376 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOQLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ May 7, 1874. 



mnst begin with a smaller nnmber than 1200 hens. If he has the twelve acres 

 now in hand, as he will want at least four houses on them, we advise him to 

 begin at once the construction of the first ; to build it lofty, roomy, but in 

 the most inespeneive style. It may be made of wood, but should be free 

 from draught to the height of 5 feet from the ground. As employment has 

 much to do with restoration of health, this will be a boon to him. We there- 

 fore advise him to build the smallest of his houses at first ; ho will find many 

 alterations necessary in those he builds afterwards. A man learns more 

 about building by one experience in that line than by all the books that ever 

 ■were written. In his house he must have plenty of ventilation, light by 

 means of windows that can be open in summer, shut in winter; a good hard 

 earthen floor; if possible, south, west, or south-western aspect; perches 

 within 24 inchen of the ground. He must have a granary, because to make it 

 profitable ho must buy evorj'thing wholesale. There will bo a large consump- 

 tion of food. Where eggs only are wanted a constant supply of pullets ar- 

 riving at maturity month after month is more important than the breed of 

 the birds. If the venture is determined upon be ought now to be looking out 

 for his layers. If eggs sell for 9(i. per dozen all the year round, they are 

 worth much more in December and January. He ought, then, now to know 

 where, when ho has a house ready, he can find his April and May pullets. We 

 know of no such establishment. 



Aristocracy of Cocks (E.)— We constantly ki^ep between forty and fifty 

 cocks together in one run. Every now and then one runs a muck, but he 

 always gets the worst of it. We take from the number, and add to it. We 

 are, however, careful always to make any change at night, and to put the new 

 comer on a perch or in a comer where there are several others. They agree, 

 as a rule, very well; but you must make it impossible for a pullet to get in, or 

 " Like another Helen, 

 She'll fire another Troy." 

 No peace afterwards. 



BiRToN-nN-HiniiJEn Show.— Mr. F. Bankes wishes to know if any prize- 

 winners at this Show have received their prizes. 



Brahma Chicken Weak-legged (W. Diamond).— What is the flooring of 

 the shed V We should think the chicken is suffering from cramp induced by 

 living on a damp floor, as brick, stone, or wood. We can hardly give you a 

 hope of recovery. The best remedy is to give stale bread toasted and steeped 

 in strong ale. Let the bird have the same to drink, and bo bedded with hay 

 or soft straw. 



Food for Poultry (A. T7.).— The fact of your birds laying so many eggs 

 in the early months will account for the smaller numl)er now. You cannot 

 have the cake and eat it. Your fowls thrive in spite of vour feeding, and we 

 wonder they lay at all. Discontinue the foiu-ths. and give them good barley- 

 meal slaked with water morning and eveuing. You can give for a mid-day 

 meal maize, barley, or table scraps. If you ttive your chi^kena nothing but 

 groats we do unt think fhoy will live long enough "to enjoy the maize. Give 

 them some bread and milk, curd, cooked chopped meat, and hard egg chopped 

 fine. They may live on the groats, but they cannot grow. 



Cayenne for Young Canaries (Do^.).— Begin to give it thfm when they 

 are about seven or eight weeks old, before the young feathers begin to show, 

 and it must be continued during the entire moult, or as long as the blood is 

 in circulation in the feather.— W, A. Blakston. 



Colour of Buff Canaries lldemK— They should be as high in colour in 

 proportion as Yellow ones. The higher the colour the better; but there 

 should be a covering of white over the body colour as if it were dusted with 

 flour, or as though the bird were clothed in deep buff satin and covered with 

 a veil. The yellow should be as deep a colour as possible, inclining to red- 

 ness, and the cayenne diet will materially add to the tone.—W. A. B. 



