November 26, 1874. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



479 



white, on which cau hardly be seen some small black spots. The 

 black characteristic spots only appear on the coverts of the 

 wings, and the larpe feathers of the win^s have a border like 

 those of the hen. The collar is black and very clearly marked. 

 All the breast and under the breast should bespangled aa in the 

 hen. The small sickles are of a bronzed black, and this con- 

 tinues to the fluff, and in some degree to the longer feathers, 

 until they begin to get white to the large sickles, when they are 

 quite white and only black at the ends. 



Jig. 138. 



Fig. 139.— Large Wing aDd Tail Feather 



The Golden variety is marked with black on a bright brownish 

 yellow ground. The Silver is entirely white. The Black is 

 entirely black. One of the prettiest varieties ia of entirely 

 Cuckoo plumage. Of the crest the front half ia cuckooed, and 

 the back half white. 



For the cuckooed cocks to be perfect they should be as well 

 marked as the hens. The *' Chamois" is of one colour, brown- 

 ish yellow or speckled. The spot is clearer than the foundation 

 of the plumage. These " Chamois " have the peculiarity that 

 the hens are very good sitters. 



BLACK COCHIN-CHINAS. 

 I HAVE juat been reading your comments on this breed at the 

 Crystal Palace Show and the award of prizes, from which it 

 appears to me that judges still seem to consider that Black 

 Cochins are the result of a cross, or they would not award a 

 prize to birds with red feathers whilst there are in the class any 

 without them. I maintain that those with red feathers are not 



Black Cochins, but the result of some cross which will become 

 more coloured after every moult. I, some years ago, imported 

 from Shanghai a cock and two hens which were perfectly black, 

 though not of a good shape ; from those I have bred a great 

 many birds and never had a red feather. The cock and pullet 

 at the recent Show are some of the progeny, and I have been 

 assured by residents in China that there is a perfectly black 

 fowl common enough in Shanghai. 

 Disappointed exhibitors are, I know, apt to grumble. I do not, 

 however, wish to be considered aa grumbling ; I 

 am only anxious to prevent, if posaible, a spurious 

 breed from becoming common, and the true breed 

 being again after a few years lost or given up in 

 despair. This need not be the case if the attempt 

 to make the breed by a cross is relinquished and 

 pure birds sought for. My advice is, let breeders 

 destroy every bird with the slightest tinge of a 

 red feather, and never buy without making the 

 strictest inquiry as to pedigree. — C. M. Hole, 

 Tiverton. 



POULTEY AND BIRDS. 



I HAVE just thrashed and sold at Us. 6d. per 

 quarter a crop of Rivett wheat, grown after white 

 wheat, and it yielded 7J qr. per acre, tail in- 

 cluded. This field is open to and within 30 feet 

 of the fowl house, from which emerge every 

 morning some 1.50 head of poultry, and they have 

 been free to roam at large on this field from the 

 time it was sown to the day of carting the crop. 

 As it was drilled with something under 5 pecks 

 per acre, and as the said poultry, immediately 

 after sowing, took possession of the field and 

 made a most searching and continuous examina- 

 tion of its contents, the prospect would appear 

 alarming to those who were inexperienced in the 

 matter; and I confess that, in the early days of 

 my confidence and belief in poultry, I have felt 

 somewhat nervous as to this and the next par- 

 ticular fields, knowing how sundry opponents of 

 thin sowing would triumph and rejoice over a 

 failure of the 4 pecks per acre. Well, but there 

 ia the fact of the 60 bushels of crop per acre, 

 and by no means the first, second, or third in- 

 stance of the kind, for, however shabby and 

 scratched the plants may appear in their early 

 growth, their ultimate development is grand, 

 and the thickest part of the crop is always that 

 nearest to the fowl house. They not only culti- 

 vate the crop but manure it, juat aa sheep do. 



But the great benefit is, that not an insect has 

 a chance of injuring a plant, while, at the lower 

 end of the field, less used by the poultry, there 

 was injury from wireworm. In fact, a long and 

 close observation of the habits of birds and 

 poultry has convinced me that they are the far- 

 mers' and gardeners' best friends. It has been 

 jocularly said that nothing in the shape of live 

 stock makes so large a return as poultry do, as 

 " for every grain they give a peck." It is in- 

 teresting to watch their operations. Having, with 

 their active claws pulverised every clod and un- 

 housed the plant-destroyer, he is at once appro- 

 priated and converted into food for our table. 

 Winged insects also have a poor chance with 

 them. How neatly they " knab " the fly from 

 his place of settlement, whether on the legs of 

 our horses or cattle, or on the walls or boards. 

 A sensible cart mare in my stable would not lift 

 a foot so long as her favourite chicken was watching for and 

 appropriating every fly that settled on any one of her legs. I 

 have also been amused at seeing a blackbird on the lawn 

 making a vigorous effort to withdraw from its hole a stout 

 worm, and tumbling over backwards by an ultimate and sud- 

 denly successful result. We should, as farmers and gardeners, 

 remember that for probably eleven months out of twelve birds 

 have to hve upon the insect tribe, and that it is only during the 

 ripening or ripened period that we must, by netting and other 

 means, protect our fruit and crops. The good they do vastly 

 exceeds the injury; I therefore strictly forbid bird-nesting, 

 and strongly advocate that there should be at least 1 per cent, 

 of shrubbery to every one hundred acres of farm as a home for 

 birds.— J. Mechi. 



[The above ia contributed to ths Farmer by Mr. Mechi, and 

 it is worthy of the consideration of aU cultivators of the soil. 

 Mr. Mechi ia no mere theorist; we remember his farm near 

 Tiptree Heath, the most unproductive of farms, with a soil 

 specially difficult to cultivate. We remember the Wilkins's, 



