322 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I AprU 16, 1874. 



Remedy for the Pip(J. B. F.).— We believe you will fiod castor oil the 

 beat remedy. Give a tablespoonful every alternate day for a week. Let them 

 have camphor and wormwood in their water, and be fed on soft food till they 

 recover tbeir condition. 



Breed to be Kept (Amateur).— You will be disappointed if yon seek for 

 Creve-Ctears and Hondans as small fowls. They are both good layers, but 

 neither are sitters. If, therefore, yoa purpose keeping but one breed they 

 will not do. "Wo could answer more easily if you described the run yoa can 

 ffive. To live in confinement yon will find nothincr better than Cochins or 

 Brahmas. They are hardy, their chickens ore easily reared, and they are 

 averaije layers. Golden and Silver-pencilled and Spangled Hambur^hs are 

 very handsome and excellent layers, but they do not sit. Game are very good, 

 bat they are very quarrelsome. Dorkings are as good bird^^ as any if yoa have 

 a run. This is the best season of the year to put eggs under a hen to begin a 

 fresh stock with. 



Kofen Ducks Laying (Quack).— Vfe fear you do not get all the eggs that 

 are laid. Keep them in confinement three or four days ; they will not suffer 

 from it, and you will be able to see whether we are ri|:,'bt in our surmise. Dis- 

 continue the Indian meal and the house scraps while they are in confinement ; 

 they are too fattening. Feed on oats put in a voaeel 2 or 3 inches deep, the 

 bottom of which should be covei*ed with a sod of grass, and the vessel filled 

 with water. We advise you to discontinue the Indian meal after they are 

 again at liberty. 



Ground Oats (.4. B.). — In our experience coarse oatmeal is of no use for 

 poultry- fee ding. It does not mis, and the fowls will not eat it. It has the 

 appearance, when slaked, of meal and chaff mixed. We buy very good ground 

 oats of Mr. Marsh, Market Place, Kingston-on-Thames. 



Pullets' Eggs for Hatching {<4 S«b,>trnb^r).— We should be dissatisfied 

 with pullets' eggs, but there would be some difficulty in proving that they 

 were so. The early eggs of a pullet we should object to, but the later ones 

 often do well. We should in your case write to the person from whom we 

 bought thorn, stating our belief respecting them. It would give you good 

 grounds for complaining if you find you are right, and we have no doubt the 

 seller would do you justice. 



Brahwa Chickens Sneezing (^. P.).— Your chickens are suffering from 

 chill and blackthorn winter. Are the hens still under their rips, or are they 

 at liberty ? If the latter, we advise you to put them under rips at once. The 

 weather is neither settled nor warm enough to allow the hens to drag chickens 

 about. Put your rips in a sheltered place — under a riak is excellent ; choose 

 a spot completely open to the sun. Give them some bread and ale night and 

 morning, and let their water be strongly impregnated with camphor. Where 

 the gaping' is constant give each patient a pill of camphor the size of a small 

 pea. Give them some bread and milk once or twice per day. 



Feather-eating Fo\vls(A. B. Z.). — We are sorry to say we cannot tell 

 yon of a cure for the abominable practice you complain of. Spanish are 

 more prone to it than any others. They only do it in confinement. It arises 

 from the lack of something they get when at liberty. The want produces a 

 craving which they cannot satisfy, and feathers seem to be the nearest ap- 

 proach to a substitute. We have sometimes lessened the habit by supplying 

 the nin with a barrowload of fresh earth mixed with grass if we can get it. 

 We have also given fresh horse dung with advantage. Lettuces are very 

 good, especially if they are run to seed. Nothing, however, has ever over- 

 come the habit, and we should be delighted to know a cure. It begins about 

 this time and lasts till after the moulting; they are then safe until the next 

 spring. We have never known it when birds are at liberty. 



Sex of Swan ( rfcar).— The sex can only be ascertained by examination. 

 Let your man huld the bird, back downwards, with the head between his legs. 

 In each hand he must hold the thigh and a wing. If, then, another squeeze 

 about 1^ inch below the vent, and press gently upwards, the sex will be plain. 

 Fowls Dropsical (Cro.t.'i-^ircii).— Dropsy is. as a rale, the result of stimu- 

 lating food to cause laying, or of old age. The water is generally contained 

 in two or more bladders. It is perfectly clear, and the skin of the bladders is 

 as transparent as the water. The non-sitting breeds are more subject to it 

 than the others. There is no cure. 



Keeping Eggs ( Jrfcm}.— We know from experience only of the lime process 

 for keeping eggs, but we have been told that if new-laid ones are at once 

 covered with butter they will keep. We cannot help thinking that pullets' 

 eggs laid without contact with a cock would keep a long time. If we live we 

 intend to try it next year. 



Poultry Manure— Charred Corn (H. G.).— The price of poultry manure 

 must depend upon its abundance and the demand. In Sussex, where poultry 

 are reared in large quantities, the price is 5s. for a one-horse cartload. Charred 

 wheat is not prepared in this country, but it can be made in the same way 

 that coffee is roasted. 



Brahmas' Nests (L. .V.).— They should be on the ground, or at the lowest 

 admissible height from it. If they must be 4 feet from the ground, having 

 the perches midway would answer. 



Putting on Supers (J. TV. -B.).— Supers may be placed on your hives at 

 any time ; but the best time to do it is about eight days after all the combs 

 in the hives have been corered with bees, say fourteen days before they would 

 be ripe for swarming. It is important to induce the bees to enter and com- 

 mence work in the supers as soon as they are placed on the hives. Instruc- 

 tions were lately given in our columns how to examine hives, and thus ascer- 

 tain when supers should he used, and instructions will be given either in 

 separate articles or in the bee-keeper's calendar how to drive and unite 

 swarms. Doubtless your fifth hive is very weak, otherwise it would take the 

 food you offer it, and begin to work. Turn it up and see what is the matter 

 with it. It may be dead, and the few bees going in and out may be strangers 

 and robbers, or it may be so weak in boes that it has not begun to breed. 

