1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
-449 
in the fifth article, takes the least time of any, 
when great numbers are to be set, allowing an 
attendant to exercise oversight systematically 
and punctually. If it is attempted to keep each 
sitter in a large separate room, much outlay is 
necessary, while again, if small rooms are used, 
the hens arc not easily made to take exercise, 
without which they will not thrive, especially 
if they sit a double term. Another objection to 
separate rooms is, that if feed is placed so that 
the hen can leave her nest to eat at pleasure, 
rats are baited to the spot, or if each room is 
made rat-proof, it will be too expensive. To 
feed and water individual birds in separate 
apartments takes much time, and if several are 
placed in one room, they must be looked to, or 
two will take to the same nest. But if surveil¬ 
lance is attempted, it will be handier to car¬ 
ry it out by placing many in a large room. 
[Note. —By mistake alighting-boards were 
shown on only one side, in the illustration of the 
interior of the house for sitters, but there should 
be three on each side.] 
The nests are guarded against the depreda¬ 
tions of rat3 by the fine wire netting described 
on page 332. The use of the coarse nett ing that 
alternates with the fine, is as follows: Half the 
labor of managing chickens is saved, by confin¬ 
ing in the same coop two liens with their broods. 
They will agree perfectly, if well acquainted 
beforehand. We take a hint from nature here; 
such wild birds as live chiefly on the ground, 
sometimes incubate and lead their broods in 
company. While sitting, adjoining hens form a 
particular acquaintance through the coarse 
meshes of the netting, and at the same time 
they can not interfere with each other, or roll 
the eggs from one nest to another. 
Without a special system of management, a 
considerable number of sitting hens can not in¬ 
cubate and feed in the same apartment without 
confusion, but by the following plan each is 
made to know her own nest and return to it 
after feeding. In the first place, the laying hens, 
before offering to sit, are induced to choose nests 
scattered evenly through the whole building, by 
properly distributing nest eggs and keeping half 
of the nests closed. The nests on both sides of the 
house are divided vertically into three sections, 
one at each end of the room, and one at the 
center, by painting each division a special color 
—the center black, and the ends respectively 
red and blue. The contrast assists the fowls 
very much in determining their places. No 
more than three pairs of sitters should be allowed 
to each division, or eighteen clutches on each 
side of the building. The six birds belonging 
in the middle division remember their places 
very readily, because they are so far from either 
end. To prevent those at the ends from making 
mistakes, as soon as the laying season com¬ 
mences, one end wall of the room is covered 
witli straw, or evergreen boughs, and the other 
left bare. All birds, wild or domesticated, pos¬ 
sess a keen sense of localitj 7 , and a few neighbor¬ 
ing objects enable them to recognize their nests. 
Tne nests that are used for hatching are num¬ 
bered by affixing movable labels, aud every 
sitter is distinguished by having a feather or two 
painted, the color showing her division, and the 
position of the mark, upon her head, or body, or 
tail, signifying a number corresponding to that of 
her nest. This enables the attendant to correct 
mistakes by the birds (which will, however, be 
rare) before fastening them in daily. The colors 
show distinctly upon the white ground of the 
feathers. This plan appears somewhat whim¬ 
sical, but it is simple and convenient. Figure 1 
shows the numbers on a side of the room, ar¬ 
ranged as if for eighteen clutches, the nests not 
numbered being for the use of laying fowls in 
the mean time. The shading represents the 
three different colors of the divisions. The sit¬ 
ters are assigned places two by two as above 
stated, and each of a pair of nests and each 
of the occupants receives the same num¬ 
ber. Only three numer¬ 
als are necessary to de¬ 
signate three dozen nests 
in all, in one house. 
