March 7, 1867. ] 



JODBNAIi OP HORTIOtTLTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



187 



two covering the dung with dry earth powdered, and sprinkling 

 tro or three handf uls of McDougal's disinfecting powder, costing 

 10s. 6d. per cwt. ; and although I only clean the house out 

 every three or four weeks, there is no smell upon opening the 

 door in the morning. 



I write in the hope of inducing some who now keep mongrels 

 to try this cross breed. I can assure them, once they do so they 

 will never again keep mongrels ; and from experience I can 

 safely say that any person having twelve of these fowls will never 

 he a single day in winter without eggs, no matter how severe 

 the weather may be. My fowls never ceased laying during the 

 late severe weather. — Pro Bono PnBLico. 



BRAHMA POOTRAS. 



In your answer to me, No. 308, page 156, you say your ex- 

 perience does not agree with mine, as you do not find Brahmas 

 eat according to their bulk. In order to test the matter I have 

 adopted your suggestion, and carefully kept account of the 

 food consumed in four days by six Brahmas and twenty-three 

 common farmyard fowls, the result will prove that Brahmas 

 are enormous eaters compared with common fowls. 



The Brahmas are confined in a run 36 feet long by 7 wide, 

 the twenty-three common fowls in a run 48 feet long by 24 

 wide. They were all kept on bruised oats for two days, and the 

 next two days on bruised barley. The result is as follows : — ■ 



TWO DATS ON BRUISKD OATS. 



6 Brahmns, 18 pints, weight 5 lbs., value at is. per bshl. of d. 



3 stones 5J 



23 Common fowls, 84 pints, weight 8J lbs., ditto ditto ditto . 9| 



TWO DATS ON BRUISED BAELET. 



6 Brahmas, 7^ pints, weight 3 lbs. 14 ozs., value at 5a, Zd. per bshl. 



of 52 lbs U 



28 Common fowls, 16 pints, weight 8.^ lbs., ditto ditto ditto . 10' 



The birds are all adult fowls. This experiment proves that 

 six Brahmas eat as much as twelve barndoor fowls of crushed 

 oats, and as much as ten barndoor fowls of crushed barley. In 

 fact, one Brahma will eat nearly as much as two common 

 fowls, such as are called Dorkiugs in farmyards. 

 . You recommend Spanish for confinement. If I give up 

 Brahmas, may I ask if they lay as many eggs as Brahmas, and 

 if they are hardy in confinement ? — J. E. Beyion. 



[We cannot understand why your fowls eat so much more 

 than ours. Are you much patronised by small birds, or has 

 anything access to the pen ? When food is laid down over- 

 night, rats often eat it. We cannot understand why the dif- 

 ference exists between oats and barley, both being crushed, or 

 why the common fowls should eat more and the Brahmas less 

 when fed on barley. We advise you to keep to the oats. They 

 are better for the birds and cost less. We still say your fowls 

 cost too much to keep, and think you will do well to try whole 

 com measured. This would be only an experiment. A pint 

 of com should feed a fowl three days. — B.] 



INCUBATORS. 



" A. H. S. W." makes a serious error when he assumes that 

 the facts I stated in the .Tournal of Feb. 14th were not tested 

 by means of a self-registering thermometer ; on the contrary, 

 I beg to inform him that they were, and I am anxious you 

 should allow me a few lines to say this, as it may appear that 

 I am careless in what I state, and am not to be relied upon. 

 I think he ought to have ascertained this point from me per- 

 sonally before putting it forth that I was assuming. 



I can further asseverate that the incubator I am working has 

 not for more than a week past been higher in temperature than 

 106°, or lower than 95° ; this is with the attention of three or 

 ttour, certainly not five minutes daily, and I leave it from 

 11p.m. until 7.30 a.m. without attention. The evaporation 

 of water in the boiler is so slight that I have not found it 

 necessary to add any water for nearly a fortnight ; and this 

 fact alone proves that the incubator works equally — when the 

 machine is once in properworkingorder very little heat suffices 

 to keep it on the balance. 



"A. H. S. W." states that he found it quite impossible to 

 ieep my incubator always at the right temperature. I am free 

 to confess that it is in the last degree impossible to keep it or 

 any other always exactly at an equal temperature ; but it is by 

 no means difficult to keep it to a range of 8° or 10", which is 

 allowable, and is quite safe, so long as the medium is about 

 102°, and perhaps it will be remembered that I stated last 



August that I worked an incubator for two months without 

 altering the supply of heat during the whole time. 



