Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1899-04-01
MATCHING CHICKS BY HUNDREDS.

CHICKS are peIntu UP III TIC .o'"o"7
ing house at the old Gushing place,
where J. Foster Rhodes has begun
poultry-lais,ng for the market on
quite an extensive scale. w. "A.
Clifford is in charge and he now has
ten incubators in operation, with Il
capacity of 800 eggs each. The in 4.
cubators are "double.deckers," of
an approved pattern, and are located
in the cellar of the house. The
chickens begin to appear in 20 or II
days and the eggs have to be turned
twice day till the nineteenth day to
secure an even supply of heat, this
labor being somewhat simplified by
the makeup of the compartments in
which they are placed. The tenn
perature is kept at about 1903 de-
grees. From the incubators the
young chickens go to the brooders,
boxes artiticially heated, and six Of
these, which were made by Mr..
Clifford, are now in use. Half
dozen others were bought and are
ready for service when required.
About two-thirds of the eggs in each
incubator are Matched out, this being
considered satisfactory average,
and four of them will next week add
largely to the already big family
of chicks in the brooding house.
Mr.. Clifford expects to keep the in
cubators running for month or
more longer.
Last fall il large hen house, I,x So
feet, was built, facing south and
having every convenience and COM
fort for the hens that are privileged
to occupy it. The scratching pens
are provided with storm curtains
which can be raised and lowered,
the walls of the building are well
sheathed, so that the birds are we'll
protected in all weather and the sun
furnishes plenty of heat. There are
not many old fowls there at present,
but Il number of the chickens Matched
now will be kept and they will help
to furnish eggs for the incubators
another season.
\ HORSE KILLED.
Deep snow and narrow road
were responsible for the death of a
horse on the other side of Hart
land hill Tuesday forenoon. G. E.
Woodruff's four-horsc team, driven
by Frank Metcalf, was on the way
to the Hartland depot and a little
way this side of Finley's place,
about five miles from here, met a
single rig driven by Frank Wood,
nephew of Seth J. Wood, owner of
the horse and sleigh. Both teams
stopped and moved to either side of
the road as tar as possible IN order
to pass, a difficult job owing to the
depth of snow and narrow road-a
bad enough place at any time OF the
year Wood took his horse by the
head and Metcalf started. In pass
ing the dasher on Woods sleigh was
struck bv the neckyoke, it is thought,
on the other team, the cracking of
the wood startling the horse which
houndered and broke one of the
shafts. y piece of the broken shaft
pierced the flank of Woods horse
and he bled to death in very few
minutes. 1t seemed to have been an
unavoidable accident under the cir
cumstances, but further investiga-
ton may fix the responsibility.
Fay Parkhurst, driving one of
Woo:lruff's two-horse teams, was il
short distance ahead of Metcalf and
in passing Wood at Finley's told
hun he had better wait there for the
other four-horse team, but he kept
on.
In view of this accident it occurs
to some people that road conmis-
sioners and road-breakers make a
mistake in not making turning-out
places at frequent intervals along
the highways, especially during
such storms as we have experienced
the past month or two. Trouble
some mishaps and even worse acci-
dents than this may thus be avoided.
On Friday came touch OF spring
warmth and sunshine, novel expe-
rience for this weather-beaten Sec
ton of New England. March was
Il rough blizzartly month but the i'm
mensc amount of snow that has fall
en- must soon begin to disappear fast.
There are fears Of freshets and
washouts III rapid thaw and rail
road people are especially uneasy.
Z. G. Howes returned to Shell
burne Farm Tuesday, where he is at
work on DR.. Webb's house for a
Brandon contractor.
BRIDGEWATER VILLAGE.