INCUBATION 
extra chicks will be insignificant compared with the present 
system. 
The Egyptian poultryman gives four eggs for three chicks, 
but the American poultryman would be willing to give four 
eggs for one chick, as is shown by the fact that he sells eggs 
for from i to 3 cents apiece and buys day-old chicks for ten 
to fifteen cents. A plant with a seasonable capacity of 100,000 
eggs has a basis to work upon something as follows: 
With a fifty per cent. hatch and chicks at 10 cents each there 
would be a gross income of $5,000 annually. From this we 
must subtract for eggs at 2 cents each, $2,000. Salary for 
operator $1,000, wages for helper $300. Fuel, supplies and re- 
pairs $500. Cost of delivery and sales of chicks $200. This 
leaves a residue of $1,000, which would pay a 20 per cent. in- 
terest on the necessary investment of $5,000. Personally, I 
think this is about the minimum unit of hatching that would 
prove worth while as independent institutions. 
Any increase in the percentage of the hatch would, of 
course, reduce the unit of size necessary for profitable opera- 
tion. Upon a single poultry plant as a duck farm the cost of 
operation would be materially reduced, as the operator him- 
self would take the place of the intelligent manager and the 
cost of gathering eggs and the delivery of the product would 
be eliminated. 
The most profitable method of hatchery operation undoubt- 
edly will be upon a plan analagous to what, in creamery opera- 
tion, is called centralization. The success of this scheme de- 
pends upon the fact that transportation and agencies at 
country stores are relatively less important items of expense 
than plant construction and high salaries for skilled labor. A 
hatchery with a million capacity can be built and run at not 
more than twice the cost of one hundred-thousand plant and 
beter men can be kept in charge of it. A portion of the sav- 
ing will of course be expended in maintaining a system of buy- 
ing eggs and selling chicks. 
The material advantage of operating a hatchery in connec- 
tion with a high-class egg handling and poultry packing estab- 
lishment, or as one feature of a poultry community, is at once 
apparent, for the system of collecting the market produce will 
be utilized for gathering eggs and distributing chicks, each 
business helping the other. 
The public hatchery also gives an excellent opportunity for 
the introduction of good stock among farmers who would be 
too shiftless to acquire it by ordinary methods. 