 Probably your hives with the ''pieces of tin" belong to a set of collateral 

 boxes, and you will find a box with corresponding slides to match. Some 

 years ago collateral hives were all the rage. They are now generally discarded 

 for the super-liiving system, which is far superior. Nutt, following ^Vhite, 

 was the great patron of these hives. 



Glass Supers { IV. B.). — Apply to any of the dealers in hives who advertise 

 in our columns. 



Driving Bees— Produce of Honey (N. Nadin).— Yoa ask first how bees 

 are driven from hives three weeks after swarming? Secondly, what the pro- 

 bable difference in the amount of honey taken then and what is usually taken 

 in August ? and thirdly, how late this turniug-out operation may be practised 

 with eafuty to the bees — that is, giving them time enough to collect winter 

 stores ? The first question will be answered fully either in a special article 

 or in the bee-keeper's calendar for nest month. As to the comparative 



difference in the amount of honey we cannot speak with accuracy, for much 

 depends on the times of swarmiog and seasons for honey. By turning out 

 the bees three weeks after swarming, in honey seasons, from 15 lbs. to 25 lbs. 

 are obtained from each stock hive, and the bees so turned out into empty 

 hives will weigh by the end of August from 50 lbs. to 70 lbs. per hive, yielding, 

 when the honey is taken from them, from 20 lbs. to 30 lbs. First swarms 

 generally give about 15 lbs. more. We are speaking of good seasons and 

 large hives. Stocks that are not managed on the turcing-out principle will 

 rise in weight from 70 lbs. to upwards of yO lbs., and yield 30 lbs. of honey. 

 We continue to swarm our hives till the middle of June, and three weeks 

 later turn all the bees out of them into empty hives if we can get 203. worth 

 of honey from each. 



Blackbird not Singing {H.V., Brereton).— The reason your Blackbird 

 does not fing, and breathes with difficulty, is that he has caught cold ; and 

 you should therefore keep him out of draughts, and feed him well by giving 

 him some meal-worms, snails, and slugs ia addition to his usual food. The 

 longish pimple yoa found on his rump i^ really a natural gland, which secretes 

 an oil that he uses when ia good health while pruning his feathers, aud you 

 should by no means wound it by probing it with a needle, nor put butter on 

 it. As soon as the bird recovers from his cold he will, no doubt, attend to his 

 toilet as usual, when, if you watch him, you will see that he squeezes with his 

 beak a little of the oil ont of the gland and rubs it over his feathers. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 



Camden Square, London, 



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



REMARKS. 

 8th. — A very fine day, but the wind rather cold. 



9th. — Fine but windy morning; a cold comfortless day, and a very wet night. 

 10th. — Rather a dull day ; solar halo at 4 p.ii. ; a sharp shower and rainbow 



at 5.40 P.M., but fine night. 

 11th. — Showers in the morning, but fine afternoon and evening. 

 12th. — Fine in early morning, but frequenc showers during the day. 

 13th. — Wet and stormy morning; sun shown at times, but a stormy day. 



Heavy hail shower at 12 a.m. ; fair evening. 

 14th. — A moderately fine day, but the wind very stormy, particularly so at 

 night. 

 By no means a pleasant week : wind boisterons, sky cloudy, and temperature 

 below instead of above that of the preceding one. — Ct. J. Symons. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— April 15. 

 A MODERATE amouut of business is current, but not to equal what has 

 usually been the demand at this season for several years past, forced fruits, 

 not being nearly so much in request. Strawberries continue to be largely 

 supplied, and Grapes ample for the trade ; some samples of Black Hamburghs 

 are very good. English Asparagus from under glass is nearly over, the French 

 coming more freely from Toulouse and other places in the south of Franca 

 New Potatoes from Malta '3d. to 4d. per lb. 



FRUIT, 



Apples 1 sieve 2 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries t^lb. 



Chestnuts bushel 10 





 

 

 1 

 1 

 



Currants i sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 



Filberts lb. 



Cobs lb. 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, huthouse.. .. lb. 



Lemons ^^ 100 



Melons each 



Mulberries ^^-Ib. o 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges ¥^100 4 



Peaches doz. 



Pears, kitchen doz. 2 



dessert doz. 8 



Pine Apples lb. 5 



Plums d sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries ^ oz, 



d. s. 

 OtoO 





 

 



1 6 



16 



ditto %''100 3 2 



Walnuts bushel 10 



VEGETABLES. 



Artiohokea doz. B 



Asparagus ^100 4 



French 12 



Beans, Kidney.... ^100 2 



Beet, Red doz 1 



BroccoU bundle 



Cabbage doz. 1 



Capsicums ^100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 3 



Celery bundle 1 



Coleworta. . doz, bunches 2 



Cucnmbera each 1 



pickling doz. 



Endive doz. 2 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horserailish bundle 3 



Leeks bmich 



Lettuce ..* doz. 1 



d. B. 

 0to6 

 10 



Mushrooms pottle 



Mustard & Cress. .punnet 

 Onions bushel 



pickling quart 



Parsley per doz. bunches 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart 10 



Potatoes bushel 3 



Kidney do. 



Round . do. 



Radishes., d^e. bunches 



Rhubarb bundle 



Salsafy bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Scorzonera bundle 



Sea-kale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 2 



Tomatoes doz. 



Turnips bunch 



Vegetable Marrows 



d. B. d. 



0to2 

 2 

 7 

 6 