Closeness of Feather {Id^m).— It affects colour much in the same way 

 as closing a gilt-edged book shows the gold to greater effect ; or, better still, 

 notice the effect of the deep brownish red now in voijue on the edges of many 

 books— Church hymn-books to wit. Close the book and vou have all the 

 colour. Then gradually open and spraad the leaves with the thumb, and as 

 the edges become separated^ and not so close and compact, you at once lose 

 colour. The closer and more compact the feathers, and the more intimately 

 they overlap each other, the better will the colour which is at the extreme 

 edge show itself. — W. A. B. 



Size of Hive's Crown-openings (A. Brenan).— The size of crown-open- 

 ings in our hives for suporiag is about 4 inches in diameter. We think one 

 such in each hive is better than three narrow nues, which you term ahts. If 

 you use the adapting board with three slits in its contro, which you have just 

 procured, it will have to bo placed over a crown-hole as wide as the slits are 

 long. The openings in your wooden-topped hive are not well adapted for 

 Bupering. One hole 3 inches wide would be better. It will not matter much 

 whether you remove the perforated zinc from the apertures or not. 



Queen Wasp (P. Rainford).— The iusect you have sent is a queen waspi 

 which, if you had let alone, would have become the mother of a nest of waspg. 

 "Waeps are enemies to bees in this sense, that they will steal honey when they 

 can enter hives, but strong swarms generally keep them out. They do more 

 harm to grapes and other sweet fruit. 



Hive Entrance (Edwin Pec/.-).— There should bo but one entrance to 

 eanh liivp. Whether, therefore, a nadir or a super is used, the door of ingress 

 and egress remains the same. 



Ke-using Marvatt's Hives (H. T.).— Maryatt's bee hives can be used for 

 Bwarras again and again. In fact, we find there is scarcely any limit to the 

 profitable uso of woll-mado wooden bee hives. They will last a lifetime if 

 only wi'll painted now and theu, and carefully cleansed from all impurities 

 whenever a fresh lot of bees are put into them. Do not paint them, however, 

 when you put a fresh swarm into them. The best timo to do this is in 

 October or November, when the bees are reduced in numbers and less active 

 than in spring and summer. Hives should always bo thoroughly cleaned and 

 painted, if necessary, whenever they are out of use. as when the bees die-out 

 from whatever cause. Then they will be found ready to hand when moat 

 wanted. If there is any comb in your Maryatt's hive which " has been put 

 away for some years" we should advise you to remove it all before putting 

 the bees into it. It would be now so distasteful to the bees that they would 

 immediately desert it. Your letter reached us too late to be answered iu our 

 last nnmber. 



SupBiaNG (,-f Bee-keeper). — Supering was fully unfolded in four letters on 

 the subject which appeared in this Journal last autumn. Your chief difficulty 

 appears to be in not being able to prevent breeding in the supers. You say 



brood is the rule, not the exception," and have " tried the three-sixteenths 

 Buta as recommended by some writers, but not witli much success." We 

 prefer a gcod wide thoroughfare, S or 4 inches, between the hive and suosr. 

 We advise you to keep large hives, for those not only affori the baes m'jre 



room for the eggs laid by the queens, but hold more workers, which fill gnpere 

 more rapidly than a email number of workers can do. Another matter of 

 great importance in the prevention of brood in supers is inducing the bees to 

 commence in the crowns and build the combs downwards ; this we do by fixing 

 one, two. or three small pieces of white drone comb m the crowns. Bees are 

 more inclined to put huney in drone comb than brood. Indeed, we have never 

 known a drone bred in a super, and during the last thirty years we have bad 

 only three F,upers with brood in them, and two of these were filled on empty 

 hives by artificial means. Our supers range in weight from 8 lbs. to 30 lbs. 

 Most of them about 16 lbs. Supers should be kept warm, and hght wholly 

 excluded from glass ones. We cannot tell whether the arrangements for the 

 proposed show of honey, &c., at the Crystal Palace are finally made or not, but 

 think that by writing to the Secretary there, " A Bee-keeper " willobtain the 

 information he seeks. 



