180 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 2, 1876. 



Tagetee eignata pumila yellow. The three first Earned may be sown ia the 

 beds early in March in drills, coveriBg the seeds with their own thicknesa of 

 fine soil. Tagetes with Stocks, Asters, Phlox Drummondii, Petunias, and 

 Indian Pinks are better raised in gentle heat, tranepUnticg the seedlings in 

 rich light eoil, and at no period suflering them to become drawn by sowing 

 too thickly or by a too long continuance in heat. Unle*-8 you have meana to 

 i!Tow the plants on gently and steadily it wculd be preferable to 'Jefer sowing 

 the seed until the last days of April or the first days of May, sowicg then in 

 rich light eoil on a warm south border ia the open air. All or any of the 

 above will be useful supplements to your ordinary bedding plants. 



Pruning Markchai, Kiel Rose (TTi/ia).— Bo not cut away more than 

 the unripened points of the ehoote, leaving the shoots of 8 or 10 feot their 

 Jail length if the wood is well ripened. It is a Tea-scented kind, and there- 

 fore a continuous bloomer. 



Culture of Hedycuium Gardnerianum (H. B.). — Repot when it begins 

 to grow, removing the loose soil, and give a moderate shift. Water mode- 

 rately (or a time, but when in free growth water freely, maintaining a moist 

 atmosphere, affording a light position. "When the growth is complete admit 

 more air, keeping drier and fully exposed to light. In winter keep rather 

 dry and cool, but safe from frott, cutting away the old stems when yellow. 

 Sandy fibrous loam and peat in equal parts, with a fourth each of leaf soil and 

 old cow dung, with a free admixture of sand, is a suitable compost. 



Dividing CuRYsaNTnEMUJis {Idem). — Take off the rooted offsets and 

 insert them three in a 4-inch pot around the sides, and place in a cold frame 

 until establiehed, and when the pots are filled with roots shift into 7-inch 

 pots, stopping when 6 inches high; or divide the plants, and retaining three 

 to five of the strongest shoots to each division, and pot each singly, trim- 

 ming-in the roots so as to be potted in 5-inch pots. 



Sowing Walnuts (B.S.).— It is beat to sow them in the open grotmdin 

 the autumn, when they will come up in the spring. They may still be sown, 

 placing the nuts about 2 inches in the ground. The plants ought to be 

 trained to single stems before allowing them to branch. The height of the 

 stems may vary from 6 to 20 feet long. Walnut trunks are very valuable. 



Training Vines (L. H.).— We approve of fixing the wires in a horizontal 

 position, and the lateral growths may be trained horizontally, but we prefer 

 training them at an angle of 45'' to the rod. It is piubably ordinary mould 

 that is around the buds; it would not be mildew after you had coated the 

 rods with Gi&huret compound. We hardly know how to answer your next 

 question; it is, " Are coals injurious to plants?" Burning coals would be if 

 the smoke and plants were confined together in a house. A few pieces of 

 coal strewed on the ground would not be injurious. 



Plants fob Bedding (fl. R. C.).— Tagetes signata pumila, Perilla nankin- 

 •ensis, Centaurea candid is sim a, Ageratum, Saponaria calabrica, and Mesem- 

 bryauthemum tricolor could all be used with the different sections of the 

 bedding Pelargoniums, liou merely say "Geraniums," which is not a suffi- 

 ciently distinctive term to use when you write for the information yon desire. 



North Lawn Flowers (Amateur). — The Lobelia and Alternanthera 

 ■:70uld, in a warm shaded place, retain their beauty longer than if more ex- 

 posed to the sun. 



Growing Garlic, &c. {J. B., South Hactncy).— Send ns five postage 

 PtampB and your full address and order " Kitchen Gardening for the Many." 

 It contains Edl yoa ask for and much more. 



Slow-comeustion Boiler (A. B. C). — We have no experience of thig 

 boiler. Write to the maker and tell him your difficulties. Other answers 

 n«xt w«ek. 



Insects Destroying Iris reticulata (Q. S.).— The beetle "having de- 

 voured Is. 6d. in the shape of a plant" is the common Carabus hortensia. 

 The species of the genua Carabus are eminently insectivorous, their prey 

 consisting of larva, herbivorous beetles, and other insects, one of the 

 Epecies, C. auratns, being known in France under the common name of 

 " Le Jardinier," or The Gardener, from the services it renders in gardens 

 by destroying numbers of female cockchafers when in the act of depositing 

 thfcir eggs — hence we doubt the statement of " G. S." that C. hortensis had 

 devoured his Iris, supposing that the mischief had been done by some other 

 insect. Can "G. S." supply evidence to prove C. hortensis to have been the 

 real culprit ?— L O. W. 



Names of Fruits (C. Y., 3for(Za/.'c].— Shepherd's Newington. {W. G.).— 

 1, Tower of Glammis; 2, Baldwin. (O. C.).— 1, Rousselet De Jonghe; No. 2 

 is March Bertramot, and not Comte de Lamy. {Comuiught Subscriber). — 

 1, Cornish Gillifiower; 2, Not known; S, Loan's Pearmain ; 4, Damelow's 

 Seedling. 



Names of Plants {Suhscrilnr^ Co. Corf:). — Berberis japonica. [Mrs. 

 Huddle stone). — The large leaf, Cyclamen europaeam; the round-leaved Cycla- 

 men coum; the blue flower, Omphalodes verna. (F. R. F.). — Yours are 

 florists' flowers, of which we cannot name varieties, they are too much ahke. 



POULTEY, BEE, AND PiaEON OHEONIOLE. 



POULTRY FARMING. 



