house is a 3-foot passageway with a door opening out at each end. The brooders run the length of the building alongside this passageway and are heated by hot water pipes from a No. 2 "Thayer Hot Water Heater." This is located at the west end, in a 4 by 5 pit that is 3 feet deep, and is connected with a cement chimney. This size of heater has a capacity much greater than is required to heat this house, and, it is thought, will be sufficient should it be extended 50 feet, or if a double brooder house, 25 feet long running north and south, should be connected with it.

The flow pipes consist of two one-inch pipes connected by headers and run the whole length of the building within the brooders. The return pipes are the same in size and number and both run side by side, the return being in front. There is a slight pitch to the pipes, the end farthest from the heater being higher, about 5 inches rise in the 35 feet.

At this end, farthest from the heater, they extend upright and project above the brooders about 18 inches where the flow is connected to the return by a header. From this highest point in the circulation, a vent pipe for the escape of steam, rises and turns down into the water tank just above. A feed pipe, in which there is a check valve to prevent water backing up, runs from the bottom of the water tank and connects with the return pipe at its lowest point at this end of the building.

The brooders are boxed up, having hinged covers above and a slide in front, so they may be closed tightly, thus enabling one to confine most of the heat if necessary. They are also lighted by a pane of glass, 3 by 10, inserted in the front of each. The brooders are about 2 feet from front to back; the passageway being 3 feet wide, leaves the pens about 9 feet long. There are eleven of these indoor pens, six of them 2 feet wide and five 5 feet wide. The brooders are of the same width as the pens and a foot high. They are not enclosed within the pens but their slides open into them. One-inch mesh, wire netting is used for the partitions. Doors open out over the brooders at the back of each pen and

give access from the passage way. The brooders, not being in the pens, are more easily looked after; the covers may be raised for ventilation or thrown back entirely, to give more heat to the building. The pipes in the brooder nearest the heater are 4 or 5 inches from the ground and 10 inches high at the other end, but the chambers may be filled up and the distance lessened, if desired. The pens were made of a width to contain one or two windows. The windows are 28 by 23 inches and are located high enough to give room for a slide door beneath, 8 inches high. These doors are half as long as the space beneath the windows. This building and system of piping has up to the present time proved satisfactory. The building is not floored but was made rat proof in the following way: The earth was excavated to the depth of 12 inches below the bottom of the sills. Hemlock boards one foot wide were nailed to the posts upon which the sills rest and close up to the sill around the building, and the entire ground surface inside the building was then covered with wire netting, half inch mesh, laced together with wire at all joints and extending up to the sills where it was securely fastened. The house was then filled, level with the sills, with fine gravel.

An illustration of this building is given opposite.

The work with incubators has been subordinate to other experiments. As good success has been had in hatching with incubators as with hens. When large numbers of chickens are to be reared there is no question as to the great advantage derived from using incubators and brooders. The new "Challenge" incubator gives as good satisfaction as any machine we have tried (Monarch, old style, and Prairie State) and is run with the least labor.

Experiments in caponizing were continued the past season, and birds were operated upon here and in various parts of the State to teach the operation. Capons were shown at the several Agricultural Fairs and at the winter Poultry Exhibition. Bulletin No. 20, Dec., 1892, gives the results of the experiments of two seasons and our study of the subject; the method of operating and the