136 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTTJEB AND COTTAGE GAKDENEK. 



[ February 5, 1674. 



the reason then very well. Were it not that I fear you will not 

 publish these remarks I might extend them. — J. C., Brentford, 



SUPERS FILLED ABTIFICTATJ.Y. 



I HiTB read with great pleasure the indignant protest by yotir 

 able correspondent, "'A Res-fbewshire Beekezpeb," against 

 the nefarions practice which has within the last few years been 

 adopted, of filling supers intended for sale or exhibition by the 

 artificial means which have been described. 



It is much to be regretted that any bee-keeper ehould have 

 his moral powers so defective as to be unable to see that he lays 

 himself open to a charge of fraud when he palms upon the 

 public, as the product of a single season, an article which in 

 reality combines the collections of two or more. Even suppos- 

 ing such a compound to be genuine honey, it can only be honey 

 of inferior quality and flavour, much of the excellence of that 

 which went to make it up having been lost through age and 

 other influences. If in completing the contents of either large 

 hives or supers sugar has been used, is not the party using it 

 guilty of a crime which is now frequently punished — viz., the 

 crime of adulteration ? 



I am glad Mr. Breen has made a clean breast of his doings by 

 ToluntarUy disclosing his proceedings; but I hope we have 

 heard the last of them, and that competing supers entered for 

 prizes will have the affidavit attached to them, declaring that 

 nothing went to their composition but what the bees collected 

 directly from the fields dtiring the period extending from April 

 1st till November Ist of the year for which a reward is offered. 



It is an easy matter to make beautiful large artificial glass 

 supers. There is no need to try. It was accomplished years 

 ago with the greatest success ; and I have now to learn that 

 anything has yet been produced superior to the 87 lbs. glass 

 which was so admirably photographed and described by " Een- 

 PBEwsHiRE Bee-keepeb " in your number of June 4th, 1668. 

 I saw that glass at Moffat Show in September, 1867. I over- 

 heard some particulars in regard to its manufacture; but the 

 information obtained was so repelling as to take away all heautieB 

 from the super in my eyes. — R. S. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



T *BT> FOR DoREiNGS {TauTi Caput). — Yon have described the paradise of 

 Dorkings. Xo other breed will suit jou half so well, or pay you bo much 

 money. Laying is the result of proper management, and keeping early 

 pullets of each year to be layers in the winter. Profitable eggs are those that 

 are laid when other people have none. Houdana are very good layers, but 

 they do not sit. M'here there is such a run as you describe, nothing is so 

 profitable as the Dorking. They are good layers, good sitters and mothers. 

 Climate does not interfere. "We have seen as good Dorkings bred in Scotland 

 as we ever saw in the south and south-west of England. We know no place 

 where there is not a sale for good fowls, and the Dorking will make you better 

 market fowls than any other. The Spanish do not sit, neither do the Creve- 

 Ccenr nor the Hamburghs At this season of the year the proper plan is to 

 buy a few of the breed you intend to keep, and egga that jou can put under 

 your mongrels as they become broody. 



FEfiTTLE Eggs {T. H. E.). — Answer to question No. 1 — After two or three 

 days. 2, You may set the eggs after three days certainly. We should have 

 little faith in the cock yon mention as a stock bird. In a horse such a disease 

 would be called string-halt. We know no name for it in fowls. There is no 

 reason why it should be hereditary, bat as it is a serious thing to lose the 

 early season, we never advise anyone knowingly to ose a doubtful bird or one 

 subject to any disease or infirmity. 



Bbahxa PruLETa {D. Judd). — As a rule yonr pnlleta shonld be laying, 

 And judging from your description we should say they are laying. You do 

 not tell as the flooring of their roosting house. Whatever may be the diffi- 

 culties of their ont-dcor run, the flooring of their house may be of earth. 

 They will scratch in this in the mo'ning, and they will resort to it daring the 

 day. April pullets have laid before this. Are you sore they do not eat their 

 eggs? It is a nasty trick, and they learn it one of the other. Can they 

 always go out ? if not, at what time are they let out ? Many bad tricks are 

 learned when they are shut-up together and have nothing to do. "Idleness 

 is the mother of all vices." Change your food a little. Give the barley in 

 the shape of meal instead of whole. Let them have it slaked with wat«r 

 morning and evening, at midday house and table scraps if there are any, if 

 not, give them some whole Indian com. Discontinue potatoes and Indian 

 meaL Potatoes rather hinder than increase layiog. They cause disease of 

 the liver. Do not give them too many worms. In a state of nature they have 

 them only as luzories. So far as you can do it, let them be exactly as they 

 would be in a state of nature. Ko disinfectant is needed if the dung is raked 

 OfiE daily, and the gravel forked occasionally. 



