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JOtJENAIi OF HOKTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I October 29, 1868. 



of safety and convenience. These rolls of butter can lie upon 

 his counter as safe from injury, from duet or other contact, as 

 bars of lead — can be rolled up for his customer in a sheet of 

 paper with as much propriety as a bundle of matches. If the 

 eonsumer, when he gets home, discovers specks of dust upon 

 the outside of the sack, he can throw it into a pail of pure cold 

 water, and take it out clean and white. As he uses the butter 

 from day to day, with a eharp knife he cuts it off from the end 

 of the roll in slices the thickness to suit his wants, peels off 

 the cloth from the end of the sUce, leaving it in tidy form to 

 place upon the table. This improved manner of packing 

 butter first caught my eye in the market of San Francisco, 

 where I saw cords of it piled up like pigs of lead. The sim- 

 plicity and great value of the improvement so impressed me 

 that I wondered the Yankees had not long ago found it out." 



DO BEES HUNT BY SCENT AND SIGHT? 



Dr. Alefield, in " The Bee Flora of Germany and Switzer- 

 land," adduces some plausible reasons in support of the 

 assumption that bees discover the places where honey may be 

 obtained by the sense of sight and not of smell. Is it not 

 quite as reasonable to infer that their discoveries are not con- 

 fined to either, but result indifferently to both ? Having had 

 some experience in tracing bees in their wild state, this has 

 been our conclusion from the results of several experiments 

 made in hunting them to their homes. 



If a hunter will go into a forest and iincover his bee box, 

 without any other preparation, he will probably find a bee lured 

 to the exposed store, after a while, if he has the patience to 

 wait. Having succeeded in this and permitted the laden bee 

 to depart, let the hunter remove to another point remote from 

 the first position, open his bos, and ignite some honey, and see 

 if his last vigil is not much shorter than the first one. Such 

 has been our experience, at all events, and the difference was 

 attributed to the fact that the bees were guided to the place by 

 the scent of the burning honeycomb rather than by the sight 

 of the stores in the box. That other bees, observing one to 

 have been speedily lucky in obtaining a load, watch its back- 

 ward flight, and follow in the same direction, using sight rather 

 than smell, we believe to be also true. It is in this way we 

 account for the rapid increase in the number of bees around 

 the honey bos after the first one has carried home one load and 

 returned for another. — [American Fa^er.) 



SWEET CIDER. 



Seeikg that a correspondent, " H. L.," wishes for infor- 

 mation respecting the making of sweet cider, or rather the 

 keeping it sweet, I send the following, which used to be largely 

 practised in Gloucestershire. 



When the cider was made, or soon afterwards, it was put into 

 a large open tub in a warm room, and some new milk added lo 

 it at the rate of about two quarts of milk to fifty gallons of 

 eider. It was well stirred, and in a short time an artificial 

 fermentation was produced. As soon as the cider carried a 

 good head, it was put into " dropping bags " made of canvas. 

 At first it will recjuire to be put into the bags several times, till 

 the bags become thick enough for the cider to drop through 

 quite fine. Sometimes a little charcoal is put into the bags to 

 thicken them. This process fines the cider, and arrests further 

 fermentation. 



Barm will do instead of the milk, but milk was considered 

 better. 



After the dropping, the cider may be put into bottles or casks, 

 and corked up at once. Most of the cider in Gloucestershire, 

 and adjoining counties, is eo acid — "sharp" — that it would 

 bring the tears in the ejes of those not used to it. This is 

 caused by the long fermentation ("fretting"), sometimes for 

 several months. — J. Bryan, AudUy End Gardens. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



DoBUFO CooKEREi, WITH ONE Blihd Eye (R. W. P.)-— The DotklDg 

 cock is not diafjuaHfied by having had an eye destroyed. That only dis- 

 qualifies which is either an indication of weakness or would appear to 

 have heen removed to conceal a defect. Thus a blind side and defective 

 fiiflht should befntal tn success in any bird. Two broken sickle feathers 

 in the tail of a Oarae cock are so suspicious that they considerably lesRen 

 the chancea of success, it would be almost a fair inference that Ihey 



had been broken ofT because they were splashed or white, in either case 

 a disqualification. 



White Dorkinob (Jn Old Subscriber). — There are both single- combed 

 and rose-combed. We know of no diflference in their qualities, but the 

 cocks and hens must all have the same form of comb— that is, all must 

 be siople-cumbed or all double-combed. They aro as good layers as the 

 Dark-colomed Dorkings. 



Golden-pencilled Hamburgh Cockerel (ClieshiTe Subscriber). — II 

 the cockerel is for eshibition in the chicken class, he is eligible at 

 any time, but the older he is the better, as he is then getting rid of his 

 spotted feathers, and his tail is becoming more accurately coloured. If 

 for adult classes, he cannot be shown without risk of detection during 

 the year in which he was hatched. If in an open class, unless he is a 

 very forward bird, ho has little chance against older competitors. He is 

 seldom better than he is at from eighteen mouths to two years old. If his 

 enrlobes are only edged with red at ten weeks old, it is almost a certainty 

 they will be quite white before he is ten mouths old, perhaps luacb- 

 eariier. 



