106 



JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ JtJy 29, 1875. 



Poultry MoRTAiiTY (R. E. J.). — It is safe to say that weather has much 

 to answer for where deaths are frequent in the poni try-yard. The total 

 absence of sun, cold nights, and continued rains have done much to inter- 

 fere with the comfort and well-doing of poultry, both chickens and adults. 

 The cold wet si:rface of the earth, the lack of heat and dust, the impoE&i- 

 bUity of Bcratching in 2 inches of mud, and the necessity of running every 

 half-hour of the day to avoid a shower that converts an inequality of the sur- 

 face into a pool, i-s a tax on chickens. They cannot prow, and where they do 

 not crow they are not in health. The same causes operate against the health 

 of the adults. "We presume the different sorts of poultry have different 

 roosting places. It is most difficult to keep health in a house whore Turkeys, 

 Guinea Fowls, and Ducks inhabit with them. Fowls should lodge by them- 

 selves. We do not think your feeding as good as it mi^'ht be. We dislike 

 rice and cabbage. We also infinitely prefer any natural fuod to all the pre- 

 pared and patent foods. With good com, ground oats, barleymeal, lettuce 

 leaves, and kitchen scraps or table sweepings, you have all that is necessary 

 lor food, and if they have in addition a good grass run they have all that is 

 necessary for health. 5Iuch experience has taught us that great variations of 

 temperature and a wet season induce disease of the liver. The appearances 

 you mention are much more common in Rabbits than in fowls. In the latter 

 it is found in old birds, and in those that have been fed on stimulating food 

 to make them lay, than in any others. Dropsy is a very common disorder in 

 these cases, and a hen annaturally treated with stimulants seliom lives 

 more than two years. Those that have been naturally treated and have lived 

 and laid six or seven years are almost always found to have more or less of 

 dropsy in their systems. We have taken half a pint of water out of one hen. 

 "We advise you to let the fowls roost by themselves. To feed in the morning 

 with ground oats slaked with water, midday with whole com and scraps, 

 evening with eround oats elaked with water, to supply lettuce when yon have 

 it, is good and healthy fesding^ and properly managed as cheap as anything 

 you can buy. 



Light Bhaioias (W. W.). — They should be white with the exception of 

 tails, hackle, and flights — these should ha black. They should have pea- 

 combs, well-feathered legs, no vulture hocks. They should have yellow legs. 

 They cannot be too large if they are well shaped. Clean legs, mixed plumage, 

 dark legs and loose combs, are all disqualifications. 



Colour of Yolk — Gapks (L. R, L.,Jun.). — As a rule the yolks of pullets' 

 eggs are pali^r than those of hens. It is also said those laid in cold weather 

 ehow less colour than those laid when it is warmer. We believe the remedy 

 will be to keep the hens till they are older. There is only one cure for gapes, 

 and that is to give camphor. It may be given in their water if sufficient is 

 put in to make it into camphor julep, or in urgent cases a pill the size of a 

 garden pea may be given. Bran is worthless poultry feeding. Give your 

 fowls soft food, barleymeal or ground Odits slaked in the morning, the same in 

 the evening. At midday you may give whole corn and household acr^s ; gieen 

 meat whenever you can, especially lettuce, and sods of grass. 



Cochin-China Cock Declining {W. C. S. S.).— There is no consumptive 

 disease among fowls, but there is "atrophy." In such cases there is no dis- 

 charge from the nostrils, no short cough, no rattling in the throat. The bird 

 diminishes in size and weight daily, it shrivels up, the skin of the face is 

 stretched on the bones, and the same may be said of the skin of the legs. 

 The body is a skeleton covered with a dried, red, and parched skin. We have 

 known but one instance of recovery from it. In that case a Spanish hen 

 took a fresh lease after drinking three bottles of old port and eating French 

 rolls by the dozen. Dissection generally shows the lungs adhere to the 

 bones and are dried up. 



Chickens Just Hatched {W. E. S.). — When onr chickens are hatched we 

 leave them under the hen for eighteen hours in cold weather, and nearly as 

 long in warm. We then feed the hen sumptuously, and put her in a spot 

 entirely sheltered, with the chickens under her. The food is bread and 

 beer, bread and milk, and chopped eggs. They soon take to it, and never die 

 of cold. Tour chickens die of gapes, and you might as well give nothing 

 as cayenne. The only cure is camphor; either a small piece given as a pill, 

 or water strongly impregnated with it given to drink. The hen would not 

 allow the chick to roost under her. We should observe we never allow the 

 hens their liberty till they begin to lay again. 



