The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-03

Unless you've had an INCUBATOR In your home you are not prepared to be diverted by the idle comments and ob- servations of those who have. Do you live with or near a person who is in oeulated with the Chicken Raising Germ? If so, you will agree to all Dolly says
 In the class termed "euphonious, two words, Indiana" and 'Vallam- prose" have been placed high in the list but to those who have passed through certain stages incident to the Spring Season, the word Incubator makes a far greater claim for consid- eration.
 The four sylables like pearls on string, have a deep rooted and peculiar charm for the Incubator-inoculated per son, but unless you have either lived in the house or near somebody who is interested in such things you have no time for the idle comments and obser- vations of those who have dwelt under the same roof with machine that takes perfectly good eggs and from them hatches-CHICKE EMS!
 I'm taking it for granted that you know something about this Incubator business. and also know how terribly hard 1t is to secure eggs that VIII HATCHl
 Eggs arc perverse things They resent the artificial respiration that brings them into life in an lncu- bator. If they have the slightest excuse for not hatching they'll just go on being eggs until the end.
 If they DO hatch, you'll probably have before your tortured eyes liv- ing, halting, one eyed, accusation that you didn't keep the incubator lamps trimmed and burning evenly
 Ut really is an awful thing. truly, to have a little simple minded. innocent, ball or fluff Chick look you in the face and reproach you because he has 10 hop through life on one leg. or be- cause his head is on burned by too much heat on that side, said the wife of an Incubator friend the other day. ITO look at young Chick with three toes gone and his wings not hinged as other chicks wings are-its reproach that keeps you awake nights
 But besides all that reproach,' l suggested, aren't you also afraid or burning up your house or your neigh bors house or starting some sort of a conhagra tion?"
 why eonnagration?" asked my Incu- bator Friend.
 "Nerek because an incubator isn't a thinp that can be managed by switch being turned on or a button pressed, but you've got to have it right in the house and hold it's hand and rub it's head and look at it's tongue and pass it drink ot water every 15 minutes
 tn,rhat's all true" said my Incubator Friend. You must gather 1t under your wings as a hen does her brood, and ssee that it is kept at the right temperature which. means a certain kind of safety oil. The story goes that a certain man first mi his incubator where one would nat urally suppose all such things pertain ing to poultry should be kept-in the chicken house-but it only stayed three days there. Then he brought it nearer, by placing it on the back porch. It pro gressed by degrees, through sequestered corners of halls and corridors until fn- ally it landed in the library, where the head of the house, when he wasn't busy with his banking business could be found bending over 1t, regulating thermometers, turning on various switches or rolling the eggs over on the other side. But the crucial moment drew nigh The chicks gave every evidence of perfect incuba tion but what if anything should happen at inc last moment? So the family nearly dropped into a faint. when the Lord and Master had the incubator put in his bed room-right beside his own dear bed
 That's it." I observed You somehow grow so fascinated over the. incubator bus mess that as one jealous wife declares, it's the incubator and not the wife, that occupies his whole attention.'
 "Only one who lslIows, who has watched at the bedside of chickens matching in the