No one can be more gratified than myself if "A, H. S. W." 

 has really succeeded, as he believes he has, in constructing an 

 " Eureka " incubator, one that requires little or no attention ; 

 but I very much doubt this, and am son7 to differ from him. 

 I may say on my own responsibility and without fear of con- 

 tradiction, that it is impossible to construct an incubator 

 which will not be affected in some degree by the variations 

 of external temperature. When warmer weather comes he 

 will find his incubator subject to the same contingencies to 

 which all others naturally are, and I argue that it by no means 

 follows that because the heating source is at boiling point the 

 eggs will therefore be at the gi-eatest degree of temperature 

 they will reach ; for the simple reason, that being some dis- 

 tance removed from the heating source, as they necessarily 

 must be, the distance between will be liable to be acted upon 

 by outward temperature ; and the comparatively much greater 

 expense his incubator must involve to keep it continually at so 

 great a heat, detracts from the value of the machine, as so 

 much is needlessly lost. — John Brinoley. 



HYBRIDISATION— PLURALITY OF QUEENS IN 

 A HIVE. 



In investigating the various phenomena exhibited in bee 

 life, we should ever be careful that our observations be accu- 

 rately made, and the inferences drawn from them be in accord- 

 ance with facts. This is especially necessary with regard to 

 the subject of hybridisation brought forward by Jlr. West, and 

 also to that of a plurality of queens, alluded to by " A Lanabk- 

 SHinE Bee-keeper." With regard to the first, the subject 

 appears to me to be entirely inexplic.^ble according to any other 

 hypothesis than this — taking for granted always that the Italian 

 bee in our possession is itself pure and free of all taint — that 

 the young queens meet with more than one variety of drones. 

 The consideration of this question evolves some points of a 

 very interesting character. I could wish that I had the facilities 

 with regard to locality, of carrying out some few simple ex- 

 periments to settle definitively the points still in doubt. 



I was in hopes that your valuable correspondent " R. S." 

 would, from his favourable position, do something in this way, 

 as, I believe, it was his intention ; but though some obstacles 

 may have interposed hitherto, I hope he will renew his endea- 

 vours during the coming season, and favour us with the results. 



There is one point about which all seem to be agreed — 

 namely, the rapidity of deterioration in the Italian bee when 

 kept in proximity to the English bee ; and this is the case 

 apparently when, in the circumstances, the probabilities all 

 point in another direction, as, for instance, when the Italian 

 element is in the ascendant. According to the doctrine of 

 parthenogenesis, a ligurianised apiary should not deteriorate, 

 even in circumstances where impurities manifest themselves. 

 A restoration to its normal condition, in the absence of all 

 foreign influence, should even then be a matter of time only. 

 Is there any apiarian whose experience uniformly coincides 

 with this result '! 



I observe that in Mr. S. Bevan Fox's remarks on hybridi- 

 sation (4th December, 1866), he leans to the opinion that the 

 paternal influence diminishes with the age of the queen. In 

 the case supposed by Mr. Fox — namely, if the hybrid queen 

 had been superseded and her successor crossed by his Lignrian 

 drones, of which ho says there were large numbers close at 

 hand, then, so far from that being a cause of the degeneracy 

 he observed, it should, according to parthenogenesis, have 

 increased rather than deteriorated the purity of the progeny. 

 It is only in isolated apiaries, however, where such questions 

 as this can be well determined, and the subject is one on this, 

 as weU as on other grounds, weU worth prosecuting. 



I see it is the opinion of the Editors (No. 305), that a dis- 

 tance of five miles is not beyond the limits in which hybridi- 

 sation may take place. I should be inclined to doubt this, and 

 would feel obliged by their kindly favouring us with the grounds 

 of this opinion. 



In regard to a plurality of queens in a hive, an old and a 

 young one. we should always be careful in drawing inferences, 

 as in the case narrated by Mr. George Fox, of Kingsbridge (18th 

 April, 1865) ; and I have had several instances in my own apiary, 

 where from the desertion of the queen and bees from one 

 hive to another we may be deceived. In the case referred to, 

 a queen was found encased at the entrance of a hive in which 



