4887 
THE BROILER, FROM THE EGG TO 
THE GRIDDLE.—NO. II. 
FAILURES WITH INCUBATORS. 
Personal attention indispensable; errors of 
inventors; temperature causes varia¬ 
tion in period of hatching: turning the 
eggs ; moisture; ventilation; supply of air 
and moisture in hatching ; more in 
“ brains ” than in any particular machine; 
more danger from too much than from 
too little heat; hints from the hen; when 
to hatch early broilers. 
In my previous article I attempted to show 
the importance of securing suitable eggs for 
hatebiug purposes,as well as to explaiu,accord¬ 
ing to my experience, the difficulties to be 
encountered at the beginning. But,following 
the eggs to the marketable chick, uiaoy fail¬ 
ures also occur during the process of incuba¬ 
tion, and the causes of these I will attempt to 
explaiu. 
Tbe inventors of incubators deserve success, 
for they have, within the past decade, greatly 
simplified artificial incubation and rendered 
possible that which was but a profitless ex¬ 
periment ; V»ut while mauy of them make excel¬ 
lent machines, and have given us incubators 
that perform the greater portion of the work 
automatically, yet, in endeavoring to lessen 
the labor of the operators, they have conveyed 
the impression that no attention is required in 
hatching with incubators, and that delusion 
has been very injurious. Any perso 1 who ex¬ 
pects to raise broilers for market without 
giving close attention, not only to the incuba¬ 
tor, but to all the details of management (for 
it is work which cannot be avoided) will fail. 
Then, again, while some manufacturers have 
succeeded in regulating the heat to a nicety, 
allowiug plenty of moisture and giving fresh 
air, they have failed to make a study of the 
science of incubation, and aim to do that 
which is either not required, or which may be 
radically wrong. 
It requires a certain amount (not degree) of 
heat and moisture to enable tbe egg to pro¬ 
duce a chick. The normal heat of the bodies 
of hens (both sitters and layers) is 104 degrees, 
though some record less. Allowing for the 
loss of a degree of heat to the eggs in the nest, 
as the difference between the heat of tbe body 
and the heat absorbed, we estimate the degree 
of heat at 103, as the proper standard for 
hatching out the chick. This temperature 
must be uniform for a period of 30 days. If 
the heat is too low tbe time is extended, aud if 
rather high the period is shortened; hence if 
the temperature is, say, 101 degrees, the egg 
will not produce a chick until the 23d day, 
and if the temperature is 1Q3K the chick will 
come out on the 18th or 19th day, and as some 
eggs secure more heat and moisture than 
others owing to their size, position in the nest, 
capacity of absorption, vitality of the em¬ 
bryo, etc., some chicks will hatch soouer 
than their comrades. 
The hen on the nest endeavors to change the 
position of tbe eggs by drawing tbe outer 
ones to the center, and in so doing she turns 
them. Turning the eggs does not change the 
position of the germ in tbe eggs, but it dis¬ 
tributes the heat through the eggs more uni¬ 
formly. The W white” of the egg produces 
the flesh, bones, and vital parts, while the 
yelk supplies the warmth, fat and food, and 
it often happens that the yelk is quite perfect 
until It is nearly the time for the chick to 
come out, aud is not fully absorbed until 
after the shell is “pipped.” The eggs must be 
also turned in the incubator, twice a day be¬ 
ing the usual number of turnings, for the 
reasons above given, and moisture is provided, 
not to the eggs, but to supply the watery va¬ 
por of the air in the egg chamber, in order to 
prevent evaporation of the liquid contouts of 
the shell, aud the higher the temperature the 
greater the amount of moisture. The egg it¬ 
self contains moisture, and all that is needed 
is to prevent its loss. 
The greatest mistake made in artificial in¬ 
cubation is the supposition that the little 
chick must have a rapid current of pure air 
flowing arouud him. Now, the large cud of 
the egg is filled with compressed oxygen, aud 
until the chick has “pipped" the shell, nature 
supplies it. It is claimed that the shell allows 
the pure air to enter; but the heated condition 
of the egg permits of no vaccuum, aud while 
the chicks should be surrounded with pure 
air, yet. it should be motionless, for currents 
carry off the moisture, however lilieral the 
amount provided, and the moment the chick 
“pips” the shell the moisture evaporates. 
Fresh air, introduced two or three times in 24 
hours, charged with moisture, arul in a 
motiouless condition, especially at the time of 
hatching, will give good results, aud this may 
lie demonstrated by observing the sitting hen, 
which sits closely od the eggs after she hears 
the first sound of the “pipping” of the chicks. 
