216 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March G, 1873. 



Books {C. A. J.).~W6 know of no other than Brent's " Canary and Biitish 

 Finches," which you can havo by pobt from our otlice if you enclose Is. Id. in 

 stamxjs with your address. 



Hamecrgh Eggs {M. H.).— Wait until the sitting is concluded. We 

 cannot give an opinion on surmises. 



Spanish Fonvls Partly Featherless {E. Dumvillc). — If the Spanish 

 pnllet is quite bare, it is in consequence of the others pecking out and eating 

 her feathers. If it is only ragged from broken feathers, it is from friction 

 somewhere, or from roosting close to a ragged wall. In the first case she 

 wants no medicine; it would be too bad to' dose her with pills because the 

 othejs pick her feathers. Put her away by herself, and rub the bare spots 

 with compound^sulphur ointment. Rub it in with youi- hand. Any chemist 

 will supply you with it. If it is only a case of broken feathers you have tho 

 choice, either to go on, never minding the look, and to leave the quills in the 

 sldn, or to pull them out, that new feathers may grow. If it were our case, 

 we should leave the stubs. 



Animal Food for Fowls (7. A. /.). — The question of animal food for 

 poultry is not a new one. A German Prince (quoting from memory, not hav- 

 ing notes at hand), we believe the Prince of Tour and Taxis, kept many 

 thousands in that manner. "We have known it tried in England. \Ve have 

 tried it ourselves; as a rule it is a failm-e. Tour "unlimited grass range" is 

 your safety valve. We sh&uld not like to eat the eggs laid in hot weather. 

 Those who collect animal substance for converting into manure are not par- 

 ticular in their selection, and if the birds feed on it the eggs must taste. 

 Meat may be tried as a change, and in conjunction with other things very 

 beneficially in cold and trying weather, but as a food it is worse than useless. 

 It causes extreme fat, serious fever of the egg passages, hinders the formation 

 of feathers during the moulting season, and shortens life. There is a theory 

 to which we adhere ; that whether you get all the eggs in one year by over- 

 feeding lite your's, or spread them over their natural peiiod, you get only 

 your number. The moderately- fed healthy fowl will lay a good average num- 

 ber year after yeai-, and still remain a healthy good-looking bird. The laying 

 yon mention is very good, but we have known a Hamburgh lay 240 eggs in a 

 year, and only motlerateiy fed. It was an exceptional case. Xou began 

 keeping fowls in IHTU, and we ore now at the beginning of 1873. You have 

 six hens, and your deaths have been thi-ee. That is a large proportion com- 

 pared with your stock. Meat food is unnatural for fowls. ^Vhen at hberty, 

 as you describe your's to be, they find worms, and enough of animal food to 

 serve them. You need not complain that your fowls do not lay till sefen 

 months. It is early enough, and better than you might expect Ii-oni cross- 

 bred birds. Quackei-y is getting too much a-head in poultry, and people who 

 keep a few fowls in confinement become poultry correspondents, and detail 

 their experiences without having the candoui* to say they were failures, 

 and that with them the poultry fit had long since been at an end. It is like 

 a man who details his farming knowledge at an agricultural dinner ; speaks 

 learnedly of swedes, roots, and white crops, till a common- sense man puts 

 him down by asking where his farm is, and gets for answer — he has rathei- 

 less than an acre of laud. Throw horse flesh to the dogs, bhut the fowls as 

 much as possible from the filthy heap. Keep them ta the clean honest gi-ass. 

 They will lay earlier, they will moult natmaUy, and last as long again as they 

 do now. We offer you one gratuitous piece of advice — keep true-bred fowls. 



Feeding Poultry {Begi7mcr]. — Begin again, and feed more natui-ally. 

