HgnHyy ^3 ' -L m "'"'le natural hen; the wonderful perpetual 3 1924 003 099 219 Fourth Jlnnual Catalogue, 1902 5^ Natural Hen The Wonderful "Perpetual Machines Incubators and "Brooders A Great Discovery! 20th Century Wonder! Nature and Its Natural LaWs She Secret of Nature's LaWs Dis- covered. No more Failures in the Poultry business. 16 Years' Exper- imenttng on Diseases, Incubators and "Brooders. 25 Years' of Prac tical Experience on a Large Scale. "BY JOHN M. SONTAG. INVENTOR PRICE OF THIS BOOK 2S CENTS John M. Sontag, Pres. Mrs. J. M. Sontag, Vice Pres. Office and Factory, St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois 000000 Manufacturers of Incubators and Brood= ers and Anti=Explosion Smokeless Incubator and Brooder Lamps. Broiler Plants Outfited our Specialty; also Breed<° ers of RHODE IS LA N D RE D P O ULTR Y The only practical all-purpose Fowl for Broiler and Egg Farming Pur- poses. Eggs $15.00 per 100; JIOO.OO per lOiiO. 80 per cent, guaranteed fertile from February to July. All our Breeders are on the Colony Plan and Free Range. Breeding Stock after July $3 00 each; per 100, iiiOO.OO. COPYRIGHTED 1902 BY / JOHN MAGNUS SONTAG. INTRODUCTION To Poultry Breeders The writer of this catalogue and Inventor of the Natural Hen Incubator and Brooder has had twenty-five year of practical experience on a large scale, having hatched and raised on an' average 6,000 chicks and ducks every year; also managed some of the largest broiler and duck ranches in the country. I inclose a letter of reference of the many received. This will give the reader of this catalogue and book a good idea as to my experience, etc. It takes a practical man to invent an incubator and brooder house system that is up to nature Incubator and Brooders, that can hatch all and raise all, and do it like the o^d hen does it; every fertile egg to hatch and every chick raised as large and strong and healthy as hen-hatched and hen-raised. Hundreds of ■customers can prove my statement, and that our goods are just as this cata- logue represents them. I have demonstrated to the poultry breeders that our machines are as we represent them, contrary to the general belief. Chatham Fields, Chicago, December 27th, 1898. To whom it may concern : This is to certify that Jno. M. Sontag has been in our employ for on© year, as manager. We found him an honest man, tem- perate, willing, industrious, an expert in the poultry business on a large scale, in any capacity. In five yearsi we tried 22 so-called epjperts, paying them from $75 to $100 per montli, but not one of these made it a success. Mr. Sontag made~it pay. He personally ran 31 400-egg-capacity incubators and raised 26,000 chicks and ducklings. We had tliree brooder houses, 50 to 300 feet long, double rooms. With the assistance of 12 helpers Mr. Sontag managed it busi- ness-like, accounting for every penny of the $9,000 in sales. A very careful, observing man, he has worked many a night all night long in the oflace and' in the incubator and brooder houses. We recommend him to any poultry breeder on alarge scale. J. H. Bellows, Supt. NATURAL LAWS DISCOVERE,D AND THE HEN'S SECRET IN HATCHING AND RAISING ALL KINDS OF POULTRY DISCOVERED AFTER SIXTEEN YEARS OF EXPERI- MENTING AT A COST OP $7,000. In all experlmentsmade it was proven by the inventor for five years be- fore any goods went on the market, on the inventor's poultry plant and on the large plants I have managed, and the experiments were made on all soils andi in climate from New Jersey to California, from Old Mexico to British North- west, and seven years' camping out in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, in studying nature's laws, how wild animals and birds and prairie hens and wild turkeys lived, how they roosted, what they lived on, and why no dis- eases are among wild animals and birds .etc. In fact, seven years of this kind of camp life gave me pointers that ar-»- worth thousands of dollars to me and the poultry breeders. It is by far the best teacher, and having discovered all their secrets and raised poultry in a wild state in Idaho, Wyording, and Mex- ico, to prove I'm right. Time and again I have proven it to my own satlSH faction, and what is said in my book and in this catalogue can be relied upom In fact, it speaks for itself. NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. The Greatest Discovery and Invention in the History of the Poultry Business THE WONDER OF THE 20th CENTURY— POULTRY AND BROILER BUSINESS NOW PAYS— A POSITIVE SUCCESS— GUARANTEED BY THE INVENTOR AND DISCOVERER— THE CAUSE OF DIS- EASES AND 100 OTHER DRAWBACKS— NO FORMER EXPERIENCE NECESSARY. A saiccess guaranteed to all, expeiienced or not. I will give a mail course, for $50.00 to those who want togo into this business on a large scale;- in the broiler business and egg farming combined; and no success is guaranteed to thosie who want to go into the fancy poultry business and those who want to raise all kinds of breeds!, etc., on one larm. It simply cannot be done suc- cessfully—to yard ponltry, to have all kinds of poultry, and to raise fancy show stock, etc. But I will guarantee the broiler and egg farming business if our Incubators and Brooders are used and my book is read. The True Cause of Failures All have followed one teacher, viz., poultry books, and failed. All former books on poultry and articles by writers in poultry papel-s, etc., are not re- liable, and do not come from actual, practical poultry men. Not one writer on poultry in a thousand has had practical experience on a large scale Some writers on poultry have neverraised any poultry at all. This has beea dem- onstrated, and can be proven at any time. Also,, not one has made it a special business to experiment on diseases and all other drawbacks, such as incuba- tors and brooders. I don't know it ail. I learn every day, and will until I go ta the happy hunting grounds. But it has taken me over one-half of my life iu mn^7/?^"''"'''/''v ''^^'°'^'"*°^"" ?1'«00 ^^s'l ni°™y to learn- what ^e^ti.l.f"''''"'''.''^'''^"^''"""*'^ ^^^ ^y ^='"^1 experience; experi- menting at my own private experimental station-actual, practica work S^dr'awbTv °?^'*r ^""^^^"'^^ "°^'^°'^ to discover the realcauTof all draw backs and failures in the poultry business. The True Cause of Diseases in Poultry NATURE'S LA\YS THE BEST TEACHER- YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN A WILD ANIMAL OR BIRD OF ANY KIND SICK, BECAUSE OP THIS PACT one minute. It takes all dav tnf^!fl t^^- ' ''^'^ '^^^ ^'oung a full meal in indigestion, bow^l trouble filer tr^nhf'' ''?"''^' '''''''°'' ^'^^^" ^° ''°' ^^^ "^ stimulating Poultry foods oJaSrThTbut-an'd''' ""'' "°' ''' °" ^"='^' cent rich in protein and nutrimen and Jo ner t.f ^T"^' f ' °°^^ ^° P^^ poultry men say feed meat anThn^'. ^ • ^^ ^^""^ '^^'^'■- ^ow, tHen, all grow,etc. In-stead Of S result "50 nfrc^^'""'^^^ '""'^^ '^^"^ '^^ ^^^ sidcr that meat and bone and a 1 otLr t v ° °J. ^''''■''- ^^^^ -^^^'^ '=°°- and other ingredientsTnd only 10 S/ci^'waTer IZ'T "^' '"^ P^"*^'° has caused most of the failures. ^'^ ^'^^- "^^^ ^^eding NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . Wild turkeys and prairie hens, etc., are nearest to our poultry, and this class o£ wild fowll have studied up most. Also, their way ot feeding, roost- ing, and a hundred other habits of their own. THE CAUSE OF INDIGESTION IN POULTRY This is caused from feeding a fuil raeal or a crop full in one minute, when It really ought to take all day to do so, the same as wild fowls. Peed little and of te:n i& best, or feed the grain in oeep straw, so they have to hunt for it, and also be sure to have clover in' boxes. A fowl or chick that has indlgesition' has a pale comb, stands around and ,-;! eeps, and has a very slow walk, and has lice. The best cure Is to pour water In crop and work the crop, arid don't feed a thing until the sick fowl is well. Sharp grit and water is all asick chick- ■en wants, with free range. It should r.iever poost in a house from the 1st of April to the 15th of Novembfer. LICE ON POULTRY Lice on poultry is caused from confinement and roosting in a close-fitting house; no fresh air, and too many crowded in one coop. Poultry that roosts on trees and fences never have any mites bothering it. In fact, hardly any lice at all. Lice grow in filth, bad air, and crowded houses. ALL READ THIS ARTICLE THE CAUSE OF ROUP AND COLDS By actual experimenting has been discovered by me. This terrible dis- «as« has ruined many a poultry plant. Poultry books and poultry writers have really not taught or wrote any practical articles to prove it. I am here to say this to the reader ot this book and catalogue: Why do so many fail in the poultry business? The record shows that 99 per cent have fai'.^d who went into this business on a large scale. Now then, you never read of any failuresi in the poultry papers. You and I know why. Poultry papers could not live. But here is some common, horse sense. If any article or book was really practical, at least three-fourth would be successful, and we will allow one- third that would fail in any business if they undertook it. There are a lot of men who would fail in any business. Now, then, why do some of our most in- telligent monied men fail in the poultry business, men who have made a suc- cess in other businesBes ? But when they go into the poultry business they lail every time. I know of over one hundred that failed. As high as $40,000 was lost in this business. Why so? It is just this: The poiultry books and papers they have lead were not reliable, the teachings were far from prac- tical. If you send six children to school, five of them will learn and keep what lias been taught them; in fact, will know just as much as the teacher in time. Now, then, if one hundred men go and learn any trade, seventy-five will learn the trade just as well as the teacher. And when a hundred men go into the poultry business, ninety-nine, or even a hundred will fail inside of two or three years. This shows on the face of it that the teachings have not been reliable. In fact, I know personally that all former theories and boQkSi and poultry papers have not taught the new or old poultry men anything at all, and those who make a succes make it by their own experience, and not by books, etc., and for that reason only have I given up all my teachings and made experiments of my own, and I would not take twenty-flve thousand dollart cash 'for what I have learn««J. In fact, I have discovered the cause of all diseases in poultry and turkeys, etc., and have invented two of the greatest inventions in the history NATURE AND ITS NATURAL, LAWS . of the poultry business, viz., an Incubator that can and has hatched all fer- tile eggs, and a brooder that can and has raised all, and three hundred cus- tomers who used our goods can prove this. Another weak point: Poultry \v riters say: "Go slow In this business. Learn as you go along," etc. It takesyears to learn it, etc., etc. This shows that they have no confidence in their own teachings. In fact, they can not make a success of it themselves. I will wager f 100 that not one , writer in 1,000 makes a succfipsof the poultry business. In fact, not one la 100 raises poultry, and not one in ten raises over 100 chicks and ducks in one year, and those who do have success do not give any secrets away, and don't you forget that foi^one moment. They do not give away a good thing that hascostthem thousands of dollars to learn by experience. The old saying, and it is true, is: A wise man says n thing. Now then, I have said nothing for sixteen years, and I have a fortune in sight in my invention, and it is to my own interest as well as tothatof my customers to tell all I know to have my customers successful with our incubators and brooders. I have personally made it pay for the last eight years. In the broiler and egg farming business and not by the fancy business, I have made enough out of the poultry b]isi- ness to go into the manufacturing of incubators and brooders. The real cause of roup and distemper: High, rich foods, to force hens to lay in the winiter by feeding too much meat, cut bone, and other rich egg powders and foods. Also, mashed food will cause an overloading of thei stomach. Indigestion starts-; then a high fever in the head, and then distem- per, canker in the mouth and throat; then the eyes and head swell up, and in a week or so they get as light asafeathfr. It is called "going light." Tlie breath smells worse than a rotten egg, and in connection with this they get liver troubles, and then pneumonia sets in, and you will find the fowl dead It IS from nothing but high, rich foods, etc., all caused from a disorder of the stomach, as shown from the fact that the breath smells bad. I have seen roup in the middle of the summer, and all sieasons. This shows it is not a cold as It IS written in books, caused by draft, dampness, etc. All this is bosh I caai wm«^=+ x\"'t1' '''^i'"^^'^'^'''*^'''^^ "^^y^' ^y f^«<5i°g it all the meat it will eat. This I have done many a time to get the bird up to weight for shows to win a prize. Try it, and be convinced, reader Another cause of roup and colds is young, half-grown' chickens in a coop box or barrel, or any place crowded in a corner, where they sweat all nS breathe in and in the same air over and over again. This causes weak ungs and consumption, for wantof fresh air. And in the early frosty morn Ing they come out of the coop wet wit h sweat, and here is where the coM and consumption comes from, and the goine lieht Vnn„o- niTiX * . So, waieh your half-grown stork aftT thic tj,-^^ , corners. xx>o«t on separate- trees and limbs, an d h y never hav^rnldf '°'f '^f' ^" are out in all seasons and weathers They are not fed nn ? w /'^ ''°^ = ^""^ mon grain is good enough lor my poultry and no r..-^v '°''^^'^^<^- Com- es, etc. My pc-ultry can ^at coyote hair and all a t J/t ''"^^ ''"^ ^'^^- wild bird lives than mv tov!u\nfl ttZ, } ^ *^™^' ^°^ "» healthier on the free range lXa°: i^e Jt'^f fZ tL"' '^' ""'^'^ '""^ ^'' ^'^^^^ per cent are fertile and hatch a !tro„1 healthy chTk '?"\'' ^^^ '' '° '' range is my doctor for poultry. wealthy chick. Fresh air and free CHOLEEA IN POULTRY NATURE AND ITS NATURAL, LAWS. 'because th^y want to cool off, and Im s(o doing It clauses a diarrhoea — a yelloT^ discharge — yellow at first, then, green , and they will be aa poor as a crow and die in lots of a hundred. The cause Is too much com, too fat, ajid roosting in elos«, hot houses at night, and no fresh air, or grit, or sharp gravel, and poor, filthy water. . They generally are very louay under the tail and all over the body. To prevent cholera, make your h ens rooat outdoors in thei summer, sure. Don't feed any corn or fattening food at all. Give them oats and wheat clean- ' Ings aird green food, lime in water, and free range. Keep them free from lice, and the water pails must be kept clean, not slimy on the Inside of the pail, and the water must be kept in the shade. Have a dust box under roof, and sharp grit. A roof over the roosting place and the dust box is all that is nec- essary. The fowls must be kept on the colony plan, like so many farms on one farm, and not Jse crowded all in one house. Colony Plan and Houses For young and old breeding stock: Egg farming never pays unless you use the colony plan. This is a sure sign of success'. Keep fifty hens In one open' fronfehouse from the middle of March to the 15th of November. Have these houses 100 yards apart, and give them free range, and them all will know their own houses and will not r uu over the same range, and all will get a fair show to get bugs, worms, and grasshoppers, etc* You will not havei to feed much, and you will never have sick poultry, and, also, you will get lots of eggs^good, fertile eggs, that will hatch strong chicks. Keep two cockerels with the fifty hens. They will not fight, and each cockerel will go out on the range with his bunch of hens, and so on every day he will have a change of.hens, thereby getting fertile eggs. Chicks, young and growing, should also be on thissameplan, andi just watch them grow and chase hop- pers. They will be plump and grow like weeds, and be healthy. Wild Jungle Fowls and Fertile E.ggs Our poultry were all at one time wild, and therefore should not be made prisooiers. It is their nature to be free. It don't makei any difference how large the yards are, they simply will not do well and it don't make any differ- ence what or how much you feed, they will not lay many fertile eggs, and what fertile eggs they do lay are not strongly fertile, and will hatch weakly chicks, though such eggs will hardly ever hatch a chick. If they do the chick will not live long. Also a forced hen, forced for eggs, will not lay many fer- tile eggs. Nature follows itsiown course. When a wild bird lays an egg it hatches a bird every time, because it is, not a forced egg, and such a bird is strong and healthy. It also costs too much to fence in poultry and to build long houses, etc. And figuring the time and expense, etc., in feeding, yard- ing poultry, etc., it does not pay. When all the time and expense is figured as to extra food, fences, long houses, separate yards, and care, etc., and consid- erlmg the unfertile eggs, etc., it has been demonstrated by me a hundred times that it don't pay. In fact, it is a complete feailure. Wild and Domesticated Turkeys It is a common byword: "Turkeys are hard to raise." ThisI know posi- tively to be wrong. I have seen hundreds of young wild turkeys in Texas, Arkansas, and Indian Territory, in cold, wet springs. The turkey hen in a wild state leads her young out step by step in the wet grass andi in wet NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. weather. Shei is not disturl>ed,and in fact she never loses any young turkeys. Her call will bring the lo&t polt every time, and she will fight to the last to get that lost turkey. When they are cold they get under the mother. They feea on seeds and hugs, etc, and never get anything to drink except the dew in the early morning. The grass hangs just full of dew drops, and this I have no- ticed they drink in the wild and in- the tame state. They are not fedtodeath, either, and are never inthe«ame place twice. They cannot bear being yard- ed. Turkey raising must be done by the turkey hen. Let her do the work and she will raise all of them. Don't feed or water them. I have raised seventy- two young turkeys from four hens in this way. Let the old hen do her own work, and