152 COMMON SENSE 
placed on the bottom: On this was placed a layer of fine grass, 
and the whole well dusted with sulphur. As soon as the chicks 
come off, the nests should be removed, and either burned or buried 
deeply in the manure heap. The sod keeps the eggs damp, but 
if on a floor it gets too dry, and after a time the eggs should be 
_ sprayed with water when the hen is off. Our spraying apparatus 
consisted of a pan of water and a small whisk broom, Some wise- 
acre has asked: ‘Who sprays the eggs of the wild bird and the 
stolen nest?” to which sapient conundrum the “answer.is obvious. 
The hen herself does it. Wild birds rarely make nests until the 
grass begins to grow and the morning dews begin to fall. ‘Then 
when she leaves her nest it is generally in the early morning, when 
nocturnal enemies have retired, and while as yet the animals that 
prey during the day have not come forth. She steals along through 
the grass, fearful of being observed, picking up stray’ seeds, worms 
and bugs, and when she returns the eggs may not have been 
sprayed, but she has been, and that amounts to the same thing. 
Concerning nest eggs great differences of opihion exist. We: 
have heard successful poultry keepers ridicule them most’ unmerci- 
fully, and we have known others of equal experience who believed 
them to be of great advantage. Our own view is that hens will not 
lay quite as many eggs without nest eggs as with them. It is true, 
when the egg is fully formed, the hen must Jay it or lose’ her life. 
So that if hens are confined in small pens, and are thus’ prevented 
from laying away, nest eggs would seem to ‘be really of little or no 
use. But hens, as is well known, have a strong propensity to lay 
in each other’ $ nests, and wherever there is an unoccupied nest with 
one or more eggs, there will the nest egg be laid. Therefore, where 
the hens have considerable range it is always well to’ place nest 
eggs in the nests. ‘We have known a hen to lay regularly in a nest 
; with a nest egg in it, and then to forsake this nest when-the nest 
_ egg was removed. But we believe that nest eggs have a-further 
use. It is well known that in the case of wild birds, egg laying 
_ may be stimulated to a great extent by the presence of one egg and 
the removal of all the others. The high-holder, which usually lays 
but four eggs,’ may be thus stimulated to lay’ fifteen ; ‘why may not 
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