POULTRY ON THE GENERAL FARM 
by six feet. In one end are built the nests, which are covered 
by a broad board, while the remainder of the arrangement 
is covered with lath or netting. The food, grit and water 
should be placed at the opposite end of the runway. Care 
should be taken to locate these nests on well-drained ground. 
Arrangements should be made to close the front of the nest 
during hatching so that the chicks will not drop out. A 
contrivance of this kind furnishes a very convenient method 
of handling sitting-hens, and if no separate building is avail- 
able would be the best method to use. 
Incubators on the Farm. 
My candid advice to the-farmer who is in doubt as whether 
to buy an incubator or not, is to let it alone. If the farmer 
reads the chapter on artificial incubation, he will see that he 
is dealing with a very complex problem, and one in which his 
chances of success are not very great. 
In order to learn the facts concerning incubators on the 
farms the writer made a special investigation on the subject 
while poultryman at the Kansas Experiment Station. Replies 
received from 111 Kansas farmers, report 21 as having tried 
incubators. Of these, 6 reported the incubators as being an im- 
provement over hatching with hens; 10 reported the incu- 
bator as being successful, but not better than hens, while the 
remaining 5 declared the incubator to be a failure. The 
results of this inquiry, and of personal visits to farms, led the 
writer to believe that about one-tenth of the farmers of 
Kansas had tried incubators, and that about as many failed 
as succeeded with artificial hatching. 
The argument for the incubator on the farm is certainly 
not one of better hatching, but there is an argument, and a 
good one for the farm incubator. The argument is this: 
Hens will not set early enough and in sufficient quantities ta 
get out as large a number of chicks as the farmer may 
desire. Now, each hen will not hatch over 10 chicks, but 
is capable of caring for at least 30. Here the incubator comes 
into good use, for the farmer can set a half dozen hens along 
with the incubator, and give all the chicks to the hens. This 
is the method I recommend where an incubator is to be 
197 
