492 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( December 35, 1866. 



Raspberry /£". 2Yi.— There is none better than the Red Antwerp. Any 

 first-rate nurseryman can supply you. 



Mushroom- bed (J. B. K. '.— You made up yonr Mushmom-bed on the 

 19th of October, but you do not say when you spawned it. A bed gene- 

 rally takes from six to seven or eight weeks after spawning, and therefore 

 we would not hurry the matter at "all. As you say the soil is rather damp. 

 we would not lite to water it. even if the manure below the bed is rather 

 dry : but if too dry you must contrive to make holes, so as to reach the 

 manure without much wetting the bed. If the manure is too dry we 

 almost fear the bed may have been too hot; but as no time is yet lost we 

 cannot say th Ymi will lind many hints in " Doings of the 



Last Week" in late Numl • 



Border by a Fi.ce [A Sub*criber for Many Yean Pat).— In addition 

 to what you propose we would modify what is said at page 451.- 

 have 4 inches of rough open material and 2 inches of finer gravel over 

 the flue, for the Cucumbers : and if that is roughly concreted all the 

 better: on that place from IS tu IS inches of soil. It will be advisable 

 to have upright drain-tiles t.i pass water int.- the nibble at the sides of 

 the flue. The same plan would answer for the propagating part ; but 

 your proposed plan would be better, only we would have the cement a 

 little above the t p I :::-:• flue, and 3 inches would be enough for water. 

 Tan or sand will be best for plunging the pots in. 



Select Ericas (A Subtc A).— G^inmiicra elegans, Eximia 



superba. Ventricosa grandifi r... Yeutric.jsa superba, Tricolor Wilsoni, 

 Tricolor superua, Devoniana, Suanuoniana. Turnbulli. Scabriuscula, 

 Massoni major, Sprengelii ; MeXabiana superba, Holfordiana, Ferruginea 

 major, Depressa multiflora, Cavendishii, Colorans verna. Amabilis, and 

 NewtMniana. 



Cotton Seed t.ViW.<-< <>/■.*' ..—If you will send us a stamped directed en- 

 velope we wid tell you the address of a gentleman willing to aid you. 



Frcit Trees for North Wall .4 Subscribe n.~ \Iorello Cherries will 

 best succeed there. We never knew an Apple-tree hedge. There are 

 many yarieties that can be grown as espaliers. 



Painting Hot-water Pipes {A Subscriber}. — The best composition 

 that we know of is lamp black, brought to the consistency of paint by 

 mixing it with boiled linseed oil. The pipes should be made quite hot 

 and then be coated over with the paint, keepingthem hot until it becomes 

 dry, when the smell will pass away ; but if the pipes are coated overwhen 

 cold, however well the paint dries, when they become hot an offensive 

 and injurious vapour will be given off. Two coats are necessary; the 

 second should be put on when the first becomes dry. The paint should 

 be well brushed into every part of the pipes. It is desirable that the 

 composition be black, that being the best colour for the radiation of 

 heat. 



Fire Heat eh a Vxkerx [J. F.).~ The Vines would be injured by fire 

 heat if you were to produce a temperature much too warm for them 

 whilst at rest ; but your house being for Vines and plants, and not for 

 Vines exclusively, it may be necessary to light a fire during mild weather 

 to dry up damp and cause a circulation of air: however, that will do the 

 Vines no great harm if the temperature be kept down as much as possible 

 by admitting plenty of air. To dispel damp the fire should be used 

 by day. and allowed to go out at night. During frosty weather fire heat 

 will be necessary to keep frost out and secure the safety of the plants, 

 and durin'-r severe frost lire by day may be needed, but of ibis you will be 

 the best able to judge when it is necessary, ^o long as you can keep off 

 frost and damp avoid having a fire, as the plants which you name only 

 require protection from frost. The. temperatare from fire heat should 

 not exceed 45 r , and the nearer it is kept to 40- the better the Vine-i will 

 fare. The Camellia will flower without fire heat. 



Names or Frcit (G. S.).— We believe your Pear is the true Knight's 

 Monarch. The shape of the false one is very different. Is your soil dry 

 and sandy ? It likes a good loam. 



POULTRY. BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



GAME FOWLS. 

 Wnn reference to a good article on Game fowls, signed . 

