1802.] 
¥ beg an anfwer through the medium of 
your Magazine. 
It has long been a caufe of regret in 
this ifland, and is, I know, a_caufe of 
complaint alfo throughout the Weft Indies 
and in other foreign fettlements, that a 
fatisfa€tory fupply of new valuable pub- 
lications cannot be obtained. It is true 
we receive a very fuflicient quantity by all 
the regular traders, but the works are 
fuch as we have noinducement to purchafe; 
they are, in faét, the dulleft, the moft 
worthlefs, or the moft uninterefting of 
new publications; and it often happens 
that works of real-merit and intereft, 
which excite univerial attention in Eu- 
rope, never make their appearance here, 
unlefs procured by an exprefs order at a 
great expence. 
The perfons who advertife books from 
Great Britain, or who import them into 
this ifland, certainly do net confult their 
own interefts by this mode of proceeding, 
fince it conftantly happens that-the trath 
which is imported iells at ten, twenty, 
and even thirty per cent. below their regu- 
lar prices ; and although our families and 
libraries are far from being overftocked 
with books, yet we have had inftances of 
works being fold at the fales in Kingfton 
for lefs than the pricg of their tawdry bind- 
ings; not from any want of tafte or cu- 
riofity, but becaule the bindings confti- 
tuted their only recommendation. 
There muft be fome caufe for a condu& > 
to exporters of books fo oppofite to the 
general pra¢tice of commercial men,which 
in my.apprehenfion is inexplicable, but 
probably fome of your readers may he 
able to explain it, and point out a means 
by which the evil may be removed. 
. I am, Sir, your well-wifher, 
Spanifh Town, Jamaica, R. H*****#, 
Tb VIDE! 26g F507. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR Magazine, excelling every 
other in variety of ufeful informa- 
tion, does not difdain, I perceive, to no- 
tice the minor objeéts of the hufbandman’s 
care. «Jn your Jatt Number, the public is 
informed, that Mr. Pratt, a,Suffolk gen-_ 
tleman, who has been formerly in Egypr, 
has lately produced a clutch of fixty-feven 
chickens, without the eggs being ever fat 
upon by hens. ‘This is well-known to 
have been an ancient Egyptian praétice, 
and to have been frequently eflayed both 
io France and England-in modern times. 
The French, whom it is no longer @ /a- 
mode to ftyle fuperficial fkip-jacks, or 
cowards; who examine every thing pro- 
MontTuiy Mac, No, 86, - 
On Hatching Poultry by artificial Heat, ec. 
the learned author had failed. 
341 
foundly ; in fine, who perhaps have pro- 
duced the beft treatifes on all fubjects, 
have not neglected even the prefent. A 
learned Frenchman, for want of better 
employment, as I fhould conceive, took 
it into his head to compofe as much as 
would make a thoufand modern pages to 
inftru&t the world in. the uleful art of 
hatching eggs independently of the incu- 
bations of the hen. This book fell into 
my hands} in the year of our Lord 1733, 
and filled me with a ftrong emulation to 
fucceed in thcfe difficult points wherein 
I was then 
a great amateur and breeder, in courfe had 
plenty of eges, which my author: alfo 
taught me to preferve perfectly fit for 
kitchen ufe five months. So far, at leaft, 
I have been permanently obliged to him, 
and have long fince been thence refunded 
the eight fhillings his book coft me, I 
had not patience to go through the vo- 
lume before I made my experiment with 
a number of frefh-laid eggs, which L 
placed over ajfire made with charcoal duft,’ 
and which I conftantly regulated at a cer- 
tain degree of heat, during the ufual pe- 
riod, not unfrequently attending them by 
night as well as by day. With many 
failures, at different times, I had yeta 
confiderable number of chickens hatched 
in as perfect a {tate as could poflidly have 
been produced by the natural heat of the 
mother.” They were of a favourite breed, 
and of very beautiful plumage ; and the 
occafional attendance upon thefe_ little 
nurflings gave me as great a plea‘ure, I 
think, as others. pretend to feel in worry-, 
ing. and torturing poor harmlefs animals 
to death. But my pleafure was of no 
very long duration; ina few days, the 
little orphans began to feel the want of 
the foftering care and tenderne{s of amother, 
and the enlivening warmth and fhelter of 
her wings. A change of weather came: 
the air.trom the north-eatt fhrivelled them 
up, the beauty of their plumage faded, 
and they dropped off, one after another, 
like leaves in autumn. 
I do not mean, however, that all my 
artificial chickens were loft; a remnant 
was faved: but this remnant confifted of 
fo few, that, according to my repeated ex- 
"perience, and that of my French author, 
without his acknowledgment, it appeared 
full as profitable, in thefe northern cli- 
mates, to fuffer this natural affair to pro- 
ceed in the old right up-and-down wayy 
and let the cackling and longing hen go 
through-ftitch with her own bulinefs, as 
nature plainly intended fhe fhould. Ina 
climate where we are unable to bring up 
young poultry, oF even young pigs, during 
y the 
