3 6 BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 



to be outranking the other in the favor of growers of winter 

 chickens. 



In artificial brooding there are two principal systems or 

 methods — the continuous pipe system in which the chick- 

 ens hover under pipes heated by hot water or steam, the 

 pipes extending the length of the house and connecting 

 with one large heater which supplies all the heat required, 

 and separate " individual " brooders of a capacity of fifty 

 to one hundred chicks each, having each its own lamp or 

 stove heater. 



In discussing the merits of the two systems it should be 

 said first of all that the brooder " problem " has not yet 

 been brought so near a satisfactory conclusion as has the 

 hatching of chickens by artificial means. The two brood- 

 ing systems have seemed to alternate in popular favor. 

 Individual brooders came first. Then came the pipe sys- 

 tem, and for awhile it was generally preferred. Then 

 some great improvements in individual brooders were 

 made, and the separate brooder did so much more satisfac- 

 tory work, especially for the youngest chicks, that many 

 growers adopted the plan of using what were called com- 

 bination brooder houses in which pens for the youngest 

 chicks were fitted with individual "nursery" brooders, 

 while for chicks two to three weeks of age and upward 

 the less laborious system of pipe brooding was used. 

 Within the last year or two the sentiment of the larger 

 growers seems to have swung back to the pipe system. 

 This is no doubt due to the improvements made in it, par- 

 ticularly the improvements in regulating the heat by means 

 of electric thermostats and automatic drafts and damper 

 adjustments of the heater. 