She allows neither currents, fresh air, nor dis¬ 
turbance of any kiud, as sudden changes kill 
the chicks in the shells 
In operating an incubator—I might say any 
incubator—but very little moisture is required 
the first week, and no ventilation or fresh air 
is necessary other than the quantity entering 
the egg chamber when the drawer is pulled 
out for turning the eggs, until the 13th day, 
when a small proportion may be allowed, using 
plenty of moisture. If too much air and 
moisture are given in the beginning, the 
chick will grow very rapidly and become too 
large for bis shell, the result being death on 
the 18th day. As soon as the first egg is 
“pipped” a “spraying,” given with an atomi¬ 
zer, twice a day, of water at a temperature 
of 110 degrees, stimulates the chicks and so 
saturates the air that they hatch with greater 
ease. 
Unless describing some particular incuba¬ 
tor, it is impossible to enter into details of 
management; but nearly all incubators are re¬ 
liable provided the operator is reliable. No 
machinery can supplant brains, and when you 
depend ent irely ou an automatic arrangement 
you will soon learn that changes of weather 
and other natural causes demand attention 
which must be bestowed. The whole theory 
of artificial incubation may be stated in a few 
words: “Any contrivance by which one can 
keep the eggs in an atmosphere of about 103 
degrees, provided the atmosphere is humid 
nearly to saturation, for the period of 20 days, 
will hatch chicks. If there are nc currents or 
draughts, no difficulty will be found with 
moisture. If the heat goes down occasionally 
even as low as 85 degrees. For a short time, no 
injury will be done, but overheating causes 
risk of loss. As high as 110 degrees for a short 
time is not necessarily fatal, but 100 is high 
enough as an extreme. 
As stated before, secure choice eggs; be 
willing to work the incubator, and to watch 
it, the same as when doing anything else for 
profit. Do not disturb the eggs, except at 
proper times, and do not encourage visitors. 
Give the machine careful attention, keeping 
it at as uniform heat as possible, aud the chicks 
will come out, as artificial incubation differs 
not in the least from the method adopted by the 
hen. She simply applies warmth, and the in¬ 
cubator does the same. She does not attempt 
to cool the eggs, leaving the nest only when 
obliged to do so, aud is governed in her actions 
by the heat in the eggs, for the nearer the pe¬ 
riod of hatching, the greater the warmth of 
the eggs, due to the animal heat of the chicks, 
and but little warmth is imparted by her (or 
the incubator) after the 17th day, the duty then 
being only to prevent the chilling of the eggs. 
From November to January is the time to 
hatch for early broilers, aud it requires three 
months from the beginning of incubation to 
the marketing of the chicks, to have them 
weigh two pounds each, on an average; but the 
earliest broilers should bo marketed at 1 L * 
pound weight, the prices being highest in 
March, April and May. Feeding, selling, etc., 
will be given in other articles. 
THE NEW WHITE VARIETIES OB POULTRY. 
revived. The birds were imported into the 
United States many years ago and were then 
as fine as they are now. I kept them several 
years and found them to be excellent layers of 
very large, white eggs—the largest of all ex¬ 
cept those of the La Fldche. They are men¬ 
tioned in “The Poultry Book” by Rev. Wins- 
field and Johnson in 1853—the first illustrated 
poultry book of good colored plates, by Har¬ 
rison Weir. In this it is said they are common 
in Devonshire and Cornwall, in the south of 
England. They have long been valued as 
first-rate layers, and for some years they 
formeil the principal stock of our yards. In 
the Minorca we miss the white face, the ear 
lobe alone being of that color. The comb is 
similar to that of the Black Spanish. The 
fowls are a little lower on the legs and have 
squarer Bodies than birds of that breed. 
Lewis Wright in his great book on poultry, 
says, it is thought by many that the breed is 
the progenitor of White-faced Spanish, as the 
white face has a tendency to become red. Both 
the White and Black Minorca* were bred for 
many years in the south-west of England. 
The combs are, if anything, still longer than 
those of Spanish. The hens are non-sitters. 
In our climate they require very warm 
houses in winter, and they must be kept in 
during extremely cold weather. h. h. 
POULTRY CANNING. 
The canning of poultry of all kinds com¬ 
menced in Dover, Delaware, November 21st. 
The business is conducted by the firm of Rich¬ 
ards & Robbins, one of the largest canning 
establishments in the State. Through the 
winter months this firm buys large quantities 
of poultry of all kinds and cans the same. 
The birds are brought to it from the country 
for miles around, and for them it pays the 
market prices. The firm also buys poultry in 
Philadelphia. It has beeu engaged in this 
enterprise for the last 12 or 15 years, using on 
au average 200,000 pounds or more per season, 
and giving employment to over 100 persons. 