Dog's Hair Coming off in Circular Patches (F. M. N.).— There are 

 several varieties of the mange, and the symptoms you describe indicate it to 

 be that which is best treated by lowering the diet. Give the dcg mashed 

 potatoes, oatmeal, and milk, but no animal flesh. Let the dog have regular 

 exercise, and give him every morning two grains of blue pill, followed in four 

 hours by a table-spoonful of castor oil. No local application is necessary, but 

 the dog may be well washed occasionally with soft soap and water, taking care 

 that he is well dried, as the mercury in the blue pill might make him likely 

 to take cold. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 



Gasidem Square, London. 



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



REMARKS. 

 29th. — A very fine day, but rather cold, especially towards night. 

 30th. — Another fine wai*m pleasant day. 

 May Ist. — Dull in the morning, but fine before noon, and continuing so all 



day ; splendid moonlit night. 

 2nd.— Fair all day, with the exception of a very slight shower between 3 and 



4 p.m.; fine evening. 

 3rd. — Dull morning, very dark and stormlike in the distance at forty minutes 



past noon, and followed almost immediately by a very short bail 



shower ; a slight shower in the afternoon, but fine after 4 p.m. 

 4th, — Rather cloudy and dull all day, with occasional gleams of bright sun. 

 5th. — Fine day, but very much cooler than it was a few days since; sprinkle of 



rain at midnight. 

 The unusually warm weather has ceased, and though it has returned to the 

 low temperature of a fortnight back, it remains very dry. — G. J. SvMONS. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— May 6. 

 The cold win(l8 of the last few days have somewhat checked our supplies, 

 but not sufliciontly to cause any material advance, good Broccoli being the 

 only article in fjeneral request that has improved in price. French goods aro 

 coming in very good, and comprise Asparagus, Dwarf Kidney Beans, Arti- 

 chokes, young Carrots, Turnips, and salading. There have also been a few 

 boxes of Cherries from the south. 



FBTJIT. 



Apples 4 sieve 2 OtoS 



Apricots doz. 



Chernes t* box 4 6 



Cbeatniits bushel 10 20 



Currants 1 sieve 



Black do. 



Figs doz. 



Filberts 1". 10 1 



Cobs lb. 10 1 



Gooseberries quart 9 1 



Grapes, bothoaee.. .. lb. 4 13 



Lemons «H00 4 12 



Melons each 4 8 



Mulberries ^Ib. o 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges 1" 100 4 



Peaches doz. 15 



Pears, kitchen doz. 2 



dessert doz. S 



Pine Apples lb. 6 



Plums 4 sieve 



Quinces doz. 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries ^ oz. 



Walnuts bushel 10 



ditto vioo a 



d. 8. 

 OtoO 



6 



10 



10 



9 











1 

 16 







Artichokes doz. 8 



Asparagus -S" 100 2 



French 3 



Beans. Kidney.... ^103 2 



Beet, Red doz 1 



Broccoli bundle 



Cabbage doz. 1 



Capsicums '^►■100 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 3 



Celery bundle 1 



Coleworts. . doz. bunches 3 



Cucumbers each 1 



pickling doz. 



F.ntUvo doz. 2 



Fennel bunch 



Trarlio lb. 



Herbq . bunch 



Horseradish bundle 8 



liH^ks bunch 



Lettrice doz. 1 



VEGETABLES, 

 d. 

 Ot 

 

 

 

 



Maahrooms pottle 1 



Mustard A Cress. .punnet 



Onions bushel 4 



pickling quart 



Parsley perdoz. bunches 4 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas quart 4 



Potatoes bushel 3 



Kidney do. 



Round . do. 



Radishes., d^e. bunches 1 



Rhubarb bundle 



Salaafy bundle 1 



Savoys doz. 



Scorzonera bundle 1 



Sea-kale basket 1 



Shallota lb. 



Spinach bushel ^ 



Tomatoes doz. 3 



Turnips bunch u 



Ves?etable Marrows ...... 



d. s d. 



Oto2 

 

 7 







6 a 



1 

 



