ifio 



FOREST AND STREAM 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



Devoted to Field and Aquatic Sports, Ppactigal Natubal History, 

 ui'M TtrrjrufiE, the Protection oe Game, Preservation or Forests, 

 akd the Inculcation in Men and Women oe a healthy interest 

 is Out-door Recreation and Study : 



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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1870. 



- ' . ■, ' -. » • — 

 To Correspondents. 

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All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 

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CHARLES H ALLOCK, Editor. 



WU.LIAW €5. HARRIS, Business Manager. 



ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. 



E published a fortnight since a letter from Mr. Geo. 

 M. Fjiirchild, describing a visit to the establish- 

 ment of Mr. W. 0. Baker, at Alpine near Englewood, in 

 New Jersey, where the process of artificially incubating 

 egg* and rearing chickens is being prosecuted on a very 

 extensive scale. Since that letter was written we have 

 visited Mr. Baker's place, and, although we can add nothing 

 to Mr. Fairchild's description, some of the ideas evoked 

 may be novel arid of interest. 



It we are rightly informed, the majority of the attempts 

 in the matter of artificial incubation, in this country at 

 least, have been in the nature of experiments, and have 

 not been conducted to that point where a profitable result 

 places the project beyond a peradventure, or a risk of 

 f nil ure. Many have hatched eggs by artificial heat, pro- 

 duced in a variety of ways, some with hot air, some with 

 hot water, and others again by iising manure as a substi 

 tute for the animal heat of the hen; but these efforts ap- 

 pear to have been fitful, and, whether from the exigencies 

 of another occupation, or a want of means, or from what- 

 ever cause, have not been pushed with vigor, or brought 

 prominently before the public as a tangible pecuniary suc- 

 cess. But Mr. Baker's enterprise comes under quite a dif- 

 ferent category; being first assured of the correctness of 

 hir theories by long and patient experiment, he has in- 

 vested a large amount of capital, at least seventy-five 

 thousand dollars, in the business, and matured his plans 

 with that thoroughness which can only be accomplished 

 with a sufficient sum of money at command. In fact, here 

 we think is one of the great secrets of his success, for many 

 can invent and plan, who do not possess the means to com- 

 plete; and thousands of promising schemes are "nipped V 

 the bud" for the want of cash. The other secret of Mr. 

 Baker's success will at once strike every visitor to his 

 place; the extreme, even fastidious attention to detail, and 

 the great mechanical ingenuity of the gentleman himself. 



Visiting the hatching; room, which, by the way, contains 

 a row of tables like those in a wholesale dry goods store, 

 only the drawers, when pulled out disclose, instead of 

 "goods," the layers of eggs (we don't mean the hens) in 

 their coverings of flannel, we are at once convinced that 

 the old injunction not to count your chickens before they 

 are hatched, is no longer applicable. In a little dark room 

 4hflre Is.^pLoweJ^iIArgand lamp, also inclosed, 



trough a little aper- 



ture about the size and shape of a hen's egg. By holding 

 an egg in this aperture, the strong light reveals all the 

 secrets of the inside of the shell, and the condition of an 

 egg at any stage can at once be determined. In cracking 

 our hard-boiled egg at lurch when shooting, or fishing, we 

 notice a cavity at one end. In the live egg there is a 

 bubble of air which then appears to be in the yolk. Take 

 an egg which has been exposed but three or four days to 

 the incubating process, and by holding it in this aperture 

 we see this little bubble slowly rise to the upper surface of 

 the egg, and little fine dark lines shooting here and there 

 through the yolk, being, as Mr. Baker described them, the 

 forming blood vessels. In eggs only a few days older, 

 when thus exposed to the Argand light, the signs of ani- 

 mal life, the first movements of the embryo chick are 

 plainly visible. By this means all addled or unimpreg- 

 nated eggs can at once be discovered and removed. The 

 Poultry World thus describes the regular developments: — 



"The heart may be seen to b^at on the second day; it 

 has at that time somewhat the form of a horseshoe, but no 

 blood vet appears. At the end of two days two vessels of 

 blood are to be distinguished, the pulsations of which are 

 visible; one of those is the left ventricle, and the root of 

 the great artery. At the fiftieth hour one auricle of the 

 heart appears, resembling a noose folded down upon 

 itself. The beating of the heart is first observed in the 

 auricle, and afterwards in the ventricle. At the end of 

 seventy hours the wings are distinguishable; and on the 

 head two bubbles are seen for the brain, one for the bill, 

 and two for the fore and hind part of the head. Towards 

 the end of the fourth day, the auricles already visible 

 draw nearer to the heart than before. The liver appears 

 toward the fifth day. At the end of seven hours more, the 

 lungs and the stomach become visible; and four hours 

 afterward, the intestines, loins, and upper jaw. At the one 

 hundred and twenty-fourth hour, two ventricles are visible, 

 and two drops of blood instead of the single one which 

 was seen before. The seventh day, the brain begins to 

 have some consistency. At the one hundred and nineteenth 

 hour of incubation, the bill opens, and the flesh appears 

 in the breast. In four more, the breast bOne is seen-. In 

 six hours after this, the ribs appear, forming from the back, 

 and the bill is very visible, as well as the gall bladder. 