The enterprise creates a good home market 
for poultry and induces the farmers' wives 
and daughters to make every effort to grow 
the largest, amount of poultry of all kinds 
possible, for which they obtain ready 
ca«h, and the effect is that an immense 
amount of turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens 
are grown here. A. G. s. 
HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE. 
DIFFUSION EXPERIMENTS. 
DR. PETER COLLIER. 
Many new varieties of poultry are claiming 
attention, particularly tbe new white varie¬ 
ties, as the White Plymouth Rocks aud White 
Wyandotte*. They are no doubt as valuable 
varieties as the colored, but nothiug more is 
claimed for them than for the colored further 
than the fact that they are more easily bred 
true to color. This is of little consequence to 
the farmer who does not breed for the show- 
pen. There is one thins iu favor of colored 
varieties—an impurity of the blood ora cross is 
more easily detected. Only their forms, combs 
and legs distinguish the white varieties and 
their progeny when crossed with white mon¬ 
grels, from each other, and one must be quite 
familiar with the breeds to detect the differ¬ 
ence, and especially in case of the White Plym¬ 
outh Rocks. When they get the least out of 
symmetery, they need n ticket on their tails to 
tell which they are: “This isa White Plymouth 
Rock,’ 1 or “this is a White Wyandotte.” 
White Java* and White Minorca* are now 
extensively advertised. I know of no special 
advantages claimed for these white breeds 
over the colored ones of the same name. For 
my part. I would rather have the colored ones, 
especially the Bldck Minorca*; for the brilliant 
sheen of purple and green over the entire plum¬ 
age, forms a conspicuous feature of these 
lieautiful fowls. White Minorca* are only 
new to this country so far as I remember. 
As the rigors of winter advance increase 
the supply of animal food aud green food to 
poultry. To do so prevents feather eating 
and soft shelled eggs. 
MINORCA FOWLS. 
Minorca fowls are very popular just now. 
This is quite an old breed of fowls, recently 
My attention has been called to the follow¬ 
ing quotation in a late issue of the Rural— 
which I think cannot have been written by any 
one conversant with the facts. 
“The sorghum people of Fort Scott, accord¬ 
ing to Mr. Doming iu the Farmers'Review, 
give credit for the fiual success of the industry, 
in great measure to Messrs Parkinson & Swen¬ 
son and lesser credit to Stewart, Collier, Weber 
and Scoville.” 
Nothing could be further from my thoughts 
than a desire to detract, in the least, from the 
great credit due Messrs Swenson and Parkin¬ 
son. Their results have completely disproved 
the published statements made by Professor 
Wiley, only so late as August 0th, and have 
encouraged every friend of the sorghum sugar 
industry, among whom l wish to be always 
counted ; indeed it is but a few weeks since 
that Colman's Rural World charged me with 
having been the author or instigator of ninety- 
niiu -Hundredths of all that had been claimed 
for sorghum, and certainly it has appeared 
during the past few years that this charge of 
the Rural World was almost literally true, 
especially while the frieuds of sorghum have 
searched the columns of the Rural World and 
the successive bulletins of the Dept of Agri 
culture for something like aid and comfort to 
this struggling industry. 
11 is therefore little cause for wonder that 
letters of congratulation have poured in upon 
me from such prominent aud intelligent 
friends of sorghum as Ex-Governor Glick of 
Kansas, President Drake and Superintendent 
Swenson of the Parkinson Sugar Co. at Fort 
Scott, with personal congratulations couched 
in such phrases as the following: “I heartily 
congratulate you.” “Dr. Collier is complete¬ 
ly vindicated.” “All your statements con¬ 
cerning sorghum are verified.” 
Mr. Derniug is apparently in error as to the 
feeling of the friends of sorghum iu Kansas 
towards Dr. Collier, and it appears that tbe 
work of Dr. Collier is equally appreciated in 
New Jersey, where they have made au un¬ 
precedented success in the production of sugar 
from sorghum; for Professor Hughes writes 
that he “told. Professor Silliman four years 
ago that he used the sorghum reports of Dr. 
Collier in his laboratory as text books, and he 
had since observed that several others did the 
same.” 
But the following, which is credited to Mr. 
Deming, shows greater ignorance, and does 
injustice to others to whom the country is in¬ 
debted for their efforts to introduce diffusion 
into the production of sugar from cane and 
sorghum: “To Dr. Wiley the couutry is in¬ 
debted for the application of diffusion to sor¬ 
ghum, without which successful sugar produc¬ 
tion from sorghum is not possible.” 
