May 5, 1S70. 1 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



that he doubled his surface by making it as uneven as possible. 

 Ever since then we have been beset with an idea of poultry 

 landscape, an accidented surface. We are sure that fowls get 

 as tired of the flat, dreary uniformity of an ordinary pen as we 

 do of looking at it. For young and old now, except in wet 

 weather, we have the surface of the pens constantly dug up, and 

 left as roughly as possible ; once or twice in the week we have 

 it all piled in a hill. We constantly add to the surface of the 

 pens by the addition of road grit, but we always pile it in a 

 heap. Whether with young or old, it is soon scratched out and 

 levelled. The employment is not half the advantage ; while 

 they are searching and scratching they find food constantly, as 

 they never leave off picking. At all ages we notice the avidity 

 with which they pick out and swallow every morsel of green stuff. 

 That reminds us of a promise we made ourselves many years 

 ago — that we would warn poultry fanciers against over-feeding, 

 especially with corn food. Abroad every refuse leaf from the 

 garden is carefully saved for the poultry, and they like it, and 

 do well upon it. Cabbage3 in a Belgian garden always remind 

 us of Middlesex elm trees — a long b*re stem with a bunch of 

 boughs at the top. The heart of a Belgian cabbage sooner or 



Caps will be given for the best pen of certain varieties, including my 

 friends the Light Brahmas, in whose behalf a well-known exhibitor 

 has undertaken a canvas. As my favourites are thns provided for, 

 I am endeavouring to pet up a cup for the best pen of Game fowl, to 

 be given in lieu of. first prize. In this breed there will be two classes, 

 one for Black-breasted and other Reds, the other for Duckwings or any 

 other variety. 



As I am not so well acquainted with those gentlemen who are in- 

 terested in Game as with the Light Brahma breeders, I shall feel 

 grateful if any of your readers who are Game fanciers will help with a 

 subscription on reading these lines. — John* Paces, Postford, near 

 Guildford. 



CROSSING SITTERS AND NON-SITTERS. 

 Having noticed in your "Letter Box" a communication on 

 the above subject, I venture to offer my own experience in the 

 matter. Owing to two of my sitting hens stealing their nests 

 in a wood, I became the owner of about twenty chiokens from a 

 Crtre-Coeur cock and mongrel Game hens. Most of the chickens 

 were pullets, and during my absence from home they began to 

 lay, so that being short of hens I did not kill them, but kept 

 them until the following autumn. I found that the half-breds 



later must find its way into the pnt-au-feu, but every sprout is ^ remarkablv wel] a £ d with J^ or tw0 exceptions showed 

 equally certain to go to the poultry. It is far better for them nQ . , fc -. b ' roody a Juna and Jul £ when T t 



than all corn. The latter becomes too heating, and when much 

 Indian corn is given it is also too fattening. It prevents the 

 formation of healthy eggs, and when they are formed it makes 



it almost impossible they should be laid. Fat and internal 

 fever s'ay their thousands in the laying season. The feather- 

 picking, of which so many complain, is, we believe, caused by 

 internal fat and fever — a condition of body that is destructive 

 to natural appetite, and yet causes an unhealthy craving which 

 fowls seek to satisfy by any expedient. In this state they — 

 like over-fed and pampered lap-dcgs — wilt turn away from food 

 that would be delicious even to a human being, to feed on any 

 garbage, especially that which is decayed and offensive. This 

 makes them cannibals. Let us imagine for a moment the con- 

 dition of penned fowls in places where they are kept scrupu- 

 lously clean, fit to be shown to friends at any time ; the level 

 run in front of the roosting house, smooth, as the owner boast- 



Ducks' eggs under several of them, and found they sat very 

 closely and with great success ; but I think little of that, 

 as it i3 easy to make any hen that is tame sit well and where 

 you wish her. I do not advocate cross-breds for sitting, but I 

 am sure that for laying eggs they are as good as, or better 

 than, most of the purebred sorts. — Cbeve-Coztjb. 



FLYING TUMBLERS— BIRMINGHAM ROLLERS. 

 No. 2. 

 My last article concluded with a description of what I con- 

 sider to be the best and safest mode of procedure in commenc- 

 ing to raise a flight of Tcmblers. 