lice and other ailments she will look after in her natural way. The Greatest Cause of Diseases is Inbreeding To win prizes in shows, etc., all poultry men breed in and in for years. They breed the father to the daughter, the son to the mother and sisters and brothers together, etc., and so on for ten to fifteen years. Now then, if this don't cause weak constitutions, etc., I will fall through the earth. Why it is against the law to marry your own cousin because it causes paralysis, blind- ness, weak lungs, causes consumption and a dozen other diseases. Now then, there should be a strict law to prohibit inbreeding of fine poultry and animals. Ninety per cent of these show birds are not fit to breed from be- cause of the fine breeding and the taking to shows all winter, in a warm heated house and then taken out in the cold, freezing air. They catch colds, etc., and the sudden changes causes sickly breeding stock. In fact, some birds are in shows all winter and then put in a breeding pen. The result is they are not any good. The hens do not lay fertile eggs, etc., etc. Farmers' and Fancy Poultry Farmers' fowls are never bothered with any diseases to speak of. Some tipies in the fall farmers lose a few by cholera,, but this is all, and they never have any other ailments at any time. But the fancy poultry man who has those cracker jack prize winners, etc He is troubled with thousands of dis- eases of all kinds every day in the year, and you can visit them at any time and you will see sick and dead hens all over the plant. Their fancy houses and yards and fine parlors., etc., are good enough for the king. But oh, their pocket book tells the story in time. And the empty air castle in a year or so will be seen. There are thousands and thousands of air castles in the United States of those who have failed. Those farmers who never read a poultry paper or book get along the best. If ycu doubt it go and see for yourself. I have noticed this for twenty-five years. Those farmers buy their groceries, etc., with the few hens they have. They never give them any care at all, and in fact only have sheds for their poultry, and they get eggs in winter- enough to buy their groceries. No fancy food is fed, the poultry helps them- selves in the barn yard. Does this not prove this fact— that yarded poultry do not do well in every way. Also that the rich foods given to poultry causes diseases- that th» inbred, fancy, show poultry are more subject to diseases, etc.; that the fine air tight houses cause weak lungs and hundreds of other diseases I say poul- try must have as much fresh and pure air as the wild ones every day in the year and at night to be healthy. Hot house raised poultry are weak stock, and forcmg for eggs is against natures laws. If eggs are forced in winter your hens will lay but a few full eggs in the spring when you need thlm for NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. hatching, and at just this time you n sed them most. If you want eggs in win- ter, don't depend much on those fowls for fertile eggs. The best way Is to Ijeep two lots for these purposes. Force one lot for winter eggs and don't force them that you need for hatching in the spring. By keeping two lots of hens it will pay, otherwise not. Farmers' hens steal their nests in the spring and often come home with 16 to 18 chicks — every egg tiatches; This proves tlie above sta,temeints. The only trouble with farmers' chickens is this: When the chicks hatch they don't care fov the chicks. The results are the rats, etc., take the chicks. Otherwise farmerai chicks never have any dis- ease, especially if the hen takes care of her own chicks. But the fancy.poultry breeder takes the best of care so no minks, cats, rats,. etc., get the chicks. But they die by the hundreds with! diseases of a!! kinds. This is caused from weak stock and incubator hatched and brooder raised. In other words, hot house raised. Because the incubators are not up to nature, nor the brooders. There is not an incubator or brooder on the market that is up to nature in this respect. The chicks are too delicate, and this is the reason why I have experimented with incubators and brooders for so many years. I wanted an incubator that hatched chicks as healthy as a hen could. And after sixteen years of experimenting I have now an incu- bator and a brooder that can do even better than the hen. The Black Death and Bone Did you ever have poultry on your place that had a black comb or would fall oft the roost at night and you wouM find them dead in the morning? This is caused by feeding cracked bone. The bone closes up the gizzard, cannot I)ass in the gizzard, and prevents other food from going in the gizzard, etc. The results are the hen dies. Now this is caused by bone that is too large. The bones should be cut very fine — not larger than a kernel of corn; also too much meat and bone causes worms and the worms finally kill the poultry. If meat is fed cook it well, and bone should be only fed once a week and only one handful to twenty-flve hens. Also when you feed mash food mix grain in with it and not have it wet, but dry wet, so it is crumbly. A fowl has a gizzard to grind her own feed and if mash is given the gizzard is idle and the stomach gets out of working order. Grain, especially corn, is the best food in winter. It makes rich, fertile eggs with a rich, red yolk in the egg. This hatches a strong chick. ■" Poultry Forty Years Ago in New Jersey My folks, had an egg and fruit farm in New Jersey, where I was born. The plant was all in fruit and poultry, 300 acres, and" about 1000 hens were kept on the colony plan. In ten years my folks made enough to pay for the farm — from eggs and poultry and fruit, and raised a large family besides, and all kinds of farm buildings, machinery, etc. The feed was raised on the farm. Chickens were hatched and raised by hens and the nearest market was Philadelphia, forty miles from Egg Harbor City, where our farm was. Now then in those days poultry diseases were unknown. In fact, my father often told me so. And I often wondered why we have so many diseases in poultry now. Because we read up on poultry, etc. I believe in pure bred poultry and poultry papers. There are lots of things that are helpful to the beginner. But don't believe one-third you read and don't follow their ways — the writers on poultry as to the care-and feed, etc. 10 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . Long Poultry Houses Are a Failure Whenever I see a long poultry lioiise being built, with yards to keep the different breeds seperate .etc., and tlic houses over 50 feet long and up to lOOfr feet long, I put that plant down as a complete failure, when broiler and egg farming is the main object, and I never have failed yet. I have seen over lOOO fail myself, all over this country. In fact, in every town of any size can ba seen empty air castles which made a failure in the poultry business, just be- cause they yarded them and* had so many different kinds of poultry, and had them too crowded, etc. Poultry must have clover or grass in a green or dry form. The only way it can be made to pay is to keep one breed, not more than two kinds. Put them on the colony plan, give free range. Then you save from $1000 to $5000 in fences and buildings, with less than one-half the time and care and expense. You will get more fertile eggs, have healthy hens, and you save one-half the feed, as they get bugs, etc., on the range. Then you can make it pay better than ary other farm product. How to Get Winter Eggs Morning feed hot oats and wheat. Vt^hole grain, not ground. Throw It in the deep straw. Have cut clover in boxes. Put the grain on or in the stove until it is hot, and then feed one handful to every hen you have. It will get cool in cold weather in a few seconds, and the hot grain will not hurt them in any way. I have done this for years. Also water must be warm. Keep a lamp under the water in the day time, and so arrange it so it will not blow out and still get lots of air. Bru^h off the burner every day with a tooth, brush, so as to give the wick lots of air and the flame. If the little air holes are closed up with dust the flame will not burn and it will smoke, etc. At noon throw to the hens whole cabbnge and beets, etc. Keep dry green cut clover in boxes. At night give, them whole hot corn shelled. Have a scratching shed for them with an open east front. Keep dry cracked bone and oyster shells and grit in boxes, and feed fresh cut bone once per week about one pound to 25 hens. With lots of fresh air and dropping boards clean' you will get lots of eggs, especially if they are early hatched pullets that ha4 free range in summer. A New Molting Process I have discovered how to make hens molt in June and July A full ac- count will be seen in the American Poultry Journal this winter, written by ' !"■ t J V i' *° ^-^"""'^ ^^"^^ *''" ^^""^ ^'^^'^ '>!« liot June weather comes on, then when they are very poor in fle.h the feathers dry up in the skin and .IX or eight weeks of this way of feeding by only giving them one very small meal a day and one handful of grain to four hens for eight we^kl makes them very thin. Then about the middle of July start feeding s^owlj i f ° three times a day on fattening foods and oily foods and mlat cooked and oil meal, about a handful to a pailful of feed, sunflower Teed corn meal, etc., and get them good an.d fat, not over-feeding them at any ime^ Now then the old feathers drop out in thirty days, and fry wUlhavI LTLTV^' eathers by the middle of September and wil Lrt to lly and keep it up until vary cold weather, when the pullets start to layS But free range must be given them, and then you will get eges whVn^n Ath are only starting to molt and not lay f.g .'.en eggs" ire^'Klt gen:^ NAtURB AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 11 takes 100 days for hens to molt in their natural way, but in my way only about 50 days. ' How to Get Fertile Eggs in E,arly Spring RHODE ISLAND REDS If you are raising broilers for the early market you need no pure bred stock. Any and all kinds will do. In fact, I don't want any better fowl than th^i Rhode Island Reds for any pilrpose. They are the only money makers in egg and broiler business, and are an all purpose fowl. If you have no Reds, get some eggs or cockerels and cross them with your stock, or better yet, keep them pure and keep only Reds and you will never regret it. Now put four or five cockerels in a pen by themselves and feed them on corn and oat» for a week, then let one or two out with the hens, and by changing them all will tend to the hens. And the hens should be fed on whole grain and most- ly corn. Corn makes rich yeilow yolks in eggs and a rich, strong egg that will hatch strong chicks. Corn is king and is my best food for poultry, only I don't feed it in hot weather. Cracked corn is also good, in fact, better than whole corn. The hens have to eixercise more to find it in straw. Exercise and fresh air is my doctor. Feeding Chicks and Ducklings CHINAMEN'S SECRET OF SUCCESS IN FEEDING RICE Don't feed until they are^ixty hours old. You must remember a chick when first hatched lives on the yellow of the egg for four or five days. If you take a chicken and cut it open on the third day you will find the yellow of the egg. A chicken can live for twelve days without anything to eat at alU and be more healthy and outlive all those that are fed early and over fed, which causes indigestion and bowel troubles. I have had chicks live twelve days without anything to eat and a hef-lthier chick did not live. This was when I was experimenting. Hens when they steal their nest raise chicks, all of them, and the only feed they get is seeds, bugs, etc., and are as healthy and happy as prairie chidkens and suoh chicks never get indigestion and bowel trouble from pver feeiding. It takes a whole day to fill up their crop, and often they don't get a crop full. S;ill they are healthy and grow much fas- ter than those fed every two hours ami a crop full at every meal. I will say right here, fifty per cent of the chicks are killed by feeding too early and too often. I only feed three times a day. First feed is when they are sixty hours old. Boiled rice, dry crumbly. The rice should be boiled in milk and mixed up with dry oat me^l fiakes so it is crumbly. Next feed at noon raw cracked rice, and at night wheat and cracked corn very finely cracked, not a meal, but merely cracked grain, coarsely cracked. In the morning I give warm water and also have sand on tha brooder floor three inches deep, and they should have fine sharp grit and gravel, etc., and only feed three times a day, and what is fed should be thrown in the straw or cut clover hay, so as to make them hunt for their food. It is well known that Chinamen are the very best poultry men known:. Most all our poultry came from Asia China, from the northern China and southern country, and while I was experimenting in California the Chinamea used to visit my experimental poultry ranch and they raised poultry and gar- den truck. I used to visit their plant also, and I noticed they fed rice whole and boiled to chicks. They told me they fed rice whole and boiled to chicks 12 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. and never would be troubled with any disease among poultry and chicks if fed on rice. Now I have given it a ten year's trial and must say nothing is better in the way of feed for chicks and ducklings wjien young, up to four weeks old. It pays to feed it. Broken rice can be bought cheap and if boiled makes a lot of feed, as it swells to three times its size. But a variety of grain is good if not fed too often and too much at a time. Boiled milk to drink is also good. But never feed any mash or wet food of any kind, and if boiled rice is fed mix a little grain with it, finely cracked. Give them lots of out door ai-- and sun and never put chicks out doors in brooders until April 1st, and not then unless they are at least four weeks old. You simply can not raise young chioks'early out doors. The cold winds, etc., will kill over half of them, stop their growth, etc. An out-door brooder is all right for chicks three or four weeks old, but not for those just hatched. Early in the spriag raise your chicks indoors and let them run out doors on nice days in yaras leaaing to house that the brooder is in. Our brooders will keep the chicks warm 20 degrees below zero out doors when just hatched. This we guarantee to all. But what good Is it. Because the chicks cannot run out in the cold, therefore have a house facing the south or east with large windows so as to let the sun in on the sand floors. The floor should be two feet off the ground and two inches of sand on the floor. Never have a bare floor for a dozen reasons. Straw will not do. But straw and sand is just fine. Then they will look and scratch for grain. Now on cold days chicks can be left indoors and should have at least a pen three feet wide by ten feet long to run in, and you can raise most every chick. In fact hundreds raise every chick with our brooders. With each brooder sold we give proper feeding directions and our directions must be followed and no other. We refund your money paid us for the brood- ers if you have no success and no other man will, therefore it pays you to fol- low our directions only and no other. We know what is good as we have raised thousands every year, and have tried all foods known and we have great success with our way of feeding, etc. Feeding Broiler ChicRs for Market Don't feed breeding stock as you do market chicks. Forced chicks never make good breeding stock. Chicks for market should be forced when they are four weeks old, not before. Then feed boiled beans, boiled peas, corn meal, and cracked corn mixed in their food. Mix all together, and feed three full meals a day. But they must have lots of out-door air and run. Close ■confinement will not do, as I have ttied all ways. I don't care what has been written. I can and have raised two pound chicks at ten weeks old of the Rhode Island Red breed and Plymouth Rocks and White Wyan4ottes it takes twelve to fourteen weeks to get them up to two pounds and sell in May and June at 50 cents each. Anu don't believe no such truck that broilers bring 75 cents per pound, etc. All this is a bare faced lie and hundreds have found it so. The poultry papers hold still and the writers don't practice what they preach. I have made many a visit to find out what I know, and it cost me money to visit some of the markets and broiler plants. In fatt, I know, if any one, what can be done, as I have had practical experience every day and will until I go over the river, as I like this business. FEEDING DUCKLINGS FOR MARKET. Pekin ducks are the best market ducks and are the fastest growers aaid are the largest ducks of all others. When ducklings are 24 hours old dip NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 13 their bills in water to give them a drink, then put them in a brooder. The temperature should be 100 degrees in heat, 90 degrees on the floor. The floor should have three inches of sand in brooder. The first feed should be bread soaked in boiled milk and mix boiled rice with their feed. The mash should be just wet, not sloppy, in a crumbly condition. Feed this every two hours for three or four days, then mix bran with this mash and when a week old put a little corn meal in the mash, and when a week old don't feed any more bread or rice, as it is too expensive; then j^ou will raise every little yellow fellow in the bunch. Now when they are ten days old feed them ground food. Oats and corn ground together and middlings and bran should be mixed in this mash. Don't give dycklings much corn meal until they are six weeks old. The every day mash should be one- third corn meal and one-half and one- half of middlings, bran and other meal. Every day give them green food cut up. Now when they are six weeks old feed them only three times per day and give them all they can ea.t, and the feed from now on should be one-half corn meal with bran and middlings and ground food, and when their wings cross their backs feed them three-fourth corn meal and one-third bran and no green food two weeks before they are put on the market. Green foodsi makes their skin look blue and makes the meat flabby. But corn meal should make them as fat as butter, and when they are 10 Jo 12 weeks old they will weigh 5 to 6 pounds each alive. Two days before you kill them cut up cellery and mix it