Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and JapanKing, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Science
Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan
King, F. H. (Franklin Hiram)
Agriculture -- China; Agriculture -- Japan; Agriculture -- Korea
After the fourth day in the incubator all eggs are turned five times
in twenty-four hours. Hens' eggs are kept in the lower incubator
eleven days; ducks' eggs thirteen days, and geese' eggs sixteen
days, after which they are transferred to the trays. Throughout the
incubation period the most careful watch and control is kept over
the temperature. No thermometer is used but the operator raises the
lid or quilt, removes an egg, pressing the large end into the eye
socket. In this way a large contact is made where the skin is
sensitive, nearly constant in temperature, but little below blood
heat and from which the air is excluded for the time. Long practice
permits them thus to judge small differences of temperature
expeditiously and with great accuracy; and they maintain different
temperatures during different stages of the incubation. The men
sleep in the room and some one is on duty continuously, making the
rounds of the incubators and brooders, examining and regulating each
according to its individual needs, through the management of the
doors or the shifting of the quilts over the eggs in the brooder
trays where the chicks leave the eggs and remain until they go to
the store. In the finishing trays the eggs form rather more than one
continuous layer but the second layer does not cover more than a
fifth or a quarter of the area. Hens' eggs are in these trays ten
days, ducks' and geese' eggs, fourteen days.
After the chickens have been hatched sufficiently long to require
feeding they are ready for market and are then sorted according to
sex and placed in separate shallow woven trays thirty inches in
diameter. The sorting is done rapidly and accurately through the
sense of touch, the operator recognizing the sex by gently pinching
the anus. Four trays of young chickens were in the store fronting on
the street as we entered and several women were making purchases,
taking five to a dozen each. Dr. Haden informed me that nearly every
family in the cities, and in the country villages raise a few, but
only a few, chickens and it is a common sight to see grown chickens
walking about the narrow streets, in and out of the open stores,
dodging the feet of the occupants and passers-by. At the time of our
visit this family was paying at the rate of ten cents, Mexican, for
nine hens' and eight ducks' eggs, and were selling their largest
strong chickens at three cents each. These figures, translated into
our currency, make the purchase price for eggs nearly 48 cents, and
the selling price for the young chicks $1.29, per hundred, or
thirteen eggs for six cents and seven chickens for nine cents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account