1 94 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



safe plan, is to select ordinary-sized, smooth-shelled, and good 

 shaped eggs, refusing such as are abnormal in any way. 

 We have heard it stated that long and pointed eggs produce 

 cock birds, and that short, round eggs produce hens ; but 

 the belief upon which this supposition rests, is so wanting in 

 proof, and the opposite has been so often shown, that it must 

 be dismissed as incorrect. We have also heard that eggs 

 laid before noon produce hens, and after that time of day 

 cocks, the promulgator of this extraordinary theory declaring 

 that he has proved its truth scores of times ; but this must 

 be dismissed as nonsense. It has been also said, and with a 

 greater measure of probability, that the fertility of eggs can 

 be told by placing the broad end to the mouth, and breathing 

 upon it. If the egg feels cold, it is unfertile ; but if it is 

 warm, or, to describe it more accurately, appears to give 

 back warmth, it has been impregnated. The reason for this 

 is stated to be, that a fertile egg contains the germ of life, 

 and that there cannot be life without heat ; therefore, the egg 

 does not absorb the same amount of heat when breathed 

 upon, as when an unfertile, and, consequently, entirely cold 

 egg is tested. We have known many instances where this 

 test has been applied, and the eggs selected accordingly, with 

 the result that they have turned out as marked, when placed 

 in an incubator ; but, we have known other instances, where 

 it has not been found so reliable, and we cannot, therefore, 

 state that the test is an entirely safe one. It is a fact, how- 

 ever, that after eggs have been in process of incubation for 

 ten or twelve days, and are exposed to the atmosphere for 

 five minutes, the living and the dead ones can easily be 

 distinguished, if held in the hand. The former are as warm 

 as when the hen was on them, whilst the latter are quite 

 cold, or very nearly so. 



The formation of an egg is truly a wonderful process, 

 and puts the poor, weak inventions of man into the shade 



