October 17, 1865. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



m 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the Week ending October 14th. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOTJSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



BETTER SUPPLIES fkom the POULTRY-YARD. 

 We left off before with advice to poultry-keepers to be 

 followed in the event of the appearance of a poultry pest. 

 Let us hope the change in the weather will avert all such visi- 

 tations. \\'e must not, however, forget to use every possible 

 means to increase our stock, and to make it as profitable in 

 every way as may be. Day after day the newspapers seem to 

 be casting about for something to add to the stock of food. It 

 seems to he almost an accepted fact with many, that the day is 

 not far distant when it will not be a question of price about 

 the supply of meat, but when there will not be enough for all. 

 Is the jiroblem of the clever French 'STiter and statistician beiug 

 realised ? He affinns that eveiy human beiug during his Ufe 

 takes from the earth more than he returns to it ; that Europe 

 has arrived at the acme of production, and must perforce re- 

 main stationary, while population hourly increases. He points 

 to the sea as a resource. So much the better for all but the 

 fishes. We wish to point to poultry, to increase the present 

 supply, and to make that which we hare more valuable as food. 

 The lirst step towards getting fowls is to have eggs, and the 

 greatest increase in poultry will be to have chickens and eggs 

 aU the year round, instead of having them only in the natural 

 season. The next wiU be by means of cookery to make that 

 which we have capable of feeding more people. A hen is a 

 benefactress, because she is continually pro\-idiiig food in a 

 most delicate and delicious form, without losing any of her 

 own valuable properties except youth. A pullet lays her first 

 egg when she attains a certain age, let that happen when it 

 may ; but after the first laying she falls into the beaten track 

 and lays only at the natural time. In order, then, to have 

 chickens all the year round, we must hare a succession of 

 pullets to lay the eggs that are to produce them, and as sitting- 

 hens arc often vainly wished for in winter, we must adopt 

 the best substitute we can in the way of hatching-machines, 

 which are now coming before the public in " such a question- 

 able shape," that we expect to find them in general use and 

 duly appreciated. But if oiu- supply is to be derived from 

 pullets only, and they are to be discarded when they have 

 reared their first brood, we shall have kept them till they have 

 passed from chickens to hens, and are supposed to be too hard 

 for the table. They are so, if we confine om-selves to the old 

 heresy that there are only two ways of dressing food, roast- 

 ing and boiling: but it is "here that cookery is valuable. The 

 fowl that has done laying, or that from any cause is apparently 

 useless, may be made to provide a savouiy dish. The old cock 

 or hen put down to the fire, or into the pot for the proper time, 

 only becomes harder ; but there are other ways of making them 

 valuable and wholesome food. Take, for instance, the French 

 pol-a:i-ffii, that national comfort Imown to evei-y woman from 

 the top to the bottom of the social ladder. The old hen is 

 here the chief ingredient, she contributes strength and flavour. 

 Instead of being thrown in whole, and boiled as if for dear hfe, 

 she is cut up into small joints and allowed to simmer for many 

 hours, till her flesh has become soft and tender, and, leaving the 

 bones, passes into pulpy food. For deUcacy of flavom-, and for 

 much of its strength, the 2>"t-au-t\'u is indebted to poultry; 

 not only that which forms a fowl when it comes on the table, 

 but tvery other eatable part — the neck, head, gizzard, Uver, 

 heart, and the feet. These in France are bought by the " easy " 

 classes who live on their incomes. In large towns and in the 

 metropohs of England, they are bought by the lower classes 



only, who for a few pence get enough for a copions and savooiy 



family meal. 



That terrible roast and boil, and the dislike to what some per- 

 sist in calling " messes," have a great deal to answer for. They 

 contrive to make the largest quantity of meat do the least 

 possible service in feeding. That "pot on the fire," always 

 there, is the receptacle for all that is eatable — the broken bones 

 of all sorts; the scanty cheap piece of coarse beef cut up in 

 small square morsels ; the carrots, turnips, leeks, and potatoes; 

 where meat is scarce, a little piece of dripping ; in the spring 

 when peas are first in pod, a dozen pods put in for flavour, run 

 through with a needle and thread, that they may be easily re- 

 moved. We are speaking now of a cottager's cookery. The fire 

 consists merely of the embers of wood, or the ashes of peat 

 and turf, so that the pot may remain without fear of boiling ; 

 a sUght steam escapes from the partially open Ud, but as the 

 bom- of dinner arrives, and the husband is expected, the lid is 

 at times removed and the fragrant smell of the contents diffuses 

 itself about the kitchen. This must be, and it is a better meal 

 for the family than the little piece of coarse beef, affording 

 scarcely a mouthfiil to each. It is the difference between Eng- 

 land and France in cottage cookery. But some may not like 

 soups, and wiU ask [us what is to be done with the old hen pr 

 the cock. We have told them before, and we will repeat it. 

 Cut the fowl up in joints, dividing at the joints that there be 

 no spUnters of bone. Gather together all the scraps of meat 

 you have, those that adhere to the bones, odd pieces of ham or 

 bacon, knuckle, or leg, or shovdder of mutton ; cut a few slices 

 of fat bacon and bread ; get an earthen vessel with an earthen 

 cover, of course having a smaU hole in it ; at the bottom of 

 the vessel lay a layer of bread, then one of bacon, and then 

 begin to fiU in with all the scraps and joints yon have — nothing 

 is too common that is sweet and clean. Go on in this way till 

 the vessel is full. FiU up the hollow places with water, put on 

 the lid, and tie it down. Let it be put at night in a slack oven, 

 and remain there till the morning. Stand it in a cold place, 

 and when thoroughly cooled eat it for dinner, breakfast, lun- 

 cheon, or supper. You will find it tender, succulent, and 

 savoury. The water that was poured in is become jelly, and 

 the whole will cut out hke brawn or red-coloirrcd marble. In 

 any other way the old fowl would have done Uttle ; but this is 

 not working man's cookery. 



POULTRY SHOWS IN THE OPEN AIR— MR. 

 HEWITT FOR BIRMINGHAM. 



I H.ivE otdy just now noticed a letter in your Journal of 

 August 29th from om- eminent poultry Judge, Edward Hewitt, 

 Esq. ; and as it contains, hke the majority of his valuable 

 letters, so many important matters in reference to poultry 

 shows, I cannot let it pass without giving my endorsement to 

 the truth of his remarks. 



For some weeks past I have been so thoroughly engaged with 

 other matters than poultry that your valuable Journals have 

 been reluctantly neglected ; but now the pressure of business is 

 over, the shortness of the days rapidly encroaching, and the 

 length of the evenings daily extending, it affords me, like many 

 others, gi-eater scope for reading, and the past Numbers of yotir 

 Joiu-nal were with me, as with any other man who feels the in- 

 terest in poultry which I do, the first periodical to be read. 



I must say whenever I see a letter in your Journal fi-om Mr. 

 Edward Hewitt, it acts with me as the tip from the training- 

 stables does en a racing or betting-man — he h.is his eyes opened 

 t what is going on at head-quarters, and similarly Mr. Hewitt's 



