158 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Febrnary 24, 1876. 



JH the case, and to meet this we may hint that we should fill the undotted 

 part as shown in your sketcih with Portugal Laurel, common Yew, and Ilolly, 

 intersperatd with a few Mountain Aeh, Labamum, double white, pink, and 

 scarlet Thome, double Cherries, and ornamental Pears, and Crabs. Suitable 

 ever(?reen shrubs are Arbutus unedo. Aucuba japonica, ISerberis Darwinii, 

 B. (Mahonia) aqnifolia, Cotoneaster Simmonsi, Ligusfrum ovalifolium, and 

 Ulex europcea flore-pleuo, also Rhododendron ponf icum vars., K catawbienee. 

 Deciduous shrubs are Amelanchier vulcaria paneuineus, Cydonia japonica, 

 Dentzia crenata flore-pleno, D. scabra ; Pbiladelphns coronarius, P. cornnarius 

 flore-pleno ; Ribeseani^niDPUm, R. sanguineum album, R. ppecioaum ; Spirwas 

 ariiEfolia, DouHlafiii, and callosa ; Syringa persica and variety alba, S. vulgaris, 

 and its variety alba ; Viburnum opulue, V. dentatom, and Weigela rosea. 



Amateur's Pit [E. H. Z).)-— The furnace you propose is not too small. It 

 should be the length in prate bar you mention, and the height we should 

 increase by arching the furnace ovfr with firebricks in a semicircle from 

 three courpes of bricks above the grate bars, which will give space for smoke 

 after the fire is banked; but the dimensions you give will answer. You 

 ought to have the evaporation troughs, one for the first division, and two in 

 the lai-per one. They may be formed of cement upon the flue-covers 2 feet 

 long, at-d the width of the flue minus the thickness of the cement on each 

 side. If 2 inches deep you need not trouble further about depth. The holes in 

 the wall will be of very little use, as you will only have the side heat from the 

 flue. With rubble at the bottom of the bed you might, perhaps, obtain 

 sufficient heat to enable you to grow Cucumbers and Melons satisfactorily. 

 We cannot perceive which of the supplementary remarks are insufficiently 

 explicit. 



8LOW-COMBTISTI0N BoiLERS {Riis in CTrbe).— We do not know in what their 

 disadvantages consist, certainly none of those you mention. They are not 

 more hable to get out of order, they give equal results, and are not more 

 exhaustive of fuel or labour than other descriptions of boilers, and are well 

 adapted fur an amateur; but amateurs having a failing, with other people, 

 to expect too much, we advipe a boiler which is above rather than on a level 

 with its work, and you will find it more satisfactory than one which in hard 

 weather mn&t be driven, and the heat, with the increased current, more 

 rapidly escaping by the flue. 



MANunrNG (W. H. S.).— Fowls* dung may be used for Onions, 3 ozs. per 

 square yard, sprinkled on the surface after the seed is sown. Salt and lime 

 make a good compost for Potatoes, five bushels of each to an acre. Gypsum 

 has been applied beneficially to Potatoes, 3 cwt. per acre. 



Pigeons' Dung (Ct»?j(m?ja).— Keep it dry, and use it as fresh as you can. 

 It is a very powerful manure. Spread it very thinly, and dig it in at once 

 where the crop is to be inserted. 



Names of Fadits (R. Crossiinf?).— Bess PooL We do not recognise the 

 round red one. (Connaught Subscriber}.—!, not known; 2, Baxter's Pear- 

 main J 3, Lodgemore Nonpareil ; 4, not known. 



POULTET, BEE, AKD PIGEON OHKOmOLE. 



SILKIES. 



By REGINALD S. S. WOODGATE. 

 Pabt 3. 



Although, aa we previously stated, we prefer to breed from 

 cockerels and two-year-old hens, stiU old birds must not be 

 despised in any way, for their continued virility is surprising ; 

 we know an eight-years-old bird, some chickens of which found 

 their way into the prize lists last year. This is a fact worthy of 

 notice, for so many of the other breeds are weakened and dull, 

 and are not of any use in the breeding pens after the third or 

 fourth year at most. Silkies, too, when they become two years 

 old are frequently subject to fits of giddiness, and sometimes 

 seem unable to see their food from these chronic attacks ; but 

 strange to say, we have never found this go against their pro- 

 ductive powers, and a cock we once had so was the father of 

 most of the champions of his year. We have never been able 

 to cure it. For exhibition Silkies require no especial prepara- 

 tion beyond a good wash. This, however, is essential; for from 

 their flufBness and silky feathers they accumulate a great deal 

 of dirt, and look when unwashed very bad in the exhibition pen. 

 In washing them care has to be taken, for they are delicate in 

 the water and we have often nearly lost them in their bath. The 

 water rapidly seems to get the better of them, and then they 

 will hang down their heads and die in your hands ; but as soon 

 as ever this failing seems coming on we plunge them into a 

 tub of cold water which we have handy on puroose. The action 

 of the cold water, desperate as the remedy may seem, generally 

 seems to recover them. We never use now any preparation 

 such as borax, or blue, or lime, or those quack things to make 

 adult birds white, for clean warm water and white curd soap 

 should do everything. If, however, they fail, the birds are either 

 bad in colour by nature or burnt by the sun and winds, and 

 nothing will then ever bleach them— at least so we find, and we 

 have spent much time in the cultivation of white poultry. They 

 want to be dried by a slow fire, and to be first well rinsed of 

 all soap. A very hot fire will scorch their faces and blister 

 their lobes, which would most likely ruin them for successful 

 exhibition for ever. When they are dry they should be well 

 combed with a coarsely-toothed comb, and their crests brushed 

 back with a hard brush. 



