242 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 23, 1876. 



cone is sent with a spray. Scrape off the lichens and paint the stems of the 

 trees afterwards with a creamy mixture of lime and salt in water, soot being 

 added to prevent the wLiteneaa being objectionable. Silver-margined English 

 Ivy is the whitest we know. 



Hollyhock Cdltdee (A. S.). — Tour remedy is to raise young plants 

 annually by striking the cattiDt,'3 in spring in gentle heat, or from eyes 

 inserted under handlifihta in the summer, wintering the plants in cold 

 frames. Ilollyhocbs like an open situation exposed to the full sun, and 

 require to have plenty of air, but to be sheltered from cutting winds by 

 objects at such a diatatice that they will not ehade nor affect the Hullyhocki*. 

 The ground should be a Rood rich loam, light rather than heavy, eurichej 

 with plenty of manure; it must te trenched, manured, and thrown-up 

 roughly in November, and turned over in frosty weather. Of coarse, it must 

 be well drained. If the ground is heavy adl sand or ashes to the soil. If it 

 is in good order you may plant out with every confidence early in April. The 

 plants should have protectiou from frost for a short time. Beyond staking, 

 and supplying them liberaUy with liquid manure, we do not find they need 

 any further care, only to reduce the shoots thrown-up to two, or at most 

 three, of the strongest. 



Fern Unhealthy (S. E. fl".).— Adiantum farleyenne occasionally loses 

 some of its lower fronds in the winter, but new fronds are quickly produced 

 in the spring. The plant may require fresh soil, but do not overpot it. 

 Remove carefully some of the old soil ftom the roots and apply a fresh com- 

 post of turfy peat two-thirds, the remaining third to consist of turfy loam, 

 lumps of charcoal, and silver sand. Ua? the compost in a rough state, and 

 place the plant in the stove, shading it and affording a moiat still atino- 

 sphere. The sprig having a light blue fliwer was much withered. We think 

 it is Goldfussia anisophylla, a plant of easy culture requiring cool stove treat- 

 ment. Pot it in peat and loam, keeping in the stove until Jane, then remove 

 it to the greenhouse or frame, replacing it in the stove in September. 



Seedling Apples on their own Roots iJ. H.), — Many have fruited so 

 grown, but grafts from them fruit much sooner. You can have the Indes 

 and probably the numbers. 



Converting Pit into Hothouse (H. T.'i.—'We should discard the flue 

 altogether and heat with hot water. The wall-plates may be ntilised for the 

 Bame purpose again. We should employ them for the proposed house of 

 ■which we give a section (fi?. 7^), also the old lights, having others made of 

 the same length and ho form a span-roof house, which will give you a house of 



Fig. 72. 



about II feet in width inside the walls, a. Pathway in centre. &, Beds over 

 heated chambers, c, The beds filled with cocoa-nub fibre refuse for plunging 

 the pots in, c being flagged over and heated by two rows of 3-inch pipes, 

 having tliding doors in the side walls d at 4 feet intervals, they being about a 

 foot square, by which any excess of bottom heat may be liberated, or if re- 

 quired to augment the top heat it may be done by means of the slides. Top 

 heat is had by a 4-iTich flow pipe all round the house except the doorway, 

 the return being m the pathway. We give the section in hope of its being 

 useful to you and othersof our readers. It is a useful kind of house for the 

 growth of dwarf plants employed for house decoration, and a capital supple 

 ment of a greenhouse when plants requiring a higher temperature are in 

 demand, besides being useful for propagating. 



Select Plants {An Inquirer). ~ Chrysanthemums : Barbara, White 

 Beverley, Empress of India, Golden Beverley, Lord Derby, and Venus. 

 Fuclisias, single varieties: Arabella Improved, Barcelona, Delight, Grande 

 Duchesse, Marie, Right Hon. J. Bright, and Tricolmred Beauty. Double 

 i>arieties: Avalanche (white corolla variety), Chicago, Princess Alexandra, 

 Purple Prince, Sir Garnet Wolaeley,and White Unique. Show Pelargoniums: 

 Black Prince, Chieftain, Duchess, Kavourite. i\Iagi)iflceut, Scottish Chieftain, 

 and Zephyr. Zonal Pelargoniums: Avocat Gambatta, Edward Bennett, Sir 

 Charles Napier, White Clipper, Princets Maud, and FJorenceDarand. Nosegay 

 Pelargoniums : Delight, Pink Queen, Lustrous, Rose Bradwardine. Violet 

 Hill Nosegay, and George Peabody. Tricolor Pelargoniums : J. B. Downio, 

 Achievement, Jetty Lacy, Prince of Wales. Mrs. Laing, and Miss Burdett 

 Coutts. Brome and Gold: Chieftain, Prince Arthur, W. E. Gumbleton, 

 Marshal MacMahon, Rev. C. P. Peach, and Black Doug'as. Gold and Silver- 

 edged: Cryntal Palace Gem, Golden Chain. Albion's Cliffs, Bonnie Dundee, 

 May Queen, and Mrs. Kingsbury. Coitus: Albert Victor. Dukeof Edinburgh, 

 Baronees Rothschild, Priace Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Q leen Victoria. 



Cdcdmbers FAiLitTti (£f. A. B.).— Probably the bottom heat is excessive 

 and the ni«ht temperature too high. Wa should keep the bottom heat 

 steady at 75-, the top heat 65- at night, and it may fall to 60- in the morning, 

 75'-^ by day without sun, and RF to a5~ and 9P with sun and air. The Cucum- 

 ber you name succeeds admirably with bottom heat, but having a hardy 

 constitution succeeds with leas bottom heat than probably any other kind, 

 and ia orie of the most useful kinds in cultivation. Telegraph will endure 

 stronger bottom heat than any kind we know, and also a drier atmasphere. 