in. their mash. This will give the duck meat a cellery flavor, and will sell 2 cents per pound more than other ducks not fed on cellery. Don't kee)> a duck longer than twelve weeks or it will eat its head off. Ducklings sell from May to July for 20 cents a pound, or $1.20 each on the average. PEKIN DUCKS FOR MARKET— MONEY IN DUCKS— $1 EACH. There is more money in ducks than any other poultry, because they grow and weigh twice as much as any other poultry. I have made more money in ducks than any other markPt poultry. I will give a true figure of what I have personally don© for years. But it must bo done somewhat differ- ent than others do it. Here is the way I do it. I never keep any breeding ducks, because they eat their heads off. Each duck kept for one year eats $2.50 worth of feed. Now it pays those great, large duck ranches because they sell eggs by the thousands and alio sell breeding stock, etc., and market young ducklings by the thousands. Some raise 20,000 to 30,000 per season. But it takes lots of capital to run such a pla:nt. Often $25,000 is invested in buildings, incubators, brooder syste;^is, etc. But for the average poultry man who raises only 2,000 or 3,000 a year should do as I do every year and then, you will save lots of money by doing the work yourself, and you will not have to hire it done, and don't have to E»pend lots of money that is not neces- sary, and you don't have to have large houses, etc. THE WAY I DO IT. I buy 5,000 duck eggs every year, 2,500 at one time. I set them in incuba- tors and I'm always sure of 1,800 ducklings in my incubators. Now the duck eggs are not very fertile until the middle of March, so it don't pay to buy any before that. I buy them for $8.00 per 100 or 8 cents each. Any eastern duck ranch will sell them for that price. Now those 1,800 ducklings once hatched will live and I very seldom have over two die in lots of 50 in one brooder. A hatched duck is a raised duck every time. They have no dis- eases, no lice, etc. But great care must be given them the first ten days, as to feed and water— everything kept clean and dry, and never let the ducklings 14 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . set wet and never let them swim in water until they are full feathered, and they must have lots of air. Now those ducks will grow like weeds and will weigh 5 to 7 pounds each when 12 weeks old. If beef scraps are fed in eVery feed one-tenth of the feed should be beef meal and scraps, sure after they are 5 weeks old, and see them grow. The average weight is 5 1^ to 6 pounds each. The market price alive is 20 cents per pound on the average from May to mid- •dle of July or August. After that the market drops quick — as low as 12 cents " per pound. Now those ducks hatched in the middle of April and about end of June will weigh 6 pounds each if they are forced good and fed properly, ■etc. Those ducks will bring you alive at least |1.10 each. The express on them will be about 10 cents each. Now the feeding, etc., costs about 30 cents for each duckling. The eggs and ail, etc., and express on eggs will cost you 25 cents for each duck's egg. In fact, the whole expense on one duck to get it on the market will cost about 50 cents, and your net clear profit will be -about 50 cents— a few cents more or less. Now this is a 100 per cent profit, and I always make 100 per cent profit on my first lot shipped to market;, the next lot 50 per cent. Now say you hatch and raise in your first lot 1,800 duck- lings and get ?1.00 each for them. You get $1,800 for the lot. Now the ex- penses are $900.00 on this lot. You still have $900.00 to live on. -A BROODER HOUSE— OUT.DOOR STYLE— THE CHEAPEST BROODER SYSTEM. Now there should be at least two hatches like this and one man can care for them all in putting in his whole time at it. But it takes a lot of night ^ork. Still it pays well, 100 per cent better than any other business, or bet- ter than broilers and turkeys, etc. They fairly grow into money. But the whole secret is just this: You must hatch them early, and all at one time. You must have at least ten incubators and each Incubator should hold 250 •eggs. Also you must have an out-door brooder house, same as you see in this catalogue. This is the best and cheapest way to do it, and no other brooder company has such a system, as we have a patent on this great in- vention. It is a cheap brooder house, costing only $1.00 per foot to build it and you should have a 100 foot system, This makes each brooder and pen threefeetwide, and there will be 33 brooders in a 100 foot house or a 2 500 ■chick or duck capacity for the 100 foot house, with 75 chicks or duckling^ in each pen, and the whole cost will only be $375.00 for the complete house and system. FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLT.ARS-1901-BROILERS AND THE PROFITS AND GOVERNMENT REPORTS. Broilers if hatched early in March and April will bring 30 to 35 cents per pound in June and will bring 25 cents per pound in July. This year the price for broilers and ducks was higher than for the past ten years, yet the know It alis have cried years ago that the poultry business is overdone To this I TlT^rl'"- P°^ltry business Will r.ever be overdone, nor the ma ke cor nered. Chicago alone consumes one-half million dozens of eggs every week and fully as many dressed chickens and ducks, to say nothin? aboS the Un^rAf f °l^'' """' ""'^ '°^"^- '^^^ population is growing all over tSe .pr:.^;f::dSt£r-;f-;if^=f~ breeder. Poultry is the cheapest ,„.at. therefore therfJm be Jhe greatest N ATURB AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 15 •demand for poultry and eggs in the future. The outlook is better today than ■ever before. We have to import flve million doUara worth of eggs in this country every year from Canada. We can not supply the demand. Poultry ■was selling last fall at 7 cents per pound for old common farm poultry. To- day, November, 1901, they are selling at 9 and 10 cents per pound, ducke 10 and 11 cents per pound wholesale in Chicago market, and retail at from 15 to 17 cents per pound dressed, for just common every day farmers' poultry. Not one really is a fine market fowl. Extra cj^oice stock retails at 20 cents per sound. Beef sells retail at 16 to 24 cents per pound, and nothing fine at that. Now then this spring and s.ummer broilers and spring roosters sold at 30 to 37 cents per pound retail. Spring ducks 28 to 30 cents per pound. Now this does not look as If the poultry business was' overdone, nor ever will be. Government reports for 1901 sliows a total income of poultry and eggs to be $500,000,000. This is a true report, as the government figures it. Now I iave the reports before me on my defck. The government statistics shows where they figured the eggs only 8 cents per dozen on the average, and the poultry only 6 cents per pound. This is a very low average. In fact the aver- age is really 15 cents for eggs and 18 cents per pound for poultry. Also the reports show that the entire poultry sold during the fiscal year 1901 is $5,000,- '000. This is more than the gold and silver put together, more than corn, more ■than the whole value of all the cows in the United States, more than the hog output, and more than wheat and oate put together. The only product that beats poultry is the horse and the railroad stock. No man will make a mis- take in investing several thousand dollars in the poultry business if only good sense and judgment is used by starting right from the foundation up. Thousands start wrong in every way, and here is where the failures conie from. Don't build and buy machinery and , incubators and brooders until you are sure you are right, and don't buy incubators and brooders until you see what it can do and has done. Something that is practical and up to nature. -SECOND HAND INCUBATORS AND BROODERS FOR SALE— DID YOU NOTICE THIS. Pick up any poultry paper you wish and you will find incubators and brooders for sale second handed, and mostly of the kind that are advertised most, such as a Sure Success, etc. None moisture machines', self supplied moisture and ventilation, etc. Great prize winners and Pan-American gold medal winners, etc. Now then. If those incubators and brooders are any good at all they would not sell them. In fact we get from 50 to 100 letter a day and nine out of ten say we are looking for a better inbubator and brooder. They say we have tried all of them and all are alike, and one is worse than -the other and the one that is advertised most is the poorest one. BELGIAN HARES A FAILURE— WILD RABBITS ARE NEVER SICK. Why? Because of this fact, read any poultry and Belgian hare paper you want and you will see a constant cry, our poultry and our hares are dis- eased and hundreds of diseases are described, etc. Now the trouble is this, a hare is originally a wild animal and cannot stand confinement, boxed up, etc.. and be fed to death. Nine out of ten are over fed and diseases start, etc. I have raised hares and all kinds of rabbits for years, ever since I was a boy. The first pair I owned were brought over from Germany. When I was 8 yeai-s old a German family sold me a pair and the pair was a real German hare. Each 14 pounds in weight. I have raised as many as a thousand in one year 16 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. since, and sold out entirely last spring wlien the craze was the highest. But I rai&ed my hares as they do in the old country. Let them run anywhere and they would raise thousands, and I never had any sick hares. CLOVER COMES FIRST— WHAT GRAIN TO RAISE FOR POULTRY. Buckwheat is the best if not feed too heavy, and I always raise oats, wheat, barley, and corn, I out it when in the dough, and not when the grain is ripe and the straw yellow, but about two weeks before that, when the straw shows a sign of yellow near the ground, and by looking at the grain, if the grain is just past the milk and thick soft dough It is ready to cut and not a grain will go to waist or lots drop in the field or stack. Now when cured in bundles or cocks I stack it and cover the stack, and in winter I feed it in the straw. This is the very best way to feed grain and th« fowls have to work for it and also have straw. You wont have to buy it. Once a week I give them a new supply, and five or ton acres will last one year for 1,000 hens and ducks and hommers for squabs and also makes excellent feed for the horse— that is oats and wheat and barley. The average yield is about two good loads per acre and 30 to 40 bushels of grain to the acre. This makes good hay also for the other stock. AIR SLACKED LIME DUST A WHOLESALE LOUSE KILLER. Is the cheapest and best lice killer, also the very best thing for to make a house smell sweet, and nothing is better than air slacked lime for to dis- infect a house or any place; also if you have a damp basement or poultry house just throw in this lime dust. It is like flour or like powder, and throw it all over the hens and house once per week and you will not be bothered with lice, dampness or disease>:, colds, etc. The straw should be well supplied with lime dust, and when the hens scratch in the straw the dust gets among the feathers and drives away the lice. Also the drop boards should be well supplied with lime dust to purify the air. It simply will kill the lice by the wholesale and you don't have to handle the hens separate. A bar- rel full only costs 20 cents and it is really worth $20.00 to any poultry man. THE BOOK NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS— A POSITIVE SUC- CESS TO ALL. Written by Jno. M. Sontag, author and inventor, who will hereafter put the book on the market for $1.00; formerly $2.50, with blue prints 24x48 This book should be in the hands of every poultry breeder. Hundreds are having great success who bouglit this book last season. No book has ever been published like it. All other books on poultry are clippings from poultry papers, etc., and all are alike. One copies from the other and I .1 fff.. r^''-'^''?'"'^'*'^"'^"'^^ '"^ *^^°^' °^t"^« '^ not compared at all, m fact It IS simply an old story told over again, and the results have be^n a complete failure who followed those books. To prove this IcaJlyoIr attention to this fact, by reading the poultry papers. In th se ;L w U sZ T^TT anl\lZ:T''^% "^'"^ ails my poultry? They describe Sdls! rtrfA v' ^'i'l'.°°f thousands every year by diseases, etc., and all other drawbacks m this business. Now, if the books were o any use at alland 7Z\ 't'.""'''" ; ^""^ '° '° "^^"^ '"^^ • ^^^'y person who has poultry' and /I«5 tarlj iprinj Outa»r Brooder and Rooslin.) Goop, ij'smiK' No. 5. Our Out-Door Brooder House and Roosting Coop System for early spring use, from 1st of March to December, showing how to arrange the floor plan ana com- plete house. T hi s house is bo arranged that all the work is done out side. Each department by itself' and roof on hinges. axuS Q^X-O '.Si cSq c S55 o +j o ® 3i5 a " 71 d xffl S o o^ o _, t, c o S S S ^ o 3j:»a LECTURING ON POULTRY. I am open for engagements at an y time from June to January, in farm- ers Institutes, Pouty Meetings, Colleges, etc. and Experimental Stations, etc. Terms, a matter of correspondence. JNO. M. SONTAG. N ATURB AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 17 hundreds of chicks and old hens die every year on the reader of the books — because the writer of the book was not practical. My guarantee on my book, "Nature and Its Natural Laws," is: If yon are not successful after reading this book I will gladly refund the money. I have sold hundreds of these books with a guarantee and I have had not to date had to refund one penny. On the other hand I have gotten the most flattering letters it was possible to get, and all claim the book is worth from ?100 to $1,000 to them. There is no such thing as luck or fail. The book will teach you some- thing that you never read before, and it will open your C'yes with wonder. In fact, nothing like any other book, and not a word is copied from any poul- try paper or book and you don't need to be afraid of getting something that you read before. Also every word that, is said in this book can be relied up- on. You get twenty-live years of practical experience and sixteen years of exeperimenting, that cost me ?7,000. You cannot fail in the poultry busi*- ness if you read this book and digest the common horse sense teachings. Any boy or girl fourteen years old can prevent diseases and make a success of it in their capacity. No medicine is used at all to cure or prevent diseas- es. My way of preventing diseases is by following Nature's laws, wild birds and animals. You nor any other man ever saw a sick wild bird or animal that was at liberty. My book tells how and what to feed, how and when to house poultry, and in fact there are thousands of things in that book that are worth a fortune to you. It means a sure success to all who read it. One article alone is worth the price of tiie book. If wild birds are never sick, why so my book tells you why. It will teach you how to feed chicks, ducks, and turkeys, Belgian hare parks.. How to make a success of it — by following natufe. It cannot be made to pay any other way than by following nature, as far as it is practical, and then only will you be successful. It shows the buildings just as they are used by me and in and outside: also put all over the farm, etc.; also shows how to make a combination cold brooder and roosting coop for chickens half grown. Also shows how to catch turkeys in the fall and when you want to mar- ket them, by a trap, where you can catch 100 or 1,000 at one time. This is the greatest trouble catching turkeys, if you don't know how. PLANS, ETC., THAT ARE PRACTICAL. A large blue print goes with book. This blue print was drawn by me by scale and tells you how to make brooders. How to make out-door broo- der houses. How to build colony house, and dozens of other park, poultry and turkey houses. Also tells you how to make hen incubators; to set one or more hens at one time, so they will always go to their own nests and feedl themselves, etc. This alone is worth the price of the book. Shows by plans how to build your own houses, the size and all. Also an egg chart in hatch- ing process. The blue prine costs us 25 cents each in 1,000 lots. In fact, you get the book and blue print at cost. We have thousands of these books- and to introduce them we will sell them at cost and to advertise our incuba- tors and brooders, etc. It is the best advertisement one can do to make all successful Who read this book. All we ask you to do is to give it a trial and you will be happy from the day you read the book. THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IS, I CAN MAKE IT PAY. I will, and I cannot fail. There is no such thing as luck. It is confi- dence In yourself. Above all, you must like the business. Your fowls don't IS NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . look for the dollars, they come to you if you work for it. Don't be afraid of night work. Doa't stay away all day when, you have three or four thou- ands of chicks and ducklings at home. Be up and ready at all times, at any hour of the day and night. Don't be forgetful. Don't put a job for the next day or the next month, etc. Do it when you think of it. Have your mind on one thing and that is care and the success will come to you. My way is common sense in care, not killed by kindness by giv- ing too much care, etc. Just use horse sense. I have faith in the Infinite Power in which we live and the past has no regrets, the future no terrors for me. This is the foundation of success, I believe that the fear-thought is tie root of more misery and unhapp-ness. There is nothing in this world to fear, in or out of it. But and except fear. The man who has power of mind and who will manifest that power in action, it will make a success of any buisjiness}. Just as isur© as shooting. You may not always agree with me fully. That's the privilege of any per- son. Do your own thinking and experimenting. I have found it by experi- menting for years and I believe every word I write. In fact, I know I'm right in what I have discovered for the past sixteen years, as I have proved to my own satisfaction a hundred times over again. I know this, that I have the greatest invention known in this line and my fortune is won. I have put lots of poultry men on the right road and are happy, as my letters show in this catalogue. I feel that we are all going to be successful/ I will always be glad to hear from