 "We have now more than a thousand hens, all in perfect health. We eschew 

 half the rubbish you name altogether. We have no faith in any foods. Rice 

 is worse than nothing. Pepper is injurious rather than othenvise. Fowls 

 dislike oats. They waste, but do not eat buck^'heat. Feed with barleymeal 

 or gi'ound oats slaked morning and evening. Give Indian com mid-day. If 

 you can substitute kitchen or table scraps for some of the mid-day me^s, do 

 so. Give nothing else. It is an additional expense, laid out to purchase dis- 

 appointment. Coal ashes are very bad things for a bottom or flooring to a 

 house. If you have no gi-avel, you can get wood ashes, or chalk, or road 

 grit, or all thiee together. (I. M. G.). — You are another victnn to quackei-y, 

 and the ignorance of some teachers. You multiply expense, and diminish 

 success. Half yoiu: food is waste, and the whole cannot accomplish any 

 result. Out of the eleven foods you name, we advise you to eschew all but 

 four. Feed morning and evening on barleymeal or ground oats slaked ; mid- 

 day with Indian corn or kitchen or house scraps. Take up your brick walk ; 

 nothing is so bad for fowls. Coal ashes are not good. Have you no chalk, no 

 road grit, no clay, no wood ashes ? Whatever the nature of the flooring or 

 ground of the run may be, supply the fowls daily with a large sod of growing 

 grass cut with plenty of earth to it. The fowls will eat it all. Lettuces 

 when you have them. Follow this, and you will have eggs. 



Pencilled HLuiburgh Feathers (.4. B. C). — 1 is a bad feather, and 

 indicates mossy x>lumage; 2 is a good feather, and should come from a good 

 bird; S is a bad feather, and should not make part of an exhibition fowl. 



Br.uima's Mouth Ulcerated (Glevum). — In all such cases as you describe 

 we use caustic, rubbing it in without dilution or solution of any kind. It is 

 probable the small swelling is intimately connected witli the opening below. 

 Place your thumb above the swelling, squeeze the contents (probably fatty or 

 cheesy matter), until they aic discharged into the mouth. With a syi-inge 

 inject into the emptied sac first warm water till it is cleansed, then soma 

 solution of caustic ; afterwards take your stick caustic, and use it freely on the 

 fimgus. Examine it every two or three days, and suffer no formation to tako 

 place. Pullets are laying, but hens have not yet begim. 



BTTiTNG Pigeons ( M. J. S. W.). — Prevention is far preferable to having to 

 straggle for a remedy. Do not pay for the buds until after you havo seen 

 them. If Pigeons liy back to the vendor after you have pmchased them you 

 are entitled to reclaim them. Tho ditficulty is in identifying them. 



Cheltenham Bird Show(G. J. Bameshy). — Having seen your letters to 

 Mr. Blakston on this Show, and the effort made to screen one delinquent, we 

 decline inserting your irrelevant note. 



Brahma Pootras < T. A'.). — If you refer to our advertising columns, yon 

 will see many offered for sale. 



Mottled Tumbler [T, itfooiT).— The best colourtd pictnre of a Short- 

 faced Mottled Tumbler is that in Eaton's work. The white should only be at 

 the shoulders of the wings, not on the back. They easily-enough breed too 

 light. 



What Variety of Pigeons to Keep {A. H. Mom-ison). — This is a diffi- 

 cult question to answer. If you have a distinct taste for one variety have 

 that, or be guided by your place for keeping the birds. Pouters please many, and 

 are not, out of Scotland, as numerous at shows as many other varieties. We 

 long to see more of them. You would have a good chance of winning with 

 them, as at many ehows they are sadly wanting in numbers. We do not re- 

 commend dealers ; but for the best see our weekly advertising colunms. 



Hives {M. J.).— We find it difficult to advise you in the matter oi hives. 

 Yon have doubtless read what has passed between rival bee-keepers in our 



pages on the question of which is the best hive. Fiery are the tempers of 

 tho rivals, and a broken head may yet result to anyone who ventmes to speak 

 fx cathedra on such a subject. Still, we think we may safely say that all 

 hives are good if not too small, and if well managed ; but if you ai-e a beginnei* 

 wo should advise you to adopt a plain hive of wood or straw with windows 

 such as you desire, with or without bai-s, according to your own fancy and 

 skill in bee-manayement. Why not try the bar hive with super, which you 

 *' rather hke V" We make ourselves, or get made, our own hives of wood at 

 much less cost than the prices you mention. As to bee-books, besides " Bee- 

 keeping for the Many," you will find Bevan excellent, if you can get the 

 author's original work. Taylor's is good as far as it goes; and you will find 

 some useful hints in " Profitable Bee-keeping "' pubhshed for Grf. by the Society 

 for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. We fear your overturned bees are 

 destroyed. 



meteoeologicaIj observations, 



Camden Square, London. 

