16 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
but the very simplest cases, a main drain to 
carry off the water and branches to collect 
it, will be found necessary. The main may 
be made to gather where it can, but its other 
function as a carrier must control its location. 
For the location of the branches, I know of 
no better rule than to aim them straight as 
practicable at the source of the water they 
are to collect. All this will not come clear 
at first thought. One must study his prob¬ 
lem until he understands it. Sometimes a 
little experimental digging will prove helpful. 
A few holes dug three or four feet deep at 
different points may reveal much of the 
■underground movement of water to which 
the system of drains should be adapted. 
Such a piece of work well done is a source of 
great satisfaction as well as a matter of 
pecuniary profit. A sense of release, a feel¬ 
ing of victory comes rightfully to one who 
has conquered such an obstacle and freed 
himself from such a fretting hindrance. And 
I believe that in a pecuniary point of view 
the results of such work are more favorable 
than ordinary estimates would show. Or, to 
look at the matter from the other side, I be¬ 
lieve that the existence of a miry, saturated 
tract even of small extent in a cultivated 
field, is a far greater evil than is generally 
supposed. Wherever a farmer has one, my 
advice would be to first find out just what 
needs doing, and then, like Grant at Donelson, 
move immediately upon its works. 
Portable or Temporary Iron Wire Fences. 
Portable fences, for the purpose of making 
temporary inclosures for animals, are much 
more employed than formerly, and we have 
given in former volumes various plans for 
constructing them of wood. In France such 
fences are made of iron wire, or bands of 
iron, and a recent Journal d' Agriculture Pra¬ 
tique, gives engravings of two forms that 
have been exhibited at the fairs this year. 
Fig. 1 shows an inclosure made with iron 
wire; the posts are also of iron, said to be 
constructed with special reference to light¬ 
ness, though no details are given. Each post 
has a plate cast upon its lower end ; this is 
placed about 18 inches below the surface, and 
covered with successive layers of dry soil, 
each of which is pounded down solidly. The 
front edge of the engraving shows the holes 
in section with the plates at the lower ends 
of the posts. This method of setting the 
posts is said to give them great firmness, and 
the wire, plain or barbed, as may be preferred, 
is stretched in the usual manner. Instead of 
a simple wire, a wire cord, made by twisting 
together several small wires, is used through¬ 
out, or for the top of the fence only on ac¬ 
count of its greater strength and flexibility. 
Such a fence may have its position changed 
in a short time, and when used by tenants is 
readily moved to another farm. The inclos¬ 
ure shown in figure 2 has its supports fur¬ 
nished at the base with an inverted cone, and 
are driven into the ground ; according to 
the description the supports are placed 
between four or five feet apart, with strips 
of sheet iron between them, the width of 
which is not stated. These 
strips are used instead of 
wire, as they present a more 
visible obstacle to the ani¬ 
mals. This end can, how¬ 
ever, be accomplished with 
a wire fence, by the use of 
a single strip of light wood 
in place of one strand of 
wire. We give these ex¬ 
amples of what has been 
done in France, rather as 
suggestions than as patterns 
to be followed, as we have no doubt some 
of our ingenious farmers will be able to 
greatly simplify the construction of port¬ 
able fences in whole or in part of wire. 
Artificial Incubation. 
BT MASON C. WELD. 
My experience with Artificial Incubation 
is not so great that I write with the authority 
of “One who knows”—and yet I do know a 
thing or two, which I have no doubt may 
prove of use to some of the readers of the 
American Agriculturist. 
Care of Early Chickens. 
We want early chickens—even chickens 
hatched in January are welcome if we can 
take care of them. I was shown, a few days 
ago, an inquiry by a reader of the American 
Agriculturist, in which the writer asked if 
chickens could be raised upon a board floor. 