any breeder of poultry, whether he raises one dozen or 40,000 per year. I believe the poor man is equal to the rich man in evei-y way. Write about anything that puzzles you. Be sociable. I like it. I will answer and teach you to the best of my ability. Get my book and also our incubators and brooders, etc.; and I know you will be successful; hundreds are; why not you? Don't \7ast§ money on cheap goods. SCIENCE AND MENTAL SCIENTISTS. These professions know but little when it comes to actual, practical Work. This has been demonstrated. Last month in a Chicago paper was an article, as follows: It has been discovered that potatoes are th3 cause, of most all diseases In human beings. (Just think of it!) To this I say, probably this is one reason why the Irish and Ger-. mans live., Why don't these smart men compare and experiment? We all know this is bosh, same as tn.'bucolosis, etc in cattle. The whole thing is a money-making scheme All are after fat government jobs and it means taxes, etc., to the poor people to pay for, to help pay those who know it all. If they would investigate those returned milk cans, that would drive any man out of the country; they smell worse than a rotten egg, and av© full of maggots and are never boiled out good; and here is where the whole trouble is in milk cans in hot weather, ff ur or five days on the road and stand- ing in the sun, etc. Also what have the experiment stations found out in the poultry line? They have not even found out the cause of one disease. The cause is what all want to prevent diseases. Pear is the cause of many diseases. I personally know of such a case. I walked on the streets of Chicago some years back with a friend of mine and we saw a small pox sign. That fellow ran across the street and was so frightened that he could not stand still. He actually got sick and inside nf a ueekhehadthesriiallpox. I nf vpr got it stall. Thousands of nurses don't get any disease, because they ar- not afraid of it. It is all foolishness NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 19 to think it is contagious. The fright and thought causes it. For many- years my neighbors had poultry uio of cholera and would visit my yards, even handle my poultry, but I was not afraid that the disease could be car- ried in the clothes or on the shoes or in the air. Here are a few facts. If any disease is contagious, why don'' all get it. It is said the diseases and serms are in the air. If so, why don't all get it and not only a few. It is not a matter of the blood being in good condition. No! But the thought and fear. I have made it a business years ago to doctor poultry all oyer the coun- try, used the same clothes in my poultry plant, and my fowls never got sick. Incubators are the greatest cause of failures because the chicks are not hatched as nature does it, are not hatched healthy, and for that reason so many die in brooders but a few days old. It is a byword that incubator chicks are too delicate. Here are a few facts as I find them. Why do so many chicks die in eggs in all ages and all stages of incubation in incubators? Why do many fully developed chicks die in eggs on the last day, when ready to come out of the egg? Why do incubators hatch crippled chicks, etc.? Why do so many chicks hatch that are not fully developed, the yolk of the egg hanging out of the chick, etc.? Proof of this? When a hen will at the same time, in the same conditions, with the same lot of eggs, hatch every fertile t high enough. Just think of such folly. I know by eixperimenting, as da thousands of others, this happens wh en the heat never was off 1 degree during: the whole hatch, as most aU Incubators have an even heat, and their regula- tors, etc., are true, and very seldom v ary 1 degree in. twenty-four hours. Now let us go back to the hen. A hen has no even- heat, as I have described it in another part of this cata- logue. In fact, the average: is not 100 degrees, and yet she never/ hatches a chick with the yolk hanging out, like Incubators do. Why so? Because the- air is properly and plentifully supplied. The whole secret, in all things,, plants, animals, and human beings, i s air. This is free and is the best doctor. Exercise and air and hunger are the b est cure for any fever and disease, and; overfeeding with rich foods, and no air and no exercise is the cause of all the diseases, in human and brute. Now, I claim that the reason chicks are not developed ia because of want of air; not a current of air, nor a draft, but iffl such a way as the hem gives it. Herteathers are like so much cheese clothi laid on. top of each egg, so the air can, go in freely and come out freely, and the hen often raises up in moving her position in thei nest and her feet. This also helps to air the eggs, and when she turns them. Now, I have a system of giving air to egg® that is perfect. I often have hatched every fertile egg im the Incubator of my own make and invention, which is a discovery made by me only and fully covered. ; VENTILATION SLIDES IN INCUBATORS. Is this naitural? Does a hen doit? Is she an air-tight box? Does sh& look at the space of eggsi to guide as to drying down of space ? Does she have eggs air-tight in different stages and then openi the slides to let in air in other' stages of incubation? Or, does she put water in the nest, to supply moisture, etc.? Is this not all nonsense? Dear reader, does this not look as if the manu- facturers are miles and mileSfrom Nature's laws? True, some Incubators do good work; but do they do it every time? Do they hatch even 70 per cent on the average? Do not fertile eggs die. ihi all stages of incubation? Do not all Incubators have fuldy developed chicks die in the In cubator— chicks, tiiat are rea dy to come out ? Why do they die ? Why are chicks not developed? Why do th e chicks die in brooders when, but a few days old? The brooder is not always at fault. That is shown; by thei fact that a hen can not raise over half the chic ks that are Incubator hatched. Now I know of some Incubators' that do good work at times — some times. They hajtch almost every egg, but the chick s are cripples, and what are not cripples and look healthy are delicate and live only a few days;. They cry and peep all the time, and finally bowel trouble kills them. Bowel trouble is also caused from the chick not being developed properly. Dissect some of them, and you will find green substance in the intes tines., etc. I don't wantto ru'n down any Incubator, but I am compelled to tell facts, and the truth as I find it. In fact, all who have had experience know that my statements are true from their own experience. 28 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. EGGS FULL OF BLOOD— ALL SHOULD TRY THIS FACT. Takeaneggoutofanlncubatorthe tentli day. Break it open. Put the contents m a saucer. Now take am eg g from under a heni — ^^tenth day — and do llkeiwise, and note the difference. T he Incubator fertile egg will have but very little sign of the lots of blood that should be there, etc., the yellow and white of th& eggs, will be watery, audit sLows on the face of it that the Incuba- tor fertile egg is weak, and something is wrong, and it just barely exists and will either die during hatching time or hatch a weakly chick that will die be- fore it is a week old; that, is, three-quarters of those that hatch will die. Now, you will find the egg which came from under the hen just full of blood ves- sels and solid meat, and the white of ',the egg, also the yolk, will be solid and just covered with blood and meat. This shows that proper air is supplied, ALSO, OUR INCUBATOR DOES THE SAME. You will find the fertile eggsi just full of blood. This shows that the air and moisture is right, and it makes one just happy to see such a sight of s-trong,' fertile' eggs that will hatch chicks just as strong and healthy asj a hen cam hatch them. NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 29 Construction, Description and Directions OF The Natural Perpetual Hen Incubator Invented and Manufactured by John M. Sontag The Greatest Discovery Known in the History of Natural Laws HATCHING CHICKS AND DUCKLINGS BY MACHINES— NATURE'S LAWS FOLLOWED IN ALL PRINCIPLES— AS A HEN DOES IT- MATERIALS USED. No Iiicubat'OT is so expensive to b uild as the Natural Hen Incubator, same capacity. It costausfor materlaiover $25.00, to say nothing ol the expert labor. All labor Is by the day's work, and all are union men. $3.50 to $5.00 i9 their standard wages. No piece work is done, therefore you don't get poor workmanship, etc. BUILT FOR BUSINESS. , Our Incubator is built to' hatch clhicks, and' it will hatch anything in thei egg line, wild or domesticated; in all soils and climates; in any place where a hen can hatch chicks. It will hatch wild birds' eggs of all kinds, and also all kinds of water fowl — because the principle is correct. Our Incubator will grow plants from seeds, and give strong, healthy plants of all kinds, such as lettuce, beans, corn, etc. ; and, in fact, anything, and the plants will have that natural green color to them if they get only a little sun. This shows that the air is right in all parts of the incubator. Of course the plants should have only 70 degrees of heat. I will offer $1,000 cash money to any Incubator man- ufacturing company that they can not raise anything in their Incubator when it is in the normal condition, ready to hatch eggs, without using sand, etc.; but just as thpy advise customers to have it in hatching eggs in their Incubators, as it has been their practice in the past. The Incubator is round, and it is original, of my own g«t-up. I made the first round brooder ten years ago, and ihe first round Incubator six years ago, as my drawings in the patent ofiice will show. No other man, to my knowl- . edge, has made a round machine to raise chicks in. My first thought, years ago, was that an, incubator and brooder must be round, inside or outside, so as to get the heat' even all over, and to get the air 11 all parts just alike in the machine. I could have put an Incubator or brood- er ori the market twelve years ago th at would have done just as good work as those now on the market. But I wanted something that would hatch all the fertile eggs; something that would hatch and raise the chicks as healthy as a hen could; and as practical as it could be; something which could be run In large numbers with one-half less time and expense In running the same 30 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. than any other on the market. Also, I wanted an Incubator that would weigh only 90 to 100 pounuds, for a 300-egg capacity, to be easy to handle and to reduce the express and freight charges, as thisi amounts to a great deal. For instmce, all other Incubators weigh 250 to 350 pounds for a 300-egg size. Not such an Incubator will cost from Chicago to Calffornia and Arizona and the Northwest coast from $11.50 to $13.00 for freight. Now does thisinot amount to a whole lot? To say nothing of the moving such a house from one place to another, and then not hatch well. In fact, not hatch one-third of the fertile eggs on the average; and you paid for a lot of warping, heavy lumber, leaky water tanks, and smoky lamps, etc. SHEEP'S WIIL, LEATHER, AND FEATHERS, ETC. Therefore we make our Incubators of the lightest' practical non-conduct- ing natural goods known. That is, sheep's' wool and leather. Both are well kaown to all, and are very expensive. But the customer gets the benefit of it. We don't make 200 per cent on our goods and have you pay the freight on heavy, bulky stuff. All we make is an honest living out of our goods. ANY LADY CAN CARRY OUR INCUBATOR. Our machines are in three sections, each weighing about thirty pounds. CONSTRUCTION OF BODY. The body, outside, is of leather and water, wind, and flre-proof material, •one-quarter inch thick, which looks just like leather of a tan color, nicely dec- orated. In fact, it makes nice parlor furniture. The goods are of the samei •quality as the leather chairs, rockers, couches, etc. ; the very best goods that can be bought, and very expensive. T hese goods are used in all of the besit and most expensive furniture, and this is what we use instead of heavy lum- ber that warps, etc. You can save from $4 to $14 freight charges if you buy our Incubator. Our Incubator cannot warp, therefore there are no drafts, •etc., to let out heat where it should n ot go out and let in cold air where it should not come in. In fact, there are so many points in favor of this cover- ing that it would take a book to tell them all. It has been tried by me for seven years and I positively know the ins and outs of this cover. You can not- scratch it up and cannot dint it, nor break any part of the Incubator. It al- w--iys looks good, and no dust Shows o n it, as it Is easily dusted off, etc. FEATHERS AND SHEEP WOOL PACKING AND COST OF INCUBATOR. We use sheep wool for packing and asbestos — a heavy paper that is fire- proof, will not burn if put in the stove all day — so you are sure of no fire. We use twenty-five pounds of sheep wool. This costs us 22 cents per pound. Packing alone costs us $5.50; the leather for cover costs us $6.70; the regula- tor costs us $3.50, and dozens ot other metal parts cost us over $25.00, to say nothing of the labor. Now, then, there, are Incubators on the market that sell tor $20.00, same capacity, so you can have an idea what truck goes in those machines. The practical part is what counts. Whether it will hatch good or not lies in the principle of the machine. You can put $100 worth of material in an incubator, but this does not hatch the chicks. The maker of an Incubator must understand how to make an Incubator that is up to the hen in hatching on every point, and there are over one hundred points. So it is not a small matter to make an Incubator that will hatch anywhere in this world, in any season and climate. Wool will hold the heat longer than any- other material, if packed. We pack wool three inches thick as hard as it can / / NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 31 be done. It ia the very best nom-conductlng material known. Itholdsalarge amount of heat and air. Our Incubators will hold an even heat, no matter how often the weather changes. We wiil suppose that at night the weather ■changes from freezing poirit to 20 degrees below without any fire or heat in the room where the Incubator stajias, and you have left the Incubator with the damper just open the night before, with a fair flame, and in the morning you will find the machine.103. Thisis a matter of record, anid the trial was \ made in my experiment shop, which is only a shed with windows, some of the panes being broken out. You don't have to cover them up with blankets, etc., so they will hold the heat, and even then find the heat down below Cairo ■often, 10 to 20 degreesioff, so that your hatch is spoiled. HEATS UP IN ONE HOUR. Our Incubator will heat up in one hour in- ordinary weather. In Very cold weather it takes from two to three hours. Compare this with all others on the market. It just takes from fifteen to twenty-four hours to heat up those other Incubators. Now what does this mean? It means a whole lot, as fol- lows: It wastes a lot of oil. In cold weather, if the machine should go down as far asi 80, as they often do, it will take from ten to fifteen hours to get it up to 103. This all know withoait me explaining any farther. Those who have had exiperience know I am telling the truth. Now what is the result? A spoiled, chilled hatch; the whole batch of eggs is chilled, and so damaged. The hatch win be of no falue, and tbe Ices is practically $50 to $100 on the spoiled eggs. It just means another three weeks fooling. You lost the price of the chicksi hatched early to take a dvantage of the high prices in the early market, and, also, if for breeding stock, you will have a lot of late hatched pullets that will not lay in winter, etc. Also, in summer, the machines will easily overheat and the lamp will have* to be put out, the doors of the Incuba- tor left open, etc. Tiose hot water machines are not worth standing room, ■and those hot air machines that are not right in principle are worse yet. OUR HEATING SYSTEM— A SECRET. I frankly will admit that if it was not for our heating system we could not operate an Incubator at all; because our system of airing eggs lets in a lot of air at all ■times, even all over, and i n such great volume that it would be im- possible to heat the .machine if we had the heating systems others have. It simply could not be done. But our system is as follows: ar- ranged so that if eggs were out doors and . the , cold air all around the nest, it would yet keep the eggs warm from the top and bottom, without a draft and without a current of cold air anywhere near the eggs; and yet so as to hold the heat, and without losing the required moisture. Our system is not a leaky hot wdter tank affair, nor is it a hot air heating system ; but it gives a soft, mild, natural heat, such as a hen's body gives — a moist heat, gotten from the air and sand. The air has lots of moisture, and it is the secret of success in natural and artif i ciai hatching of eggs. My system is just like a house is heated by a cold air flu e to drive the heat. This forces the heat, • and is the only way a quick heat can be secured. It is not a dead heat. On ■the other hand it is full of air, cold and fresh. Then the heat will circulate > rapidly and evenly all over. $5.00 MACHINES— REGULATOR IS A NEW ONE. Our regulator is new but not wi th us. It has been used for many years and it never warps out of shape. It cost us $4.50, so you can see it is no cheap, ■ unreliable affair. Yet some Incubators sell for $5.00. How can an Incubator NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. be good' and reliable with such Cheap John stuff! I waat to say right here In plain English that cheap goods mean a complete failure in the poultry busi- ness. You must remember that the business is going against Nature, and no other business requires as much science, knowledge, judgment, and earnest work as the artificial hatching and raising of chicks by machines. Juat stop to think what a wonder it really is, now. Can you expect to have good soic- , cess with cheap Incubators and Brooders? Thousands know what cheap truck is. Our regulator works' to a nair, and the. damper over the lamp heat- . er is not always opening and closing. This shc-ws that the regulator and ma- chine is subject to sudden changes