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Methods of Artificial Incubation as Practiced in New Jersey
2. Flocks showing more than 10% or 15% infection should be discarded as breeders. 3. Where the uninfected hens from badly infected flocks are kept over, check tests should be made the following year and the offspring of such flocks should also be tested before using them as breeders. 4. That all male birds should be tested even tho it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated just how the male may carry infection. By Roy E. Jones Connecticut.
day, the average length of time for cooling being from five minutes during the first week to thirty minutes during the last week. A majority stop cooling on the nineteenth day. Forty-nine cool the eggs but once a day, the average length of time being the same as in the case where the eggs are cooled twice a day. (This article bv Mr. R. F. Irwin will be continued next monih)
CORNELL POULTRY TESTING PROJECT AT EAST AURORA, N. Y.
METHODS OF ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION AS PRACTICED IN NEW JERSEY During the winter and spring of this year, the Department of Poultry Husbandry at New Brunswick, N. J., carried on an investigation concerning the methods of hatching by means of incubators in this state. Through the aid of the County Farm Demonstrators and the secretaries of the local poultry associations, the names of several hundred farmers who use incubators were secured. A uniform question blank was sent to each of these, and to date one hundred and twenty-nine replies have been received. The purpose of this investigation was to secure information relative to the methods in use, and also to find out the number and location of mammoth incubators in New Jersey. The work will be continued until a large majority of the farmers in the state who use incubators have reported. On the question blank, the following questions were asked: 1. Farm reporting. 2. Date. 3. Do you cool the egg? 4. How often? 5. How long each time? 6. Do you supply moisture? 7. How do you supply it? 8. How much moisture do you supply? 9. When do you first supply moisture? 10. When do you stop? 11. When do you begin and when do you stop turning and cooling the eggs? 12. What is your usual percentage of hatch (% of fertile eggs)? 13. What kind and what capacity incubator do you use? 14. Where is it located? 15. Remarks. In nearly every case, these questions were answered in full, and many farmers gave additional information under the heading of Remarks. The one hundred and twenty-nine farmers who have answered the inquiries to date report the ownership of two hundred and seventy-six machines, distributed as follows among the various manufacturers: The machines reported have a total capacity of more than 346,135 eggs at one setting, and are scattered through eighteen of the twenty-one counties of the state. However, it must be borne in mind that we have not yet received replies from a majority of the farmers in the state who own and use incubators. But it is interesting to note that the farmers in each locality all use practically the same methods. Of the one hundred and twenty-nine who reported, 68 cool the eggs twice a
(This article bp Pmf. A. B. Dann continued from last month) 64
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of British Columbia on July 7, 2015
taking an active interest and are really keeping, good accounts. I am satisfied that the records must be very easy to understand and to keep, and that we must not expect too many of the minor details as we would record on a research experiment. There is danger of discouraging the members with too many papers at the start and many of the blanks can be furnished later on when the co-operators 'become accustomed to keeping them. A seeming difficulty at first, but that has since been entirely reversed, was the relation between landlord and tenant as affected by the project. One tenant seemed afraid to keep records for fear they would not be satisfactory to the landlord. But due to thorough culling of his stock and better imotlhads of feeding! he got tfrom( ; the same number of hens, five times as many eggs in January and three times as many in February as in the year previous, and his fear entirely disappeared, and this particular tenant is one of the most loyal and exact record) keepers on the project. I might cite other instances of similar nature but hardly feel it necessary. Suffice it to say that we have lost but one member by withdrawal. The success of the project is going to depend almost wholly upon the ability, energy and personality of the man in charge. He must know poultry and know it thoroughly, he must be firm in his own conviction but yet diplomatic in convincing others; he must be aggressive, accurate, and finally self assertive and a good mixer. He must win the respect of the entire family from the country gentleman owning the estate down to the farm boy, else he will fail in his primary'object—to stimulate interest in the keeping of accurate records. My observation with this project leads me to believe that the work will be extended both because of the value to the poultry men and to the Department; that it will be carried on in one locality for either one or two years and then moved to a new section of the State that new men may be reached and new records secured; and lastly, that a larger 1number of men will be included under the supervision of one Field Instructor as we get a more simple and yet more efficient system of records and provide him with a ready means of conveyance from one farm- to another. It is probably the nearest approach to first hand contact extension work that we have undertaken and is giving us a better grip in the way of direct co-operation than we have ever yet secured.
day, the average length of time for cooling being from five minutes during the first week to thirty minutes during the last week. A majority stop cooling on the nineteenth day. Forty-nine cool the eggs but once a day, the average length of time being the same as in the case where the eggs are cooled twice a day. (This article bv Mr. R. F. Irwin will be continued next monih)
CORNELL POULTRY TESTING PROJECT AT EAST AURORA, N. Y.
