The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-04-15
EVIL INCUBATOR MEN DO.
PdTEN1 CHICkEN RiHsIS0 RUINS
IHE PEItE or CkDIk vILLEY


Train Of the Agents COntraptiOn-Th-
Isosy Figures of the salesman md tho
Actual Tacts-Enort to Get Rich Too
Quick Brings Misery to Mount sterling.
MorNT STERLING. Wis. April Is, The trouble
In Cedar Valley, the CONFUSION which altered
its social strata, the divisions which set father
against son, mother agains, daughter, brother
against brother, sister against sister, which caused
alnts to turn down their ~nephcws and cousins
u pass each other by on the road 10 church with
only a stony glare ~ evidence 81 recognition.
began In a man named SmithsOn who came To tho
neighborhood and lccturcd on chicken raising
lie was a fellow with an open, candid manner, a
pair Of mutton chop whiskcrS and sound lungs
II took him fifteen minutes 10 catch his second
wind and half AN hour To catch his third wind,
bit when he caught his third wind
he was good for all day and all night lie repre-
scented a firm which made an Internal contrivance
called the Peerless Queen incubator, and he got
a liberal commission for selling this hing
Previous to his advent Cedar Valley Was the
most populous and prospc tOus community in
a chicken way to he found in western Wisconsin.
The breed favored was that wonderful composite
81 all strains known Interchangeable as the
barnyard or d~unghill. Its BOOSTERS were Of all
colors, crowcd much aud loudly and wouldn't
tight, but they were industrious: its hens did q
lot Of clucking and scratched up garden seed
with frenzy, but they got down TO the business
Of laying as soon a. they reached the age Of mar
rage and they kept 1t up, winter and summer.
until they were mere bundles Of skin and bone from
old age. Each Of these hens was good for a hatch
ing Of thirteen chicks twice a year. Each Of the
BOOSTERS became the father Of fifty or sixty fam.
lilies, then went 10 chicago and was sold as a spring
or fall broilcr. The barnyard had the happy
virtue Of making its own living from bugs, scat
tered grain, young grass and 50 forth. II re
quired no feeding and 10 care. II never had a
disease. II roasted high and laughed at foxes
minkS, coons and woodchuCks. It's food was
not plentiful enough TO pcrmitii 10 catch the chOl-
era, Pips and gapes it ducked To scorn. Now
and then a graz -bellied hawk swooped out Of
the blue and pinched a youngling Now
and then a stray dog hcrdcd one out in the wheat
field and chased i, for four hours. finally making
a meal Of it. These things happened so seldom
that they were not worth calculating as a per
centage Of loss. There was money in the barnyard.
Regularly thrice a week the eggladen crates
went to Chicago, whore their contents were turned
into dollars. Regularly each spring and autumn
the old ones were slaughtered and sent In 10 feed
the city folks. There was money in the barnyard,
and best, Of all there. was peace. II there is any,
thing In the world which will make a farmer peace
ful, I'll his chest with calm, II is the knowledge
tina, he Is getting the best Of somebody In town.
Then SmithsOn came.
He had a model of his machine with him. a
small. square, ~inartis,ic box like concern, painted
an unholy red and bearing the name Peerless
Queen" on its side In blue letters a foot high. II
had a lo, of compartments in it and metal tubes
and a sliding glass door and a small s~Iovepipe
chimney at one end and some hinges and a shallow
tank at its bottom, for water. and a bowllike
receptacle In which a kerosene lamp stood and
burned and stank. lie lcctured To a crowded
house in the Cedar ' alley church. The house was
crowded because no admission fee was charged.
The valleyiteS came 10 SCOT and went away 10
ponder. Smi,hson lec,ured again the next night
and the NEXT On the third night the people were
packed IN like sardires and n tail of them stretched
ont into the road. This was his proposition.
