JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ September 10, 1868. 



My yoTMR eyea glistened. I was a very young boy then, and 

 I fell in love head over heels with the handsome stranger, and 

 begged hard that I might have the dog ; so after some bargain- 

 ing the dog was ours. But what was his name ? That had 

 been forgotten by the man who bronght him into the fens, bnt 

 he promised he would inquire the next time he went to the 

 high country. Meanwhile at a venture we named him " Bock- 

 wood," and Eocliwood became the dog of my early boyhood, as 

 old Keeper had been of my little childhood. Have you ever 

 marked carefully, gentle reader, those nice minute gradations 

 in Lfe? First the unknowing infant ; but how soon it begins 

 " to take notice," to use a common but very suitable expression. 

 The little child learns very early to smile. As Wordsworth says — 



" On its face 

 Smiles are beginninfr, like the beams of dawn, 



To ahoot and circulate 



Feelers of love put forth, as it to explore 

 This untried wurld. and to prepare its ^ay 

 Through a strait passape intricate and dim." 



After the infant, then the little child, obedient, trusting, trust- 

 ing every one ; but bigger children overawe it. In play with 

 them it gets confused, upset in mind, overwrought in nerve, 

 and leaves them for its mother's lap. It is'a manful little 

 thing in its home and its garden, but a few hundred yards 

 away it becomes a baby again. Then cornea playful, ever- 

 playing young boyhood. All life is a play, a very play then. 

 Bats, balls, tops, strings littered about ; doors slammed ; the 

 feet always run, for they cannot merely walk ; noise, noife ; 

 rushing hither and thither pell-mell. This is the grand play- 

 time of life, when the meals are shortened in order to get out 

 the earlier to play ; not the sprucest neatest time— far from 

 it — nails, and hands, and face too, not over-clean ; clothes 

 torn. What boy thinks of hia breeches when he sees a bird's 

 nest? 



Dnring all my early boyhood, this playtime of life, EocVwood 

 was my prime playfellow. Like many handsome strangers, as 

 widows of the cap-on-one-aide school often fiud when the cap 

 is put quite aside, he had not much brains, but he could hunt 

 through the hedges — there were a few, drive out the birds from 

 their nests on the side of the fen drains ; and then, more than 

 all, he could play cricket, and, best of all, he was always on my 

 side. This is how it came to pass : Four houses from ours 

 (each house had a paddock at the back), lived my prime school 

 friends, four in number, all brothers. They were sons of a 

 Waterloo officer, and therefore smitten with a perpetual scarlet 

 lever. Every Saturday afternoon away I and Bockwood went 

 for a game of cricket. Bat home-made, stumps ditto, ball 

 oblong — never mind, we enjoyed the game just as much as the 

 gentlemen players at Lord's, and a great deal more than the 

 tired professionals, who must long for the winter to begin in 

 August. The eight of a cricket ball acted upon Bockwood as 

 does a gun upon a pointer. I bowled, Bockwood fielded, and 

 with the speed of a racehorse he brought the ball to my feet ; 

 BO together we were a formidable pair. But when I was batting 

 Bockwood declined to field, knowing " his side was in." He 

 therefore rested near, seeing how the game went on, extending 

 his handsome form on the grass until I was again on the " out" 

 Bide. Oh, those Saturday afternoons ! those scramblings from 

 paddock to paddock, Bockwood galloping by my side ! Oh, 

 those jolly games of cricket ! I have often played since ; I 

 Stand to a wicket still ; but now I have a backbone, boys have 

 none. 



Time which will go on— time which usually will also separate 

 friends, separated me from mine. Two of "the four went into 

 the army, and, alas 1 both have long since slept beneath the 

 sun-parched plains of Bengal, one of them a victim to the 

 Indian mutiny. The third I have not seen these twenty years 

 and more. The fourth I meet now and then, the " now " 

 separated a long way from the " then ;" but when we do meet 

 we ahake hands as only old schoolboy friends know how. When 

 we do meet, then we talk the old talk — open, free, generous, 

 kindly ; then we bring the past years and faces before us ; then 

 among other questions he put this, " Have you forgotten Bock- 

 wood ?" Oh! tbe pleasure of having old, old friends — friends 

 who grew up with you, whose life's associations are blended 

 with yours, who met you not the first time in stiff heart-freezing 

 manhood, but in open-hearted boyhood . YjBt let not this thought 

 deter ns from making new friends, for th^ in turn will become 

 old friends. We must go on iu the battle of life. "Forward!" 

 is the word ; then let me go on shoulder to shoulder with 

 friends new and old, old and new. " Have yon forgotten Bock- 

 wood?" How much that little question brings to my mind ! 

 — the Saturday afternoon holidays, the glee, the high spirits, 



the cricket, and the old school friends who joined in the game. 



What ! is the paper suffused with a mist ? or is aught wrong 

 with my eyes ? — Wiltshiek Eector. 



(To be contin-ued.) 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Gamt: Fowxg. — " Absence from home has been the cause of my not re- 

 plyiug to 'NE\orARKET'9' paragraph iu the Journal of August 27tb. Ir* 

 reply, What I advertised was a quotation from * Newmarket's ' letter. I 

 have also letters by me respecting the birds. The following are extracts : 

 — 'Good and Laudsome fowls.' 'Will breed the richest colours.' 'Are 

 tbe handsomest hens in this place.' ' These birds are really good and nro 

 dirt cheap.' Any one is welcome to see the correspondence who may be 

 thus interested.— William H. Wheeler." [Here this controversy must 

 cease. — Eds.] 



