Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-06-29

anu natural death among fowls hecorSo
OF ureless care. are almost Inknown
d incubatory is constructed of snn.
uried pricks. mortar and earth. The one
eAainined Dy me was n structure 20 feet
long, 70 feet wide and 10 feet high. II
IS provided with twelve compartments
or lncubators, each capable of holding
l,0OO eggs, making a total capacity Of
veO.Ooo eggs undergoing incubation at one
time.
The season of operation lasts only
tnree months out of the twelve, beginning.
with March and ending with May: there
lore, allowing three weeks for incubating
eggs. one week for removing each hatch.
ana preparation for again filling the incu-.
bators With eggs, the number of eggs
rnder treatment at this incubator i'm one
season may be placed at 270,OOO. From
these are hatched pa, 600 chicks. The
percentage of hatch would be much great
or, but the eggs, being necessarily pro-
cured in large quantities and from dis
tant places, are largely damaged for in
cubatlon. Still those lacking vitality are
not lost. Experience makes the attend
ants OF the incubators great experts,
ana IN a very few days after the eggs
are placed in the ovens the trained hand
detects as quickly the unvitalized egg
as does the expert bank cashier the de-
tectiye coin. The unvitalized eggs are ut
once placed upon the market at low prices
Tor culinary consumption. Eggs are
Dou2ht Tor the incubator at never exceed
ing . cents a dozen. After the ~incubators
begin TO turn out their product people
come from all the surrounding region.
buying up the hatch in numbers TO suit
ana disposing Of eggs in exchange for
chickens. The latter, distributed every
where, are then reared. with a very small
percentage OF loss, for sale in the mar
kets; Ihe oven crop of marketable
chickens is estimated at l5.OOO.OO O in,
one season, and calculating that one
fourth only OF this crop of chickens die
during their growth period. it nav be as
serted that 20,OOO,00O is the hatch of the
ovens.
Here is a huge economy. To hatch
the same number of chickens nv the
! atilral method would call into reouisi-
non the patience of | .500,O o hens. and all
inns vast number of mothers would re-
qulre sustenance during two months of
and broodiug. The curiously
inclined are left to figure out what
Egyptians save in rcsorting to artificial
incubation, and they will be surprised TO
think that II takes vastly less care TO
LOOK after an incubation of 10000 600
IN The oven than would be required with
i ,ooO,OOO teathcrcd mothers. One man
and n small boy arc the sole attendants
OF the ~incubatOry | explored. They live
in the ovens night and day during the
entire period of three months devoted to
incubation. The temperature is never
less than 80 degrees. This man and bow
keep up the smouIdering fires that create
this temperature: they place the eggs in
the ovens, move the great masses of eggs
four of five times during twentv-fo1r
hours. look after the chicks. deliver them
10 buyers, keep the incubator in perfect
order, sort out the ~infertile eggs. and
feed the little chicks. Think of 2340OO
chicks owing life alone to the tender care
in three months time to an old mau wa
most defective eyesight and a sixteen
year-c | boy, the same conception NAV be
dustry."