Neither of the statements is true It is 
notorious that, even in the opinion of Profes¬ 
sor Wiley himself , his efforts in the diffusion 
of sorghum were a complete failure, and his 
attempts with sugar cane last season at Fort 
Scott, Kansas, for which so nmeh has been 
claimed which the facts do not justify, were 
by no means the first nor were they the best 
which have been made in diffusion. 
In 1873, Mr. R. Seig indroduced diffusion in 
Louisiana, and the results were widely pub¬ 
lished in a pamphlet. These results show 
that Mr. Seig in his experiments had far less 
dilution of juice, his mill juice containing 
11 80 per cent, of sugar and his diffusion juice 
0.05 per cent., equivalent to the addition of 33 
gallons of water to 100 gallons of mill juice: 
while Professor Wiley at Fort Scott had in 
his mill juices 10 62 per cent, of sugar and 
7.16 per cent in his diffusion juices or equal 
in dilution to the addition of 48 gallons of 
water to 100 gallons of mill juice, or more 
than double tbe dilution which Mr. Seig had. 
Besides Mr. Seig received an increased pro¬ 
duct equal to 41 per ceDt. In view of the 
above recorded results Professor Wiley him¬ 
self says: “In spite of this most pronounced 
success of tbe diffusion process, it has not been 
introduced into Louisiana." 
Now the reasons for this failure to enter 
upon the course wtiich these experiments of 
Mr. Seig clearly pointed out. is not far to seek 
and they were, in tbe main, these: 
1. A financial inability on the part of most 
of the planters to cast aside tbeir expensive 
roll-mills aud to introduce an entirely new 
and expensive plaut. 
2. A feeling of distrust lest this new pro¬ 
cess did not require a greater degree of skill 
and intelligence in its manipulation than was 
to be commanded in the average sugar-house. 
None knew better than the sugar-planter 
the enormous waste which was inevitable in 
the use of the roll-mill, averaging a loss of at 
least one-third the sugar found in the cane, 
but this great loss could be far better endured 
than tbe risk of complete failure in tbe intro¬ 
duction of what was, and even yet remains to 
a certain extent, a matter of experiment 
although the final success of the process cau- 
not be doubted. It was, therefore, in the 
hope of supplementing rather than supplanting 
the roll-mill process that the writer under¬ 
took. under Commissioner William G. Le Due, 
a series of experiments iu IssO, looking to the 
recovery of the sugar left in the bagasse (p cessed 
cane), of the roU-milL The results of these 
preliminary experiments, which were very ex¬ 
tended, and witnessed during their progress 
by many practical sugar-planters, were com¬ 
pletely satisfactory, and apparently left noth¬ 
ing to be desired, as the published results 
show that there were: 
I. Complete extraction of the sugar. 
3. Entire freedom frora’iuversion of sugar, 
3. Practically no dilution whatever. 
OwiDg to that “ crime against agriculture” 
which was committed in the removal of Gen¬ 
eral Le Due and the discontinuance of the val¬ 
uable works he inaugurate!, it is perhaps es¬ 
pecially unfortunate that these particular ex¬ 
periments iu diffusion of bagasse were under¬ 
taken, since had theyjoriginated under his suc¬ 
cessors in office there is reason to believe that 
they would have been pressed to a full success 
and have beeu widely adopted by those who 
would have been glad to supplement a process 
which they could scarcely afford to entirely 
supplant. 
It is somewhat interesting to learn that a 
correspondent of Dr. Collier, who had 
kept informed as to the results of his 
investigations, actually introduced this 
very process in his sugar mill in Southern 
Spain, and Professor Wiley, who had in his 
addresses and bulletins ponh-poohed this bag¬ 
asse diffusion process, was forced, upon per¬ 
sonally inspecting its workings in a large way 
at Torre del Mar. to '-onfess bis error a* fol¬ 
lows: “ My visit to Torre del Mar has caused 
me to modify somewhat tbe views I expressed 
iu my preliminary report, to you, written in 
Paris ou Dec. 15. 1885. in which I strongly dis¬ 
couraged the idea of erecting a battery for 
the purpose of extracting the sugar from the 
bagasse. At that time l supposed it would he 
necessary to erect in connection with such a 
battery a complete carbonization plant l am' 
now convinced that while this is advisable, it 
is not necessary, and that in view of the fact 
that such an installation would involve the 
functions of a small battery onlv, it might he 
recommended for trial by the Louisiana plant¬ 
ers.” 
That was precisely the 'recommendation of 
the writer six years earlier, 
i Washington, D. C. 