Da£E Brahsus' Fkathkes {GUcum). — We are not Bore you are not mis- 

 taking windmills for giants. We do not understand ''streaky*' defects In 

 Brahmas. They are not like Hamburghs, where a faint mossing diequalifies. 

 The fault of the feathers yon send is, they are tinged with yellow. That is a 

 faalt and a graTe one. If you choose a cock positively without a buff or 

 chestnut feather on the wing or back, you may breed from your pullets. If 

 they are well marked and pencilled to the throat, yon may pat the virtae 

 against the vice. 



C&ossoiG Black and Ybllow Jacobins {A. B.).— We have freqaently 

 experimented in crossing Black and Yellow Pigeons, and always with, a bad 

 resalt. The young have come strawberry-coloured or smoky. 



Points in Caeriees {Inquirerj. — The following are the chief — Wattle. — 

 Broad across the base of the beak, tilting and tapering from the head towards 

 the point of the bilL It should not press on the cere of the eye, as with age 

 it brings coarseness. The wattle and cere should be of distinct formation. 

 The £y£.— Ins bright orange red ; cere, or eye wattle, a complete circle round 



the eye, broad, and eqoal in width. Head, — Long, narrow, flat at the top ; 

 the narrower the space occupied by feathers along the top of the head between 

 the eyes the better. In a very superior speciaiea it will be less than half an 

 inch wide. Btak. — Long, straight, thick, fitting closely throughuut its length 

 when closed; it is then called " a box bilL" If the upper mandible arches, 

 the failing becomes even more and more developed as age increases ; so much 

 so, that not unfrequently the upper bill carves over, and the Pigeon becomes 

 what is generally known as "Parrot-beaked." This defect is by s-- me fanciers 

 thought to be brought on by the birds being fed in troughs, by which no free 

 action of the bill in picking np its food is called forth- Mr. Ord, however, 

 aoubts this, and beheves it to be hereditary, form. — Iseck long, thin, 

 and very shghily curved. Shoulders wide. Wings strong, and pinions long. 

 Back rather hollow. Legs large and stoat. Attitode erect and gracefuL 

 Colour. — If black, the feathers shcnld be jet colour, as a slaty tinge is a great 

 fault; and in Duns, a clear colour is most important, as the feathers should 

 not be at all freckled with lighter colours at the edges, or chequered in the least. 

 Mr. Ord believes that the Ireckling in Duns is caused by exposure to the suq 

 and weather. His prize birds are kept constantly in the locker, and have not 

 a pale feather; but others, which are allcwed to fly about out cf doors, are 

 chequered with paler feathers. Your room will do well for Carriers. In sodi 

 rooms they are constantly bred. 



Feeding Bees {J. N. T.). — Owing to the mildness of the weather dtiring 

 the winter months bees have consumed a great deal of their stores. You will, 

 do well to commence feeding at once, and continue to do so till fruit blossoms 

 appear. Bees will now begin to breed, and require more food. 



Neighbour's Hive [T. L.).— Messrs. Neighbour .i Sons, 127. High Holbom, 

 London, W.C. 



METEOBOLOGICAI, 0BSEBVATI0N9, 



Caieden Squase, London. 



Lat. 51° 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0= 8' 0" W. ; Altitude 111 feet. 



REMABKS. 

 28th. — A doll, damp, grey day, with a little rain. 

 29th. — Not by any means a bright day, but placid and free &om either wind 



or rain. 

 30th-^Bright and beautiful throughout the whole day. 

 3ist. — Wliite frost in early morning ; warm and bright in the middle of the 



day, but rather cloudy afterwards. 

 Feb. Ist.— Rather a plea-ant day, though somewhat dtiU, neither sunshine 

 nor shower all day. 

 2nd- — Very dull day, at times very dark, though not at all foggy. 

 3rd. — Dark morning; drops of rain commenced about noon and continaed 

 (at timesj all the remainder of the day, but only shghtly, so that it 

 did not Altogether reach a measurable quantity ; fine in tiie evening 

 and night. 

 Temperature nearly the same as last week, except that there was a greater 

 difference between the dry and wet bulb from the air being drier. One or two 

 of the days were quite spring-like. — G. J. SvitoNS. 



COVENT GABDEN HABEZT.— FKBBtJxaT 4. 

 A TEW str^gling orders are on the market, but not anything like what 

 there usually is at this season of the year, owing, no doubt, to the influence uf 

 the elections. A fair supply is carrent, both of home-grown and foreign pro- 

 duce, without alteration la prices. 



PECIT. 



