January 13,1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 37 
Bar-frame Hives for Cottagers’ Use.” To be introduced by F. Lyon, 
Esq., of 94, Harleyford Road, London. The annual general meeting 
of the Members of the Association will be held in the above room 
at 44G, Strand, on Wednesday, February 16th, at 4 o’clock P.M. 
Members who wish to bring forward any motion at this meeting are 
requested to communicate the same to the Honorary Secretary, Rev. 
Herbert R. Peel, Abbot’s Hill, Hemel Hempstead, on or before 
Saturday, February oth. 
-The Mechi Fund.—A preliminary meeting of the Committee 
of the Mechi Fund was held on Friday last at the offices of the Royal 
Agricultural Benevolent Institution. Among those present were the 
Marquis of Huntly(Chairman and Treasurer), Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., 
Mr. Thomas Duckham, M.P., Mr. R. K. Causton, M.P., Mr. James 
Caird, C.B., Mr. Edwin Chadwick, C.B., and Mr. Bousfield Shaw, the 
Honorary Secretary. Letters were read from Lord Spencer and others 
regretting their inability to attend. On the motion of the Marquis of 
Huntly, seconded by Mr. R. K. Causton, M.P., it was resolved that a 
national Committee be appointed with the view of raising a fund to 
provide for the widow and family of the late Mr. J. J. Mechi, and a 
general Committee, consisting of the gentlemen present, with power to 
add to their number, was appointed for the purpose of carrying out 
that object. Among the subscriptions promised were—The members 
of the Court of Aldermen, £500 ; the Duke of Bedford, £100 ; the Earl 
of Leicester, £100 ; Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., £100 ; Messrs. Garrett, 
Grimswood, & Whittaker, £105 ; Mr. John Maple, £52 10s.; Mr. H. 
R. Nicoll, £52 10s. ; the Skinners’ Company, £52 10s.; Mr. Jeremiah 
Colman, £52 10s.; Messrs. Causton & Sons, £52 10s.; and Mr. James 
Caird, C.B., £50. 
- Solubility op Manures. —Dr. Morgen, in the Journal of the 
German Agricultural Experimental Stations, reports the results of 
numerous experiments on the time required to render the valuable 
constituents of certain manure materials available for the growing 
plant. The chief articles experimented on were bone meal and leather 
meal. The total valuable contents of each were in about the same 
proportions ; but the solubility of the bone meal was found far 
greater than that of the leather. Ho acid was used. The materials 
were used as they would have been by the farmer if bought in the 
rough state. The author strongly recommends the use of bone 
meal. His conclusions have been verified by others, and the employ¬ 
ment of bone superphosphates and special manures having bones for 
their base is rapidly extending. Leather, however, when prepared 
with acids, and after receiving certain other treatment, is nearly as 
valuable. It is employed as the base of some special fertilisers with 
most beneficial results. 
- Oleomargarine. — A London daily paper states that the 
manufacture of oleomargarine in Philadelphia has reached the large 
quantity of 100,000 lbs. per week, and is still very far below the 
demand. T he manufacture consumes about 1,500 lbs. of genuine dairy 
butter per day, and nearly 30,000 lbs. of fat, and, strange to say, 
quite two-thirds of the product is sent to Europe ; London, Liverpool, 
and Glasgow being the chief markets. The Dutch are large pur¬ 
chasers too ; but from long experience in the making of “ bosch,” 
they do not buy the finished article. They purchase the oil before it 
is churned, and finish the oleomargarine themselves, being well aware 
of the profit to be made by the addition of the salt, milk, and other 
ingredients which enter into the finished article—the “ prime fresh 
butter at Is. 2d.” of the London shops. 
- Foot-and-Mouth Disease.—A serious outbreak of this 
disease has occurred on the estate of the Duke of Northumberland 
at Isleworth, the whole of a splendid herd of Scotch runts, numbering 
between thirty and forty, being affected. His Grace has a number of 
valuable cows and heifers on the same estate, and every care is being 
taken to keep them from infection. The disease is also prevalent at 
Twickenham, Hampton, Hanworth, and other parts of West Middle¬ 
sex ; indeed it is said to be more general in this division of the county 
than has been known for some years. In the county of Buckingham, 
the whole of which the Privy Council have declared to be an infected 
area, it appears to be subsiding, only one fresh outbreak being 
Reported last week —viz., at Penn, near Amersham. 
