Incubators. 2 °S 



first sheepskins were used, with the wool downwards, and 

 above the sldn there was a hot-water tank, but the chickens 

 were very often hung in the wool, and they, therefore, never 

 became really popular. The first to win anything like 

 popular favour, was a contrivance similar to the one just 

 named, but, with the important exception, that flannel strips 

 were used instead of the sheepskin, and, as there were capital 

 arrangements made for heating, ventilating, and cleaning, 

 much real success was attained by it. The present writer 

 reared large numbers of chickens during several seasons in 

 these machines ; and, as at that time the incubators were 

 unsatisfactory, hens were used for hatching, but, as the 

 artificial system of rearing presented so many advantages 

 over the natural one, the chicks were taken from the hens, 

 when a day old, and placed in the artificial mother. The 

 demand for these mothers was but small, and that kept up 

 the price, so that only a few persons went in for them. 



When incubators a few years ago became more easily 

 worked, there came with the demand for them, one also for 

 the mothers, especially as many who might have thought it 

 cruel to separate the hen and her chickens, could have no 

 such feelings with respect to machine-hatched birds, and all 

 the makers of the former have been compelled to provide the 

 latter also. These are generally made very similar, both in 

 appearance and methods of working. There are, therefore, 

 the hydro or hot water mothers, and, also, those in which there 

 is a continuous burning lamp ; but, whilst we in great measure 

 prefer the former method for incubators, the mothers upon 

 this system are rather troublesome when kept out in the 

 open, as boiling water has to be carried to them twice or 

 thrice a day, and this, in many cases, involves an amount of 

 trouble which becomes a serious burden. To obviate the diffi- 

 culty, some of the hydro-mothers have a lamp and circulating 

 boiler fitted to them, so that by. lighting the former, for ar. 