If the fancier does not care for a little expense, he can, of 

 course, dispense with the commoner birds, and commence at 

 ingly observes, as a billiard-table, carefully swept every morning ' once to fly the more expensive ones. It does not follow that 

 with a hard broom till it forms a surface on which a grain of j because they are more expensive he will be sure to lose them, 

 corn or maize will roll and run, almost bound along — it is the I The chances are, however, greatly against his keeping them all 

 small garden, laid down in lawn, with here and there a flower. J where an entirely new start is made. By not flying them or 

 We would breik up the surface, pile the broken earth in two ; knocking them about, he gives them a better chance of breed- 

 er three mounds, bury ia them somo sods of growing grass, j ing, and, of course, raising a flight of young birds quicker, and, 

 and throw in some grit or ashes. The listless, spiritless fowls ' if they are of a good strain, he has always the nucleus of another 

 will become busy active workmen, like ants in and on their j good flight, should any misfortune befall his flying birds at 

 hill, and health will return. I any time. In Birmingham and the neighbourhood a beginner 



This has been a long digression, but we have complaints of i has every advantage. He can purchase two or three gx>d pairs 

 chickens dying, with lamentations over the east wind ; and of birds from a neighbouring fancier on the condition that he 

 when the east wind goes, then the drought ; and when the I has them " broken to him." The meaning of this phrase is, 

 drought is gone, then the wet. We have gardened for our I that every time they go back to their old home they shall be 

 adults and chickens, and they have never done better. We I returned to him, until they get a sufficient knowledge of their 



give them lots of green food. Neither adults nor chickens are 

 ever without growing grass. We place the lanes under con- 

 tribution ; under the hedges, where it is damp, and the grass 

 grows, we dig up turfs with lots of earth. The fowls eat the 

 grass the first day, and when it i3 turned over the next day, 

 they eat the earth. 



MANGOLD WURZEL FOR POULTRY. 

 A few years ago I fed my fowls on barleymeal mixed into a 

 paste with boiled mangold wurzel instead of with water. They 

 kept in capital condition and laid well. This year my hens have 

 eaten a great quantity of pulped Swedes and mangolds, and 

 have been very healthy. I took the idea of boiling the 

 m ing"'! Is from my father, who found that they kept his fox- 

 hounds in a cool healthy state during the summer, and who 

 used them largely for that purpose. — Cbeve-Cosub. 



GUILDFORD POULTRY SHOW. 



Will yon permit me to inform your readers that a poultry show, 

 open to all England, will be held at Guildford next July ? The situ- 

 ation of Guildford, in an agricultural and poultrv-breeding neigh- 

 bourhood, with railways converging from six different directions, and 

 within thirty miles of the metropolis, is eminently favourable to a 

 successful show. An influential committee has been formed, to which 

 we shall be happy to add the names of any who may desire it. A 

 guarantee fund and subscription list have been opened. 



Three prizes of £2, £1, and 10.?. will be offered in each of the usual 

 poultry classes. There will also be classes for Pigeons and Rabbits. 



new abode. When they have acquired that, instead of letting 

 them into their old loft when they return, their former pro- 

 prietor drives them up again, and after a time or two they 

 settle quietly down to their new residence. The advantage of 

 this plan is the very little risk there is of losing them in 

 getting them stout— this is, well acquainted with their homes. 

 Then, again, the plan I recommend of purchasing cheaper 

 birds has an advantage in another way, and especially in this 

 neighbourhood, and it is this : In almost all the numerous 

 " cages " or Pigeon shops that there are in this town and 

 neighbourhood, there is what is called a "caught hole" — that 

 is, a pen into which all birds that are caught are put. Hundreds 

 of Tumblers are lost and caught in Birmingham every week, 

 most of which find their way into the cages. Unless the persons 

 who catch them happen by chance to see them good before 

 they are caught, they can be purchased at Is., Is. 3d., or Is. 6d. 

 each according to their looks, so that a beginner has only to 

 get a judge to pick him out a few of these birds, and the chances 

 are that most of them will, when he gets them home and flies 

 them, turn out to be good Rollers or mad Tumblers. Thi3 is 

 well understood by all experienced fanciers, as they know by 

 sad experience that in a " fly-away," or from any other cause, 

 if any of their birds are missing, it invariably happens that 

 they are the best. Take, for instance, the loss of the two 

 fanciers I alluded to in my first communication to this Journal, 

 where in all forty-nine birds were lost, and every one of them 

 first-class. It is a well-known fact that an old hand at Pigeon- 

 flying can give a pretty good guess whether a bird is a good one 

 or not by the feel of it" in the hand and its general appearance. 



