INCUBATION 
Eggs Chicks Per Cent. 
Month Set Hatched Hatched 
January .............-- 4,213 1,585 37 2-3 
Hepruary .civsdeveswess 6,275 2,339 33 3-4 
Maren. iispscs ca cieiwnne os 17,990 6,993 38 1-3 
April, scangsensouescaere 18,819 10,265 54 1-2 
MAY Boro iach enh teks a eaper ses 24,458 14,438 59 
DUM Oo so5 cos cceGenratasheres 13,100 6,614 55 
Totall.vaweenseae wee 84,855 42,234 50 p.c. 
The Future Method of Incubation. 
The idea of the mammoth incubator which would hatch eggs 
by the hundred thousand and a minimum of expense is the 
dream of the American incubator inventor. We have long had 
available such methods of insulation and regulating the supply 
of heat as would point to the practicability of such a dream. 
The past efforts in this direction have fallen down for the 
following simple reason: All eggs were placed in a single big 
room with a view of the man’s entering the room to take care 
of them. Contact with cold walls, the opening of doors, the 
hatching of chicks or introduction of fresh eggs set up air cur- 
rents, the hot air rising and the cold air settling until great 
differences in temperature would be found in the room. No 
systematic reguiation of evaporation was contemplated, as the 
Ha ae at stake or the means of such regulation were un- 
known. 
The attempt just referred to was made several years ago 
by one of the most successful of incubator manufacturers and 
because of his failure other inventors were inclined to steer 
clear of the proposition. Meanwhile the need of such an incu- 
bator has grown enormously. At the time that above effort 
was made no duck ranch existed whose annual production ran 
over thirty or forty thousand ducklings, whereas we now have 
several in the one hundred thousand class. 
Much more remarkable has been the growth of the day-old 
chick business. The discovery that newly hatched chicks 
could be successfully shipped hundreds of miles with less loss 
than shipping eggs for hatching, has resulted in a few years’ 
time in the growth of hatcheries of considerable size where 
chicks are hatched by means of common incubators. Still 
another opportunity for the use of large hatcheries has been 
by the growth of poultry communities. There are other com- 
munities besides those mentioned in this book which would 
amply support public hatcheries. If half the poultry growers 
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