The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-08

of heat during the different stages of
incubation. Some of the fowls were
killed and delicate thermometers thrust
! instantly into their hearts and other
vital organs, to determine the tempera.
ture Of the inside of their bodies as we'll
as the outside. By such bold methods
the secrets of the business have been
wrested from nature. All the problems
OF heat, moisture and ventilation have
been solved 1t takes twenty-one days
TO hatch chick, and the incubator au
thorities can tell you each days pro
gross in the formation and life OF the
little fowl before it comes out Of its
shell.
The incubators will hatch any kind Of
eggs, but the length of time varies in
different birds or fowls. 1t takes
htumming bird only twelve days to come
through, a canary eighteen, duck
twenty-eight, turkey thirty, and a
swan forty. One authority reports that
he found snake eggs in a pile of COM
post and put them into machine,
When he went to look again the bot
tom of the box was squirming mass of
little spotted adders- The eggs of quail,
pheasant, and all kinds of game birds
develop radily in the improved incuba-
tor of the present time.
Ostrich eggs are also being Matched
successfully in Florida, Arizona and
California, Ostrich farming has been
practiced in this country since 1882, and
is getting to be very profitable busi-
ness, single feathers being worth from
one to seven dollars as taken from the
bird The owner will realize about 800
season from each bird. 1t is said the
average age of the ostrich is eighty
years, and that the value of matured
birds averages about $500. The incu~
bator has made ostrich-farming in this
country a success when it would other
wise have been impossible, for the rea-
son that the habit of this strange fowl
is to sit upon its eggs at night, and
turn them over to the sun s rays during
the day, This works all right in the
warmer countries of which the ostrich is
native, but our sun is not warm
enough TO hatch the eggs.
1ncubators are also successfully used
IN the care of babies prematurely born
special kind is made with crib. auto
matically ventilated. resting over hot
water tank. The temperature of the
interior can be kept absolutely even,
which is one of the conditions under
which child-life is maintained. Nearly
every well-cquipped child hospital in
the country is now supplied with baby
incubator.
The largest incubator ever built in
America was on duck ranch at
Stroudsburg. Pennsylvania 1t was built
twenty-five feet square, with an egg
testing room ten by twelve feet in size
adjoining. IT cost $4,000 aud held 90
600 eggs at a time. The yearly capa-
city of this monster Matching machine
was $4,000 eggs.
With the aid of the incubator the
professional poultry raiser { .tcrs into
large contracts without fear of failure.
poultryman in Ohio has an agrccmant
to furnish Cleveland commission 6rm
with 900 young chickens evcry day. 1t
is understood that these young broiors
are to weigh a pound and a half. md
he gets 50 dozen for them. The way
he manages 10 keep up with this big M
dertaking is we'll worth relating. Tlc
poultry plant. The main building is
$50 feet long, and there is a row OF
pens $50 feet in length He uses thirty
improved incubstors with an individual
opacity OF 300 eggs each These ma
chimes are not all filled at the same
timc. but proportional so that some Of
them viii be discharging fresh chicks
each day.
\ large flock Of Barred Plymouth
Rock biddies are kept constantly on
duty laying eggs with which TO stock
those Matching machines, and 40
eggs arc placed in them each day. in
Guiding Sunday, In connection with
the incubators there is a row of pens
little chicks from tho machines arc
turned into the first pen. They arc ad-
vnnced one pen each day, and when the
last one is reached they arc ninety days
old, and arc ready for the market
They are hrrded from the iucubators
through all of the pens, and finally into
the coops, without being touched They
are not handled until ibe cook wrings
their necks and dresses them for the
frying pan.
certain proportion Of the eggs do
not hatch, and all Of them that arc
Matched do not live 10 mako the trip
through the ninety pens, but the per
centagc of loss Is comparatively small
The breeder finds that the $50 eggs
which 90 into the incubators every
day easily net him 300 perfect broileTs
at the coops, which are shipped TO The
city daily from pen number 90 In
order to carry out this system and
meet his contract, it Will be seen
that the poultryman has something
like 10000 chicks constantly on hand
10 say nothing Of tho hundreds of
dozens of eggs tied up in the incu-
bators. or the great flock of laying hens
that supply the eggs. But be gets 10
market with his daily order just the
same. This man is cleaning up profit
Of $25 900 annually, and there are many
others who are succeeding splendjdly
at the business
The "grcen duck industry is large,
lv dependent upon the incubator, Green
ducks mean Imperial PelSins, which
were originally imported from China.
They arc raised by the thousands and
tens OF thousands by artificial means,
fed scientifically and marketed when
they are from eight to ten weeks old
This is Just before they molt their
FIRST coat of feathers. at which time
they weigh from eight to ten pounds
per pair. Some of them are fed upon
celery seed 10 give thclr meat the flavor
of the famous Southern canvas
backs. and so successfully that the diff.
ference cannot be detected Separate
1ptn