 The bill becomes green at the end of two hundred and 

 thirty-six hours; and, if the chicken be taken out of its 

 coveringt it evidently moves itself. At the two hundredth 

 hour, the eyes appear. At the two hundred and eighty- 

 eighth hour the ribs are perfect. At the three hundred 

 and thirty-first, the spleen draws near the stomach and the 

 lungs to the chest. At the end of three hundred and fifty- 

 five hours, the bill frequently opens and shuts; and at the 

 end of the eighteenth clay, the first cry of the chicken is 

 heard. It afterwards gets more strength, and grows con- 

 tinually, till at length it is enabled to set itself free from 

 its confinement." 



But what astonished us most, was the impunity with 

 which the eggs, at any stage, were removed and handled. The 

 old idea that the hen must turn her own eggs, or that to 

 touch them with the hand was to spoil them, is exploded. 

 The hatching is done by means of hot water, heated by 

 lamps so connected with an electric battery that upon the 

 water becoming too hot, or too cold, the lamp is acted 

 upon, and the water brought again to the proper tempera- 

 ture. This portion of the operation is very ingeniously 

 arranged, but as most of the contrivance is the invention 

 and secret of the proprietor himself, we did not care to in- 

 vestigate too closely. 



Adjoining the hatching house is the house of glass, a 

 home of floral beauties, to which the young chicken is at 

 once introduced when he escapes from the shell. In reality 

 it is a large hot-house, the spaces on each side of the center 

 walk, usually occupied by banks or stands of flowers, 

 being divided by wire screens into little compartments, 

 planted with rose bushes, and communicating directly with 

 the artificial mothers, into which the wee things run for 

 warmth and shelter. Occupying each side of the walk 

 are rows of exotic plants the culture of which, together 

 with that of the roses from which the chicks obtain their 

 insect food, will go largely towarcAs defraying the ex- 

 penses of this portion of the establishment. At a little 

 distance, and separated by a pond for ducks, is a building 

 now eight hundred feet in length, but which is shortly to 

 be added to. Looking dewn the long alley which "lines one 

 side, and in which is a tramway for a car with feed to 

 travel on, one is reminded of an enormous stable with a 

 continuous row of box stalls, except that the upper half 

 of each compartment is covered with a wire screeu. Each 

 of these pens has its yard where the chickens can go for 

 air, light, and exercise . At the time of our visit many of 

 the pens had their quota of fowls, nearly all of whom had 

 been artificially hatched and reared. The white Leghorns 

 appeared to predominate, magnificent sleek looking birds, 

 with feathers as white as snow. Turkeys there were, and] 

 also ducks, for the rearing of both is on the programme, j 



We don,t know whether it has occurred to Mr. Baker, 

 but it does to us, that the providing of such quarters for 

 his fowls, particularly those of the little chicks, should 

 have a tendency to make the meat sweeter and more tender, 

 for the principal profits from artificial incubation will 

 probably be in the sale of spring chickens at a date when 

 it would be utterly impossible for breeders on the old 

 plan to compete. There is a great and increasing de- 

 mand for spring chickens, particularly from the hotels, 

 and a dollar and a half a pair is no uncommon price for 

 little things that would scarcely weigh as much in pounds. 

 But Mr. Baker will probably not confine himself to the 

 breeding of chickens, he will doubtless follow the example 

 of Mr. Montgomery Queen^ a wealthy Californian, who 

 has invested one hundred thousand dollars in th© enter- 

 prise, and commenced raising ostriches for their plumage. 

 Each bird is said to produce two hundred dollars worth 

 of feathers per annum, and, as Mr. Queen is said to have 



purchased one hundred of them to begin with, his income, 

 should be very handsome. Ostrich farming has been car- 

 ried on at the Cape of Good Hope, and in Algiers for years 

 but this is the first attempt in this country. "We think 

 that the Californian has the advantage in climate over Mr. 

 Baker, and yet we would wager that the latter, if he un- 

 dertakes it, will succeed. We shall follow these matters 

 with interest. 



STEAM YACHTS. 



THE revolution which has caused steam to almost su- 

 persede canvas in the mercantile marine of this 

 country and of England, has had due effect upon yachting. 

