354 



JOURNAL OF HORTIGULTXJBE AND COTTAGE GARDKNER, 



[ AprU 30. 1874. 



pLUNorNG Material for Peopaoatino Case {F. J.).— It will answer to 



sitand the pots on the slates, the heat being regular. The only advantage o( 

 pluntrint,' material is to secure uniformity of heat and moiBturo in the pot. 

 Sawdust is a yood material for plunging; it may be kept mr,ist by pouring 

 water between the pots, or if put in moist it will remain so a long time. Sand 

 is not good ; t ifted ashes afterwards washed are better. 



SuuiiER-PRUNrNG Pear Trees, &c. (Idcm). — It is beet to pinch them as 

 they grow, and not allow them to remain until June to make a strong growth, 

 and then shorten them to three leaves. The object of summer pruning is in 

 that case defeated. After the first stopping keep them to one leaf, except the 

 main shoots, which should be stopped to nix leaves, and afterwards to three 

 leaves. The Plum trees are too liberally treated. Lift them as soon next 

 autumn as the leaves begin to fall, and plant again. Continue this annually, 

 and they will soon be remarkable for their fertility. 



Vines In'jcred by Paraffin (A Constant Reader). — We have not ex' 

 perienced any injury from the application of this to trees in a dormant state, 

 if used with care of the eyes, but in some cases injury may result when the 

 parallin reaches the buds or eyes from their outer scales being rubbed off. 

 We think that the weak growth is a conaequence of some injury to the roots, 

 probably in the removal of the soil. Keep them moi;st, aud sprinkled with 

 water twice daily. Unless there be something more than the paraffin, we are 

 unable to account for the shoots dying-off after breaking and growing. 



Caterpillars Destroying Birch Trees (TT. CoUer).—Thej are the 

 offspring of the Goat moth, and we give a full description of the parent aud 

 the caterpillar that you may make war upon them, for the caterpillar is 

 most destructive to the wood of fruit trees, though the Elm, Oak, Willow, 

 Poplar, and Walnut also are liable to its attacks. It is the Coasus ligoiperda. 



Amaryllis, probably A. Reginae. (0. JVf.).— Flowering plants indeterminable. 

 Ferns next week. (.SVyfcor).— Ornithogalum nutans; Ceanothus floribunduB. 

 (J. C. W. D.). — Amelanchier vulgaris. The variegated Violet is not common. 

 (Alma). — 1, Rivina h^vis. Remainder nnnameable. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PI&EON OHEONIOLE. 



FOECING POULTRY. 



CoBSUB ligniperda. 



The caterpillar measures more than 4 inches in length, is smooth and shining, 

 beset only here and there with single short hairs. It is dark red on the back, 

 and the breathing- holes, situated at both sides, are of the same colour. The 

 Bides and lower part of the body are flesh-coloured ; the head is black, the 

 first segment also marked with black above. After remaining more than two 

 years in the larva state, aud casting its skin eight times, the caterpillar be- 

 comes of a light ocbrish-jellow hue shortly before becoming a chrysalia, 

 which usually takes place in spring, when it makes a strong cocoon of chips of 

 wood and small pieces of bark which it has gnawed-off. The chrysalis is 

 yellow, and the segments are deeply indented and capable of much extension ; 

 its back is furnished with strong pointed spines, sometimes of a reddish 

 brown colour. The oocoon is situated immediately within the opening in the 

 tree, so that the pupa, when arrived at maturity, can press itself half out of 

 the hole when the shell burets, and the moth comes forth usually in the 

 month of June or July, after having reposed in the pupa state for an indefinite 

 lime. When at rest the wings are folded together over the back in the form 

 of ft roof ; it sits quietly in the daytime on the stems of trees, and is difficult 

 to be distinguished on account of its grey colour. Its wings measoro, from 

 one tip to the other, nearly 3 inches, and many specimens more than this. 

 The female is usually larger than the male. The forewings are ashy white, 

 clouded with brown, especially across the middle, and marked with very 

 nnmeroas etreaks like net- work ; the bind wings are brown. Thorax ochrish 

 in front, pale in the middle, with a black bar behind. The female is provided 

 with a strong egg- depositor, with which she introduces her eggs into the bark 

 of the tree — often a thousand in number, the young caterpillars living at first 

 in and between the outer and inner bark, and afterwards, when they are 

 stronger, penetrating into the wood. When the existence of one of these 

 creatures is detected in the trunk by its excrement, relief comes too late for 

 the tree, even if we are able to kill the caterpillar, the mischief being already 

 done. Notwithstanding this, the caterpillar should never bo left undisturbed, 

 and an attempt should ha made to reach it by enlarging the opening with a 

 garden knife, or endeavouring to kill it by thrusting a piece of pointed wire 

 ■op the hole. It is called the Goat moth from the peculiar smell both of the 

 insect and its larva. (./. Woolwright). — Tour Elm must die; it is attacked by 

 the caterpillar described above as destroying the Birches. 



Double Polyanthus (Q. Boolhby ).—Yo\ii double Polyanthus is a valuable 

 a^nisition, and very pretty. It is quite new among the double varieties of 

 that charming plant. 