when the damper is going up and downln the least change of weather, and' will spoil your hatch often, and, such an in- cubator will use a lot of oil. Our regulator goes above the Incubator, just over the eggs, and it works outward. It is a round, new-process bar, with copper inside of it, and is 42 inches long, so it has a lot of working and expanding room. This is a great and important point — to have a good, reliable regula- tor that is true; one that you know will work all right while you sleep. We have left the machine for three days without any care at all, and we always found it true. Our machine will run without any care at all for three days, and make goodi hatches; asigoodasif fooled with all the time. Compare this with others that need constant attention, day and night, and after all this trouble the 'Batch is spoiled and means a total loss of time and money, etc. OUR INCUBATOR NEST. , We have no egg trays, but a regular nest, the same as a hen has it, round; and the eggs practically lie on sand two inches thick, so you see we are up to Nature. Now then, the nest is thirty -eight inches in diameter, three inches deep, made out of galvanized iron. This nest is on a pivot, it revolves, so you can bring any part of the eggs to you'from the door without reaching. The nest is also handy when you want to get chick out. Just give the nest a swing, and there you are. The nest is tilled with sand two inches deep, then, on this sand is laid heavy, galvanized wire of fine mesh. This is for the pur- pose of allowing the eggs to roll easil y. The air cannot strike the eggs any- where. They are not in a current of air, and when hatching time comes the air does not take away the moisture of the eggs and dry up the chicks in the eggs, etc. A fabric, cloth, is directly over the eggs, seven inches from the top of the nest. Thiscloth spreads the heat evenly all over; also holds the moisture in themachine, with the air, and prevents a hot, dry heat. The sand is pioistened once a week. This gives a soft, moist, natural heat. In this way the moisture is even all over the machine, and the air itself is moist, and also acts as a mild heat. We have Nature's principle, same as a hen sitting on eggs out of doors, on the sand. The sand is just so warm under the eggs. It makes a bottom heat, and will hold Iieat as long as a stone will. This helps to heat UP the machine, and saves oil, etc., and if the lamp should go out be- cause you forget to fill it, the heat will hold from five to six hours in the ma- chine, and the eggs will be warm on the under side. The machine will heat up m from thirty minutes to three ho urs; depending on the season The aver- age is one hour. This means a whole lot to poultry men. OUR AIRING SYSTEM. I claim and can prove that I have the only invention up to Nature in heating, in airmg, and inmoi?ture; these three are the secret of thfehatching business. That is, that will hatch chicks large, strong, and fully developed, without any dead chicks in eggs, and just as large, healthy, round and plump chicks as a nen can hatch. The air go^s in our machine, gets warmed up. and 43 U] 03 tf « V +3 03 fl O coja c8 to o CO What Our Incubator can do I A hot June hatch, 1901. the hottest week known in years. It made a hatch of 83 chicks from 84 fertile eggs. Later in the week another hatch was 'gotten of 100 per cent. We show the photo here of chielis when one day old. our Incubator open to clean and sun all parts, and easy to take chicks out, etc. Note the large size chicks. This shows natural Incubator con- ditions, e^c. Chicks that will live. Consider this point. Theluveutor, .1. M. Sontag, and a buncli of twelve weeks old Pekln Ducks ready for market, 6 In 7 pounds each In weight NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 33 passes over the eggs, and not under or at the sides of eggs'— it could not if it wanted to in any form, because eggs are down in the nesit, lie on the sand, and are protected from the sides, and also the gases of the eggs and the bad air goes out, too, where it comes in. The opening is one inch all around the machine, in. one clear, open space, for the air to get in. It is 136 inches long, so you see that the air has a free in and out movement at all times and in all seasons, and no slides are used at any time to let in or out the air. This is unnatural. Now the drying-down process will be found just right in all seasons of the year, as it is regulated by the air and moist sand in, different seasons. In win- ter no moisture is used at all, except o n the last day, and in summer the sand is slightly moistened with warm water, once per week. This sand makes an even, moist heat all over the e^g ch amber, in every part of the Incubator, and is mixed up with the air and warm heat, and the heat is even to a degree all over the machine. Still, this is not necessary, as a hen has no even heat all over the eggs, by 10 degrees. ) Thisis not an experiment with me; but facts, by actual experience and • experimenting for years. In fact, I would not dare to send out an Incubator and claim this, that and the other unless I knew what I have. My guaranty backs my statements, and is as good as gold. It is upon my word and honor, and I would not have the name of being a dead beat and swindler, etc. In fact, poultry papers would stop my advertisement at once if I did not refund the money. MOISTURE QUESTION. Why use moisture in Incubators ? you will say. Now, then, a hen will often hatch just as good in' a dry hay- loft as out of doors on the sand. But stop just for a second and put your brains together: A hen has no hot, dry heat; an Incubator has. Here is the secret. A hen's "heat is a natural, moist heat, the same as that of a human being. Still, there is a moist heat. Here is a fact. Put your hand under a heo's body when she hatches, or when slie hovers chicks a few weeks old. You will find a moist heat. Anyone who has experimented knows this. A lot of crowded chicks sweat in'a box or brooder. Just try it. Now, then, we will take a hen in a barn. She sdts close to eggs, even in hot summer days, and wheni chicks hatch they let out the moisture of the eggs. This is a natural moisture from the eggs. The hen does her best to hold that moisture, and she is careful not to let in any air at just that time. Why? Because the air will dry up the moisture, and this would dry up the skin and dry up the chick in the egg; and the result is that the chick will die in the egg. If it was not for this a he n never could hatch a chick. I will give any person an Incubator who will show and prove to me that a hen can hatch chicks if she has the eggs on wire trays so the air can get at the nest ;£pomi the bottom, and the nest seven, or eight inches from any straw, soil, etc. Shei simply could not do it. Why ? Because tie air takes;,up the moisture; dries up the chicks and the moistness. In fact, it cannot be done, and never will be done, as I have tried it. Just try it. I will give you a 300-egg Incubator, price $38.00, and it is worth trying for. Let the trial be made in the following way: Set a hen in a barn, or any place; take a box, put a wire bottom in this box; set the box six or eight inches from the floor, so that the air cam get at it; then put eggs in this box; have the nest so that the eggs will stay in the middle; pu^ a ien on the nest, and no> hay or anything else under the eggs; nothing but the fine wire, so the air can get at them from the Ijottom— then watch results. But here is the only way she coul d do it: Set the box over a dish pam, p'ut a lamp under this dishpan, and about three or four quarts of water in the , 34 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . dish pan; and just when they commence to peep try this and keep it up until all are hatched. This supplies moisture and prevents the air from strikinig the eggs and drying upthe natural moisture. But thisis just the way Incuba- tors are made nowadays: Eggs in mid air, etc. How can good re&ults come Irom such nonsense. No v/onder chicks die in the eggs. The trouble of mois- ture has bothered all manufacturers for forty years; also the ventilating sys- tem. WHY INCUBATORS SHOULD USE MOISTURE. ■Now, then, the reason moisture should be used in Incubators is just sim- ply this : The heat is a hot, dry heat, and it dries up the natural moisture in the eggs; also, when hatching time comes, the hot, dry heat dries up the chicks in the eggs from the second' the chick pips the shell, and when it pips the shell it does not break out until eighteen or tweuty-four hours after. Then it comes out of the shell. But, remember this: If no moisture is sup- plied the chick dries lip in the shell between the time it first pips the shell and the time when it should be ready to break out. They do not always dry up, but many of them do, especially i n warm weather. An Incubator that has a poor airing system has better hatches just then, at the time when an Incu- bator has lots of air, becausethe poor-system machines have no air to take away the natural moisture. The one that has lots of air going into the ma- chine takes away the natural moisture (together with the dry heat), and there is but little chance for the chick. This condition occurs when no moisture is used. Anlncubator that has proper heat, air, and moisture will hatch every egg that a hen can, in any season, in any climate where a hen can hatch eggs. But to have success the principle must be correct, in order to apply the heat, air, anad moisture in such a way that one will not interfere with the other. It i? a science to get these conditions right, and no child's play. If wrong, they are all for naught. Remember this fact, reader: I have made a special study of it for sixteen years, at a cost that would buy a good- sized, well-stocked farm, and to say I am happy is putting it mild, I know I have a fortune, and was offered $10,000 for this invention alone, to say noth- ing of the brooder systems I have invented. I would not sell a thing at cost, to me. My two inventions it took years to discover; my time is worth something; there is also the risk of going insane, which nine out of ten inventors do, and all are short-lived, because the strain is too heavy. This is a matter of history. OUR WONDERFUL COOLING DEVICE Here I have something that all poultry men have been lo-oking for for years. It is wonderful. It saves time and work. It also will hereafter save millions and millions of eggs that are broken by handling trays. Often whole traysof eggs are dropped, 100 to 200 eggs, and all broken. Now, then, the most important point is chilling the eggs in winter by cooling them in cold weather. Eggs are often forgotten, and not returned to the Incubator in time. Also, this point: Often the weather is very cold and the sudden change from 103 degrees to, below freezing point will chill the chicks in the eggs, if only for five minutes. Now eggs must and should be cooled one hour every other day. This a hen does, and does it to harden the chicks in the eggs. This is the greatest secret. Then the chicks will not be delicate; will stand considerable exposure and changes of weather, etc., after they axe hatched. Don't expect a strong, healthy lot of Incubator chicks unless you cool 'the eggs often. But how to do this in winter has been a puzzle to me for years. NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 35 To have a stove in the Incubator room is not natural an'd will simply not ■work, because if a stove is used in it the air is theni not fresih; also, it takes up the moisture in the air. The heat Ivills the life of the cold air. The air will be dry, and be of no use to eggs. Eggs must have at all times pure, fresh air; and the air is not fresh IE it is heated, by a long ways. It is all right to keep a stove in a large Incubator' room, providing the room is not heat«d over 40 degrees, and to cool eggs in such a temperature is too cold. Let's go back . to the ben again. A hen does her hatching in spring and summer, and when it is warm the weather is from 70 to 1*0 degrees out doors. Now she stays away from the nest from one to two hours in spring and summer. This I have noticed when a hen steals her nest, and she gets off the eggs about every other day. Some- times only once in three days. She does not chill the eggs, for two reasons: The weather is warm, and the sand is warm from the sun and weather. The sand is70to80, and often 100 degrees. Now, then, there are no chances to chill the eggs if she would stay away all day. Therefore, we should cool the eggs at least one to two hours every other day. In this line I have experimented for years; also, find the chicks are over 100 percent stronger, healthier, and will live Where others would die with the best of care. Now I have invented a devic* to cool the eggs, in the coldest weather, la a room where it is away below freezing point, as follows; On the top of my Incubator is a slide. This slide covers a four-inch flue; the flue goes down into the center of the egg nest, and if the eggs are to be cooled, all that is necessary is to open' the slide on top of the Incubator. Then the heat goes out of this tube, slowly. Thiscoolsthe eggs, and the machine, and at no time does the machine and eggs cool down so low as to chill the eggs, even af left open all day, as is often the case when forgotten'. This device coolsr the eggs slowly, degree by degree, and not from 103 to below freezing point. Bon't you know that quick cooling will cause a heap of dead chicks, etc., and often spoils a whole hatch, with a great loss? Is this not common, horse sense: That you must not take a new-born baby out into the cold air? Is this not one reason why Incubator chicks are so delicate, and die in brooders, because they have been chilled while in the hatching process from cooling the eggs too quickly ? In fact it is a cruel man or woman who will cool eggs in cold weather from 103 degrees in a room to freezing, or away beloiw it. Now, dear reader, I leave it to your judgm ent if I am right or wrong. I'm open for conviction, and so are you, in all probability. In closing this cooling device tube the eggs heat up slowly, not at once, but inside of one hour. Now, on the other hand, eggs were cooled when' the room was cold below freezing point, and put in the Incubator when the eggs Tvere stoije cold. Is this not also dangerous; from the freezing point back to 103 degrees in heat? Suppose your hands or ears were frozen, would you put them in the bake-oven? Would this not cause a swelling an'd a terrible pain? It is so with the poor little chicks. The change is too sudden, and causes all kinds of trouble. And I say this, in short, it is the sudden chaniges that cause disease in man and beast, whether eggs, or fowls. It causes a cold, and for this reason birds don't catch cold, because they are acclimated— used to all kinds of weather; are hardened with the weather^ Therefore we must be very careful in artificial hatching of chicks in winter and spring, when the weather is cold, or even chilly. This tube is opened about ten to fifteen min- utes, and then closed, and they go through a process of cooling, as it takes about one hour to get the heat up again. Now we will say, suppose a hen would set jn winter, as sometimes they do. If they have been laying all win- ter often some start to set in February. Suppose she left the eggs for a half 36- NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . hour. Now, when she goes back on the eggs, she has a heat of 103 or 104, oa some of the eggs, not over balf of them. The eggs under her wings are far from being heated at once. Also, it takes a hen over one hour to heat the eggs up to 103. Still she sits on them with a heat of 103 degrees. But that does not heat the eggs all the, way through up to 103. All these little pomU we must consider. Now, any man can say, "Oh, I have an Incubator that is a cracker-jack, etc., I'm going to put it en [he market, etc.," but, will it give satisfaction? will it do the work up to Nature and against Nature? It is ni» easy matter to put a Natural Hen Incubator on the market; one that will hatch in any climate in any season well enough to satisfy the public at large. OUR EGG TURNING— UP TO NATURE. A hen turns her eggs by guess, as I have described it in this catalogue on another page. She turns them to exercise them and to prevent the yolk from settling to the shed. Now, all tlie patent egg turning devices are no good at all. They simply are no use in any way. They do not exercise the eggs. Look at a hen. She throws them around with her bill and head as if she. were breaking every last one of them. She does fliis from three to eight times in twenty-four hours, for the sole; purpose as I have described it, and for no other reason. Therefore we simply open the door in cold weather. By put- ting your llat hands, over the eggs, and giving them a rolling around any old way, and then give the nest a swing. It being on aturn table, and then turn the rest in the same manner, only by guess. You do this twice per day, and every other day two or three timesi per day, and only once per day after the four- teenth day, up to the twentieth day, then slop turning. But be sure you roll the eggs, and don't be afraid that you will break them. Also, let me give you a pointer: Do you know why Incubator manu- facturers ask you to be sure and turn the eggs under side up? Because the under side of eggs is at least two degrees cooler, often four degrees, and the eggs are in mid air, and are realy on an undercurrent of cold air, as the cold air is always on the floor, and the hot air is up high. Does this not seem prac- tical to you. Is, then, our system not natural? The sanid nest is also our hold in many ways. There are over a dozen points in favor of it over other Incubators, and it is strictly up to Nature. The sand makes the egg shells brittle, it helps to heat the Incubator . The eggs have a bottom heat that is not any more than that on top, as our Incubator has a top heat. Still the sand keeps the eggs warm on. the under side and free from all undercurrent of cold air and drafts, etc. The moist soil helps to rot the shell. The sand purifies the air, and the sand evens the heat and moisture. In fact, a dozen more points such as this: When e'ggsi are being cooled the eggs lay oii warm sand. A book can be written on sand. Now, then, those patent egg turners don't exercise the eggs atall. Also, will never hatch strong chicks that will live; if at all, only a few