 Not that the change is likely to be so rapid or complete, 

 however, for about yachting there is, when anything but 

 the important business of racing is considered, an indiffer- 

 ence to the matter of expense in time which is a large con- 

 tributor to the dolce far niente of the sport. And yet the 

 change has been so marked, and the increase in the number 

 of steam yachts so great, as to attract attention and be 

 worthy of remark. Any summer visitor to Alexandria 

 Bay will have observed the immense number of steamers, 

 of all sizes, from the little launch of one horse power, 

 with captain, engineer, creWj and passengers represent- 

 ed by one and the same person, to the handsome vessel 

 with gorgeous cabins, large enough for a sea voyage. 

 Everybody who owns or rents an island seems to have his 

 steam yacht, and makes his pleasure trips without regard 

 to wind or currents. In the winter, the sojourner in 

 Florida finds the same condition of affairs, with many of 

 the little vessels for hire at prices that are very moderate. 

 And along our whole coast, every harbor acknowledges 

 the presence of these bustling little craft, many of them 

 dainty and airy in appearance, with light spars and rig- 

 ging, more for show, apparently, than use; and others, 

 the veriest old ships' boats, fitted with an engine and pro- 

 peller, all possibly the work, at odd hours, of some factory 

 mechanic. 



Commodore Vanderbilt probably has the credit of build- 

 ing the largest, the North Star, a steamer of 2,000 tons, 

 with which he visited Europe some years ago. In her 

 case, however, the affix of .yacht was merely compli- 

 mentary, as she was really intended for and was after- 

 wards placed in his California line. Mr. Smith's America 

 of the burden of 800 tons, on the other hand, was veri- 

 tably a yacht built for pleasure purposes alone. She was 

 sold to the government during the Virginius excitement, 

 and has proved a very comfortable vessel for carrying Con- 

 gressional committees, etc. Among the principal steam 

 yachts hailing from this port, may be named the Day 

 Dream, of 78 tons, belonging to Mr. Lloyd Aspinwall; 

 Ideal, 200 tons, Mr. Havemeyer; Lookout, 76 tons, Mr. 

 Lorillard; Lurline, 71 tons, Mr. Phenix; Mystic, 50 tons, 

 Mr. Chapin; Skylark, 70 tons, Messrs. Leech; Emily, 70 tons, 

 Mr. T. W. Myers. But very recently the cost of a steam 

 yacht, both in building and in running expenses, was the 

 great bugbear to their more general use, but now-a-days, 

 what with surface condensers, compound engines (com- 

 bining both high and low pressure principles), and other 

 economical and fuel-saving devices, the cost of a steam 

 yacht, that is, one to be propelled by steam alone, will not 

 exceed, even if it equals the cost of a sailing yacht of 

 equal tonnage. Iron is also used largely for building these 

 steamers, and for small vessels is probably cheaper than 

 wood. Nor are the expenses of running a steam yacht 

 much greater than those incurred by a sailing vessel; fuel 

 is of course the principal item, but this is nearly offset by 

 the difference in crew, and the wear and tear of sails and 

 rigging, which any yacht owner knows is a never ending 

 demand on his pocket. 



But it is in England that steam yachting has taken the 

 firmest hold, and made the greatest strides. And in Eng- 

 land both coal, iron, and mechanics' labor are so much 

 cheaper than with us that the expense is greatly reduced. 

 There everybody, from the Queen, who has her sea-going 

 Alberta, with which she crosses the Solent at the rate of 

 fifteen miles an hour, and occasionally runs down a sailing 

 yacht for not keeping out of the way—not that the Queen 

 was to blame in the Mistletoe affair, although that there is 

 a lubber who was, nobody doubts— to the aspiring cockney 

 with a "willa on the Terns," has a steam yacht or launch. 

 In fact, the number of the latter vessels on the Thames 

 has become a nuisance, and constant is the outcry of the 

 damage done to the banks, and to silk dresses on less pre- 

 tentious craft by their wash and swells. We all remember 

 poor Leech's picture in Punch of the old gentleman sitting 

 in the punt on his chair, contentedly waiting for a bite, 

 and the two men in a wherry bearing down at full speed 

 upon him. For the wherry substitute a steam launch, and 

 we have the constantly recurring picture of to day. Old 

 gentlemen no longer enjoy a quiet days' spinning or pater- 

 nostering; the puffing, wheezing launch comes by and riles 

 the water and the old gentleman's temper at the same 

 time. 



Steam yachts are now built by Messrs. Holmes, Shaw, 

 Brown & Co., of Bordentown, N. J., the New York 

 Safety Steam Power Co., and others, with a guaranteed 

 speed of 18 to 20 miles per hour; and if these gentlemen 

 have not yet felt the full result of their generous advertis- 

 ing they undoubtedly soon will, for in no other country is 

 there likely to be such a demand for these little sputtering, 

 easily handled craft. 



Wherever there are islands, either on the coast or in the 

 interior, these little craft are likely to multiply, as the re- 

 sorts become more visited. In Passamaquoddy, Casco and 



