244 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ March 25, 1375. 



pale rose; Purity, white, jellow-ejed; Eriareus, rose; ChanceUor, lilac ; Fcr- 

 mosum, Mhite; OberoD, purple ; The Gael, piok and yellow; Incomparable 

 red; Lord Clyde, criniBcn; and Columbus, flesh-coloured. 



Tbacing P.irER (Anne P.). — You niay make and unmake the tracing paper 

 you with to employ tor copying portraits ol llowtrs, and then placing the 

 copies in your album by thus prepaiins the paper. One measure of castor 

 oU disEolved in two or three measures o£ spirits of wine renders paper 

 transparent, and when the spirit has evaporated the paper soon becomes lit 

 lor drawing upon. It the paper is subsequently placed in spirits the oil is 

 aiflsolved out, and the paper is restcred to its original condition. 



Pjssio.n FtowEiis (C. J.).—v,-e do not know where the flowers can ho now 

 obtamed. 



Panicum (A. E.).—'We do not know a species called Panicum capillocenm. 

 There is P. capiUare. It is a hardy annual, native of America. Its botanical 

 characters are.panicles capillary, erect, spreading; peduncle straight ; glumes 

 acuminate, smooth ; sheaths very haiiy. 



Seedling Briar Stocks {il. P.).—! hey are raised from seeds of the 

 common hedge Briar. The plants are two years before they are large enough 

 for budding. Leave Ihe heps tn the Briars until FebruaiT, and then sow 

 r?,?"; "K '""''' '^" it''i:lia frcm cuttings are as good as ihcse from seed. 

 Ihe lower buds of the cuttings should bo rubbed oft. 



Seedlikq PiiiurLA lA. J.).~\\e do not discern any difference frcm a 

 variety of the same colour to be obtained of florists. 



Verbena Melimjres (E. Cullinsi.—Any of tho florists who advertise in 

 our columns could supply you. 



Pine Apple Leaves Shrivelled (B. S.).— The leaf yon sent is spotted 

 from water having lodged upon it, and the sun faUing powerfully upon the 

 leaf whilst in this state has so heated the water as to destroy the tissues of 

 the leaf. Such mishaps usually follow a period of dull weather, a few hours' 

 powerful sun being sufficient to cause the mischief. The only remedy is more 

 careful and earlier air-giving; better have them dry under bright sun, mois- 

 tnre being kept up by other means than syringing overhead. 



PASsirLORAS in Greenhoose IH. E.). — The Passifloras you name are 

 TCpy free glowers and equally hee flowering, and would cover a large extent of 

 TOOf in a year or two. They may, however, be kept within reasonable bounds 

 ty frequent rtenlation of the growths. They would be best planted out in 

 the border as yi n show at R. Ihey are likely to suffer from the heat of Ihe 

 hot-walerpipej unless they are close to the stems of the plants; ifGinches 

 distant from the pipes the stems of the plants will be quite sale. 



Names of Plants {J. LurA-).— Adiantum capUlus- Veneris and Adiantum 

 Farley en se. 



POULTEY, BEE, AHD PIGEON OHEONIOLE, 



BEOODY HENS. 



We fear good chickens at the early chicken Bhows -will tie 

 very scarce this season. \\'e tever remember such disaatrous 

 accounts from our friends of their early chickens as we have 

 had this year. From all we receipe these reports, and these 

 from all over England. One gentleman of wide fame writes 

 from Lancashire, " We have had a terrible winter and lost many 

 valuable birds, and have not a chicken." Another writes from 

 Devonshire, " We have never had such a winter, we are all be- 

 hind," and from Kent, Surrey, Suffolk, Shropshire, and other 

 counties come the same bad tidings. Some attribate the failures 

 to the severity of the weather, others to the want of eggs, a 

 third party to its being such a bad hatching season, but the 

 large majority assign as the cause being unable to procure 

 broody hens. There are exceptions to every rule, and so here, 

 for we saw the other day two bonny lots of 187^) Malays, and 

 we hear of a few Dorkings at Early Wood and Micheldever, and 

 of Brahmas at Greeting, and Black Cochins at Baschurch, but 

 still these are the exceptions, and the rule is a total failure in 

 early chickens. 



There is plenty cf time yet for those who, like the worthy 

 Stoke Park manager, do not go in for early chicken showing, 

 but in the yards cf those fanciers who do usually support such 

 exhibitions we hear of a perfect absence of 1675 chickens, and 

 this, as we said befcre, principally frcm Ihe want of broody hens. 

 We know of one gentleman who has offered in his neighbour- 

 hood 10s. each for sitting hens and offered in vain. Keally an 

 exhibitor needs to keep a stock of an hundred or so birds 

 for sitting purposes, only to ensure broody hens in the early 

 year. 



We conclude it is in consequence of this great demand for 

 sitting hens, which increases yearly, that the " broody hen 

 trade " ns we will term it, seems to thrive so well in places : we 

 repeatedly see advertised "broody hen, china egg, nest and all 

 for .5s." This sounds charming, and we know cf two parties, 

 unknown to each other, though well known to us, who answered 

 such an advertisement, and enclosed 5s. and ordered the sitting 

 beauties to be sent forthwith. The baskets came with the china 

 eggs and Ihe nests, and the hens are there, but they are not 

 broody ! And they look as if they had not laid an egg for a 

 month, or were likely to do so for two or three more to come. 

