A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW. 107 



and those to gentlemen and fancj'- poultry dealers ; never- 

 theless, that his system of hatching, rearing, and feeding 

 was so different to that adopted by others that it might 

 possibly have given rise to those exaggerated reports ; 

 after which he conducted me over his establishment, 

 and explained most minutely the system he has adopted, 

 which, however, I need not explain in this part, as I 

 shall have to refer to it under the several headings. I 

 will now conclude by adding, that I have visited all 

 those places in France so justly famed for their poultry, 

 and from which those celebrated breeds of Houdan, La 

 Fleche, and Creve Coeur are obtained, where, also, I 

 met with the utmost courtesy in my inquiries, though 

 I had been informed that the farmers never explained 

 or showed their system of poultry rearing to any one, 

 which possibly may be true as regards their countrymen. 



2. Natural and Artificial Incubation. 



Of artificial incubation I have observed four different 

 systems, which, although said to answer well, are yet 

 far from being applicable to hatching in a commercial 

 point of view. It matters, indeed, very little what sys- 

 tem is adopted, provided the heat is maintained at an 

 even temperature : to obtain this, various regulators 

 have been invented, but none of which can as yet dis- 

 pense with personal care. They all say that their 

 regulators are perfect if the temperature of the room 

 can be kept at the same degree of heat during incuba- 

 tion ; that then they can regulate the heat of the incuba- 

 tor to any given degree ; but as such conditions of a 