 Try Tender and True. It has a good constitution, is a certain sweUer; it 

 and the one jou have being the tendereat aad finest-flavoured of Cucnrabers. 



Names of Fruits (A. M.).—Applea : 1, Loan's Pearmain ; 2, Paradise 

 Pippin; 4, Norfolk Storing. Pear: Pasae Colmar. 



Names oy Plants (S. C. 0.}.— Sparmaunia africana. (Somerset),— I, Pinus 



escelsa ; 2, Asplenium bulbiferum ; 3, A. Adiantum nigrum ; 4 and 6, Lastrea 

 ppinulosi. {J. IT. J.).-Milla (Triteleia) nnifloia, Oraham, (Jas Brown).— 

 3, Aspidium f alcatum ; 4, Acorus gramineus; 5, Adiantum afline; 6, Asple- 

 nium auritum ; 9, Brickellia cordifolia. 



POULTRY, BEE, ATO PIGEON OHEONIOLE. 



SILKIES. 



Br REGINALD S. S. WOODGATE. 

 Pabt 4, 

 Silkies when batched should be quite yellow, and we have 

 often noticed that the yellower the down ia on them the better 

 colour do they nventaally come ; chicka which are hatched 

 white being often bad ia colour when full ^rowu. They are the 

 hardieat little chickens imaginable. We have broods now 

 which have never been coddled, and which are featherning fast. 

 They will cat anything, and do not need cuatarda or bread-and- 

 milk, and euch expensive fare ; in fact, for hardihood they sur- 

 pass all the breeds we know of bar none in their days of chicken- 

 hood. Their good qualities as mothers and sisters are being 

 rapidly realised by game-keepers, for we hear of Pheasant 

 breeders and rearers clamouring for hens and pullets of the 

 breed on all sides. As we have before stated, one great virtue is 

 that they are so often broody, and so their eggs are not so much 

 valuable as the birds themselves. They rarely lay a dozen eggs 

 before wanting to sit, and this is as equally noticeable in tbe 

 first cross between a Silky cock and common or Game hens as 

 in purely bred specimens. This would be in many breeds a 

 great disadvantage, but when the breed ia cultivated, especially 

 for sitting purposes, it is the greatest boon. "When a hen or 

 pullet begins to lay we may generally feel sure that by that day 

 fortnight the bird will want to sit, while in a hen of another 

 breed it is impossible to judge when the desire will come on. 

 When, however, they are put aside and not allowed to incubate, 

 a day or two in a atrange place will stop the tendency, and they 

 will lay again in ten days, and often before the week is out. 

 Now, this is R valuable point to know, and we confidently 

 recommend the poultry world generally who are in this season 

 clamorous for broody hens to give up a small yard for a tribe 

 of Silky hens, or the first cross between a Silky cock and some 

 small common hens. Of course they need not be perfect iu 

 points for this purpose, but the number of imperfect Silkies ia 

 becoming limited — that is, of Silkies imperfect in comb, or 

 claws, or feathering. We never have more than one or two 

 imperfect chickens now in a whole season. We had troubles 

 at first, as of course all will have, and do have, but wo killed aa 

 soon as they were hatched all which had one single disqualifi- 

 cation, such as a single comb, or only four toes, or non-feathered 

 logs, and so we brought our birds to the standard as now 

 required in the exhibition pen. Of course by so doing we 

 destroyed at first pullets with the cockerels which were not 

 perfect, and which still would have done for sitting purposes, 

 but we preferred to get our breed established and our chickens 

 always perfect; and this we recommend all to do also if they 

 want to establish for themselves a strain which will always 

 breed true to the required points. We may mention too that 

 in making up for exhibition especial cire haa to be taken with 

 regard to the combe. So many of our best specimens are red in 

 comb, or dark in comb and red in wattles. This becomes worse 

 every breeding season, and we would recommend a cock being 

 used with a badly-shaped comb of a good colour before a per- 

 fectly-shaped-combed one of a bad colour. We detected last 

 season at one show an otherwise good bird with a reddish comb, 

 but the owner had tried to get over the blemish by using some 

 chemical to alter the objectionable colour, but it hardly had the 

 desired effect, as when we saw it the acid, or whatever the com- 

 pound was, had changed colour and become of a bronze hue. 

 We mention this in passing to show that even the innocent and 

 useful little Silky is " doctored " or tried to be " made-up " for 

 show. We know of no paint or acid which could possibly make 

 a bad comb in a Silky of a good colour, and so we venture to 

 suggest that even the "fakers " should not think of touching a 

 Silky's comb, unless they wished for and coveted detection and 

 disqualification. 



Since we wrote our last paper we have heard from a gentle- 

 man who has kept the breed for many years, and he tells us that 

 he too has experienced the giddiness and vertigo in the breed 

 which we mentioned, and has used with temporary success dosea 

 of spirits of lavender as a remedy. We say temporary, because 

 we hear the ailment returns again after two or three months; 

 still, as we previously said, we have never found in an other- 

 wise perfectly healthy specimen that this peculiarity has injured 

 the breeding powers of the birds. 



In leaving the subject we can only express our hope that the 

 breed will gain its deserts more in this season than in bygone 

 years, and that other places besides Bath and Oxford and the 

 two Palaces will support this, one of the most useful breeds we 

 have, by giving it classes; and for ourselven, we take this oppor- 

 tunity of stating that we will guarantee four entries iu every 



