Show M 4 1 el r P I 1 I 1 4 4 1 V I 1 4 N I 1 44 incubators art homemade A an profitable oral or will 11 it t py y to t etuy uy r tory bla chite one oue reads readi in the various agricultural 11 of the successes made with incubators but not of teu does the manufacturer of a machine it arbis his fail Sea in print Fol following loving is a communication from froin a massachusetts to country gentleman who bounts counts his lack of success with an incubator constructed with great care and operated with patient watchfulness ilia machine like other homemade ones was not itself self regulating a fe feature attire lie soon dL discovered covered was highly important A bot ot water tank supplied the heat below tank was placed the egg drawer and d below this was a drawer containing conta containing inin 9 ster pans for the supply of moisture re the machine was made mado double with packing between the two cases so that the beat AO uld not readily escape from the interior the inner door to the egg chamber was of double glass while the outer was of solid wood m with ith woolen cloth bearings where it touched the casing to insure perfect tightness A tested thermometer was used and great care taken to secure good results this incubator was run mn for nearly three months and the result was one Inis miserable erable little chick next ducks eggs were employed but the machine yielded only a harvest of rotten eggs showing 9 that the tho germs within them had started with life but had either received too much or too little heat soon after starting such results do not at all indicate that the machine was at fault faul it might simply show that it was not properly operated so the operator purchased a belt self regulating machine which persons in whose judgment he had confidence assured him would do good work at the first trial and at a season when the germs gems of the eggs are less strong than in the spring and summer he hatched 11 healthy chicks from fertile eggs the conclusions arrived at in bis his own words are as follows suh subsequent quent hatches confirmed me mo in the belief that unless one is willing to put in a large share of his time watching his homemade incubator and of actual work in caring for it drawing off the water heating beating water to take its place and in filling up the tank and in the various other onerous duties that proper appliances in a factory built mahine make simple and easy ho would etter invest a little more at the start and get something quite sure if operated with ordinary intelligence to give satisfactory results the loss in time eggs patience and in the value of the th poultry that would be batched hatched under bettor conditions but which will fail to bo hatched again and again in a homemade machine even when run by an export makes it decidedly unprofitable to bother with the homemade article especially ally when the best can be bought at BO so low a price spring lamb lambs A good ecart Is essential to success and ewes should be in condition to manu j facture a large quantity of milk they therefore must not be too poor the only food the lamb can take for a few weeks is milk and to provide a g good supply of this the ewes must be fed with suitable food for its production As with cows and other animals required to yield milk it is necessary that the mother should receive nitrogenous food consequently high quality cakes peas beans bran and oats are all specially valuable at this time but it not infrequently happens that when the flow is unduly increased the mother provides more than the lamb can take consequently she is not properly milked out the milk thus goes bad in the udder and unless watchful precautions are taken she suffers from mam or garget oats should therefore ther eforo be used with caro and discretion until the lambs can feed on their own account amount the mothers should convert into milk or partially digest a pound weight of strong corn per day besides maki making ng milk from additional food as the lambs begin to pick about for themselves the corn com may be gradually drafted from the ewes trough to the lambs lamb trough but it is more necessary to consider what is the beat wt form for corn to take A well known authority cites very finely ground linseed cake and the husk of peas as excellent for keeping lambs 0 healthy fae althy where green fodder h has as not been P provided the best substitute Is found in very finely sliced roots which should bo be given at very frequent intervals an and d then only in small quantities otherwise they become stale and the lambs will not be 6 tempted to eat cat them the ewe and lamb both require hay good hay in fact on the ordinary farm the best hay should be set apart for the lambs which are to be forced it is almost impossible W succeed in iii fattening lamba lambs without good hay bay 1 shooting hog k the texas farm and ranch calls attention to the fact that nine persons in ili ita ten without previous instruction or experience peri ence will in shooting hogs place the bullet too low making a very bad and disagreeable diu job for both parties the pin gun or pistol should bo loaded with not more than half the usual charge of powder and with de deliberate liberata aim at short range the bullet should be planted where the lines drawn from either eye to the opposite ear cross if the hoail head is in III a 0 natural position and a little higher if the mout is abeld low ath the coif feet keep sharp watch of tho feet of the colta ita have lavo them rasped or pared as and be cure sure that ohen often as once a month they are leveled so that the coronet on ach tach side of tho the heels will be at the same stance distance from the bottom botto in of the boot hoot ee that the toes agrenot are not allowed to become too long it pays ELYS to look k after te little things neglecting neglecting to do so tuy 7 result in ruining a valuable young att for life american horse breeder earming in south africa ostrich farming Is one of the important tries ot of south africa which as yet III ashes the bulk of the ostrich plumea plumes I 1 the w the markets of the world there are probably domesticated ostriches in Cape ape colony fach each bird la supposed to net Us a owner forty dollars per annum the belo closures in which they are kept kep t are dually usually built of stone but where stone ts Is hot ot abundant abunda ut wire fences have been employed with equal success the io birds are commonly plucked once every eight months yielding one pound weight tight ot at feathers each but ier many ny fill farmers iners r pluck sixty feathers at a time so 90 aa a not lot to cause too I 1 imitation iri tation and result ing wl winchi ib Is very injurious to the health of the birds and lessens the next crop of feathers the birds in these large fields find plenty of food rarely having to be fed with me alles beans lucerne or other cultivated food products the number of eggs laid varies from eighteen to twenty four the mala male bird usually excavating the nest in some sandy 11 spot pot but to both th birds assisting in the incubation taking turn about kut but it Is during this period of incubation that the plumes arc are at their best and many of them are utterly spoiled tor for commercial purposes of late years artificial incubating has been resorted to and with perfect success for it has been found that fewer eggs are spoiled by this method and the young thus hatched are no less vigorous than those brought up b by y the birds themselves the value 0 of f feathers exported from cape colony during the past thirty years Is estimated at over the total weight being about 1200 tons american agriculturist |