Entered, according to Act of Congress. In the year 1887, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
THE HOWE BROILER FARM. 
lthough there are a dozen 
large broiler farms at Hara- 
monton, N. J r , we have se¬ 
lected the largest and most 
successful in order to describe 
it to our readers. The pro¬ 
prietor, Mr. E. C. Howe, is 
not an U eubatormanufactur¬ 
er nor has he anything to sell. His sole busi¬ 
ness Is that of raising chicks and ducklings for 
market. He is probably tlie most successful 
person at such business in this country, and 
and yet, strange as 
it may seem, he had 
never seen au incu¬ 
bator oue year ago, 
and knew nothing 
at all about poul¬ 
try. Being given 
two or three les¬ 
sons, he ventured 
ahead, and his most 
sanguine expecta¬ 
tions have been re¬ 
alized. 
To describe Mr. 
Howe’s place it may 
be stated that the 
entire space devot¬ 
ed to broilers is 2G 
x 200 feet, or about 
one-eighth of au 
acre; but one mile 
from his residence 
he has 600 hens on a 
farm, in charge of 
an assistant, which 
have also been a 
success. HLs broiler 
farm is on a town 
lot, in the busy por¬ 
tion of Hammouton 
and quite close to 
the railroad sta¬ 
tions. The build¬ 
ing (see Figure 184,) 
is a center house, 
20 x 20 feet, used 
for incubators,with 
a slaughter-house 
to them, and yet they require no watching, as 
he never looks into them during the day or 
night except to turn the eggs and add the hot 
water. Limited space will not permit of a 
full description of the iueubator in this issue, 
but we will state that it is the ordinary hot 
water tank surrounded by saw-dust. 
The brooders are heated by hot water pipes, 
(not steam) arranged as shown at Fig. 185. A 
stove with a circular water-back (or boiler sur¬ 
rounding it), heats the water, which rises as it 
becomes heated, and flows into the pipes, re¬ 
turning to the boiler near the bottom of the 
stove. Observe the way the pipes are ar¬ 
ranged, the first, and last being together, thus 
evenly distributing the heat. A tube half 
au inch iu diameter (A,) is intended to allow 
s 
and circulate around the pipes, but these 
cold air pipes must be below the 
iron pipes, or the cool air will come 
out of the tubes under the brooders. 
As the air becomes heated it rises through the 
brooder tubes, which are fastened in the floor. 
These tubes are one inch in diameter, and 2 )4 
inches high. Over them are “mothers” or 
brooders, which are 28 inches square and 
three inches high (for very young chicks) but 
the legs are adjustable,and the mothers can be 
raised as the chicks grow. The floor must not 
be very warm, or leg weakness will result. 
The heat comes through the tubes and diffuses 
itself above the chicks. The temperature 
under the mothers should be 90 degrees. 
The chicks are sold when from eight to ten 
1IOWE BROILER 
at the rear, in 
which the chicks 
are killed and 
dressed for market. 
To each end of the 
incubator house is 
attached a brooder 
house 10 x 70 feet, 
making a total space 
of 10 x 140 feet for 
the two wings. 
Each brooder house 
has a passage-way 
two-and-one-half 
feet wide, extend¬ 
ing the length of 
the building and 
leading from the 
iueubator house. 
The brooder houses 
are divided into partitions 5 x 7}^' feet each, 
(deducting for passage-way) making 14 brood¬ 
ers in each wing, or 28 in all, each brooder ac¬ 
commodating 100 chicks, the total capacity 
being 8,800 chicks every 10 weeks. 
Mr. Howe hatches and raises his chicks with 
hot water, uml does not require lamps. With 
a single exception his incubators are home¬ 
made, no lumps being used, the heat being 
maintained by drawing off a bucket or two 
of water from the incubators twice a day and 
udding boiling water. He has uo regulators 
the escape of air in the pipes, and is also a 
safety-valve. It is attached to the hottest or 
highest pipe. B is a keg or barrel filled with 
water, and connected with the lower pipe, to 
give pressure to the water. The stove is iu u 
pit, below the ground. The pipes are arranged 
side by side, iu a box oue yard wide, six inches 
deep, and 70 feet long, and are held level and 
in place, by iron rods, or supports of any kind. 
One or two tubes ouo inch iu diameter, extend 
from this box, or frame, to the outside, an ar¬ 
rangement which allows pure air to come in 
weeks old, and at weights ranging from oue 
to two pounds, according to the market (New 
York and Philadelphia) and they ofteu sell as 
high as 60 cents per pound, April being the 
best mouth. The loss does not exceed eight 
per ueut. after they are hatched, the onlv dif¬ 
ficulty being to procure fertile eggs in Winter. 
When hatched tney go directly to the brood 
ers, and are fed nothing for -4 hours. The 
first. 10 days they are fed every two hours 
(early and late) on bread cooked and crumbled 
for them, composed as follows: Ground meat, 
one part; corn meal, two parts; middlings, 
one part; ground oats, oue part; also a small 
proportion of bread soda and salt. Sometimes 
this is varied by a mixture of corn, oats and 
wheat, ground together,and one-fourth groiind 
meat added. Mashed potatoes, chopped cab¬ 
bage, ground hone, and fresh meat, occasion¬ 
ally, are always in order. After the tenth 
day the food is simply scalded instead of being 
made into bread. Raw grain is seldom fed, 
though cracked corn and wheat are allowed 
as'soon os the chicks will eat them. 
Particular attention is given to keep every¬ 
thing clean, ami the chicks must at no time 
become chilled. On cold or damp days they 
are kept inside, but given the privilege of the 
yard on clear days. When they become too 
large to get under the mother, they will have 
become sufficiently hardy to do without, as 
the houses are 
warm. As Mr. 
Howe’s house holds 
2,800 chicks every 
10 weeks, his capac¬ 
ity is 14,000 per 
year, and these are 
raised on less than 
one-eighth of au 
acre of ground; but 
it is customary to 
take a vacation in 
summer. He has 
hate-bed about 4,000 
chicks,some of them 
selling for a dollar 
each, and is now 
preparing to hatch 
8,000 ducklings. 
The cost of feed to 
produce one pound 
of chick is five 
cents, but the first 
pound is costly, as 
the expense of eggs, 
time of incubation, 
labor, etc., are im¬ 
portant items. Mr. 
Howe does nearly 
all the work him¬ 
self; but is some¬ 
times assisted wheu 
very busy killing 
and dressing the 
chicks for market. 
He uses two stoves 
which not only heat 
his brooders, but 
warm the incuba¬ 
tor house, and boil 
w^ter for the incu¬ 
bators. 
There are quite a 
number of persons 
in Hammonton who 
raise broilers, but 
keep no fowls, as 
adult birds cause 
vermin, and cannot 
be allowed near the 
brooders. Mr. 
Howe is now con¬ 
sidered very expert 
in testing eggs, 
and also as an op¬ 
erator of incuba¬ 
tors. His chicks 
have brought not 
onlj' the highest prices in market, but he has 
received many complimentary letters from, 
commission merchants. He keeps cross-bred 
birds, but will, iu future, grade up his 
stock with pure-bred Plymouth Rock males. 
He has hardly been at the business long 
enough to bo perfect yet. Although expend¬ 
ing over $8,000, Mr. Howe has already re¬ 
ceived back nearly all of his capital, and ex¬ 
pects to make a profit also. 
As we stated, Mr. Howe has nothing for 
sale, though he always welcomes visitors, but 
