io 
Incubators. 
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There is much curiosity regarding artificial 
poultry-rearing, and the incubator men, if 
they are good business men, should be driv¬ 
ing a lively trade. Inquiries reach us nearly 
every week about artificial hatching and 
rearing. Some in earnest search after in¬ 
formation and others mostly out of curi¬ 
osity. 
As is known to many of our readers we 
have never been very enthusi^tmTverlhe 
incubator, fnot because’it is not feasibly 
but mainly because the average poultry- 
raiser is not ready for its purchase. To 
make a practical success of the incubator 
it is necessary to study it and to learn how 
to operate it. The business is one requir¬ 
ing an apprenticeship as much as the man¬ 
agement of a locomotive and it will take 
neaily as long; to learn it. Great harm has 
been done by foolish enthusiasts in pre¬ 
senting the business in print as a very 
simple and easy thing to manage. Many 
are led to believe that it is Just as “easy as 
rolling off a log.” Whereas, the fact is 
that much care and intelligence are requir¬ 
ed to make the thing go a^. all. 
At the annual meeting of the board of 
Agricu.ture of New Jersey, this question 
was brought up, and information asked. 
(Several persons stated that they had failed; 
others said they had no trouble to hatch 
the chicks, but failed in rearing them after 
they were hatched. One gentlemen re¬ 
ported that he had succeeded quite satis¬ 
factorily hatching and rearing. 
this is perhaps the average experience 
in the business. Our impression is that 
those who are about to engage in it would 
do well to pay particular attention first tb 
artificial brooding. When they have mas¬ 
tered the details of this part of. the busi¬ 
ness they are prepared to engage in the 
hatching process. It is conceeded on all 
sides that it is much easier to hatch the 
chicks than it is to rear them. 
The writer is not in a position to speak 
iroi.i experience on the subject. He has 
seen chickens hatched in incubators, and 
seen them reared artificially with entire 
satisfaction to the operator, and therefore 
knows it can be done. No one is advised 
to invest in artificial poultry rearing; but 
all are cautioned that it is somewhat risky 
and uncertain. The right persons will 
succeed .—Farm Journal. 
—- iifflfr 1 - 
WISDOM FROM THE CATALOGUES. 
Sowing the Seed. — D. M. Ferry. _There 
is no more prolific source of disappoint¬ 
ment and failure among amateur gardeners 
than hasty, careless or improper sowing of 
the seed. A seed consists of a minute 
plant minus the roots, with a sufficient 
amount of food stowed in or around it to 
sustain it until it can expand its leases, 
form roots, provide for itself, the whole 
inclosed in a hard and more or less imper¬ 
vious shell. To secure germination, moist¬ 
ure, heat, and a certain amount of air are 
necessary. The first steps are the soften- 
ing of the hard, outer shell, the developing 
of the leaves of the plant from the absorjn 
tion of water, and the changing of the 
plant food from the form of starch to that 
of sugar. In the first condition the food 
was easily preserved unchanged, but the 
plant with its undeveloped leaves and no 
root was incapable of using it, while in its 
sugary condition it is easily appropriated; 
but if not used it speedily decays itself and 
induces decay in the plant. A seed then 
may letain its vitality and remain un¬ 
changed for years, while after germination 
has commenced, a check of a day or two in 
the process may be fatal. There is no time 
from that when the seed falls from the 
parent plant until it in turn produces seed, 
ripens and dies, when the plant is so sus¬ 
ceptible of fatal injury from the overabun¬ 
dance or want of heat and moisture as that 
between the commencement of germina¬ 
tion and the formation of the first true 
leaves, and it is just then that it needs the 
aid of the gardener to secure favorable 
conditions. These are:— 
Tirst A proper and constant degree of 
moisture without being soaked with wa¬ 
ter. This is secured by making the sur¬ 
face of freshly dug soil so fine that the 
smallest seeds may come in immediate 
contact on all sides with the particles from 
