CHAPTER XX XVII 
DEAD IN SHELL 
F recent years the growing percentage of chicks found 
dead in shell has reached alarming proportions. Many 
remedies have been suggested and, no doubt, some of 
them have to some extent palliated the evil, but so far no one 
seems to have got to the root of the matter. That the trouble is 
modern, that it is growing, admits of little doubt. There always 
were a certain small percentage of dead in shell, but it was so small 
as to be negligible. Now, however, the poultry-farmer if not 
thoroughly roused is most uneasy about the growing tendency 
of the chick to die before birth, 
It is easy to see that if the trouble is not checked it will develop 
to such an extent that the rearing of chicks will become so difficult 
that all the profits will be swept away, and one can almost guess 
at a time—fortunately in the far distance—when by reason of this 
modern curse poultry-rearing will cease because of its unprofit- 
ableness. Fortunately that time is not yet, and long before it 
happens no doubt sufficient remedies will be found to keep the 
evil within bounds. 
To discover the cause is, of course, the most important matter, 
for when that is assured it would be comparatively easy to suggest 
the remedy. 
Because it is a comparatively modern malady some people have 
attributed the growth of the dead-in-shell trouble to artificial 
hatching, but this theory is disposed of when it is pointed out that 
the evil is almost, if not quite, as great with the natural mother on 
the nest. The incubator is not to blame for the rapid growth of 
the trouble. No remedy will ever get a full hatch—100 per cent.— 
without a few cases of the chick dying in embryo, nor do we expect 
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