The incubating hens 
should be fed early in the 
morning, before any of 
the others arc ready to 
lay. Those not sitting 
are shut into the yard ; 
the large doors of coarse 
wire-work that prevent 
hens from roosting on the alighting boards 
at night, are raised (at one side of the room 
only) and the pieces of wire-cloth before the 
separate entrances to the nests of the sitting 
liens are removed and placed in front of the 
nests frequented by the layers. Next, grain is 
thrown upon the ground in view of all the sit¬ 
ters on thqt side of the room, when a call to 
which they are accustomed will cause them to 
leave their nests, after which the large doors 
are lowered and the hens are left from I to | of 
an hour, according to the weather, while the 
poulterer is repeating the operation at the other 
buildings. When the hens are off, inspect every 
nest to detect broken eggs or anything else 
amiss. The sitters upon one side are all ad¬ 
mitted to their nests at once, by raising the large 
Fig. 2.—EGG TESTER. 
wire doors, and then shut in safe from rats or 
the intrusions of laying hens, by the separate 
pieces of wire-cloth. Repeat the operation at 
the nests on the opposite side of the house. 
Examine the eggs after the hen has been upon 
them ten days by the well-known method of 
placing them between the hands and attempt¬ 
ing to look through them at a strong light; or 
a better way is to use an “ egg-tester.” The 
tester represented in figure 1 is a very simple 
one, which wc have used with satisfaction. It 
has been previously figured in the National Live 
Stock Journal, and its use is becoming common 
among poultry raisers. It consists of a tin cup, 
3 inches high and 2^ inches in diameter, narrow¬ 
ed at the top, leaving a round opening large 
enough to partly admit an egg endwise. An 
oval mirror is fastened in a slanting position 
across the cup, by projections of tin or solder. 
The eye is placed opposite an opening, i inch 
in diameter, and 1 inch from the bottom of the 
cup, the opening being furnished with an eye¬ 
piece. Enough light will be transmitted through 
the egg to form a distinct image of the yolk 
upon the mirror. Return to the hen only those 
eggs that appear opaque or clouded, and use 
those which show clear, orange-colored yolks 
as feed for chickens. 
When hatching is progressing, remove gently 
once or twice the empty shells that might other¬ 
wise overcap the unhatched eggs, but further 
than this do not interfere, as a chicken worth 
hatching will contrive, to get itself hatched. Let 
the chicks remain in the nest 48 hours without 
being fed, allowing the hen meanwhile water, 
and a handful of dry grain, placed in dishes by 
the nest. When removed to the coops, put in 
each double brood thirty chickens—less if it is 
cold weather. 
Country Roads and Bridges. 
BY W. J. CHAMBERLAIN, HUDSON, O Coildll'linr/ Ar/tclt. 
- 0 - 
Turnpiking. —Figure 1 represents a cross- 
section of an ordinary country turnpike. Our 
highways are about sixty feet wide. Fifteen 
feet may well be spared on each side for grass 
and for shade trees, leaving thirty for the turn¬ 
pike and its ditches. The bottom of the latter 
should be about sixteen inches lower than the 
middle of the turnpike, aud the ascent should 
be a curved slope, as given in the figure. 
The Implements Required are— first, a 
strong, good, wheel-plow; second, a team- 
scraper or two; third, a thirtj’-toothed harrow 
—the square-hinge harrow and Geddes’ (not 
patent) “ double A’’are both good; fourth, a 
heavy roller; fifth, farm tools, such as shovels, 
hoes, mattocks, steel rakes, etc. The old- 
fashioned scraper needs no description. That 
with a cast-iron edge, running back a foot, the 
rest of wood, is best if of the light shape. 
Figure 2 represents a simple scraper that will 
move dirt much faster in ordinary turnpiking. 
It consists of a light two-inch plank, about 14 
inches wide and 8 feet long, with tongue and 
handles, and a sharp, steel edge, often made of 
an old saw-mill saw, as given in the figure. The 
edge slants forward. The tongue is rigid. 
Figures 3 and 4 represent an improvement on 
figure 2. It is shorter and wider. The tongue 
is hung by pivots or hinges, at each end of the 
scraper-board, close to the cutting-edge. It 
loads better, is held far more easily, cleans the 
bottom angle of the ditch, as figure. 2 can not, 
and dumps and spreads admirably. 
The Work of Turnpiking.— The plow, 
with a steady, strong team, should turn a 
straight furrow on each side toward the middle 
of the road. It should be 3 inches deep, and 0 
feet from the middle of the highway, and the 
plow should be tipped so that the outside of the 
furrow shall be an inch lower than its inside. 
This makes an inclined plane and facilitates 
Fig. 1.— PLAN OF HOUSE FOR SITTERS. 
