256 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
upon the eggs. With proper attention, but little 
trouble is given until the chickens appear, when 
Fig. 1.— PROF. CORBETT’S INCUBATOR. 
the mother is made ready for them. This is a box 
exactly the same as the incubator, but provided 
with a horizontal disk, covered on the under side 
with a piece of sheep skin from a long-wool sheep, 
and arranged to be moved up or down by a screw. 
The manure is heaped partly around the box, to 
provide the needed warmth, the door is let down 
for a pathway in and out for the chicks (see fig. 2), 
and in this they are placed as soon as ready to be 
removed from the incubator. After having been 
fed a few times, the chicks will learn to come out 
from beneath the wool to feed, when the plat¬ 
form is tapped. Mr. Corbett has been very success¬ 
ful in using his apparatus, and when visiting his 
establishment, we saw the proof of his success in 
the young, thrifty chickens, which looked strange¬ 
ly as they swarmed about without any hens to own 
or take care of them. The results of Mr. Corbett’s 
Market,” which is published by the Orange Judd 
Co., and sold for 50 cents. 
Another system, in which the heat is supplied by 
a gas jet or a lamp, and to which is applied a very 
ingenious and effective automatic arrangement for 
regulating the temperature, has been perfected by 
an officer of the U. S. army, W. G. Day, and an 
incubator operated on this system is made by 
Messrs. Day & Bio., of Garden st., Baltimore. 
There is nothing really new about this, excepting 
the automatic regulator and a warm chamber for 
taking care of the chicks until they arc ready to be 
removed. These improvements are intended to 
avoid the difficulties heretofore met in operating 
this class of incubators. The complete machine is 
shown at figure 3. It stands upon a table or bench ; a 
lamp or gas jet heats an air chamber, which supplies 
! the necessary warmth, as well as a water vat which 
moistens the warm air. A very sensitive thermo¬ 
metric arrangement moves some clock-work, shown 
in the front of the machine, by which the flame is 
reduced or increased in size, as may be needed, and 
by which, if the change in temperature is so great 
either way as to risk the safety of the eggs, a bell 
is rung as a warning. There are glass doors at the 
ends and at the top, through which everything may 
be inspected, and the whole arrangement is so neat 
and clean, that it may be operated in a room in a 
house without offense. At figure 4 is shown a sec¬ 
tion of the apparatus ; the direction of the currents 
of air is shown by the arrows, also the position of 
the shelves, which enables the young chicks to 
escape into the lower chamber, where the heat is 
moderate and where they may be kept and fed sev¬ 
eral days, if desired. A glass door at each end 
gives access to these chambers. We have carefully 
examined both these systems of hatching eggs, that 
Fig. 4.— section of day’s incubator. 
we might give the information sought by so many 
of our readers. With a somewhat extensive ex- 
Agricultural Engineering. 
perience in raising chickens, and knowing all about 
the difficulties of bringing them through their early 
life, we think that any person may succeed in arti¬ 
ficially raising them, who possesses the requisite 
patience, tact, and perseverance, who lias an ex¬ 
treme liking for the business, and who will devote 
as much care and attention to it as is necessary for 
success in any other occupation. The man who 
becomes disgusted or disheartened at the first 
failure, will never be successful at poultry raising in 
any manner, and to succeed in raising fowls artifici¬ 
ally, needs more skill and patience than to raise 
them in the ordinary way, while the rewards and 
profits of success arc also proportionately greater. 
--- 
Fig. 2.—PROF. CORBETT’S ARTIFICIAL MOTHER. 
investigations and experiences have been gathered 
into a small book, entitled “ The Poultry Yard and 
The frequent enquiries which come to us from all 
parts of the country for advice as to laying out 
farms or roads, planning buildings, draining, irriga¬ 
tion, and other such operations which relate to the 
professions of engineering or architecture, show 
very clearly that there is an opening for what 
may properly be called Agricultural Engineering. 
So far as we are aware there are few professional 
engineers who have made a special study of the 
needs of agriculture in this respect. The conse¬ 
quences are seen on every hand, in costly failures 
of amateur attempts, to do this kind of work, in 
roads that cost more to keep them in repair every 
year than they are worth, and are very costly in use; 
in farms laid out so that the work of hauling the 
crops is doubled; in drains so laid out that the out¬ 
let is higher than other portions of them, or that 
the labor in making them is expended upon ground 
that needs no draining, and that which needs it is 
not sufficiently served; in attempts at irrigation 
which convert meadows into quagmires, and in pre¬ 
tentious buildings which are inconvenient in use, 
and unhealthful for their occupants. To avoid all 
these losses, and to meet the necessities of the 
many farmers who would willingly pay for compe- 
Fig. 3.— hr. day’s incubator. 
tent professional assistance, there needs to be a 
class of educated engineers who will make agricul¬ 
ture a study, and who can then intelligently advise 
their clients, and economically supervise the expen¬ 
diture of their money. The practice of irrigation 
alone offers a wide field ; another is presented in 
the need for water supply and storage in reser¬ 
voirs ; and the proper laying out and building coun¬ 
try roads, offers another opportunity of almost 
equal extent to that of railroad engineering, which, 
for the future, will probably be much less cultivat¬ 
ed than heretofore. It has been held as a principle 
that when a demand arises, a supply will certainly 
be forthcoming. That is true to a certain extent 
only, but is entirely too slow in operation for this 
period of active enterprise. Now, the contrary is 
true, that a supply creates a demand, and this is 
shown by the success with which manufacturers 
and merchants make a market for their wares. No 
more conspicuous instance of this could be shown 
than the now world-wide business of supplying 
American agricultural machinery to farmers. There 
is no quarter of the civilized world where our reap¬ 
ers and mowers, hoes, axes, and shovels, are not in 
use. The consequence is immensely beneficial to 
our manufacturers, and there have been built up 
vast manufactories, which employ hundreds of 
workmen in making machinery almost entirely for 
foreign markets. These markets would not have 
existed had they not been made. It is precisely 
the same with regard to the agricultural engineer. 
Let him present himself and make himself known, 
and there will be abundant demand for his skill. 
Whipple-Trees for Plowing Corn Safely. 
We have found it beneficial to cultivate our com 
crop until the rows be¬ 
come impassable for a 
horse, or until it was 
four feet or more high. 
But to do this with the 
wide whipple-tree, the 
ends of which project 
beyond the traces, and 
break down the stalks, 
is impossible. It may, 
however, be done by 
using a whipple-tree 
specially provided for 
it. This is made as 
follows : a piece of oak timber, two inches thick, 
three wide, and twenty inches long, is round¬ 
ed at the corners, and deeply grooved at the 
ends, so that the trace chains may be entirely im¬ 
bedded in the grooves. A small hole is bored 
through each end, into which a small carriage bolt 
is iuserted, being made to pass through a link of 
the trace chain, and it is then fastened beneath 
