sight be imagined. It 

 may be also asked, what advantage is to be derived from this 

 process, when plenty of sitting hens can be procured ? I 

 answer, that the chickens may be hatched much earlier than 

 hens will want to sit; in fact, the hatching may be commenced 

 as soon as eggs can be procured ; and, of course, the poultry 

 to be obtained will fetch a much greater price from their 

 early production. They may be easily reared, by being kept 

 in the house where they are hatched, until they are big 

 enough to be put out of doors, which will be in about a fort- 

 night or three weeks. When the cask is once at the proper 

 heat, it may be kept up to the desired point without much 

 trouble, for several months ; and the average number of 

 chickens will exceed what is obtained from hens. I have 

 read a French work by De Reaumur, giving a very circum- 

 stantial and interesting account of hatching chickens by heat 

 produced by horse dung, and I have produced chickens by 

 that means myself; but the heat requires to be very often 



