Award of Medals, &c., at Killurn. 
715 
taken out, all that is done is to turn them night and morning. 
At the Hemel Hempstead trials, a machine of this make, which 
was sent bv !Miss ^lay Arnold, failed utterly, as out of 35 fertile 
eggs not one was hatched out, and no chicken were found in 
the eggs. The artificial mother comprises a square box 21 
inches by 8 inches deep, into this drops from above an internal 
box containing the hot water, and lined with tin. Underneath 
the external box is hung a pad of velvet. The distance of the 
box from the ground is about 2^ inches. 
Probably the greatest novelty in connection with poultry- 
feeding in an English showyard, was the apparatus for fatten- 
ing poultry, invented and exhibited by M. Odile Martin, of the 
Jardin d'Acclimatation, at Paris. Let the reader imagine a 
whirly-go-round, with two stories or stages, each containing 30 
receptacles. Smaller machines are made ranging down to six 
spaces. Each receptacle is 18 inches deep radially by 9 inches 
clear in front and 5 inches behind. The divisions are separated 
by boarding, save in the centre, where there is an upright wire, 
or rather two wires, one for each pen : on the wires are rings 
about 1 inch in diameter, a light chain 4 inches long is attached 
to the rings, and terminates in a leather strap and buckle, which 
encircles the leg of the fowl. The floor is close boarded in 
front and open behind, with two wires placed radially, so that 
the manure can drop into a tray underneath, which is readily 
removed. The food, in the form of gruel, and comprising a 
mixture of Indian corn and buckwheat meal and milk, is placed 
in a machine fixed at a convenient point. Attached to this is a 
flexible tube terminating in a spring metal mouthpiece ; a dial 
marked in centilitres, with an indicator arm, shows when the 
required quantity of food has been administered. The process of 
feeding is very simple : the operator seizes the fowl by the neck, 
opens the beak, and inserts the tube down the throat, opens the 
valve, and delivers into the stomach a certain quantity of food, 
as shown by the indicator. The process is very rapid, and in a 
very short time a large number are fed. The fowls are kept in 
this apparatus and thus treated for a period varying from 15 to 
20 days, when they are fit for the table. At first sight, this 
confinement and process of feeding appears cruel as well as 
unnatural, but the appearance of the birds and their anxiety 
to be fed somewhat dispels this idea ; and the Society for the 
Protection of Animals, in Paris, has pronounced in its favour 
as more humane than the old-fashioned plan of cramming in 
ordinary use by the peasants. The invention is new only as 
regards this countr}-, it dates back to 18G7. In 1867, M. de la 
Fosse, Engineer-in-chief for Roads and Bridges, thus reports 
to the Agricultural Societ3- of the Department de I'Allier: — 
