The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-01-10
Ut AN INCUBATOR.
The Time Has Come When Nc Pou1tryman Can At
ford TO be Without One.

thing. Eggs have been Matched with artificial
heat for thousands of years by both the Chinese
and the Egyptians. In fact, the historian has
been unable to find a date for the beginning of
the system.
The practical machine called an Incubator"
however, is a modern invention made necessary
by modern requirements for methods of Matching
in harmony with the industrial and commercial
demands of time.
Broody hens are not abundant enough early in
the season to hatch out chicks in sufficient num-
bers to supply the demand for early broilers. Just
so long as there is a market for early broilers,
just so long will the incubator be necessary to pro-
duce them in quantities.
But the use of incubators is not limited to the
production of early broilers. The market poul-
trymen needs the incubator in order to get out
large numbers of early pullets that will mature in
season to give him market eggs in November,
December and January, when they bring the best
prices. About half of those early Matched chicks
will be males that will be sold for broilers at a
time when there is a good profit in them.
1t is true that some poultrymen begin Matching
early in the season with hens, but it is hard work
and the %broodies, as a rule, come along so slowly
that the eggs are set in small lots from time to
time with the result that the seasons chicks are
an uneven lot of many different ages that cannot
be cared for so easily or pushed forward so sue
~cessfully as the larger and more uniform focks
that result from successful incubator matches.
As the incubator replaces the sitting hen more
and more each year, the broody type of hen is
gradually passing. Broodiness is an Unbeatable
trait that can be bred out of any breed to a con-
siderable extent. As a general rule the type of
hen that is strongly inclined toward broodiness
is not a very prolific layer according to modern
standards. Those that have produced 200 egg
hens have noted that they are not much given to
broodiness, some of them, in fact, never showing
any signs of broodiness, although in many cases
they belong to the so-called sitting breeds. A
given number of chicks can be Matched with less
labor, less room, and less trouble with an incuba-
tor than with hens, and the machine is always
ready when the eggs are, whatever be the season.
If properly designed and constructed and cor
rectly operated, the incubator supplies conditions
more favorable to a good hatch than the neces-
sary number of sitting hens usually do. There are
no lice to torment the hatcher or the new born
chicks when they arrive.
Some claim that artifcially supplied heat for
Matching eggs is not in accord with the laws of
nature. That is a feeble theory. As well say that
grating fruit trees is unnatural; for nature when
left to herself produces fruit from seedlings only.
Milking a COW by hand power is not natures
way. Nature designed that COWS should be MIXED
by their calves. Man is continually improving |
on natures way of doing things, and nature
helps him to do it. The incubator is all right,
and is here to stay. 1t is designed and operated
in harmony with natural laws, or it would not
hatch the eggs.
Yours fraternally,