In washing them, however, there is one thing which all must 

 guard against. If the water is too hot or they are placed by a 

 hot fire their leg feathers are very liable to come out. This 

 may seem unaccountable, but so it is, and all Silky breeders will 

 testify to it. We suppose that the growth of these feathers is 



very deHoate, and that they feel the influence of the hot water. 

 We know of several instances where this moulting of the leg- 

 feathering has caused much annoyance, but one illustration will 

 suffice. In November, 1873, we were with Mr. Darby at S anley 

 Hall, Bridgnorth, helping to prepare the birds for Bingley Hall. 

 Among the other birds to be made ready was a pair of Silkies ; 

 they were selected because of their leg feathers, and were washed 

 by the attendant. As they seemed to be suffering from their 

 bath they were removed from the poultry-room fire to one of 

 the indoor rooms, and there as they dried lying by the fire, 

 before the eyes of all spectators one feather after another fell 

 out till they were almost bare on the legs when dry. Thus they 

 were out of the question for the Show, so another pen had to be 

 substituted at the last minute. Not only hot water have we 

 known bring this sudden moulting on, but incarceration in a 

 warm exhibition room or in a basket, or even when the hen is 

 herself incubating. We have noticed it, too, more especially in 

 the hens than the cocks. As a remedy we always tie bandages 

 of linen rags tightly round the legs of the birds to be washed, 

 and do not remove thom till the lavatory process is over. We 

 have found, too, rags dipped in cold water and tied round the 

 logs strengthen the leg-feathering. We have used, too, with 

 success a preparation originally given by Mr. Erasmus Wilson 

 for the promoting the growth of and strengthening the roots of 

 the hair ; but this is au expensive preparation, which makes it 

 of less use than it would otherwise be. 



As the breed now is we think fanciers have to turn their 

 attention to crests, combs, and shape. The five toes seem now 

 understood, and rarely do birds come into the prize lists which 

 have not their claws as well put on as a Dorking; but we see 

 birds winning which are not fluffy enough and which are bad in 

 comb. So lately as the last Crystal Palace Show we saw the 

 first-prize pullet there with a pike to the back of its comb like 

 a Hamburgh hen's. This is quite wrong and very ugly ; still it 

 escapes notice, for at the Oxford Show, too, a pen was highly 

 commended which had this failing. We consider it a disquali- 

 fication and would unhesitatingly pass any such combed bird ; 

 for the warty-shaped mulberry comb is one of the points of the 

 breed, and any other should be as much a disqualification as 

 vulture hocks in the breed are. 



When wo look back and see how this pretty little breed has 

 been rescued from becoming a red-combed, lanky, and ugly bird, 

 we are very glad, for only five years ago no one seemed to know 

 what a perfect specimen should be like ; and it was not till the 

 perfect and purest birds came from Japan, which bred true to 

 every point, that we were able to lay down the table of required 

 points ; and we arc glad, too, to notice that yearly they are 

 becoming more recognised and more improved by being less 

 crossed with spurious birds. 



In conclusion, we may state that on page 93 in the second 

 part, " wry-tailed " should have read "long-tailed." Of course, 

 no one breeds from wry-taUed specimens of any breed. We 

 call attention to the printer's error, however, to prevent any 

 mistake, as it is the wry-tailed cocks which breed the coarse and 

 ugly birds that we often see about. 



CUTTING THE COMBS OF COOKS. 



I ONCE sold to a lady a pen of Game Bantams consisting of a 

 dubbed cockerel and two hens. These birds, obeying Nature's 

 law, increased and multiplied in their season ; when I received 

 an amusing and not unnatural complaint, that the birds could 

 not be of a pure race because the little cockerels, unlike the 

 parent bird, had combs and wattles. After hearing an explana- 

 tion, that to make him quite fashionable the little gentleman 

 sold to her had been shorn of his comb, &c., my fair corre- 

 spondent condemned the fashion as cruel and senseless, and 

 applied to its former owner no very complimentary epithets for 

 permitting the mutilation ; and she was right. 



I cannot say with " WiLTsnraE Rector " that I am "glad to 

 see that a case has recently been brought before the Magistrates 

 in regard to the dubbing of the larger breed;" for when we 

 consider that all the shows. Crystal Palace included, encourage 

 aud countenance the practice, I think it very hard that pro- 

 ceedings should be instituted against an unfortunate and com- 

 paratively obscure individual, and that an officer of one of our 

 leading exhibitions should appear as a witness for the prose- 

 cution. Exhibitions which denounce anathemas against trim- 

 ming, and yet countenance and encourage that which is nothing 

 but trimming, cannot in my opinion be held free from blame in 

 the matter. If it be desirable — which I very much question — 

 to bring the strong arm of the law to bear upon the subject, 

 surely it would be more straightforward, more manly, to select 

 one of our large breeders and exhibitors of Game fowls as the 

 victim. I said above that our shows encourage the practice, 

 and I said it advisedly, for I much doubt whether an undubbed 

 mature bird would win at any of our leading shows, ccrteris 

 paribus. Taking, therefore, everything into consideration, I 

 must confess that I was pleased with the decision of the Sittiog- 

 bonrne bench. 