 Lat. 51° 32' 40" N. ; Loug, 0' 8' 0" W, ; Altitude 111 feet. 



bemakks. 



26th- — All the snow melted during the ni-ht, very rapid thaw ; rain about; 



IIa.m; quite bright in the early pait of the afternoon j wind rather 



high in the evening; and night, 

 27th. — Fair in caily morning, then clouded for a time; an outburst of bright 



sunshine about 1 p.m., followed by more and more cloud till 4 p.m., 



when, for about ten minutes, it was awfully dark and stormlike, but 



scarce any rain fell ; here a starlight night. 

 2Sth. — Snow on the giound in eaily morning, but the bright sun soon melted 



it ; a very fine day tlnoughout. 

 1st. — Fine in eaily morning, hut rain commenced about 11 A.3I., and fell at 



inteiwals all day; cloudy and damp evening. 

 2nd. — Wind rather strong and cold, but the sun bright, and the day as a whole 



very pleasant. 

 3rd. — Wet eaily and late, and cloudy all between; heavy rain at 10 p.m. 

 ■1th.— The finest day we have had for some weeks ; bright, dry, and pleasantly 



wai*m. 

 The wai-mest week since the middle of January, the mean of the five pre- 

 ceediug weeks being only 34^.1, while this has been 41'-. 7. The maximum in 

 sun has been, as might be expected fiom the sensible power of the bimwhen 

 visible, much higher than at any time this year. The disappearance of the 

 snow at the beginning of the week nas extremely rapid. — G. J. Svmons. 



COYENT GAKDEN MARKET. -Makch 5. 

 A FAm amount of business doing, and moderate supply of rough produce. 

 Cornish Broccoh stills keeps good and abundant. New Potatoes ai-e from Malta , 

 Lisbon, and the West Inches ; prices range from 2rf. to 4</. lb. Hothouse Grapes 

 are ample for the trade, remaining at former quotations. 



FRUIT, 



Apples i sieve 



Apricots iloz. 



Cherries per lb. 



Chestnuts bushel 12 



B. d. e. d. : 



Currants j siove 



Black do. 



Figs doz . 



Filberts lb, 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse lb. 4 



Lemons ^100 6 



Melons each X & 



20 

 



d. B. d. 

 OtoO 

 

 10 

 



10 

 3 



Mulberries ^Ib. 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges ^100 4 



Peaches doz, 



Pears, kitchen doz, 1 



dessert doz. 8 12 



PmeApples lb. 10 



Plums 4 sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Kaspberries lb. 



Strawberries V'Z. 10 2 



Walnuts bushel 16 So 



ditto %^100 a 3 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes doz. 



Asparagus %*■ 100 



French 



Beans. Kidney T^*- 100 



Beet, Red doz. 



Broccoh bundle 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums i:*- 100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauhtiower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Coleworta.. doz. bunches 

 Cucumbers each 



pickJuig doz. 



Endjvo doz. 



Funnel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



ticrbs bunch 



Hortirradish bimdle 



Leoks bunch 



Luttuoe doz 



B. d. s. d. 



3 Oto6 



5 10 



80 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustard & Cress. .punnet 

 Onions ^bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley per doz. bunches 



Parsni'ps doz . 



Peas quart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Round do. 



Radishes., doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Salsaf y ^ bundle 



Savoys doz, 



Scorzonera.... ^ buiuUe 



Sea-kale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes doz. 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows., 



s. d. B. d. 



POULTRY MARKET.— March 5. 

 Opr supply is much below the average, but tho trade is worso. 

 were the usual demand, poiUtry of good quaUty would be very dear. 



If there 