-Disease in Sheep from Eating Lupins.—L upin hay is 
often used as fodder on the Continent. In a recent case half of a 
large flock of sheep fed on it died within a brief period. The hay on 
examination was found to be covered with a fungus. The suggestion 
has been made that steaming the hay would prevent the injurious 
effects, or, perhaps, strongly heating it during its preparation .—[Irish 
Farmers’ Gazette .) 
A FANCIER’S INCUBATOR. 
During the past two seasons I have been employing hydro¬ 
incubators instead of hens for hatching my Dark Brahma 
chickens. The first season I had but one incubator, and put in 
the eggs as they were laid. Finding, however, that more suc- 
cessful"results were attained by placing the entire batch of eggs 
in the machine at once, closing all the ventilators, and thus keep¬ 
ing a close moist atmosphere for the first eight or nine days, and 
ventilating freely for the remainder of the twenty-one days, I 
last year worked two incubators. No. 1 was unventilated and 
kept very moist with a temperature of about 102°; No. 2 was 
thoroughly ventilated, not quite so moist, and kept at about 104°. 
The eggs were as they were laid placed in No. 1 and left there 
for eight days. The 'fertile eggs were then moved into No. 2, 
where”they remained for the residue of the period of incubation. 
This system worked fairly well, but there were two points 
capable of improvement; firstly, placing cold eggs amongst those 
some days advanced in the hatching process was objectionable ; 
and secondly, the necessity of keeping two incubators at work 
involved much extra trouble. I wished for a machine which would 
combine in itself the qualities of the two incubators, and would 
also be suitable for ordinary fanciers who cannot possibly set 
ninety eggs at a time, but only a few each day. 
The idea of a machine with two drawers, the one ventilated 
and the other unventilated, at once occurred to me, but I also 
thought there would be considerable difficulty in maintaining an 
equal temperature in two drawers deriving their heat from the 
same source but under dissimilar conditions as to ventilation. It 
also struck me that this unevenness of temperature might be, to 
a great extent, corrected by the eggs in the ventilated drawer 
being well on in the hatching process, and thus throwing out 
some heat themselves, while those in the unventilated drawei, not 
yet having an independent blood circulation, would absorb much 
of the superfluous heat. 
I was ignorant as to how far these conditions would affect the 
result, while I knew from experience that a greater or less space 
between the eggs and the bottom of the cistern caused a material 
difference in the temperature. I therefore came to the conclusion 
that, by having the false bottoms of the drawers made capable 
of being raised and lowered by means of screws, any inequality 
of temperature might be met by increasing or diminishing the 
distance between the eggs and the source of heat. 
A moveable division in the unventilated drawer would, I 
thought, obviate the difficulty as to putting cold eggs into the 
machine. I talked the matter over with Mr. Christy, and the 
result of our conversation was the construction of “ the Fancier 
hydro-incubator in an experimental form. A division was in¬ 
serted in the drawer space of an ordinary ninety-egg hydro¬ 
incubator so as to accommodate two drawers, No. 1 containing 
thirty-six eggs, No. 2 containing forty-eight eggs. The false 
bottoms of both these drawers were made to move up anu down 
to the extent of 2 inches, and in No. 1 there was a moveable divi¬ 
sion which fitted into slits cut in the side of the drawer. No. 1 
was unventilated, No. 2 thoroughly ventilated. 
This incubator was sent to my rooms at Herne Hill on the 20th 
of November ; I at once got it to work, and on the 1st December I 
put a dozen eggs (Leghorns and farm cross) in No. 1. On the 
2nd December I placed in twelve eggs more, and on the 3id 
another dozen. The second and third lots were each for one day 
kept shut off from the rest of the drawer by the division. As 
soon as each dozen had been in nine days they were taken out of 
No. 1, tested for fertility, and the fertile eggs placed in No. 2. 
On the 14th, 17th, 21st, and 24th December respectively an addi¬ 
tional dozen eggs were put in No. 1. Twenty-eight of the first 
three dozen contained living germs when tested (the remaining 
eight being clear or addled), and there was therefore at one period 
one drawer full of eggs only a few days in, and the other con¬ 
taining twenty-eight eggs with well-developed chicks in them. I 
