The incubator can claim for itself many advantages over the natural sitter. On the whole, it is more reliable, and it is always ready when wanted - an important consideration during the earlier and later periods of the year, when broody hens are scarce.

By adopting the incubator, moreover, the dealer in day-old chicks is enabled to hatch out at any time chickens either for ultimate relegation to the laying-houses or for the Christmas or spring chicken markets. A reliable incubator under the control of an intelligent operator is extremely good-tempered; it never tramples on valuable eggs or deserts them, a failing that is too

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Woman's Work common with the natural sitter. The inability to keep laying hens to supply the necessary eggs for hatching need not stand in the way, as eggs can be secured from those specialising in eggs for hatching purposes, put into the machines, and transformed into chickens, which will, when disposed of as " day-olds," produce a good profit. Those who keep fowls solely for the production of eggs for table use might make more out of their poultry-keeping were they to take up artificial hatching and turn such eggs into live chickens. The day-old chicken trade is at its height in the spring, at a time when eggs for eating are at their lowest market value. One hundred eggs sold at such a time for edible use would realise somewhere about 8s. Placed in an incubator, should such a number of eggs produce but sixty chicks, they would be worth anything from 25s. to 35s., according to their breed and quality. Deduct from this the amount, 2s., for oil used in operating the incubator, and there is still left a splendid profit if the produce can be disposed of locally without the aid of advertising. Suppose, however, that it be necessary to advertise and pack the produce, it is still possible to see a profit of 100 per cent. or more, and a reliable 100-egg incubator, costing about £4, will soon repay its cost: