May 13, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOKTIOULTURE AND OOTTAQE GARDENER, 



379 



dula, pinb ; and Saponaria calabrica, pink. Violas and Paoaies perform an 

 important part in spring gardening, espeoially Violas, Blue Boll, it in of dwarf 

 compact habit, an early flo«verer, violet shaded with blue, yellow eye ; V. corouta 

 Imperial Blue Perfotition, violet blue, dwarf, and free ; V. lutea mujor. noldeu 

 yellow, farly, and very g'>od; V. Golden Perpetual, i3 very proLiae blooming, 

 bright clear yellow; V. Coriaande is also free blooming, aud a pale prirarone 

 colour; the best white is V. crnuta alba. Pausies suitable for the purpose 

 are the well-liuowu Cliveden Bine, Purple, White, aud Yellow ; and othL-ra are 

 Imperial Bine, de^p blue, one nf the very best ; Dean's White Bedder, early 

 and one nf the best; Bedfont Yellow, early and free; Blue King, lif^ht blue, 

 free bloomiuK and very effective. All are best raised from outtin^is, which 

 bloom more freely and earlier, not Rrowiug iso vigorously as seedliug plants ; 

 exceptions are Pjrethrum Golden Feather, Sileuo,and Saponaria, which are 

 be&t rai-^ed from seed, the two latter being hardy annuals. The propagatiun 

 and culture of all these would take up more time and space than we can 

 devote to the subject. We shall be glad, however, to render you aseistance 

 if you are in any difficulty. 



EvEKGREKN Shrub FOR Wall (/(fcm). —Magnolia grandiflora, Exmouth 

 variety, would do, but it ought to have a wall of at least 20 feet in heif;ht. Ea- 

 calloaia macrantha would suit such a position, and it is fine in foliage, and 

 flowers freely late in the summer. 



Names of Plants (Mrs. L.).— Lonicora tartarica, Tartarian Upright 

 Honeysuckle. It is one of the hardiest of shrubs ; is deserving of a place in 

 every shrubbery, for not only ia it highly ornamental, but will grow in any 

 Boil or situation. The flowers vary from pink to white. The wood beiug hard 

 and yellowitth-grey is used for makio'? walking sticks and instrument handles. 

 It is a native of eastern Russia. ('/". H.).— Erysimum oheiranthoides; com- 

 mon name. Treacle Muatard. (South of iTcland).— It is eo far as we can 

 determinefromaepray,Seqnoiasempervirens. (R'-v- T. O'Gradi/).— Epimedium 

 alpinnin, L, var. rubrura. HooJc. {Bot Mag., t. 5671). (3/. R ).— 3, Alonsoa in- 

 oisfBfolia. The Begoniais a florists' variety, which wecannot name. (Alpha). 

 — The seeds are apparently those of a Desmodium. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON OHEONIOLE. 



THE BLACKTHORN SPRING. 



We conclade this must be called a blackthorn spring. We 

 have looked iu the country lanes for leaves, and we have 

 seen none. The blackthorn has alone decked the hedges with 

 its flowers, and when this is so southerners know it is to be a 

 bad time for man, aud beast, and bird. There is another old- 

 fashioned saying in the south — 



" Wben the cuchoo comes on the bare bongh 

 There will be sorrow, aud sorrow enou'." 



This year the cuckoo came to leafless trees, and the 1875 chicken 

 season has set in very sorrowfully. 



Some weeks ago we mentioned the unhappy accounts we had 

 from poultry yards in various parts of England, and we are 

 sorry to hear, in most cases, they have not improved. We our- 

 selves have had many nests of clear eggs, and those from birds 

 which were in the past season marked for their breeding suo- 

 oeases. Eggs have not hatched at home, aud so it is not to be 

 supposed that they would hatch in nests away from home. 

 Friend after friend we have spoken to on the subject, letter 

 after letter we have received— all have a rechauffe of the same 

 grievance. In runs where there were only three or four hens do 

 not seem to be more productive than where the cock had a 

 dozen wives, and we have noticed this as much in Bantams aud 

 the smaller breeds as in Cochins or Brahmas ; consequently 

 we have heard many complaints this season of quite a new 

 kind. _ Breeders who last season sold their cockerels and cocks as 

 breeding stock to others are, we hear, frequently receiving letters 

 to say the birds have been useless for breeding, aud that the 

 disappointment has been consequently very great, for the best 

 hens had been mated with the new blood, and great things 

 hoped for. Two of our friends have had such letters from pur- 

 chasers of their stock who, in a burst of indignation, did not 

 hesitate to say that the birds had been tampered with. We can 

 only recommend them to try again. 



" There still is one door open^ 

 The door of hope, my dear." 



And perhaps now, when the suns are really wanner and the 

 whole place brighter, the "tampered with" cockerels may yet 

 be the fathers of exhibition chickens ; but it is late — very late. 

 There is hardly time for any spring now, so close are the sum- 

 mer months upon us. 



We know of exhibitors of many years' standing — clever men, 

 who go to work quite scientifically — who have this sessou been 

 qnite nonplussed; they could not make out what had come to 

 the birds, or what was wrong with the eggs. Then they com- 

 pared notes with friends, and found out all were sailing in the 

 same great boat, aud that they were no worse off than their 

 neighbours. So they comforted themselves with the reflection 

 that the east winds must have blowu from Northumberland to 

 the Straits of Dover, addling the eggs, or incapacitating their 

 prodncers as it went I 



Late chickens are generally a great nuisance ; they are in the 

 way of the older birds and give endless trouble; but this year 

 it stems we must either have them or none at all, and hatchings 

 which have generally ended in April must now be carried into 

 June, for surely before then the east winds will have blown 

 themselves out. No one need really be discouraged at their bad 



lack and give up even yet sitting their hens this seasi n iu disgust, 

 as there are so very many companions in adversity, for even in 

 adversity it is pleasant not to suffer alone. 



There are some early chickens about ; we kuow of two or 

 three Ijreeders who have done better than commouly, but these 

 were from eggs principally laid in January. The blackthorn 

 had not begun to bud then, for we find that the January eggs 

 hatched very much better than those of February aud March ; 

 but then, January eggs were " few aud far between," and most 

 people do not care for very early chickens, and rest contented till 

 February aud March. It is on them that the blackthorn has 

 blossomed so unkindly. Even all the little pet arrangements 

 seem to have failed this year : nests made in warm corners, 

 which have hitherto had such fine broods hatched in them; 

 nests fashioned with warm materials or turf foundations; exact 

 waterings with tepid water ; all the wouted careful watohings 

 after hens when off their nests to feed and dust — all these little 

 miuutiaa to which in other years we have attributed particular 

 successes, seem to have goue for nothing this season. We can 

 speak from experience — sad experience. We made our nests 

 warm, we watched the sitting hens off and on their nests again, 

 we rained refreshing drops on the eggs, but all to no purpose. 

 Our care was bestowed on " clear " eggs, or eggs whose inmates 

 faintly chipped their shells two or three days after they should 

 have done, and then quietly resigned their baby lives, unable, 

 as Mrs. Dombey before them, " to make the effort." 



The few chickens that have been hatched, we hear from many, 

 are mostly feeble aud weakly little creaturts, aud are liable to 

 every kind of ailment — cramp, and cold, and leg-weakness. 

 Truly this blackthorn spring will long be remembered. We 

 look forward to some of the early chicken shows to see what 

 those who generally are to the fore in the early prize lists will 

 do this year. We wonder if they will have managed to procure 

 something early out of the vast poultry resources of Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire, so as still to keep up their ancient prestige, or 

 whether they will send small and juvenile representatives of 

 their breeds, or leave the clasees empty and keep their baskets 

 at home. If they think of the latter expedient, surely schedule- 

 framers should look out and take, before it is too late, the advice 

 offered iu a friendly contemporary, of specially modifying their 

 schedules to meet this especial emergency. 



If this wretched time had been confined to nests of eggs in- 

 cubated iu rooms, aud baskets, and cold out-houses, we should 

 have been inclined to think that the dry weather and sharp 

 winds necessitated an extra allowance this year of moisture 

 and heat ; but we find ourselves, and hear from many others, 

 that Ducks which made their nests on the ground and had 

 every advantage that Nature can afford, have been equally un- 

 successful. So we can only believe that the east winds have 

 been most unusually severe, and that the poultry world has done 

 all it could do, though for the most part in vain. 



As regards the results of this blackthorn spring, we are 

 inclined to think they will be one of two. Either we shall have 

 the prices of good cockerels and pullets higher than ever, and 

 have £20 where last season we were content and proud to take 

 .£10, or — and we sincerely hope this will not be the case — it will 

 cause a severe check to the fancy, having sickened and wearied 

 some of its best amateur supporters. It will thus have been the 

 first serious stumblingbloek in the highway of the poultry 

 world, aud those will then begin to laugh who long years ago, 

 iu the early days of the fever, prophesied soouer or later some 

 deathblow to what they were pleased to call " an infatuated 

 people." We hope this will not be the case, and though we 

 think the price for birds to be now quite high enough, still we 

 shall gladly hail the first alternative, if it is to be either of the 

 two results. — W. 



BROODY HENS. 



In the article signed " Hampton-in-Arden," in last week's 

 Journal is the passage, " Out of the large number I keep, I have 

 this spring been able to keep them from becoming broody until 

 quite recently." Now, has any method been pursued to prevent 

 broodiness ? If so, would this gentleman tell us what it is? 



I keep Brahmas principally, and the fault I find with them is 

 they do not become broody. They have been laying since 

 November almost daily. I feed on hot Indian meal in the morn- 

 ing, sometimes scraps at midday if cold, and a little corn in the 

 evening. They have an excellent grass run and stable yard. 

 Even now I have only one Brahma pullet broody, the hens 

 laying daily. Two cocks and fifteen hens are my stock. — 



SUDBORY. 



ESSEX POULTRY SHOW. 



Allow me to inform your readers that a poultry Show was 

 held at Brentwood in the year 18(55 in connection with the 

 annual Show of the Essex Agricultural Society, then and there 

 held, and that all the winners of prizes, including Mr. Cresswell 

 himself, were paid their prize-money within a week of the show 

 day, and that all prizes vrill most certainly be paid in 1875 as 



