Book excerpt: Excerpt from Natural and Artificial Incubation of Hens' Eggs Artificial incubation has been practiced from very ancient times. Records are extant which give' reliable information concerning methods of incubation by the early Egyptians. The incubators were made of reed baskets and were lined with fermenting manure to heat the eggs. This crude method gave excellent results, due to the skill of the operators. Artificial incubation has-been carried on in China for centuries, and the incubators satisfactorily used there'to-day are similar in construction and management to the earlier devices. (fig. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.