" A. B." writes to us for information, bat as his locality is not 

 named it makes it more difficult to advise. Wo confess we do 

 not believe in poultry rearing and in keeping hens for eggs for 

 purely domestic purposes. We do not mean that a few fowls 

 kept about a house do not answer, for they do, and very often 

 well, and there are not many country houses without them ; but 

 to go in for a large number because a few pay, on the principle 

 that because ten hens lay 1200 eggs in a year that twenty hens 

 must lay 2100, is where the mistake is so often made, and which 

 brings such woeful disappointment on the breeder. No; we do 

 not believe in poultry farming on the scale which so many think 

 would pay — namely, of hiring so many perches of land, and erect- 

 ing houses, stocking the runs, and then waiting for profits. We 

 fear patience has to come into use greatly in such a case ; for put- 

 ting aside a per-centage for interest on money expended, paying 

 for food, rent, labour, and such like mast leave only a tiny balance 



on the credit side, and then only when the proprietor does not 

 leave the work to attendants but does the greater part himself, 

 and is always at hand to superintend. The profits made by the 

 Sussex and other county cottagers are of course great ; but then 

 they work on a small scale, and are so able to feed the birds and 

 attend to them much more than if they had larger numbers. 

 When their chickens are ready the higglers come round and 

 collect them, and then other broods are brought up to take their 

 places ; but it is only beciuse of the small size of their under- 

 takings that they may make at times forty per cent, or even 

 more, as no doubt they sometimes do ; but once they were to 

 get overstocked their game would be done. 



We can never recommend anyone to invest money on laying 

 out yards for poultry for table purposes. The expense would 

 be great and the results unsatisfactory. It has been tried and 

 proved by many to be a failure, and " The Poultry Book" tells 

 us, too, that these establishments always collapse. They have 

 had a very fair trial and the food has been various and good, but 

 never has any real success been recorded. Companies, too, have 

 been started, but the prospectus has invariably been drawn up 

 upon some foolish and ridiculous basis, that it is needless to say 

 they did not answer or would not have done had they struggled 

 into life. 



The largest scale of poultry farming for domestic purposes 

 that can ever be attempted with success arc the poultry yards 

 connected with large farms. In such a case at one homestead 

 it would be impossible to manage more than two runs where the 

 birds could have perfect freedom and unlimited runs. Were we 

 going to attempt the cultivation of poultry for eggs and chickens 

 we should try and rent the farmyard of some large farm for the 

 run of the birds alone. We believe this can be done and is 

 actually being done. The food collected by the birds themselves 

 in their wanderings over yards among the loose manure, around 

 the cornstacks, in the fields, and in such places is immense, and 

 would go a long way towards keeping them fed, and at the same 

 time keep them in the most robust health. Ducks, too, might 

 be added with success. Turkeys we would have nothing to do 

 with. In no way depreciating them, but they are apt to be 

 delicate and get in the way of growing chickens. Such a farm 

 we would stock with Black Hamburghs for laying, and Brahma- 

 Dorkings for table and sitting purposes. No doubt others can 

 recommend breeds which with them have been very useful 

 and prolific, in which case people would use their own discre- 

 tion in their choice. We have found Black Hamburghs wonder- 

 ful layers of good-sized eggs when kept in a farmyard, and we 

 know the meat of Brahma-Dorkings is juicy and good. A good- 

 sized farmyard where the cornstacks and foddering yards are 

 numerous should take from fifty to a hundred hens. We would 

 never go beyond that number. Supposing the birds could not 

 be divided and all had to run together we would substitute 

 Houdans for Black Hamburghs, as the former are good layers 

 and they make a good table cross, otherwise the Hamburgh eggs 

 would be used for sitting, perhaps, which would hardly produce 

 pretty table chickens. 



For cocks we should have a large-bodied Brahma with not 

 heavily-feathered legs, or the first cross between a Coloured 

 Dorking and a Brahma. Three or four or more would live 

 peacefully together if properly managed, and each would most 

 likely take a certain number of ladies under his chaperonage. 

 By always letting the cocks be of different ages and hatched one 

 under the other we have generally noticed that the younger are 

 afraid of the older, and run from them. 



Supposing, of course, it would be practicable to hire some farm 

 homestead for the fowls only, we think a fair price might safely 

 be paid for rent, as with personal supervision the results should 

 be good; but great care would have to be taken in looking-up 

 the eggs regularly, for the hens would be sure to lay in mangers, 

 and cribs, and out-of-the-way places where two-legged foxes 

 would always be ready to lay their hands on any stray eggs. 



We hope we have not damped " A. B.'s" ardour as a rising 

 poultry farmer in embryo, but we cannot recommend anyone to 

 enclose wire runs for keeping birds for eggs and rearing for 

 table ; for as we said, many good and practical people have tried 

 it and found it not to pay. — W. 



PROFITABLE POULTRY-KEEPING. 



In our issue on February 10th Mr. Webb stated his experience 

 under the above title. A correspondent asked for more particu- 

 lars, and in reply Mr. Webb has obliged us by sending the follow- 

 ing details ; — 



On February 1st, 1875, I began with ten hens and one cook. 

 On February ist, 1876, 1 had in stock forty-three fowls. I killed 

 during the twelve months thirty. The average cost of food, &c., 

 has been £1 per month. Indian corn is IGs. Gd. to 18s. Gd. per 

 bag. Tyler's patent poultry meal, 18s. per hundredweight. 

 Price of eggs in January, seven to nine for Is. ; in February, 

 ten for Is. Fowls fetch 4s. to 4s. 6d. each. My success would 

 have been greater had I not set four hens with Duck's eggs, and 

 ' reared only seven, which I killed and reckoned above as fowls 