days, and over half of them will die of all kinds of trouble. Eggs should bei rolled often, and any old way; then all sides of eggs will get the proper air, heat, and moi&ture, and as the germ floats on top of eggs, it gets in all parts of said egg, thereby making the germ strong, and blood will circulate, and the bloodvessels will be strong and cover over all portions oS «ggs. Now the turning part is n'ot the whole secret. Hundreds of other things must be done to get a good lot of strong fchicks, and if you buy our In- cubator you get all the secrets of Nature's laws in a nut shell. All you do ia to keep the lamp filled and turn the eggs by hand, and open slides on top o£ Incubator to cool eggs, and this any boy can do. You don't need to be a sci- entist nor a weather prophet, nor a professor, etc., anybody with ordinary Intelligence can hatch just as many chicks as the exipert. This we guarantee to all. NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 37 Testing eggs in our Incubator is simple, and mo guess work. On the tenth day te'st eggs in our Incubator. All e ggs that are clear, take out, and all dark eggs that show a clear space called; air space on the big end, leave in the In- cubator, These are fertile, and have a good, strong chick in them. And don't forever take eggs out to test them. The strong light is injurious to , the eggs. It certainly does harm, and no good at all. You don't test eggs out of our Incubator because the bad eggs in the machine spoil the rest of the eggs, but to have more room to turn the eggs. Our airing system is like thehen. It is always pure, and no bad air or gases can in thel least injure the fertile eggs. You don't have to look at the airspace or the drying down process. Nature will do that, same aS' the hen. You don't take eggs out to air them, nor to cool them. All this you save in our Incubator, and if you will closely watch our make and our directions for using the Incubator, you will say it is up to the hen. INCUBATOR ON HINGES— THREE SECTIONS. Our Incubator is on hinges; that is. at any time you can air all parts of the Incubator, take it out doorsito air, and let the sun shine in it. You can also clean out all parts with ease; get at the chicks easily; can carry it any- where (it only weighs 100 pounds) ; can take it apart, in three sections. Each section weighs about thirty pounds, and in spring in warm weather you sim- ply open the Incubator on its hinges to cool the eggs and to turn them, and when you are through close the machine, and it will heat up in a hurry again. The heating system i&a wonder. What it can do will surprise you. THE PRICE OP OUR INCUBATOR Is $38.00, and really just as cheap as any on the market that are of any note. When it comes to consider the weight of the Incubator, others weigh 300 pounds, and ours only .100 pounds, same capacity. You save just a lot of heavy lumber to pay freight on all the way from $1 to $14.00; depending on: where it is going, 150 miles or 3,000 miles. ■ HALF-WAY HOUSE. We are located iU' the center of the United States of America, and you don't have to send to New York for an Incubator nor to Cal- ifornia. You save also freight on this point. If you are lo- cated in the middle west, and if you ar« an' eastern customer you save freight charges. It don't cost you any more for freight from Chicagp,i our shipping point, than it does fi-om Boston to New York,'etc., as our machinei is the lightest machine made, by 200 per cent, than any other Incubator on the market. PACIFIC COAST AND INTERIOR CUSTOMERS Make a great saving on our Incubator if they buy our goods, as the freight charges are $3.90 per 100 poun ds by freight to Weistern Coasts. Sup- pose you bought a 300-egg Incubator of another make — you -will have to pay freight on 350 pounds, the crates often weighing 100 pounds on those large ioei boxes, or what you may call them; 400 pounds freight will cost you $15.60, for just one Incubator. Now for one of our Incubators you pay only $3.90. Really, our Incubator is the cheapest of all makes when it comes to consider- ing the cost- of freight, to say nothing of an Incubator that is really a hatcher, and handy and ready on 30 minutes' notice, etc. AN ALL-PURPOSE INCUBATOR; 300-EGG CAPACITY. For the present we will make only one size, viz: 300-egg size. That is, 300 eggs can be crowded in the nest if on an angle of 45 degrees, but 275 will 38 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . go in nicely, side by side, the same as ic a hen's nest. We found that it takes just as much time, oil, and expense to run a 100-egg size., as a 300 egg size; and the secret of success is to hatch as many as you can at once, so as to get them onl the market, also to have earlyr-ha.tche.d pullets that will lay in the fall. 'Any machine smaller than that isijust a waste of time and money; therefore, we make an all-purpose Incubator, as nine out of ten will buy a large Incuba- tor as soon as they can run a small one successfully, and be sorrj' they did not get thei larger one in the first place. If you want success, hatch them all at one time; that is, run as many Incubators as you possibly can, because the early chick and duck is money. SANITARY: LOCATION OF INCUBATORS. Never put an Incubator in a damp, close, moldy basement; cellar, or cave. This will never hatch anything but disease and microbes, etc. It is a regular malarial fever breeder. Positively, our Incubators do not vary, and we want our Incubator put where the sun can shine in the room; where the air can get in, and the bad air out; where it is really dry as a house room; in fact, anywhere where a hen' can hatch chicks, but never in a dungeon, and also in a place where the wind does not oaus'e a draft. One window should be ope^ a little in cold weather, and all open in warm or mild weather. This Is all we ask, and is: on the sanitary conditions, and sliould be noticed. A spare room in a house is as good a place as can be found, where there is noslone; or a barn, or a good outhouse. In fact, anywhere but in a damp, moist hole, or an underground building. Out of doors would be fie best place, if in the spring time, if it was not for the rain and wind. A ne.n does her very best hatching out doors on the bare ground, where the air is pure and fresh. A NEW LAMP INVENTION, PATENTED JULY 12, 1901; INCUBATOR SYSTEM ON A LARGE SCALE FOR LARGE EGG FARMERS AND BROILER RAISERS; IMPENDING PATENT JAN. 7, 1902. We have invented a system of lamps, as you see in cut, so you don't have to fill separate lamps. All you do is to open faucet in oil barrel, and all the lamps will be filled, and one filling will last from 3 to 15 days, de- pending on how many Incubators you have. You can use one or all burners, as you need them, and have a high or .a low flame to any machine you want, just as if you had only one Incubator This invention is Just as handy as natural gas, and it saves a whole lot of time and waste of oil, etc., and, is strict- ly fire-proof. This system has been in use four years now, with great suc- cess, and all would not be without it who use it. We us« this for brooder "house systems, and it is one of the greatest inveinUons of the age. It sim- ply saK-es a lot of labor and fussy work, etc. Price of this tube lamp system a matter of correspondence, depending on how long it is, and how many burners, etc.— about $35.00 per 100 feet, or 40 cents per foot on a small scale. Without the burner collars the No. 3 burner and outfit, chimney, etc., costs 75 centsi each, for every Incubator. Our burners are the best on the market, made speicially for our business, and are on hinges; they cost us 42 cernts each in 100 lots, and our Incubators use less oil than any other Incubator that has yet been invented, because our heating system is just simply a wonkier by Itself. I have worked on this for years, to save oil, to heat up quickly and In fact, a dozen other points that are protected in every way. IN ANY CLIMATE IN THE WORLD. Our Incubators will hatch in any climate where a hen can hatch chicks because our machines are made and b uilt like a hen. It hatches just like a hea NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAW S . 39 does it; all self-acting in airing the eggs, moisture, and hea/t is natural like a hen. Eggs don't have to be takeni out to cool them or to air them. The Incubator will run three dayswithou t any attention at, all, in any shape, form or manner; uses less oil by 100 per ceni, that any other incubator known. Al- so, with the least care, time and expense than aany other Incubator in thei world; because it is up to nature, and away ahead of nature in a great many ways. ; Amy boy or lady can hatch chicks as good and as many chicks as the ex- pert can. It will average 95 per cent of thechicks and never hatches less than. 80 per cent of the fertile eggs, and often it will and has hatched every egg that had a chick in it; and often it has beaten the hens THUNDER AND RAIL ROAD JARRING, ETC. In our Incubator no jir will hurt the hatch in the least, because the eggs lie on sand, a&siand is a conductor no jar, even thunder, will affect the eggs. The sand acts as a cushion, because the sand is not one solid part. You can hit the Incubator a crack with- a club or hammer, and it will have nlO' more ef- fect on it than if you would fight a trust or shoot at a siteel boat with a cap pistol, as I have tried all this, trying; my best to doit, and also for this reason: We dou't have legs on our Incubaitor; we prefer the Incubator to sit on a table or bench, as you use it three feet high is about right. Then no jar or thunder can possibly affect the eggs and spoil your whole hatch. Thunder has killed caniary birds in eggs; this everybody knows who has tried to raise canaries, because the nest was in a copper wire cage. This draws electricity. Now thunder will often knock crockery off the shelvesin a housie or store, because the dishes are not a solid body. For that reason we prefer Incubators on a' table or bench, as well as for a good many other reasons. Legs will not break, get loose and shaky; Incubator cam be put anywhere you' wish it; also you can set it level anywhere. The Incubator must be set level to have the lieat even all over. Your floor is not always leivel, therefore you can make it so, and lotell whether it islevelornot, put a pie plate on the table or bench, fill it with water, and this will tell you as good as a spirit level. With our Incubator you don't have to stop and fuss, unscrewing the legs, all you do is to pick it up and carry it anywhere. It will go in any door made, if ever SQi small. The size of the Incubator is 44x20 inches, and it can be taken apart in a half minute, in three parts. It is the handiest, cheapest, and lightest weight Incubator made, by 200 pounds less than any other Incubator, same capacity. It don't weigh any more than those Bantam Incubators. It will out-last any other Incubator known. If reasonable care is taken it will last a lifetime, as none of the material used can rot, rust, break, or wear out in any way, and no leaky tanks tofuss with, as our Incubator is no hot water affair. The Secret of Our Incubator EGGS LAY ON SAND AND FEATHERS AND SHEEP WOOL PACKING— A NATURAL VENTILATION THERE FOR HEALTHY CHICKS. Eggs have that natural, oily glossy look. Did you not notice when a hen does the hatching the eggs look shiny. This is caused from the oil in feathers. Now all other incubators have a dry heat and yet sO' much moisture Is used, the eggs look dry. This is what makes weekly chicks. The hot, dry heat of poor ventilation kills the chicks in the eggs at all stages of incuba- tion. This is the real cause of so many fertile eggs dying in eggs. Our in- cubator is no air tight box. It is built just like a hen. The air goes in 40 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . through the wool and feathers and eather, besides our other airing sys- tem. If feathers and wool are just so well packed the air goes in th-e incu- bator. Our machine is the only one that is build like a hen and no lumber used to make it an air tight box. Nothing can live unless it has lots of air. Remember this when buying an incubator or a brooder. NO EXCUSES TO MzUCE—GUARANTEB TO ALL. We positively have no excuses to give why eggs did not hatch to satisfy yourself. All you do is to set some hens with the same eggs you filled the incubator with and at the same time, and if our incubator does not hatch as good as the hens, in. the same proportion, we refund your money without any lawsuits, etc., and also ask you to set another incubator, if you have them, side by side, at the same time with the same lot of eggs, that is from the same flock of hens, and if it will not out-hatch any incubator and any hen, in the same proportion., with a larger per cent, just drop us a card and we will please you. We don't want any dissatisfied customers, as one dissat- isfied customer will in. time circulate the news and will spoil any business no matter how good in practical points. We know some cannot make any thing go and will fail in everything they go into. But 70 per cent are reason- ably successful in any business, add there are some of the most intellingent men in the poultry business. A Direction Card WE DON'T SEND A BOOK OP DIRECTIONS THAT WILL PUT ANY MAN WILD, BUT JUST A CARD— THIS SHOWS HOW SIMPLE OUR INCU- BATORS ARE— WHAT WE ASK YOU TO DO. And it is only fair. Directions a -e sent with each incubator. We ask you to put in hen's eggs that are not over eight days old in our incubator, and not pullet's eggs unless the pullets are one year old. Hen's eggs make the largest, strongest chicks, that are hardy and healthy and hatch 50 per cent better. Also we don't guarantee every fertile egg to hatch if you yard your poultry, if you inbreed th'em, it you force for eggs, and are fed on mash and high, rich egg foods, etc. Feed hens mostly corn and otts and wheat and cut clover, etc., and give- them free range it possible and change of cockerels every day or so. Use three or four cockerels to 60 hens and you will have rich, strong eggs and fertile eggs that will hatch strong healthy chicks. Also you can put any color and size of sggs from any and all breeds in our incubator at one time. All eggs will dry down in proportion to the size of the eggs. All need and want just so much air, moisture and heat and the same degree of heat, and all other talk to the contrary is only waste of breath and time. PAN-AMERICAN WINNERS. Our customers have won prizes on poultry raised in our brooders. Also we have personally won over 200 prizes with our poultry in the past five years. This proves our machines are up to nature, as they were hatched and raised in our inventions. NOTE AT FIATCHING TIME. Our incuba.tor is so arranged that they cannot get over heated, as the heat and air is perfect. The chicks stay in nests as nature has provided, and NATURE AMD ITS NATURAL LAWS . 41 do not drop down under tray on the cold floor where there is a draft or an under current of cold air ten degrees cooler than where they were hatched the minute before, while yet wet. This is one of the greatest points incur machine of the inany we have over all other incubators. It will certainly pay you to look into this. Now at hatching time we lower the heat to 100 degrees. This is just right and as the hen does it. All other incubator man- ufacturers' directions are to run hea,t up even more, some say to 105. This is cruel and is one cause why chicks die in brooders. ' ' INSURANCE COMPANIES GRANT— FIRE PROOF INCUBATORS AND BROODERS. Our system of heating is so arranged that there is no possible chance for a fire at any time,, and our safety lamps are guaranteed not to smoke', ex- plode or char the wick in any way. A lamp as well as anything else wants lots of air and the secret is won. Why don't house lamps get hot? Because they get lots of air from below and the top is free and not put against a heater or tank to choke on account of the heat. No wonder so many lamps smoke; no wonder so many poultry houses burn down, causing a Ipss of from $100 to $2,000, from a cheap incubator or brooder and an unpractical lamp. In fact any cheap lamp will heat our incubator and brooder, because bur heating system is correct, as it should be. But we make 'lamps that are sure and safe, that you can depend on, and no insurance company will object to our lamps, aslknow. Whatdoes this mean to you? It means if you should have a fire from any cause you will ge: your insurance. But not if you use any other incubator or brooder, etc. POP OUT LIKE POP CORN— WONDERFUL. Chicks hatca out like pop corn in our incubator. It is simply a sight and wonder to see them pop out, all about the same time, eighteen to twenty hours after they pip the shell. Thousands have seen our Incubator work and all pronounced it a wonder. We guarantee our incubator to boys 14 years old, or any lady, to hatch just as many chicks in their care as the expert. This shows now simple our incubator is. Just as simple as a hen in every way. It should be simple tc hatch well and to be up to nature. Many years of experience tells me this. POX'T HATCH CHICKS IN JUNE— IT IS TOO HOT FOR THEM— FARM- ERS' DELIGHT. Our incubator is just the thing for the farmer, as it is 'simple and, don't rquire any care at all to speak of. You can leave the machine for three days without any care at all in any way and get a good hatch All farmers should try one or more and don't depend o i hens, etc. One acre of poultry will pay better than ten acres of corn or any other crop. This has been demon- strated. Also one thousand hens will pay better than forty cows with onen half the work and expense. This has been proven. IMPORTANT— THE NATURAL SAND— WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH OUR INCUBATOR. You can open the incubator ccmpletely off the nest, as you see it in the cui in this catalogue, as follows: When the chicks are hatching you can open the incubator when they are breaking out of the shells for five min- utes, to take a picture of them breaking out of the eggs. This I have done out doors in the spring when the wind was blowing. Now then when the 42 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. machine is closed the moist sand supplies the necessary moisture for the chicks and prevents chicks from dying in the eggs. It prevents the skin, from getting dry, etc. Now do this to any otber incubator and the whole ■hatch is spoiled. Take a hen when she has her nest on the moist ground