34 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



moisture. If these are supplied in the right amounts 

 and at the right time incubation will be successful. 

 The incubator, which complies with the natural require- 

 ments and furnishes at the proper time and in the proper 

 amounts the natural elements, is the one which you wish 

 to procure, if you desire to raise fowls artificially. Let 

 us defer for a moment the further consideration of this 

 topic to inquire whether an incubator is needed at all. 



If you do not desire to raise more than one hundred 

 chickens and you wish to study economy, you will not 

 purchase an incubator, unless you are anxious to obtain 

 very early chicks. The expense of the incubator and 

 brooder, and the time, trouble and expense of running 

 them, ought not to be assumed unless for special reasons. 

 But there are some very decided advantages to be 

 gained by using an incubator. 



I St. You can hatch your chickens at any time in the 

 year. This will enable you to get out early chickens, 

 to be sent to market and sold at high prices, when 

 broilers are about as rare as January strawberries. You 

 can also get Asiatics, which require a long time to grow, 

 out of the shell early enough to give them time to ob- 

 tain their growth and make better specimens for the ex- 

 hibition room. Where you rely upon hens for incubators, 

 they sometimes show a strange reluctancy to sitting, un- 

 til quite late in the season, and, on "the early bird" prin- 

 ciple, your opportunity goes by, because your hens re- 

 fuse to sit. A lover of chickens, rejected by an opin- 

 ionated old hen ! 



2d. The chickens hatched in an incubator are free 

 from vermin. A lousy hen ought not be allowed to 