 This happened in both cases. One of the purchasers in a fit of 

 indignant anger wrote to the vendor and complained, saying 

 the hen would not sit, and had never wanted to sit ! To him 

 came back the cool reply, " Sometimes I find they do fail, so I 

 return you Is. in stamps." And, N.B. the man had got 4s. for 

 a hen who had doubtless had many a brocd, but would not have 



another for many a long day to come, and which would be very 

 dear to buy at Is. (id. 



We mention this to show that all those tempting offers in 

 cheap advertisements are not to be accepted. We do not say 

 but that many of the hens advertised do want to sit when sent 

 away, and do sit when they arrive, and sit well. We know of 

 one gentleman who has bought such and done well with them, 

 but we cannot think the plan a satisfactory one, and it makes ua 

 long for an incubator warranted to hatch. We wonder if there 

 ever will be such. When we say warranted, we mean of course, 

 provided all ordinary trouble and care are taken. Mrs. Cheshire 

 has shown ua how to take care of the chickens when we have 

 them by her most ingenious and simple apparatus. Now we 

 want someone to show us how to hatch them. We are fully 

 aware that during this season new incubators on simpler prin- 

 ciples have come out, but we have not heard of anyone who has 

 been really successful with them. When we say snccesfful we 

 mean for six or seven eggs out of every dozen to hatch. We 

 feel it would be a real boon, a real benefit to Ihe fancy, for soma 

 incubator to be introduced which will bring about with ordinary 

 trouble and care the desired end. We have tried incubators, and 

 our friends have tried them, but always without real success. 

 We have had them or seen them in use from many makers, and 

 burning everythii.g conceivable from paraffin oil down to night 

 lights, but always without success, and yet those who have tried 

 them are leally practical people, who have spent much time and 

 money over them. Talking of incubators, however, as an 

 example cf how very foolish some people must be, we heard of 

 one lady, and know it to be a true story, who had just been 

 taken with the fever, and hearing of an incubator, or as she 

 called it a hatching machine, sent for one, and on its arrival 

 placed eggs in it with the greatest possible zest, and expected 

 thereby to do away with the tedious period of three weeks' 

 incubation, and that the eggs would hatch out at once by 

 machinery ! This may seem incredible, but it is true. It is a 

 parallel case to the gentleman who bought a Carrier Pigeon, tied 

 a good thick letter to its wing, and having whispered to it to fly 

 to his wife in London (he was at Kamsgate) let4t fly !— W. 



HODDAKS AS LAYERS. 



My experience is something similar to "D., Deal's." 



On April 5th, 1873, 1 hatched a brood of Houdans, out of these 

 I had three pullets. I had the first egg from these ou the 13 th 

 of December, and I had eggs constantly from these three puUeta 

 up to September 27th, 1871. The three pullets averaged in this 

 time about 120 eggs each. They then began to moult. Last 

 spring I bred from these three pullets and a cockerel (not re- 

 lated), two broods of chickens in April. Out of these I had 

 about eleven pullets. I had the first egg from these on Novem- 

 ber Gih. From November 6th to December 27th I had thirty- 

 six eggs, and then they left off altogether until January 2oth, 

 1875. Since then up to this date (March 5th), I have had seven- 

 teen eggs. 



The two-year-old hens that I have spoken of as averaging last 

 year 120 eggs each, have never laid since they left off to moult. 

 They have an enclosed grass run, and are fed on good barley aud 

 a feed of scraps and pollard every now and then. 



I may say that I have now only four of the pullets and two of 

 the two-year-old hens, having parted with the rest on account 

 of their bad behaviour. 



I have a pen of Black Hamburghs which I bought about 

 Christmas time (a cockerel and two pullets). These began to 

 lay on February 7th, and since then I have had seventeen eggs 

 from them. I also know a pierson who has some Black Sp.auish 

 and also some common hens in fall lay, despite the severity of 

 the weather. — Edwahd Smith, Maldon. 



THE EXHIBITION DORKING.— No. 12. 



BY T. C. BL'KNELL. 



The SiLVEK-Gr.EY Dorking is really a beautiful variety, and 

 combines Ihe useful points of the Dark Dorking with most at- 

 tractive plumage. It is to be regretted that this breed is so 

 little patroniseci, as I am sure no other purely fancy breed can 

 compete with it where fowls have to find their own food ; nor 

 do they ever look to greater advantage than when working hard 

 for Ihtir living in a hedgerow or homestead. 



The shape of the Silver-Gir;/ Dorking cock differs in no respect 

 from that of the Dark Dorking : the difference is solely in the 

 colour ; and as this is a fancy breed, colour is of greater import- 

 ance than in the Dark variety. The comb of the Dark Dorking 

 may be either double or single, but the comb of the silver- Grey 

 must be single. This is well recognised, though I have never 

 seen it mentioned. The plumage of the Silver-Grey cock must 

 be solely of black and white feathers, any red or parti-coloured 

 feathers being a disqualification. The neck hackle should be a 

 clear white, but a slight pencilling of black down the centre of 

 each .'eathcr is allowed, provided it dees not produce a dark 