Game Baktajis— Catarrh in Fovtls {CJianticleer).~Th6 catarrh you 

 mention is common when the weather first breaks up, and being attended 

 to, has no results. We put camphor in their water, and give them bread 

 and ale once every day. We do not admire your dietary. Give them 

 barley or oatmeal mixed with water or milk if you have it, in the morn- 

 ing, some whole corn at midday, and oatmeal again in the afternoon or 

 evening. Oatmeal is preferable to barltymeal. Fowls do not care to eat 

 buckwheat, and will not if they can get anything else. Indian corn is 

 good for a change, but it is not good enough for constant feeding. Pollard 

 is poor poultry food. We view this catarrh in fowls as wo view it in our- 

 selves and the rest of our fellow creatures. Cold surprises us in the midst 

 of heat, finds us unprepared, and visits us accordingly. Those who fall 

 b;ick on nature iind talk about wild birds, &c., must be told that our fowls 

 have long ceased to be birds of nature ; we have altered their habits, and 

 must provide for them accordingly. The refuse kitchen and table scraps 

 are excellent fuod ; well-ground oats mixtd with it, should be the galli- 

 naceous turtle and venison. We have no doubt the Bantams in question 

 are Piles, and the description would do very well for the old Worcester- 

 shire bird of that breed. At the weight you mention, thpy should be hard 

 to beat if the cook is well dubbed, and if he and his hens carry their 

 wings well up. 



Agents for Sale op Hives (X.). — We know of no agent in Ireland for 

 the sale of improved hives. A good many Woodbury hives h>»ve, however 

 been iotroduced into that country through private channels, and if yoti 

 write direct to Mr. Woodbury, at Mount R.adford, Exeter, we doubt not 

 he will be able lo put you in the way of procuring them. Back numbers 

 of The Journal of Horticdlture may be obtain^-d from this office. 



Uniting Bees (J Young Bee-keeper). — In uniting stocks or swarmS 

 there is no absolute necessity for special dealing with the queens, because 

 the beps will in the great majority of cases settle the question satisfac- 

 torily among themselves, and many bee-keepers never trouble themselves 

 about the superfluous queens, taking their chance of success, and, 

 perhaps, going on for years without a mishap. Still there remains the 

 possibility of an occasional misfortune, and it is to guard agaiust this 

 that more advanced apiarians using moveable-comb hives deal with the 

 queens something after the fashion described by "A Dkyonshire Bee- 

 keepeb," in page 1S8. It is evident that Mr. Pettigrew, in the process 

 which he details in page 255, does not intend the operator to pay any 

 attention to the queens ; but if one be removed we always prefer retain- 

 ing what we judge either from previous knowledge of her history, or from 

 her personal appearance, to be the youngest ormost prolific. However largo 

 the stock may be. there is but one queen in the hive. A brief but suffi- 

 ciently comprehensive and very intelligible rtUum^ of the principal facts 

 in the natural history of the honey bee, from the pen of Mr. Woodbury, 

 will be found in the last edition of " Bee-keeping for the Many," which 

 may be had free by post direct from this office for five stamps. 



Hoese-Chestncts for Cows.— ".^nOM Subseriftrr " wishes to be in- 

 formed whether common horse-chestnuts may be given to cows — that is, 

 if they would be good for them in any quantity ? 



To ■'AKE New Rope Pliable (^^p/ta).— New rope can be made limber 

 and soft at once, by simply boiling it for two hours in water. Then hang 

 it in a warm room, and let it dry out thoroughly. It retains its stiffiaess 

 until dry, when it becomes perfeCbly pliable. 



pRESERVTNO Peabs (A Lady). — No variety is better thnn the Catillac, but 

 several other varieties are as good for the purpose. The pears should, not 

 be more than ripe. They are in fit state as soon as the pips are black. 

 Set the pears on the fire with sufficient water to cover them ; take them 

 off when quite soft, and put them into cold water; pare them lightly, 

 cut off the stalks, prick each with a pin sufficiently long to reach the core, 

 and put them ng'iin in cold water with a little alum ; set tbora on the fire 

 to boil until the pears are tender, then take them out, and put them in 

 cold water for the third time. Clarify and boil some sugar, put some water 

 to it, and when it boils add the pears, cover the pan, and give the whole a 

 boil ; skim, pour it into an earthen pan, and leave it. The next day drain 

 the syrup from the pears, add a little more clarified sngiir to it, and boil it 

 again ; pour it over the fruit, and leave it as before. The nest and two 

 successive days proceed in the same way, each time decreasing the 

 degree of boiling ; then add the pears, give the preserve a boil covered), 

 sk m and pour it into a pan, place in a stove for two days, then drain the 

 fruit, and put it by for use. 



POULTRY MARKET.— OcTOBEB 28. 



The little improvement we have noted has disappeired before doll 

 trade and damp weather. Trade cannot be worse than it ia. 