METHODS OF ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION AS PRACTICED IN NEW JERSEY During the winter and spring of this year, the Department of Poultry Husbandry at New Brunswick, N. J., carried on an investigation concerning the methods of hatching by means of incubators in this state. Through the aid of the County Farm Demonstrators and the secretaries of the local poultry associations, the names of several hundred farmers who use incubators were secured. A uniform question blank was sent to each of these, and to date one hundred and twenty-nine replies have been received. The purpose of this investigation was to secure information relative to the methods in use, and also to find out the number and location of mammoth incubators in New Jersey. The work will be continued until a large majority of the farmers in the state who use incubators have reported. On the question blank, the following questions were asked: 1. Farm reporting. 2. Date. 3. Do you cool the egg? 4. How often? 5. How long each time? 6. Do you supply moisture? 7. How do you supply it? 8. How much moisture do you supply? 9. When do you first supply moisture? 10. When do you stop? 11. When do you begin and when do you stop turning and cooling the eggs? 12. What is your usual percentage of hatch (% of fertile eggs)? 13. What kind and what capacity incubator do you use? 14. Where is it located? 15. Remarks. In nearly every case, these questions were answered in full, and many farmers gave additional information under the heading of Remarks. The one hundred and twenty-nine farmers who have answered the inquiries to date report the ownership of two hundred and seventy-six machines, distributed as follows among the various manufacturers: The machines reported have a total capacity of more than 346,135 eggs at one setting, and are scattered through eighteen of the twenty-one counties of the state. However, it must be borne in mind that we have not yet received replies from a majority of the farmers in the state who own and use incubators. But it is interesting to note that the farmers in each locality all use practically the same methods. Of the one hundred and twenty-nine who reported, 68 cool the eggs twice a
(This article bp Pmf. A. B. Dann continued from last month) 64
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of British Columbia on July 7, 2015
taking an active interest and are really keeping, good accounts. I am satisfied that the records must be very easy to understand and to keep, and that we must not expect too many of the minor details as we would record on a research experiment. There is danger of discouraging the members with too many papers at the start and many of the blanks can be furnished later on when the co-operators 'become accustomed to keeping them. A seeming difficulty at first, but that has since been entirely reversed, was the relation between landlord and tenant as affected by the project. One tenant seemed afraid to keep records for fear they would not be satisfactory to the landlord. But due to thorough culling of his stock and better imotlhads of feeding! he got tfrom( ; the same number of hens, five times as many eggs in January and three times as many in February as in the year previous, and his fear entirely disappeared, and this particular tenant is one of the most loyal and exact record) keepers on the project. I might cite other instances of similar nature but hardly feel it necessary. Suffice it to say that we have lost but one member by withdrawal. The success of the project is going to depend almost wholly upon the ability, energy and personality of the man in charge. He must know poultry and know it thoroughly, he must be firm in his own conviction but yet diplomatic in convincing others; he must be aggressive, accurate, and finally self assertive and a good mixer. He must win the respect of the entire family from the country gentleman owning the estate down to the farm boy, else he will fail in his primary'object—to stimulate interest in the keeping of accurate records. My observation with this project leads me to believe that the work will be extended both because of the value to the poultry men and to the Department; that it will be carried on in one locality for either one or two years and then moved to a new section of the State that new men may be reached and new records secured; and lastly, that a larger 1number of men will be included under the supervision of one Field Instructor as we get a more simple and yet more efficient system of records and provide him with a ready means of conveyance from one farm- to another. It is probably the nearest approach to first hand contact extension work that we have undertaken and is giving us a better grip in the way of direct co-operation than we have ever yet secured.