tout doors, lift her off the nest when chicks are hatching to inspect the eggs or chicks, put her on again, and the rest of the eggs will hatch just as good, because the ground is moist and by setting on the eggs and ground it causes a soft, warm, moist heat so necessary when chicks are hatching. This :3 only one good point out of fifty in favor of sand in our incubators, as tie sand is kept just moist. THE SIGN OF A GOOD HATCH— ANIMAL HEAT. If you notice the thermometer raising from 103 to 104 or 105 on ,the fif- teenth or sixteenth day; in fact any time after the twelfth day, this i^ a sure sign of a good hatch. You will notice the heat is raising up in ths incubator; that is, the thermometer ivill raise, and the damper also will raise over the lapap heater. If you notice that the damper or the heat raid- ing in the incubator give the screw less play rcom, that is, tighten the screw on the regulator and lower the flame and when the heat is at 102 tighten the screw until the damper just raises about one-half of an inch over the opening where the heat goei out. You must watch this animo.l heat, as the chicks have heat of thoir own and it raises the heat in the resc of the incubator, Nothing makes me more happy than to see the heat going up in the machine. I can depend on a wonderfully good hatch every time-. The heat should be 102 the first week and 103 degrees after until hatching time; then, when they are breaking out of the egg 100 degrees, no more sure. RHODE ISLAND REDS— FERTILE EGGS IN MID WINTER. It is impossible to get many fertile eggs in winter. It is not natural, li all birds that have feathers rest in winter because it is too cold to raise birds in a natural way. The weather will not allow it in winter. It is not the nat- ural breeding season; therefore, all fowls and birds in this climate will not lay in winter nor breed in their natural course. Now to force them will lie but little for fertile eggs, one-fourth a re not fertile, so it don't pay to set any eggs of any kind until the middle or end of March on a small scale. But on a large scale it pays because thirty to one hundred incubators run, say, you set 10,000 eggs, 2,000 will be fertile in February of this lot. And say you hatch and raise 1,000 with the ordina}'y incubator and brooder on the ma,r- ket, those one thousand chicks will biing in the market in May $500.00. If they are ducklings, $1,000, as ducks weigh three times more than chicks at the same age. To get fertile eggs use Rhode Island cocks and cockerels and hens and you will be surprised what the Reds can do. They lay more eggs and more fertile, oirong eggs, and hatch more healthy, hardy chicks than any other two breeds put together. Eight years' experimenting teaches me this. A Wonderful Fowl EGGS AND BROILER FARMING— RHODE ISLAND REDS If you are after a good all around money maker, try the Reds. For the past twenty-five years I have given all breeds known to the standard a good test, from two to fifteen years, and settled down with Barred Rocks Wh^'t-^ NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 4S Rooks, Buff Rocks, Black Langshans, Light Brahmas, Whlfcei Leghorns, Bulif Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, and Pekin ducks. After testing the above eight well known popular breeds for eight years, with a close book account, a matter of record, the Black Langshans and the Reds beat all of them s» bad that I have decided to raise these two breeds only, on two separate farms. And as to the ducks, I shall buy my eggs to hatch them for market. It Is 200 per cent cheaper to buy the eggs than to keep breeding ducks, unless on a very large seal*. A PRACTICAL TEST. By actual figures, a matter of bookkeeping for eight years, the result in brief: BLACK LANGSHANS. The Black Langshans are the best all the year round layers known. They lay 200 per cent more eggs in fall and winter than any other breed,- when, eggs are money, 30 to 60 cents per dozen wholesale and retail. But the only objection I have to Langshans Is they„ have no yellow legs and must be hatched early in April to get them fully matured by fall. But for dollars and cents none can beat them laying in fall and winter, and they lay extra good at all seasons. They are the best mothers and wil Itake any chick and. mother it. This no other fowl will do. But when it comes to market them they are never ready for it. They grow too fast, are too large a breed, will weigh 10 to 14 pounds when two years old. They are never plump and fat, are most all legs and bones from just hatched to five months old. But afier that they are really the prettiest looking fowl known^ — jet black and every feather a deep green color. Very proud, head and tails always up, large broad breast, and are rustlers; will look for food and will not fiy like a Leghorn. They are very gentle and are admired by all, and sell faster than any other breed for looks. Fifty hens and pullets in cne flock averaged over 196 eggs- per year. One laid 239 per year. A record was kept by a trap nest and the hen was branded with a number. Three laid over 200 eggs each. But the average for the whole flock was 196 eggs. Also I always have won all prizes on them whenever shown in the strongest competition— the cream of the United States, and have won many prizes and silver cups. I will sell eggs of the Black Langshan for $15.00 per 100; $3.00 per 15. All score from 92 up to 96% points by the best poultry judges in the United States. If you want an» egg and show strain that are not inbred, of strong, healthy, hardy stock,, try some of my strain. They will win in any company, east or west, and I can make you a special guarantee that they will lay 190 eggs a year and toi win in any show. Stock for sale at any time from $3.00 to $25.00 each. And culls, just as- good and pure as others are, but not show birds, for $1.50 to $3.00 each, young or old stock. Chicks, three weeks old, ready to ship any distance, 50 cents each. I THE WONDERFUL RHODE ISLAND REDS. This breed is really the only money makers, the only all purpose fowii for egg farming and broiler business. Fifty hens and pullets averaged over 189 eggs each per year. Their color is a cherry red in cocks and cockerels; lit hens and pullets a mahogany red or reddish buff. They have deep golden skim and legs. In weight and size they are like the Buff Wyandotte, from 6 to 8' pounds. Cocks and hens are as round and blocky as can be had, are always^ ready for the market at any age from ten weeks to any age, and are as 44 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . round and as plump as a ball. They lay a larger brownish pink egg than any- other breed of their size. Their eggs are as large and often larger than, the Plymouth Rock eggs. Their eggs are strong shelled, never lay a soft shelled egg. They never fall off the roost dead, as Plymouth Rocks do. Are not al- ways setting on eggs, but when they do set make good mothers. Only about one-third of my flock wanted to set. They are easy to break up; are almost as good fall and winter layers as the banshans, and lay very good all spring and summer, better than any Leghojn hen. THE FASTEST GROWERS AND BEST BROILERS ARE THE RHODE ISLAND REDS. They can stand forcing better than any other breed and Wyandottes are not as good as the Reds in this ret-pect by 100 per cent. A matter of test side by side for the past eight years. I set ail kinds of eggs under hens p.nd in incubators and they are the first to break the shell. This shows vigor and health.- Their eggs are remarkably fertile. When others are only 60 per cent fertile the Reds are 90 to 98 per cent fertile and hatch strong, healthy chicks. Why so? Because they have not been inbred for fancy points; always was a farmers' fowl in the east. The state of Rhode Island is their native home. They are hardy. Like range cattle and wild horses they will find a full meal on the range where others would starve. It takes just half the feed to keep Rhode Island Reds, and they wiil grow faster than any other chick up to five months old; will weigh one pound heavier than any other breed from three to five' months. This shows their market quality and as a broiler for market. The pullets lay when five months old, are fully matured when at that age; grow as fast as Leghorns as to maturity and will weigh from two to three pounds more than Leghorns when matured. You can hatch Rhode Island Reds m July and they will be fully matured and up to weight and will liay by Chiistmas. Is there another breed that can do as good or better? If you know of anything better I will pay $10.00 ■each for them, so long as it has feathers and providing they are an all around market and egg farming fowl. I would not give up all my other popular breeds for the Rhode Island Reds if there was a better one. I have as good a flock of poultry as money can buy. All my stock are winners and score from 90 to 97 points and are for sale, young and old, for one-half the price generally asked for them. I have 100 that score over 93 points on an average, all this year's stock— Black Langshans, Light Bramias, Buff Wyandottes, White and Barred Rocks, etc. Write for prices. They must be sold by May 1st. Just think of show birds from $3 to $5 each, and the pick of .500. This year I will raise nothing but Reds and a few Langshans. Rhode Island Red eggs $15 per 100, $100 per $1,000. Breed- ing stock in season $3 each. SUCCESSFUL POINTERS TO POULTRY BREEDERS. I now have given you a few pointers which are the best breed to keep for ■egg farming and broiler business. The Rhode Island Reds must have free range when seasons will allow it. It don't pay to keep more than one breed on one farm, and it positively will not pay to fence in your poultry at any age after they are three weeks old. Rhode Island Reds will stand crowding In laying houses. I often have kept 200 in one flock and in one little house, and they laid more eggs and were more healthy than those kept in dozen lots by themselves. Frosty walls in winter is caused by too many fowls in one house. Now the. way I do is this. I always leave a window open no matter how cold, with muslin cloth over the opening. This lees out the foul airand NATURE AND TTS NATURAL LAWS . 45 lets in fresh air, and 200 hens in one bouse, 18x18, 7 feet high and 4 feet on other end will keep the house -warm in the coldest weather, because their own animal h-eat will keep the house warm. A shed with an open front should be built on thei house to make them a scratching place in straw during stormy days. Fresh air and lots of it and warm water and hot whole corn and oats, etc., will make them lay. I CHALLENGE INCUBATOR MANUFACTURERS— BAR NONE. I will challenge all incubator manufacturers to produce a better up-to- nature, practical incubator than tlie Natural Perpetual Hen Incubator, as follows: To produce an incubator that will run for three days without care, in any shape, form or manner at any stage of hatch. To produce an incuba- tor that will hatch more chicks and more strong, fully developed, large healthy chicks than our incubator, same capacity, season for season, side by side in any house or on ground. Also to produce an incubator that can hatch each and all eggs that are fertile, and have no eggs die in any stages of incubation. To run in any outhovse, in any season, in any climate. To produce an incubator where the eggs do not have to be taken out of Incu- bator at any time, and to run with less oil, time, and expense than the Nat- ural Hen Incubator. This challenge will be open for five years, and the test and challenge to be announced in any popular poultry paper. GUARANTEE— OUR GUARANTEE IS AS GOOD AS A BANK. That the Natural Hen Incubator will hatch more chicks and more large, strong, healthy, fully developed chicks with less number of dead chicks in eggs than any other incubator in the world. Also thiat it isa self regulating, self ventilating, self drying down of eggs without opening and closing ven- tilator slide, without using moisture water pans, without taking eggs out of incubator to cool, air, or turn them, and with less time, oil and care than any other incubator on the market, and that it will hatch as Inany and as large chicks as the hen can, same capacity. Also in any climate in the world. That it will heat up inside in three hours in the coldest weather and thirty minutes in spring and summer. That it will run three days without any care at all, with eggs in machine. To make this guarantee valid in a test the customer must hatch eggs side by side, season for season, with another incubator of different make, and if not successful, and with one wit- ness, makes an affidavit before the justice of the peace, we will then gladly re-. fund the money and 'freight expenses. Signed, The Natural Hen Incubator and Brooder Co. Freight Rates , Our goods are shipped to Chicago first, then run in on the proper shipping railroad. Chicago has over fifty diiferent railroads going to all parts of the United States. Is just like a wagon wheel- spokes. Chicago is the greatest shipping point in the United States. AVe are located forty miles west of Chi- cago. Below will be found the correct lates on one hundred pounds; Chicago to New York, 52 cents per 100 pounds. Chicago to California, $3.90 per 100 pounds. Chicago to Mississippi, 89 cents per 100 pounds. Chicago to Minnesota, 60 cents per 100 pounds. Chicago to Tennessee, 78 cents per 100 pounds. Chicago to Missouri, 65 cents per 100 pounds. 46 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. Chicago to Ohio, 41 cents per 100 pounds. Chicago to Washington and all interior mountain points, $3.90. Chicago to Arizona and all interior mountain points, f 3.60. Chicago to New Jersey and all interior mountain points, 65 cents. Chicago to Michigan and all interior mountain points, 35 cents. Long distance shipping requires two to four weeks, sure. So order ia time. This is important. Financial business standing references — Mercantile agencies — R. G. Dun & Co., box J. 171 La Salle street, Chicago. Home references, St. Charles, Xll — Mr. F. B. Hunt, Mayor; Mr. Frank Rockwell, Postmaster; John Stew- art & Co., Bankers. Express companies' — Wells Fargo and American Express companies. Railroads — Great Western railroad and Northwestern railroad. AH goods are sent to Chicago direct and then are shipped out ia all di- rections over seventy different roads, thereby you get good railroad seryloe. Mails arrive and depart thirty-four times daily. St. Charles city is one Ol the greatest manufacturing cities in the w«st, in the Fox River Valley. NO AGENTS WANTED. Because our goods cost double to make than any other incubator or 'brooder, and we have to sell them very close to meet competition. We want ■to give our customers full value for their money. THE NATURAL HEN BROODER AND BROODER HOUSE TUBE LAMP SYSTEM— FAMOUS ALL OVER THE WORLD— ARE USED IN E\'ERY COUNTRY AND ISLAND KNOWN— THE PERPETUAL HEN— A NEW NAME— WE WILL CALL OUR COMPANY HEREAF7ER THE PERPETUAL HEN CO.— THIS IS A SHORTER AND BETTER NAME— PERPEPTUAL MEANS SELF ACTING. As both our incubators and brooders are self acting, especially our incu- feator, same as a hen. This no other company can claim, and our inventions are fully covered. ADDRESS ALL MAIL TO The Perpetual Hen Company, St. Charles, Kane county. 111. Jno. Son- tag, President. Broiler Business Now Pays THE GREATEST DISCOVERY KNOWN— NATURE'S LAWS DUPLICA- TED—PATENTED BY JNO. M. SONTAG, THE INVENTOR— THE NATURAL HEN BROODER HOUSE SYSTEM Is positively the only invention that can and has raised over 90 per cent or the chicks. Never less than 80 per cent are raised on the average on a large scale where but little eare can be given. Chicks just hatched can be put in this system. NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 47 GUARANTEED TO HEAT UP THE BROODERS In thirty minutes in the coldest weather and to Iceep chicks warm, at any degree wanted, without any other heat in brooder house. No coal, no night watchman needed. Heat up any brooder yoii want without heating all of them. You can use any degree of heat you want in any one brooder or in all, as you need it for different sizes and ages of chicks and ducklings, with cme-half the time, labor and expense in running it than any hot water or any other system known. It is rat, mink, cat, and fire proof, and best of all, it will raise most every chick. Broiler business always was a failure because there was no brooder made that could raise the chicks. Tne average was only 30 chicks out of 160 put in brooder. Our letters from customers proves itself what our brooders and system has done, and it is improved this year, so that it is just like a hen covering the chicks. The chicks put their beaks and heads to heat, just likei nature. They get any heat they want, just as they wish it, and can not get over heated or chilled, and can get any temperature in the brooder they wish without going out of mother or from under the hover, also just like a hen does it. Chicks can put their heads out of mother in the fresh air and not get any draft or cold winds, etc. It will keep the chicks comfortable and warm if it is cold and changeable; weather has no effect on our brooders because of the heating system, which is the secret of this invention. Old timers in the broiler business are now having success with our goods, and thousands write us that they are looking for a better brooder, as they have tried all makes. This proves what all other brooders are, and those 15.00 brooders have killed more chicks and burned down more poultry houses than any cause. There is not a day but what we get one or two let- ters as follows: "I'm completely burned out. Our incubator or our brooder set everything on iire, and we can get no insurance, because the insurance companies would not insure the houses because the lamps and machines were not safe." If you doubt that other brooders en the market are not the causes of many diseases in chicks try this, as I have one hundred times: Take chicks that are hatched by hens, put them in a brooder and also let the hen take care of some of the same chicks, and the brooder will kill over half of them inside of three weeks, and the hen will raise every one of her chicks. Try this when just .hatched. It is worth trying to the doubting poultryman. It is a well known fact that 75 per cent of the chicks never see their feathers. Al^o try this: Put 100 chicks in our brooder and 100 in another brooder of a different make, and just as sure as shooting our brooder will rai^ most every chick when the others will not raise one-half of them. This has been demonstrated by my customers and by myself for years, over and over again. We had to send brooders on approval to convince the doubting ones, and we would get a telegram as follows: "Send us by fast freight one dozen brooders. Check on the way," etc. All are surprised with wonder. But we are not. I have made it a special business to invent a brooder that is up to nature and used it for many years on our own plant before we put it on the market. We have raised 90 to 97 per cent on a large scale. This year we raised 97 per cent of the chicks and 100 per cent of the ducks, and this year was the hardest year for chicks known for many years on account of the late, cold spring. Broilers sold for 35 cents per pound. Ducklings for 28 cents per pound. This price was up to July 4th. This speaks for itself. Other years the price was considerably lower. 