I presume the writer had attempted to take 
care of very early chicks, and had let them 
run in a room with a board floor. He prob¬ 
ably found that they became diseased in their 
feet—the toes curling under—or were crip¬ 
pled in some other way. Chicks seem to need 
either to run upon the bare ground, or to have 
sand and gravel an inch or two deep to run 
over and scratch in. This may be provided 
upon a board floor, and it is all the better if 
it be rather moist for a few feet around the 
water “ fountain.” I may 
seem to some to be taking 
care of my chicks before 
they are hatched, but I can 
assure young poultry raisers 
that the ability to take good 
care of the chicks is much 
more important than to get 
them well hatched out. The 
nursery may be subject to 
great fluctuations of tem¬ 
perature. If the chicks have 
one or more artificial moth¬ 
ers, or brooding boxes to 
keep warm in, or if there bo a fair propor¬ 
tion of chickens six weeks old or older, tho 
hatchlings will not suffer even if the ther¬ 
mometer drops to freezing or below by night, 
while by day it may rise to 100° in the sun 
and no harm will be done. I think such 
variations of temperature rather beneficial. 
Of Incubators. 
The best need watching, and I would say, 
let no one attempt artificial incubation who 
will not take the responsibility of seeing to 
his lamps and thermometers as often as once 
in three hours day and night if necessary. 
Not that no incubators may be left for six, 
eight, or even ten hours ; but when a sud¬ 
den fall in the outside temperature takes 
place, when the wind changes, and all that, 
there is danger of the heat getting less, and 
under other circumstances, still more danger 
of the heat getting too high. 
It is curious that eggs, during most of the 
period of incubation, may now and then be¬ 
come for a short time, stone-cold without 
detriment, while a very little over-heating 
will prove fatal. I know a lot of eggs, perhaps 
100 or 150 in number, which, when within 
two or three days of hatching, were sent on 
from New York to Providence there to be ex¬ 
hibited with the incubator in which they had 
been brought thus far toward hatching. They 
were laid in a basket packed about with cotton 
wool, and so transported without heat. On 
arrival they were quite cold, but soon warmed 
up and nearly all hatched. At this period 
eggs bear a great deal of moving about, and 
greater changes of temperature than at any 
other during the three weeks of incubation. 
The most easily regulated source of heat, 
the most economical, and the one subject to 
least fluctuations, is a kerosene lamp. The 
use of gas, where this is possible, is not ad¬ 
visable, on account of the constant fluctua¬ 
tions of the flame arising from variations in 
the pressure. It matters not how perfectly 
the heat is regulated, it is much better to 
have few' or no fluctuations to regulate. 
The use of fermenting manure as a source of 
heat is absurd and abominable, very difficult 
to regulate, expensive, and unpleasant. 
A gardener in charge of greenhouses or 
hot-beds always has them on his mind, asleep 
or awake, and yet his mind is not burdened. 
At any notable change of temperature oc¬ 
curring he lifts the sashes, opens the venti¬ 
lators or closes the same ; he builds more fire, 
or covers the sashes with mats, thus keeping 
the heat in and the cold out, or the reverse, 
according to the necessity. In the same way 
any one using an incubator must keep it on 
his mind, and by turning his lamp up or 
down maintain a temperature as near 102’ 
as possible. On the occurrence of sudden 
changes he must not trust the self-regulating 
appliances, but watch the thermometers, and 
keep the heat a degree below the normal 
temperature for fear of a sudden rise. Incu¬ 
bators should be started early, so that experi¬ 
ence in managing them may be gained before 
the spring approaches. The instructions which 
accompany them are of course important. 
Tiie! BScautics of tlie S,:iv» were il¬ 
lustrated by a recent case in England. Three 
persons were arrested for stealing 56 lbs. of 
grapes from a hot-house. The prosecutor 
found that it was not unlawful to steal grow¬ 
ing fruit, but the rascals were short-sighted 
enough to carry off the scissors with which 
they cut the grapes, and they were tried on 
Fig. 1 . —AX ENCLOSURE MADE WITH IRON WIRE. 
