obtained, it is fine for it contains lime which is very good. 

 By all means feed sprouted oats sometime, somehow, and 

 somewhere. Any food that will stimulate that part of the 

 body that needs it, without injury, is a most valuable asset. 

 Sprouted oats particularly fills the bill, hence it becomes a 

 necessity for one to feed it. It is only after one has tried the 

 eggs that one really appreciates the value of sprouted oats. 

 Some sort of animal food must also be used, therefore our 

 winter flock has to content themselves with good clean beef 

 scraps or fish meal made from the heads and livers of fish. 

 Ground bone is advocated as a good egg producer also. The 

 main thing is to go by results because it is the results we 

 are after. 



Now with the former in mind, the next thing is how to 

 run the machine. Any machine will do much better work at 

 ' 50° temperature with a variation of 2° or 3° than in a room 

 of 70° in days and 60° at night. K the thermostat is regulated 

 to operate, the damper at 103° in a room temperature of 70° 

 and the room temperature drops to 60° at night, then it will 

 require more fuel or the damper will remain closed during 

 the night. It is therefore pretty evident that a uniform tem- 

 perature outside the machine will keep the temperature in- 

 side also uniform. The thermostat can take care of 2° to 5° 

 change very well, but when you expect it to take care of a 

 change of 10° without more fuel, you are asking entirely too 

 much. The unheated basement is an ideal place because of 

 the constant flow of fresh air. The natural moisture in the 

 air is the only moisture that is beneficial to the unhatched 

 chicks also. If the eggs are fairly fresh when set, say not 

 over ten days old, the ventilation of the machine well taken 

 care of, and sufficient humidity in the air, the question of 

 applying moisture need never enter the operator's mind. 

 Applied moisture weakens those of the stronger chicks that 

 would have come out anyway. It is far better to sprinkle the 

 floor around the machine and thus make the air more humid, 

 than to apply moisture on the inside of the case. 



To apply moisture it must be done in such a manner as to 

 mix with the atmosphere. Therefore we must apply hot or 

 even scalding water to produce vapor which would quickly 

 condense and pass away. Put a pan of boiling water into a 

 fifty-egg machine and in a short while you have enough 

 vapor to give every chick a turkish bath. If you open the 

 incubator and take the pan out, you are liable to lose half of 

 your chicks. Not only that, but as soon as the water is put 



