One of them had dropped a bull calf two days before leaving
the home farm. The calf had been left, and the mother was in an
uncomfortable condition, with a greatly distended udder and milk
streaming from her four teats, though Thompson had relieved her thrice
while _en route_.
I was greatly pleased with the cows, but must not spend time on them
now, for things are happening in my factory faster than I can tell of
them. Johnson had built some primitive hotbeds for early vegetables out
of old lumber and oiled muslin. He had filled them with refuse from the
horse stable and had sown his seeds.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FIRST HATCH
On February 3 the incubator lamps were lighted under the first invoice
of one thousand eggs. The incubating cellar was to Sam's liking, and he
felt confident that three weeks of strict attention to temperature,
moisture, and the turning of eggs, would bring results beyond my
expectations.
After the seventh day, on which he had tested or candled the eggs, he
was willing to promise almost anything in the way of a hatch, up to
seventy-five or eighty per cent.
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