176 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



CHAPTEK XVI. 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 



A. Practical Success — Past Attempts— Difficulties — Later Attempts — The Turning 

 Point — Ronillier's Machine — Prejudice Against the Hydro-Incubator — The 

 Incubator Trials— How Superior to Previous Machines — Drawback to Hydro- 

 Incubator — Voitellier's Hydro — Owen's Tabular — Arnold's Egg Oven— Self 

 Heating Incubators — Hearson's — New Centennial — "Perfect Hatcher" — The 

 Thermostatic— The Novelty— Advice to Workers. 



It is not at all necessary, now-a-days, to make any excuse 

 for introducing the subject of artificial incubation into any 

 work upon the keeping of poultry, for such a method of 

 hatching has passed out of the theoretical into the practical 

 stage ; and, it is not too much to say, that there are thousands 

 of machines at work in Great Britain, in France, and in 

 America, as well as very large numbers used for ostrich hatch- 

 ing at the Cape. It is no longer a merely theoretical and 

 expensive hobby, only to be taken up by those who have 

 plenty of time and money at command, but has become an 

 acknowledged success, neither intricate in its method of 

 working, nor expensive in the first cost and subsequent 

 management. But this has only been reached within the 

 last few years, as many can verify, and there is every sign 

 that the use of incubators is very likely to last, the results 

 already attained being sufficient to justify this belief. 



In theory, there has never been any difficulty about 

 artificial incubation, because, so far as can be seen, when 



