The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-26


 store are Ihe ordinary divisions in such buildings. but Tee Lee has made over one of his raoms fur the durklng industry. Against one wall, bai!l l!A" d closet, with just sufficient width Tor the placing within of the flat basket ln- to which the eggs arr turned from ihe deep ones of the sorting section, IS the heating room. Therr ale six shelves along the wall and n the floor are hall a dozen carefully isolaJel stoves i'll which are burneI char cal.
 The purpose If this first room is the raising of the temperature f the eggs. The usual warmth is 1e3 degrees and the eggs stay in this apartment for at least d day. the heat being carefully watched so that there may be nu cook ing by tuO intense heat and Vet the starting of the Wurk uf germination. From this first degree the eggs are carefully transported t0 the incubator proper.
 This room, adjoining the heating apartment, is the most unique one of { the entire establishment. The room Is about feet wide and 20 feet lung, light ed by aw indow at the front. Up the center of the room is an aisle, on either side of which rises partition, inclos- | ing a space which is filled with barrels, incased in a packing of rice husks. | There are seventeen of these barrels, lined thickly with straw paper, and l covered with wicker baskets, and as 1 they are so carefully covered and lined
 and incased, they form the incubator 1 proper and their heat has been found
 to be practically uniform.
 | The placing of the eggs in the barrels i is the first consideration, for it must be
 remembered that each egg must be
 turned twice day and that for this
 purpose the handling must be carefully and easily performed. So it was that Yee Lee devised his own scheme. This is the placing of fifty eggs, or sufficient
 to make one layer in the barrel. in a square of cloth which is carefully de- posited in the barrel when held by the four corners, and the eggs spread out
 smoothly.
 Upon this first layer of eggs is placed another cloth, and so until the barrel Is filled with the eggs. So, when it be-
 comes the duty of the proprietor to
 turn the eggs, and this is duty which
 he does not often turn over to one of
 the subordinates, he simply has to keep
 one barrel empty, and then as he lifts
 one square of cloth with its cargo,
 place it in the wicker cover and turn
 the eggs with his hands and place the
 square of cloth in the empty barrel.
 This is kept up until the barrel first at
 tackled is emptied, and then the second
 barrel is attended to, the eggs being
 put into the barrel just emptied and so
 on until all the eggs have been turned
 and there remains one empty barrel at
 the other end of the round. The work
 of turning all the eggs takes three
 hours for one man, or two hours with
 two men, and is performed at ? a. m,
 and p. m. each day
 These barrels furnish the homes of the eggs for the seventeen days follow
 ing their being heated. This time Is
 the length of period of such weather as
 now obtains, but when the winter is
 here and the air is raw, it is often l, found necessary to leave the eggs fol
 one day more. This period passed, the next stage is the putting of the eggs
 on the shelves where they get more ali !, and light and are developed, until they
 are ready to come out of the shells. These shelves are the full length o1 the rooms and the width of the bins
 into which the barrels are packed be low. There are thus four of them, ant they are never empty for more than z = day at any time. The eggs are simply . laid about upon the smooth surface . which is padded with soft paper, anC there they are turned twice day al f they were when below. It is almost Z 5 matter of the coming out of the shel } of duck minute, for from all owe } those shelves loaded with eggs came tn } noises yesterday of breaking shells, th I pipping of the covering and the frs I sign of the coming to life of the duck l ling. The morning is the time for tn } collection of the little downy creature = and then there are found from 600 t
 800, which are brought out of tn r warmth and taken below where in spe Q ciat baskets they are keut for the trade h trade.
 The trade is lively one, too. for tn t Chinese growers of ducks see the adde = profit in selling their eggs to Yee Le e and having him take the chances of tn 3 matching, and then buying from him tn 0 ducklings and raising them.
 S The hens are thus kept busily layin d all the time, and the loss of the differ l. ence is so little that is not noticed II Thus the rancher sells his eggs for 2 l. cents apiece, and when the eggs hay = been out of his hands for four weeks r perhaps, he buys from Tee Lee tn I ducklings, ready to eat and swim, fo $ 1-2 cents each.
 And so it goes. Daily there go fror T the little store in Pauahi street hun e dreds of the little ducks and daiI II there come into it the other hundred = of eggs. The average of the loss is d per cent, though often Yee Lee say a' he has been able to get hold of 6S duck = from a hundred eggs.
 t Yee Lee is himself a character. H IS has been in Hawaii for thirty-seve 't years He was fnr several years wit tt the late Chief Justice Harris, and l. '1 has since made his way excellent, Il despite fire and pestience. And he It the master, for any one may see h e methods and he does not fear cOmpet 's- ton, as he has the skill which come 'o from long handling of the eggs, and tl u study of the conditions which make fC It. success.-From the Pacific Commerci; u Advertiser.