The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-26
MILLIONS OF DUCKS
THE WORK OF f CHINESE
 CAPTAIN
or Industry in HonOIulu-The Total Product of His Incubators Estimated at s,5OO,oOO DuekiIngs-EndO"ed With a Genius for Hts Work.

at 3,SOO,OOO Duekiings-EndO"ed With a Genius for Hts Work. ! While taking of captains of industry in Honolulu, if one oytrlooks Nee Lee there has been an omission which Will be hard too explain. for all the raisers of ducks. Yee Lee is easily the peer For twenty-three years has he gwen his attention to ducks, and such point has he reached that now he does nothing but hatch and sell the duck lings, leaving to others the rearing ol the downy little balls which prove so toothsome later in life.
 Yee Lee has never done things i'll retail way; he always looks for the big figures. If by any chance there could he gathered together all the ducks he has turned out of his incubatOrs ln the term of his service with eggs theFe would be in neighborhood Of seventy five ducks for each man, woman ana child in the city of Honolulu. Every resident of the islands could have some thing near twenty ducks, and II the flock could be sent to sea and made to swim around the southern islands, the head of the procession would pass Hllo before one-half the ducks had taken to water, and the line would extend clear about the big island and back here De- fore the last swimmer had been wet.
 It is not putting it too high, perhaps to ascribe to the incubatOrs and the careful and skilful hands of Yee Lee the lives of 3,5OO,0OO ducks during his career; for, according to his figures, there have been often more than 5000 ducklings week taken from his hatch cries, for during the term the old man resided in several places and always found it possible to make very handy living out of the industry which Is al- most his own. And during the develop rnerlt he has reached the most economi- cal and perfect form of incubator, and by reason of his system he has solved perhaps the question of the handling Of eggs in a hot climate and securing the largest percentage of life.
 Eggs are not counted in Yee Lees es- , tablishment by the dozen; that is small; it takes hundreds or thousands to interest the proprietor and his tried assistants. There are at this minute more than 10000 eggs and ducklings in the establishment, and all of these are in the various stages of development. These might we'll be divided roughly as follows: In the preparatory stage, be- ing examined and made ready for the heating, 10000; heating preparatory to being put into the incubator, 10000; in the incubators proper 10000. These fig Ires, it will be seen, are exceptional in that there is too large proportion in the preliminary stages, but that occurs sometimes, and it is not improbable that there will be within a short time the full capacity of the incubator in the various receptacles, about 50,000 eggs.
 Yee Lee, after much scurrying about after the sanitary fire, in which he lost everything there being at that time some 40,000 eggs in the house, finally To- cated himself at store building in Pauahi street, No. TAO and there to-day is being conducted the largest business in eggs that is done by any, establish ment in the city. There are four help CTS employed to look after the egg busi' ness, for there are more features con- neeted with it than the mere putting in to the incubator of eggs and taking out peeping ducklings. The appearance o the ground floor of the establishment is unique. The store room is not more than 15 by 20 feet, but everywhere are eggs. Great baskets stand about, some filled and others only partly so, witl eggs, bright and darkened, shaded witt green and clear as to shell, but sounG lt. fa., nfc in h handling of the eggs, these four help CTS of the old proprietor;
 Yesterday was one of the big days fo only on three alternate days of tn week do the receipt of eggs really reacl large figures Mondays receipts usual " are of 7,5OO eggs. These are brough in by the coolies from the duck ranch es, the eggs being transported in tn baskets depending from either end of ; carrying pole. They are counted int the largest of the storage basket a they are brought in, and clerk seate' behind the counter puts. down the mum Der and pays the bearer at the rate 0 $1 for sixty eggs. Once the receipts be come large enough to justify the com mencement of work, the three or fou men sit down and begin the task o sorting the eggs into various basket which indicate the kinds.
 There is a deftness and delicacy 0 touch which comes from long practic only, and the way those Chinese te just whether or not the eggs are per fectly sound whether or not there is
 crack which might escape the casut observation, but would tell in the jost ling about which they are given thre at a time in the hand of the worker, Ii interesting. The touch is so light ths not an egg is broken by it, but tn sound is so clear that the very slightes crack in the shell is discovered. The often there is a darkness about tn egg which precludes it's being of tn very freshest, and so carefully shadin it instantaneously the sorter is able f put aside the specimen, so that it is or of the way, in it's own basket, where
 awaits the purchaser who knows ths he can have the eggs which are nc good enough for the incubator at a r
 duced price.
 The percentage of eggs broken in th carrying is small and the numbered o1 8 fered for sale is correspondingly out ( all ordinarily conceived relation those which are accepted for the hatcl ing. The result often shows only thre