 " Yorkshire," in jour paper of the 27th ult., in which he 

 mentions my remarks, I think that " breeding in-and-in " too I 

 much is bad ; but the indiscriminate crossing of different 

 colours is, of course, much worse than breeding good fowls in- 

 and-in. A good cross of the same colour, equally good or 

 superior in quality, eyery ten years, is the best way of breeding. 

 The cross, though of the same colour, should be as far removed 

 in blood as possible, and the crossing should be with a good cock, 

 and not with bens, as a rule. 



With regard to tails, I must say that I think the " whip- 

 tailed " birds are of meaner appearance, and also less spirited, 

 than those with the tail I described. Cock-fighters, I think, 

 generally prefer the " short cocked-tailed birds." I haye 

 always noticed in my broods, that the cocked-tailed cock 

 chickens were the most spirited, and the master chickens. 

 Cocked-tailed birds always carry their tails " well up." 



If •■ Yorkshire " has eyer observed his Game hens fighting, 

 he will have seen that when angry and elated, or inflated with 

 passion, they always erect and fan their tails, and lower their 

 wings, so as to shield their thighs, and then advance to fight. 

 This is their most spirited attitude, and the same rule applies 

 to the cocks, as when crowing, or just before crowing, cocks 

 erect their necks and tails, and fan the latter, lowering their 

 wings to the thighs at the same time. As the sound of the 

 crowing issues from them, they lower the tail a little, and 

 erect it again. This is also the cocks' most spirited attitude ; 

 but when levelling their necks to fight, the tail goes down, of 

 course, and the wings close up close. I infer from this that the 

 erect or " well up," and fanned tail, must show most spirit. 

 When beaten, both cocks and bens close and droop their tails, 

 and carry their wings high up. This is their least spirited 

 attitude." Whip-tailed birds are generally to., narrow in the 

 shoulders, I think, and are often long and narrow in body, 

 which the cocked-tailed birds are not. 

 Spurred hens have, undoubtedly, the most male blood, are 



always the hardest-fleshed, and breed the best cocks, if well 

 shaped. Spurs are not confined to the old hens, young hens 

 often having them. "Yorkshire's" description of the Dark 

 Black-breasted Bed is good ; it is the same as that in " Sketch- 

 • >cker," and is quoted in Boswell's " Poultry Book," 

 which I have by me — Yellow Duckwings from the same. 



The late Earl of Mexborough was, I have heard, one of the 

 best breeders of Game fowls in Yorkshire, but I cannot consider 

 the Yellow-legged Duckwing as a first-rate bird, either in 

 spirit or hardness. I think that the wheaten-coloured backs 

 and shoulders named, must have come from a cross of the 

 Cinnamon Black-breasted Beds, or Ginger Beds, with the Yellow 

 Bircheus. Brown Beds are certainly far superior in fighting 

 qualities to the willow-legged Black-breasted Beds in all re- 

 spects. Leggy Game fowls are very bad, so are the too-short- 

 legged breeds of Game f 



I think that for exhibition Game " stags " should be from 

 •iilbs. to 5} lbs., and cocks from 4 J lbs. tooi lbs., though 4 J lbs. 

 is the best fighting weight for full-grown cocks. 



I have seen some excellent willow-legged Duckwings at ex- 

 hibitions, especially from the midland counties, superior to the 

 Black Beds. Exhibiting the same fowls too often in the same 

 season is, of course, very injurious both to their health and ap- 

 pearance, and injures "their breeding, as "Yorkshire" justly 

 observes. 



I think that Mr. Thomas Statter, of Whitefield, or Pilkington, 

 near Manchester, has exhibited the very best Brown Beds ever 

 yet seen, one of his cocks sold for fifteen guineas the other day, 

 and two Brown Bed stags of Mr. Burgess's, of Whitchurch, Salop, 

 sold for £35 the pair. Mr. Brierley, of Middleton, Lancashire, 

 I exhibits the best Black-breasted Beds, and Sir St. George Gore, 

 the next best, I think, and also good Duckwings. Mr. Gamon, 

 of Thomton-le-Moors, Chester, had lately first-rate Cheshire 

 Piles. — Newmarket. 



-WARNING. 

 Last spring I purchased from a dealer in the "Black 

 Country," a Partridge Cochin cock. He appeared to be a very 

 superior specimen of his kind, and one of our most noted 



