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303   TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTHERN WISCONSIN
ber of chicks hatched out too early, unless you have a glass
house to receive them, hens and all, for ordinarily they are
a source of trouble, annoyance, and generally a large per-
centage of them are lost; but of course, if an incubator and
an artificial mother are used it is a different thing; but even
then it hardly pays to hatch out chicks intended for breed-
ing before the first or middle of February. This is plenty
early enough for all practical purposes, for when hatched at
this time they will make file, large pullets in the fall, and if
judiciously taken care of will commence laying early, and
will keep laying right along if they art properly managed.
The large breeds should be mated together sooner than
the smaller varieties, for it takes an Asiatic chick much
longer to mature than it does a Leghorn, and for this reason
they should be set earlier, and the chicks hatched out earlier
in the season so as to give them more time to grow and be-
come matured.
When hens are used for hatching chicks they should not
have more than nine or eleven eggs given them for the first
setting, for if they have more the eggs are liable to be ex-
posed and get chilled through, and thus destroy the chicks
in them.
Incubators are quite valuable at this season of the year,
if for no other reason than that they can be set going at
any time, for in many cases it is a hard matter to get hens
that wi'l sit early enough; but with an incubator you can
put in as many eggs as you want, and of course they will all
hatch out together; and if a good brooder is used in raising
the chicks, they will not give near as much trouble and
vexation as they would if the hen had them. - H. S. Waldo
in Poultry Mfonthly.
THE SHEEP BREEDERS' CONVENTION.
The fifth annual festival of the Central Wisconsin Sheep
Breeders' and Wool Growers' Association was held at the
fair grounds, in this city, May 1st and 2d. The weather was
extremely disagreeable and the number of entries was there-