6 BAISING FOWLS XST> EGGS 



nese, the Assyrian, the English, or the Yankee methods of 

 hatching by oven-heat, steam, alcohol, hot-beds, manure-tanks, 

 or otherwise. 



Before we come to details in the process of hatching chickens 

 under the natural mother, however, I propose to devote a few 

 pages to artificial incubation, as it has been practiced for cen- 

 turies (and very successfully) in other countries ; about which 

 in the United States little is as yet known, and with which 

 very little has ever yet been accomplished among our people, 

 of a satisfactory character. 



Various attempts have been made with modern "incuba- 

 tors " — operated with fluids for heating. And several patents 

 have been taken out in this country for these inventions, the 

 originators of which have at times been more or less successful 

 with them, in a moderate way. 



But the conclusion which one of the leading American pa- 

 tentees arrived at, some years after he had faithfully experi- 

 mented with and sold several of his Incubating machines, was 

 candid and truthful. He frankly declared that modern poul- 

 trymen had not educated themselves up to the details of this 

 thing ; and that they did not and could not succeed with this 

 process, because it required such nicety of manipulation and 

 so peculiar a knowledge of scientific points in management, 

 that only the person who contrived the machine was able to 

 do anything with it that would remunerate him for the time 

 spent over it, the original cost, the expense of experimenting, 

 and the first losses of good eggs that were inevitable in the be- 

 ginner's experience. 



So he voluntarily stopped the sale of his incubators, not- 

 withstanding the fact that he had himself been able to hatch 

 out (and raise) from sixty to seventy-five per cent, of the chicks 

 from eggs that he personally superintended the incubation of 

 — and this on different occasions. Others, however, could not 

 accomplish this, and it was given up. 



Such has been the fate generall}- of the inventions that have 

 thus far been attempted for this business, in England or Amer- 



