136 POULTRY BREEDING 
age of 10.9 per cent in hatching. The highest evapora- 
tion noticed was in nests lined with chaff which were in- 
side a building. This was at the rate of 15.15 per cent. 
In tests made at the University of Missouri Ecleshymer 
found that the loss from evaporation was 13 per cent. 
The loss was controlled so as to reduce it to 9 per cent, 
yet good chicks were hatched. Then the evaporation was 
increased to 20 per cent and still good chicks were 
hatched. These tests led Ecleshymer to conclude that 
the moisture in an incubator should be controlled so the 
evaporation would be about 13 per cent. 
At the West Virginia Experiment Station Prof, Atwood 
gave as the result of a number of tests of eggs set under 
hens a loss by evaporation in the eggs hatched amounting 
to 16.54 per cent. He tabulated his results and showed 
that 100 eggs would lose 8.28 ounces the first five days; 
12.05 ounces next seven days and 12.44 ounces the next 
seven days. This computation is made for fertile eggs. 
Infertile eggs lose slightly less than fertile ones. 
EGG, WHAT IS AN?—A chemist would say that an 
egg is a chemical combination of lime, water, proteids, 
carbohydrates, fats and ash, of which the lime in the shell 
is approximately 11.2 per cent, the water, 65.5 per cent, 
the proteids, 11.9 per cent, the fats, 9.3 per cent and the 
ash, 9 per cent. The average egg of the hen is 2.27” long, 
1.72” in diameter at the largest place and weighs about 2 
ounces. This egg is 11 per cent shell, 32 per cent yolk 
and 57 per cent white. Here the chemist would stop. 
Prof. Dryden has gone farther. He says: “The only 
difference between a bushel of wheat anda bushel of eggs 
is that the eggs are more palatable and more nutritious. 
They are also more valuable in the market. A pound of 
eggs is worth from 10 to 30 cents, according to the sea- 