Brahma Pootras SELF-PLUCKrao (Brahma). —Tovrla are prone to eat 

 the feathers from each other's legs at this time of year if they are con- 

 fined. They seldom do it when at liberty. It arises from a morbid t-tate- 

 of appetite, and this is more benefited by an ample supply of lettiice than 

 by anytbing else. If they have no grass run give them large sods of 

 growing grass, cut with plenty of eartb. Legs stripped of their leathera 

 in any way will disqualify Brahmas and Cochins. 



White Spanish and White Minorcas {Subscriber).— VfhiiQ Spanish 

 fowls should have white faces. Minnrcas have red faces. 



Food for Moulting Hens— Marks of Age (A. B.).— Ground oats are 

 the best food fur poultry at all times. Growing green meat is good for 

 them when moulting. Indian corn, rice, and vegetables are all bnd, ex- 

 cept as amusements and for a change. They require better food when 

 moulting than at other times, but it should not be of a stimulatinf? 

 nature. After a fowl has ouce passed from thecliicken to the adult stat* 

 there are no means of ascertaining the age with certainty. The most 

 experienced are often deceived. 



Hen's Flesh Spotted (Warn- ick). —We cannot account for the white 

 spots. We have seen them mnny times in our lives, and if the fowl were 

 in other respects in good condition, we should consider it fit for food. 



Length of Lop Ears in Rabbits (Rabbit Fancier).— The length yoo 

 speak of is a hereditary quality. The length maybe increased by a judi- 

 cious system of pulling, and by suspending leaden weights to tiJo extre- 

 mities. If, however, it is not in the breed to reach extreme length such 

 as you desire, no management will effect it. 



Buckwheat and Apples for Pocltry {E. A. S.). — Wo have tried 

 buckwheat, but our fowls neither liked it nor did well upon it. We do 

 not consider any of the oily foods good for chickens. We tbink apples 

 good for fowls, but we always give them raw. They make a change, and 

 the birds are very partial to them. 



Points of Houdans (Qallina Ba7ikiva).~ThG few reddish brown spot;? 

 are not a diaqusliflcation. They are not desirable. In all these breeds 

 the cocks acquire colour as they increase in ago. The samo rule applies 

 to the Houdan and Crevo-Cccur ; yellow or light straw-coloured fentb'^rs 

 are admissible, red enes are a disqualification. The convex back is fatal 

 to success unless it be so trifling as to escape notice. If the crest feather.^ 

 are pulled out, tbe feathers will grow again at once ; if they are broken off 

 they will not grow till the bird moults. 



Rejected Fowls (Fair Play).—Tho "person near Longton, Stafford- 

 shire " certainly treated you very unfairly. If your man turned the 

 pullets out, and they were both then sound, ho should not have bronght it 

 back, for the injury was inflicted in some way on the purchaser's premises. 

 As it was taken back, and as you afterwards recc;ived the other puUot, we 

 think you have no remedy. The proposing purchaser would act no more 

 than equitably if he paid the expenses you incurred. 



Golden Pheasants on a Lawn (E. E. K.).~\i will do your Golden 

 Pheasan - od to feed always on the lawn. Pheasants never do so well 

 as when 'iept on grass. 



What is a Pen and Walk of Poultry ? (J. Smith),— i:\ie pen depends 

 on the decision of a show cummittee. In some places the prize is otTf red 



for the best pen of . containing cock and three hens ; others require 



cock and two hens; others cock and one. There is no fixed numbei-. 

 A " walk " formerly consisted of a cnck and fouf hens. 



Old and Young Canaries Together (T. C.H.). — "I usually put nil 

 my breeding hens into a large flight-cage for the winter. My old breed- 

 ing cocks I put into separate cages, and the same with those young ones 

 which bid fair to moult into something good. When they will agree and 

 do not show any disposition to attack each other, I put two together, but 

 where there is plenty of cage room a separate compartment is best. — 

 W. A. Blakston." 



Bee Hives (E. Pater). — You will find engravings and descriptions of 

 hives in " Bee-keeping for the Many," which you can have free by post 

 from our office for five postage stamps. 



Lecture on Bee-keeping.— We have received a copy of a little, a 

 very little pamphlet, which is stated to contain the substance of a lecture 

 on this interetting subject, delivered on the Tth ultimo by the Rev, .1. B. 

 Hughes, of Tiverton, Devon, at the Cottage Garden Show held on that 

 day, at Dulverton, in tbe neighbouring county of Somerset. Tbe rev. 

 gentleman appears to have judiciously eschewed the more recondite 

 mysteries of bee-keeping, and to have confined himself to pointing out 

 the advantages which every bee-keeper may realise by the use of sui-er^, 

 and recommending the autumnal union of bees by means of driving, 

 instead of pitilessly consigning them to the brimstone pit. 



Swarming fboh Supered Bivf. (A Jteader).— It maybe laid down ns 

 a general rule, that if a supered stock swarms the superbecomes deseitHd, 

 and that no more honey will be deposited in it. Your bees, theref'tre, 

 were no exception to the rule. You should weigh the hive and judge for 

 yourself whether it requires feeding. It would, we think, be well to nnitH 

 the weak swarm to tbe parent stock, which, if properly done, mny bn 

 accomplished without much risk of a quarrel. Read Mr. Woodbury's 

 article on " Uniting Bees," in another column. 



Tomato Jam.— "T. W. W." would be obliged U "Lovfapple'* would 

 make public the receipt. for making tomato jr.m. 