48 MATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . CHALLENGE. I will challenge any brooder company to produce abetter up-to-nature brooder than the Natural Hen Brooder, and to raise as many strong, healthy chicks as ours can, anywhere, in or out doors, in and season, in any cli- mate, side by side. Our brooders ftave raised more chicks than the hens could. One of our out-door brooders raised 100 per cent this year, 89 chicks put in brooder and 89 raised, all fancy pure stock and some will go to the shows this winter, at least 30. We raised 400 pure stock, the rest market, Rhode Island Reds, etc. I set 34 hens at one time and they hatched well. But they would tramp on some and some were killed in other ways. But the brooders are 100 per cent better than hens in every way. That is, provid- ing the brooder is up to nature, otherwise hens are much better than the reg- ular brooder on the market. But it can not be done on- a large scale with hens. It will never pay unless you can do it by machines. You can set them in winter when hens don't, therefore gel high prices; also no lice, and in. fact, it takes as much time to care for a hen as it does for three brooders and raise them by the thousand. IMPROVED FOR 1902— MOTHER HENS SELF-ACTING. We have improved our brooders so that the chicks can not positivelj', tell the difference between our brooder mother and a real hen, because the chicks creep under the mother and the top of mother is soft, representing a, hen. The chicks touch their heads and beaks to the soft material over their backs. Now their backs are against the heat and so get warm, and they can lay down away from top cloth where the heat circulates and all the chicks can put their heads out where the temperature is from 10 to 40 degrees cooler than under the mother, and still keep warm. In all it is just like a hen setting on chicks, and yet they get all the fresh air they wish in undar mother and also outside of mother. We have large ventilators, two are five Inches round and the whole front can be opened for air; also the brooders are very light, large size glass so ihe sun can shine in brooder. Chicks can see to eat in any part of brooder. DESCRIPTION OF MOTHERS AND HEATERS— IMPROVEMENTS AND CONSTRTTCTION. Our hover is not a board covered with a few rags hung around, but it is a real mother. For that reason we call it mother hen. The mother is divided by a soft cloth, or in other words a false bottom divided two inch-^is from wooden top and in this separate part the heat circulates and also fresh air. The outside is leather old, wind and weather proof. No filth and water, etc., will stick to it, therefore everything is in a sanitary condition at all times. This holds the heat better than any other material used, there- fore more expensive. This leather is divided all around mother so chicks can go in and out easy; also this leather can be pinned or rolled up in spring and the chicks will keep plenty warm enough as the heat mostly is on lop and circulates all over this mother. At any time chicks can put their backs to this upper part and keep warm, in fact chicks can get any heat they want in mother without going outside of mother, anywhere from 70 to 105 de- grees at any timei and at any season. This means that chicks cannot get over heated and can not get chilled if very hot or cold, in any season, 20 be- low zero or 100 in the shade. Positively, weather has no effect on our brooder because our system of heating is so arranged that it will heat up a brooder in ■fifteen minutes in cold weather and in less than five minutes in warm weather. NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. 49 DUE THEEE D]EPAETMENT INDOOR SECTIONAL BEOODEB-No separate lamps to ■fill.— Self-acting.— A great time saver.— Weight 200 pounds.— 400 CbicliS Capacity.— This Is the cheapest and bett Biccder and all poultijmen should give this three depart- ment Brooder a trial. Price $36.00. 50 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS: Mr. Sontag, St. Charles, HI., America. Havana, Cuba. Dear Friend: I want toletyoultnow of my luck. Your brooders and heaters are a wonder. Eggs and chickens sell good after the war. We want to go In on a large scale. We raised 98 per cent o£ the chicks. I want you to eend me plans of your brooder house, natural hen system. Inclosed find $5. Please send prices of system at an early date. ANTONIABOSH. ; NATUKE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS. ' 51 This will give you an idea and explains all. Now then, this is what I call a real mother brooder, in other words sieM acting. PERPETUAL SELF ACTION. We positively have the only incubator and the only brooder and brooder house system that is self acting, perpstuai. One or two incubator companies claim their incubators are self acting and self supplied moisture. But they tell a bare faced lie. They have ventilation slides to guide them of air and moisture on top or on bottom of incubator, and you have to open or close these slides every few days and you have to be a weather prophet at that to have a successful hatch. And in warm weather they will not hatch chicks at all. They dry up in eggs. I know this to be a positive fact, and thousands can prove my statemenis. Not only can I prove it personally but can show over 1,000 letters that say those supposed self-supplied mois- ture incubators are no good at all in dry weather and barely hatch one^half the chicks, in wet weather, and must be put in a damp basement or cellar at that, and It is impossible to hatch healthy chicks that will live in a damp basement. For this reason they want you to put their incubators in base- ment. If you really want a self acting incubator and a self acting brooder give ours a trial. We have the only patent on what you call perpetual motion, and also the only patent that is up to nature, viz., a natural heat and airing system, natural moisture and a self filling lamp system, and a nautral mother, representing skin and feathers. We can prove our statements by patent papers and title, etc., of over IGO claims that are protested. THE SECRET OF CROWDING DISCOVERED. Our mothers prevent crowding as follows: The chicks will not pile on top of each other in corners, etc., to keep warm if they can put their heads and backs to the heat and touch their backs to a material representing skin and feathers, but this material must be fire proof so that the chicks will not burn their backs, etc. We have it so arranged that at any time and at any age chicks can not get burned or in any way hurt in the least, and th9 floor of brooder is supplied with sand about three inches thick. By the way sand is the very best material to use in a brooder or incubator for a great many reasons. Now suppose you have Just hatched chicks, put them in the brooder and the sand should be just deep enough on the brooder floor so the chicks can reach their backs to the upper part of mother by standing up, and as the chicks get older take out some sand. Never use a bare - floor nor straw in a brooder where the chicks hover in the mam floor whei;6 they sleep and keep warm. It is natural for all fowls and animals to walk and stand on soil. If you use any other substitute look for trouble of some kind. IMPROVED BROODER HEATER. We also have greatly improved our heaters. The heater is^a combined hotaTr^dhOtwa^rarrangement. It ^^'^l-l''l'^tTo:tZ if^s't the heater is filled up about once a week. It holds ^^°^^*i7°. ftSealth water. Now this mother supplies the mo s heat so neces^ry foj the health of the Chicks. There is - «-- f^ -^f ^J^/J /.^^^ tot that it will steam or boil. Now J f^^^^ ^^JfJ ^^' down under tho should leak after many years' use the water ^i^^ s" ._„„.._ g... , fcrooder and not leak down all over the chicks nor wet the brooder floor. I 52 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . have used our heaters for eight years and they have never leaked yet nor got rusty, as they are made of heavy galvanized iron, and if copper is wanted the charge is extra. PRACTICAL MERITS. The mother s&ts over this heater an.d the hot air goes iii this mother and circulates all over on top of the chicks' back when they put their hacks to the cloth. The heater is round, twelve inches in diameter and five inches high, and the heater has little holes on sides near the top so the moist heat can go in among the chicks and also the fresh air comes up from below Jieater, goes up in center of heater and passes over the water and also out of these little holes. The fresh air goes up in a separate flue and there is a separate flue for the hot air and fumes from lamp. In this way the air does not get cooked and the life taken out of it by the hot air. The chicks will hover anywhere in under mother and when they stand up they can put their backs to heat and will then be satisfied and not crowded. This is the whole secret of nature's laws. They connot nor will not crowd, get over heated nor chilled. Hundreds of customers can prove this, who^ used our brooders. It raises all the chicks often. CAPACITY OF HEATERS AND MOTHERS. AH heaters and mothers are alike and one size for any size brooder and brooder house system. The capacity is governed by the size of the room or brooder box. The larger the box the more chicks you can put in brooder, that Is the more room they will have for exercise. All our mothers will hover 200 chicks up to two or three weeks old. But we advise only lOO chicks put in one brooder. This is common horse sense. I have kept and raised 200 chicks in our Storm KingBjooder until they were almost six weeks oW and so have my customers, but this is not fair and the chicks will not do so well nor grow so fast, etc. In other words it is cruelty to chicks. ;rhe reason I done so was in my experiments, to see if they would crowd, etc., and I raised over 95 per cent of them even when crowded, but those that had lots of room and only 75 to 100 in one brooder would outgrow all others that were crowded and even older. If you see an advertisement of a 300 chick brooder just put that fellow down for Rn unpractical manufacturer. Our Fixtures and Prices CAN BE PUT IN ANY BROODER MADE IN A FEW MINUTES. Also can be taken apart in a second to clean out brooder, to air it, etc., or to use brooder for a roosting coop, etc., and our fixtures cost us more to make them than any other complete brooder, therefore we can not sell a brooder nor even fixtures for ?5, like some brooders that are sold They are, chicken killers and fire traps. To make a brooder, mother and heater takes time and lots of material to have it up to nature, and so that it will raise the chicks, not a few, but all of them, and never less than 80 per cent at any time. It will and has avetaged 96 per cent all over the United States and for some for years on my former large plant. PRICE OF FIXTURES. Complete fixtures, heater, lamp, mother and fume pipe, etc., boxed ready to ship, weighs 40 pounds, and will go anywhere by freight for 60 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAWS . 53 cents; express $1.00, east, and west about double that. With this outfit we send blue prints that show how to make or remodel brooders, and feeding directions that will surprise you. Price complete ?8, and it will pay for itself the first lot of chicks. Copper heater $1.50 extra. SIZES OF FIXTURES— SIZE OF MOTHER AND LAMP, ETC. All our mothers are 30 inches in diameter and round. The lamps are eight inches high and oil tank eight inches wide and 16 inches long, two inches deep. Hold about three quarts of oil. If mother is placed on top of heater ready for business the height over all is nifte inches from brooder floor, and the flue is five in diameter. The hole in brooder floor should be ten inches in diameter. To set the heater on the floor a collar is nailed on the brooder floor to hold the heater in place, so that the flue for the lamp is in the center of the hole and also directly over the lamp chimney. This will now give you an idea. If you want to remodel your brooder you now iJave with OTir fixtures we can make to order smaller mothers, that is 24 inches in size, if you wish it to go in on a very small brpoder. In fact our fixtures will go into a brooder 12 inches deep to give room for the fume pipe. If you want copper heaters the price is $9.i-.0 for complete fixtures. HIGH PRICED BROODERS VS. CHEAP BROODERS, If a brooder costs three times more than any other and it raises the chicks it is the cheapest brooder because it pays for itself the first batch of chicks it raises ihat the others could not raise. We guarantee that our brooders will pay for themselves in the first lot of chicks it raises. Then you will talk diiferent. It is what you raise that counts and not what you iiatch. There is absolutely no brooder on the market that is as good as ours, as it has been tested side by side with all makes by old and experienced poultry and broiler men. In fact there is a revolution among all poultry men in the United Sta.tes. All are wild over our invention and our goods ad- vertise themselves, and hundreds go to see our goods wherever they are sold. Our goods will do their own selling. It is only a matter of a few years. PAINTED A BRIGHT, EXPENSIVE BLUE AND RED COLOR. We nicely paint our brooders, some a red scarlet color or a blue that shows well from a distance and are buiit for practical work. They are wind and rain proof and positively fire proof and no rats, cats, dogs or minks can get in brooder. The lumber is A No. I select white pine, something that will stand the weather. It is the very best lumber for this purpose and painted with the most expensive paint sold. The roofs are well leaded with white lead, so as to make it water proof and guaranteed not to leak. A tin roof is the worst thing to put on a brooder. It draws the heat and cold and the chicks will either roast or freeze. The reason tin is used is to cover up the knot holes and badly made roofs, and the tongued and grooved parts do not fit well. Also it shows how practical brooder manufacturers are by putting a tin roof on a brooder. j Incubator and Brooder Lamps SIXTY-HOUR ANTI EXPLOSION, SMOKELESS LAMPS— ANOTHER IM- PORTANT INVENTION. Our lamps will not smoke nor ejplode. This we guarantee to all. Also ■will burn positively from 60 to 90 hoUrs, depending on the season, without 54 NATURE AND ITS NATURAL LAM^S . filling with aur No. 1 wick, and with our No. 3 burner and wick will last 48 hours in the coldest winter weather right out doors. It uses three quarts of oil in that time. Two quarts of oil will last 90 hours in spring (150 test oil) and keep our brooder warm. But no other make of brooders are arranged proper to save oil. But if our brooder and incubator lamps are used in other makes you ar^ sure of no fires, sure of no smoke, etc. Also this im- portant point, our lamps will burn a full flame and heat until thelastdrop of oil is gone. The oil and burner is surrounded by a water jacket, the oil feedsi the wick by a tube, the wick tube is always supplied with oil and away from oil tank proper, so that oil is six inches away from burner, so that no gas can form by the heat of lamp and the wick will not char any further than the flame uses. Here is where the danger is. Most all lamps char and get red hot way down to the oil, then the oil fills up with gas and then it explodes. But we have prevented this. Our lamps; also have an air outlet and an oil Indicator on oil tank so you can tell when it is empty. The water will last a week without refilling. Always use water around lamp burner; one pint will be plenty, and you don't have to 1111 it every day like other lamps. Also other safty lamps smoke terribly and the incubator and brooder cannot be heated up in cold weather and if the flame is raised it smokes, and often the flame raises when you think it is safe. Our lamp will always be found as you left it. The fiame will not raise. All we ask is to trim the lamp once a day and brush off the dust and char in the little air holes in burner, and once a month boil out the burner in hot weather. In winter not at all. All our burners are on hinges and are the best money can buy. They are called Sun Hinge burners, made specially for us. Cost us 35 cents each in 100 lots. Lamps are all made alike for incu- bators and brooders, and if you want to sleep well at night when you have incubators and brooders running try one of our lamps: Lamps with No. 1 burner and chimney $1.25 each. Lamps with No. 3 burner and wicks and chimney J1.35. Or with reducer, from 1 to 3, two sets, for summer and winter use. This outfit will save you oil and worry. Complete, two sets of burners, etc., |1.59 each. Per dozen, a matter of correspondence. Patented, long tube lamp system also a matter of correspondence, as you will have to let us know just what you want as to distance of burners and whether for incubators or brooders, etc. This system will save a lot of time. oil, etc. No lamps to fill, no watching, all self acting, and you can use any incubator or brooder you want without using all of them you don't need for any age of chicks and ducklings. INCUBATOR AND BROODER THERMOMETERS. They are tested and are the very best made and handy. Our incubator theremometers are large in figures so you can easily see what temperature the heat is without opening the door. We advise to hang theremometers over eggs so that the bulb end of thermometer is just even with top of eggs then It will be out of your way, always in place and chicks can not knock it over when hatching, etc. BROODER THERMOMETERS tZw%T '""°"°'^^'i^y ^°«