On the Rearing and Management of Poultry. 



185 



duced to sit, it was the only rational plan that could be adopted. 

 As I have before observed, our hens lay a great deal in an 

 adjoining plantation. When a nest is found, the eggs are taken 

 away as they are laid, taking care always to leave one. The hen 

 continues to lay, the same as if she had been laying in the fowl- 

 house; but should the nest not have been found, I am convinced 

 that she would have commenced to sit as soon as she had a con- 

 venient number of eggs. The same may be said of pheasants. 

 If the eggs be taken away as fast as they are laid, as many as 60 

 may be got from one pheasant in a season. Again, fowls in their 

 native haunts never lay more in the season than what they can 

 hatch. From all this we may justly conclude that no artificial 

 means are required to induce a hen to sit, but that she does not, 

 in consequence of the eggs being taken from the nest. 



In many varieties of fowls there are sometimes, in many dis- 

 tricts, far more hens in the hatching mood than are wanted. 

 Under such circumstances, cooping is the only safe remedy. The 

 time of confinement varies, some hens requiring 4 days, while 

 others require 10. It has been asserted by some writers that 

 the health of the hen is affected when not allowed to sit, and 

 that the eggs laid afterwards are not wholesome. This I do 

 not believe. 



Those persons who keep the Dutch every-day layers should 

 have 3 or 4 Dorking hens to do the hatching business. 



I have before stated that the hens which constitute the laying 

 stock are to be excluded from the hatching apartment during the 

 breeding season. They therefore cannot obtain admittance into 

 the plot ; consequently the hens, with their broods, cannot suffer 

 any annoyance from them. 



Artificial Hatching. — Although artificial hatching has, from a 

 very early date, received considerable attention, yet I must be 

 permitted, in order to keep our paper within proper limits, to 

 describe that method only which I consider the most likely to 

 succeed, and v/hich is the invention of Mr. William James Can- 

 telo, who has for some time been exhibiting his apparatus at 4, 

 Leicester-square, London. This method, by which Mr. Cantelo 

 says he can send to the market 75 per cent, of chickens for the 

 eggs placed in the machine, is styled the Cantelonian," which 

 differs from others in consequence of the heat being applied to 

 the side of the egg which is uppermost, instead of to the bottom 

 or around it; the advantages of which will be evident, when it is 

 known that the germ, so long as the egg is in a horizontal posi- 

 tion, always floats, and that it is this part which comes in contact 

 with the hen's breast. The heat, which is generated by the com- 

 bustion of gas or charcoal, is transmitted to the eggs by the 

 agency of water. The sketch given below from memory, will. 