You bought a Peerless Queen incubator for
$50 Adding the freight, storage charges and
so forth, its cost, laid down in Cedar Valley, WAS
sos 1t has a capacity Of 400 eggs, which would
hatch outin three weeks. That mean, 400 chick
EMS each three weeks, 500 every six weeks, 1000
every twelve weeks, say 1900 chickens every
DllflN bdNS, III Otltt 10 ~ On inv Sdlt sue mat
would be 5000 chickens every 800 DAYS say,
in order To be on the safe side, 5000 a year OF
these 5000 would be BOOSTERS and 5000 would
be pullrts Statistics and averages proved this.
The ROSTERS would be sold, when four months
old, for 20 cents each in Chicago, astonishing
that town by the presence 81 thousands Of broilers
that could be cut with on ordinary knife That
would be 5000 for the ROSTERS, the least valuable
part Of the crop The 1000 pullets would begin
LAYING steadily when hye months old Matched
early in Apnl they would begin To turn in dollars
in September. Each Of them could be counted
upon TO produce five dozens Of eggs by the en-
suing spring. Eggs were worth Is cents a dozen
in Chicago. That was 10 cents income a pulla,,
or a pullet productive capacity Of s., $50 The
gross income from puilets and ROSTERS would
be So, $50, say, in order TO Ee on the safe side,
So, 500 in one year On an investment Of the original
chicken stock and Sos for a Peerless Queen In.
cuUator
4 point with pride to this result, said Smith
son, and ! pause Tor a reply
No reply being forthcoming, he went On 10
state that in the next spring the 5000 pullets
would be producing 100 eggs a day, which
would require, say, W be on the safe side, three
Peerless Queen incubators a day, or a stock II
ninety Peerless Queen incubators. producing, in
a short time, 100 chickens a day, the males
Of which crop In four months would be worth
$3.50 a day, OF 100 a month. In live months
each batch Of pul,ets wuLll be Producing, say.
to be on the safe side. T5l egrs a day worth so 30
IA at the end Of tAe year there would he ninety
patches OF pullets at work, and the daily Income
from them IN eggs alone would he not less than
$500, say, ~ be ON the safe side, $3.50 a day, this.
Joined 10 the sale Of ROSTERS. would bring the
total W $1,000 O dog.
lmlginauon," said Smithson, "~stagsers ap.
palled at this result but am giving you only
k-ol-e, kole, fax, fax kole fax
Cedar Valleys population walked out Of the
church In drramiul fashion, unhitchcd lis horses,
climbed into ITS wagons and drove humew ard
over TIE bunny roads, too full for u~tlerancp.
The next day Smithson departed his side. pockets
bulged viii orders for Peerless queens
The machines two OF three carloads of them,
the makers Of the Wondrous Mother Incubator
sent up Il Waldo Emerson Bang, who sold a
dozen or 80. His incubator, he said, would do
everything a hen could de-, except sing and peck
. woman on tho finger Tho valley became
Nioi6,r clans 4 sui division was effected by
two agents who ST, II the Dnky Phenum. and the
Blue lien. These four patterns were respectively
kerosene lamp and hot water tubes, kerosene
lamp and hot air tubes, kerosene lamp and hot
air chamber alcohol lamp and hot or tubes.
The Blue Hen was purchased extensively by
the large tribe belonging 10 Olaf Olafson, Non
NonSon and Ole Olcsun On the principle set forth
Nv knut knut knutsOn. Familiarity known 10
lightning rod agents, sewing machine agents.
purvcyuTs Of hog cholera medicine aud such like
nhalt travellers, "a, Old Mi Nit
"Ny bay m Blup Han, said Mint. al
checker no com. W drank III alkinhul. Skald''
There had not been such diversity Of upln
ion, sIch heated Hrgumcn and such mutual
abuse In the valley 'iNCr he first regiment marched
away in 1901 Willie those who we're afraid, or
luu lazy, to go sta ed behind and said that there
ought not 10 be- an. war The Smuuldsnng
cuWilirs ~ the clans were famed afrrsh by de-
bate as To tho proper breeds II chickens iu Re-
raised. The old BARNARD had hceu good enough
iur'prinill'c condition. but hat u an wanted