November 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
147 
thermometer is placed, and thus the air will escape, so 
that a greater quantity of water can be supplied. Strew the 
frame in which the eggs are placed with silver-sand a 
quarter of an inch deep. Cut a blanket the size of the zinc 
tray, which lay on the top of the eggs. In order to avoid 
the necessity of removing the blanket, it is as well to cut 
a few inches out of it, top and bottom, so that the thermo¬ 
meters may be at all times seen without trouble. Another 
blanket should then cover the whole of the outside of the 
glass frame. 
Place under the zinc tray some liay cut in small 
pieces, with a little gravel or sand, and change it every 
other day. 
The burner requires heating by external means be¬ 
fore it can be lighted. To do so, till tlie small cup d 
three parts full of spirits of wine, and light it; a flame is 
thereby obtained all round the burner, and the desired 
heat is attained. This heat will soon generate sufficient 
gas to issue from the escape-hole, pass up the in¬ 
terior of the air-tube, whence it will combine with 
atmospheric air, and issue from the orifices around the 
top of the burner, which may then be lighted. Care 
should be taken that every jet is lighted, otherwise the 
escape will emit a disagreeable smell. It will some¬ 
times happen, during the process of heating the burner, 
particularly when the lamp has been new stuffed with 
cotton and abestos, that a liquid instead of a vapour 
will escape from the hole ; but this may be disre 
garded, as it will cease when the burner is hot. After it 
lias burned for a minute or two, the lamp may be re¬ 
gulated to any heat required, by means of the key, 
care being taken that the vent-hole through the feed¬ 
ing-screw is open. If the small escape-hole should 
get stopped from the use of impure spirit, or any other 
cause, and which will be readily detected by the small, 
imperfect light, or by the gas being prevented from 
issuing from the orifices, although the burner be heated, 
it may be remedied by using tool No. 3, or tool No. 
4; when No. 3 is used, put the light out, take the top 
screw out, and turn the top, so as to have the vent-hole 
open, and let the needle go through the escape-hole. When 
No. 4 is used, it is better to put the light out, for fear of the 
gas, which may escape from the vent-hole igniting. Should 
the gas, however, ignite at the vent-hole, close the vent, 
and light the lamp again, after using tool No. 4, being 
careful to give as near the same light again as possible. 
Should the flame be extinguished for the space of not more 
than three months, it will require very little spirit in the 
cup to relight it. 
Three thermometers are required, two to be embedded 
in the sand (one at the top, and the other at the bottom of 
the machine), the third to be put in the water, and they 
must all three be got as near as possible to 104, but never 
higher. 
Place the lamp lighted, on the stand at a distance of about 
three inches from tbe boiler, and regulate its flame so as to 
obtain a heat of about 104. It will take one hour before the 
room, machine, sand, glass, Ac., are at the same tempe¬ 
rature; but it is always desirable to keep the machine going 
for two hours, to ascertain that the temperature is even before 
putting in the eggs. After the heat has been once regulated 
by the lamp, the flame should not be increased or diminished, 
but in the event of the loss or gain of a degree of heat, raise 
or lower the lamp, as occasion may require, by means of the 
screw level with the stand, being careful, however, when the 
desired heat is attained, to lower the lamp again. Should a 
degree or two of heat be lost dui-ing the night, and the lamp 
have been already raised to the greatest height obtainable, 
it is of little consequence, and need cause no anxiety; but to 
gain a few degrees will, most probably, spoil the eggs. The 
morning is, of course, the best time for altering and re¬ 
gulating the lamp, in order that any little irregularity maybe 
the sooner and more readily detected and corrected. A 
small blue light will give greater heat than a large white 
light, and if the lamp should give such, calculate accordingly. 
Should at any time the heat increase above the given 
temperature (104), the glass, blanket, and lamp, must bo 
immediately removed, for such space of time until you 
observe the thermometer in the water fall to the given 
temperature, then cover the eggs with the blanket and 
y""T7 / /'/"l 
glass, and place the lamp a little lower than it previously 
stood. 
Having got everything at an even temperature, mark the 
eggs on one side No. 1, and on the reverse side No. 2. The 
date when they are placed in the machine maybe marked at 
either end. They may then be placed on the sand, with 
No. 1 upwards; twenty-four hours afterwards they should 
all be turned, so that No. 2 be upwards. The best time is 
about eight or nine in the morning. Do not needlessly take 
the eggs out of the machine. At the end of the sixth day 
that the eggs have been in the machine it may be as¬ 
certained if the chicken is formed or not, by darkening 
the room, and holding them against a hole the size of a 
shilling, cut in the shutter for the purpose, when, if tbe egg 
be gently turned, the germ will be seen to float to the top. 
(See Minasi’s Guide to his Patent Hatching Machine.) If 
no germ appears, the egg may be considered a bad one for 
1 hatching purposes. A bit of soft leather should be placed 
! round the hole, against which the egg may be held without 
\ fear of breaking. If the shell be a dark one, it will not be 
until the seventh or eighth day that this can be known. It 
requires a little practice before the eye becomes sufficiently 
experienced to detect this. The great advantage which 
science has over nature is here apparent, for, if by the sixth 
; day no chicken is visible, tbe egg may be at once removed as 
! containing no germ, and its place filled by another. Eggs 
I with lighter shell, such as Spanish, Poland, Sultan’s fowls, 
&c., the chicken is seen clearly after the fourth day. If at 
the end of twenty-one days, and doubt should exist as to the 
vitality of the chicken then due, fill a basin nearly full of 
i water heated to about 104 or 100, and place some eggs gently 
in it. When the water is quite still, the eggs that contain 
live chicken will be seen to move about, and should be im¬ 
mediately replaced in the machine, and allowed another day 
or two more. When buying eggs for hatching, have a pail 
of water, in which place them, and observe if they lie flat at 
the bottom ; if they do so, they are good for batching; but 
if one end rises higher than the other, they will not answer 
the purpose; and should they float to the surface or near it, 
they are rotten. Another method of telling new laid eggs 
from stale ones is by examining them at the hole in tbe 
shutter. If there appears at the thick end a vacuum about 
the size of a fourpenny-piece only, the egg may be considered 
new laid, or only two or three days old; but if the vacuum 
be greater, the egg is a stale one. 
When the chicken commences to star the shell, it is better 
to remove it to the glass box at the end, with a little flannel 
laid lightly underneath, and the same to cover over it, as, if 
allowed to remain in the sand, they sometimes injure their i 
eyes. The chicken may be allowed to remain in the glass | 
box for the first twenty-four hours of their existence. They 
should then be removed to the artificial mother, where they 
will shift for themselves, and should remain about five or 
six weeks. If a chicken appears weakly for the first two or 
three days, it is, perhaps, as well to put it in the glass box, 
away from its more robust companions, under the artificial 
mother, giving them, of course, a little food. 