Namf.s of Fruits {F.Smith). — No. 1, London Pippin; 2, Birmingham or 

 Stone Pippin. 



Najhes of Plants {An Amateur). — No. 1 is Cydonia (Pyrus) japonica prin- 

 c«p8, a very beautiful flowering shrub; No. 2 is, we think, Oruithogalum 

 anreum. (O. Criffr}.— Forsythia viridissima. (E. J. £.).— Fritillaria mele- 

 agris. {C. W.). — The purple is PoIyj.,'ala grandiflora. The other specimen too 

 imperfect. {It. A/.).— Podophyllum poltatum. The evergreens appear to be 

 both varieties of Quercus Ilex. (£. Z).).—l, Viburnum Opulus ; 2, Lonicera 

 Xylosteum ; 3, Kerria japonica; 4, Amelanchier vulgaris. {0. 0.). — 1, ^schj- 

 uantbaa maculata, Bot. Reg., xxviii., t. 29.; 2, Alonsoa Bp. [E. P.).— An 



We give each hen a clean roomy bos, and put in 4 to 6 iuches 

 of moist earth ; if cold weather, a woollen cloth over the earth, 

 and a good neat of fine and coarse hay well shaped, then our 

 eggs, from seven to fifteen, according to size of hen and tem- 

 perature of the weather. Small hens the fewest eggs, and if 

 weather and place where set are cool but few eggs; then take a 

 hen that has the sitting fever well on, and we are sure will sit 

 well, and put her on to the nest of eggs, put-up our front door 

 and fasten it, and we know that the steam will not get too high 

 or too low in this our natural incubator. 



AH we have to do now is to take off our hen twice a-day to 

 eat, drink, wallow, &c., and put her back a few times. Most 

 hens will learn to go on to the right nest themselves in a few 

 days. 



When we sit a hen she is named, and her name and the 

 strain of eggs she sits on are registered in our sitting- book, also 

 the date of patting under the eggs; twenty days after, the eggs 

 are expected to begin to hatch. 



Some responsible person sees the eggs twice 

 every day, and if one gets broken or cracked, 

 it is known immediately, aud it is removed. 



It is very important to keep the eggs clean. 

 If the surface gets coated in any way it will 

 interfere with the process of hatching. 



After the eggs have been sat on a week they 

 are looked over by placing them in a tester, 

 made by sticking a piece of looking-glass on to 

 the bottom of a paper box inside, and then 

 making holes in the cover to set eggs in, small 

 end down, and a hole in one end of the cover 

 to look into ; the reflection on the glass wiU 

 show the condition of the egg. If any of the 

 eggs are not going to hatch, they are taken 

 out and good ones put in their place. Eggs 

 from some cause get their shells cracked quite 

 often. 



If eggs have been sat on five or six days and 



are alive, if a strip of paper a little wider 



than the crack be covered with mucilage and 



stuck over the crack the egg will hatch just as 



well, if the membrane under the shell is not broken. Care 



must always be taken to have one-half at least of the original 



shell unbroken and clean. 



When a chicken hatches it is taken away from the hen, marked 

 with its particular strain-mark, and placed in a clean box in a 

 temperature of 100° to 103° ; the bottom of the box covered one- 

 half with clean sand, suitable for the chicks to eat, and the other 

 one-half with flannel. We put a pane of window-glass in the 

 side of the box where the sand is, so that the sun can shine in, 

 and stretch a cat's skin, tanned with the fur on, or some similar 

 substance, loosely over the other end, just high enough so that 

 the chickens can stand up nearly straight under it. Flannel will 

 answer very well for a mother. We cover the end the mother 

 is in with slats, and the other end with wire netting that sets 

 down over two sides and the end an inch or more to hold it 

 down, and have a mother at the expense of 50 cts. that will ac- 

 commodate from twenty-five to fifty chickens for two or three 

 weeks, as a night- room, letting them run out in small runs in 

 the daytime. 



We calculate to have from fifty to 150 chickens hatching at 

 the same time, so can have a mother full of one strain; but it 

 makes no difference, for they are marked before putting together. 

 We mark with a darning-needle and white yarn, and sew it 

 through where we want our mark, in wing-web, toe-web, or any 

 other place, and tie the yarn loosely, cutting it quite short. By 

 the time the yarn comes out there is a hole that will never 

 close up. 



Chickens need only heat and gravel for the first twelve hours, 

 and then they will begin to pick food. We feed with the yolks of 

 eggs boiled hard, and mixed with indian cakes baked hard and 

 pounded-up fine (the first twenty-four hours they only need 

 clear egg-yolks and sand), about one yolk to a gill of fine cake. 

 Feed often and what they will eat-up clean. When tbey are 

 about thirty-six hours old they will drink water or milk; we 

 give milk to drink, and mix our cakes with new milk. We in- 

 crease our egg feed, putting two yolks to a gill in course of a 

 week, and six egg-yolks to a pint at one week and a half, and 

 begin to feed cracked and whole wheat once or twice a-day. At 

 two weeks old we begin to feed with boiled meat, and drop our 

 egg-feed, but continue our pounded cake once or twice a-day till 

 the chicks are four weeks old, then use cracked corn as the bulk 



