Artificial Incubation and Incubators - A Treatise on Raising Poultry by Artificial Means #271143

When, nearly two years ago, the necessity for a work like this became apparent, and the author was asked by numerous friends to prepare and publish one, it was with reluctance that he accepted the task; for, although he had had his share in shaping, and contributing to the poultry literature of the country for the past ten years, he felt that to undertake a work such as was needed and demanded by the fanciers of the country required no small amount of study and research, and he doubted his ability to complete it in as thorough and comprehensive a manner as he knew it should foe done.<br><br>The assurances of friends, however, and the seeming success of other writers, who, he felt assured, had not a tithe of the experience which necessity had compelled him to acquire, has encouraged him to persevere in the completion of the work. As first contemplated, he did not intend it should be over half the number of pages, but the subject grew on his hands, Incubators multiplied in numbers, and were he to mention all inventions of this nature winch have received recognition at the U.S. Patent Office, he would ho obliged to add another score to the number already described.<br><br>In gathering information, he wishes to acknowledge indebtedness to Balfour's Embryology, to Wrights Practical Poultry Keeper, and also to the columns of the various poultry papers. That there may be no misunderstanding regarding the notices of Incubators which appear in Chapter X, he would state here that every manufacturer, whose address was known, was notified by letter of his intention to devote a chapter to such notices, and given an opportunity to write what he wished to have said about his invention. Less than half a dozen accepted or replied, their communications appear in their own words, and over their own signatures and addresses.