Brahmas {W. 0. M,). — We should advise you to renew one-third of your 

 fowls every year. The adults will continue good layers for three years. The 

 purchased pullets will be the winter egg- providers. Although a Brahma is 

 not worn out at three years old, yet there are always some that from accident 

 or otherwise are neither pleasant or profitable objects. Such should go to the 

 kitchen to make room for the chickens every year. Your feeding will be im- 

 proved, and also be more economical, if you give ground food slaked with 

 water morning and evening, and scraps or Indian com mid-day. 



Putting on Supers— Obtaining Clean Comb (F. J.). — You may put 

 supers on hives before they are full, and let the bees use them when they 

 need them. For several reasons we do not put supers on till the bees requiro 

 more room, till there is a likelihood of the bees entering them at once and 

 commencing work. Properly-made hives are not usually cemented to their 

 boards during the summer months, and even if they were you would find 

 that an examination of your hives now and again would not interfere with 

 thtir prosperity. Every bee-farmer should know the internal condition of his 

 hives, and he cannot know this without examination carefully made. You 

 oak " if there is any way of obtaining clean comb for fixing in supers except 

 bv uf jng the American slinger." We are not aware that the slioger ever has 

 been or can be used for this purpose. Clean white combs filled with honey 

 are too brittle and easily broken for the mat-hine. Better place such combs 

 in supers unbroken, even with the honey in them, than have them bruised 

 and broken by the slinger. Hives that have been filled recently with combs 

 supply us with an abundance of pure white virgin comb for supers, and we 

 knew of no other source of supply than hives of young combs. 



Bullfinch Short of Feathers [Lady Sijhella\, — You may not expect 

 to find the feathers growing upon the Bullfinch's head until it undergoes a 

 moult, which will shortly take place, when Nature will provide the bird with 

 its clothing necessary for the coming cold season. Caere birds are fast falling 

 into moult, and no doubt your lUiUfinch will likewise. We will not recommend 

 jufit now any external application, for it will only tend to render the respi- 

 ratory organ more diflicult. We are not ao much surprised at the deficiency 

 of the feathers about the head as in the wings and tail, and we think upon 

 close examination you may perceive that there are the old stumps still re- 

 maining in, which may account for the non-appearance o( feathers. Accord- 

 ing to the order of Nature, when a bird losts a feather another one should 

 supply its place, more especially in the wings and tail, failing which a bird's 

 system cannot be in a thoroughly healthy state. In old birds the feather-i 

 are longer shooting forth than in young birds. Happy bird 1 It is provided 



with all the necessary creature comforts for sustaining and prolonging life. 

 In the way of diet we are suie nothing more need be supplied. If you have 

 been in the habit of feeding the bird freely upon lamb's t'>n;»ues, partly dis- 

 continue it for the flei^h would tend more than any other diet to bring about 

 a deficiency of feathers, and produce a heated system. In the way of medicine 

 you may administer one drop of castor oil. Carefully and tenderly open the 

 bird's bill and deposit upon the back pai't of its tongue the oil. During the 

 moulting sickness keep the bird free from draught. Discontinoe the saffron, 

 and in its place supply a rusty nail in the water. Let Master Bullfinch con- 

 tinue to enjoy his morning's ablution. 



Cherry Wine {Mrs. Porteri. — To make five pints of this wine take 15 lbs . 

 of cherries, 2 lbs. of currants, and braise them together; mis with them two- 

 thirds of the kernels, and put the whole (the cherries, currants, and kemftlsi 

 into a barrel, with a quarter of a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. The 

 barrel must be quite full. Cover the barrel with vine leaves, with sand above 

 them, and let it stand till it has done working, which will be in about three 

 weeks ; then stop it with a bung, and in two months' time it may be bottled. 



Seakale Pickling (St. E.''. — It is pickled precisely in the same way as 

 cauliflowers. The white fungus which occurs on the surface of pickles is 

 prevented by pouring melted suet on the surface of the vinegar in the jar ; a 

 film of melted suet the sixteenth-of-an-inch thick is sufficient. 



Lat. 6P 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Camobn Sqdare, London. 

 1' 40" N. ; Long. 0'- 8' 0" W. ; Altitude, 111 feet. 



REMARKS. 

 21st.— Rather dull morning, showery in the forepart of the day, finer towards 



the afternoon, and bright sunset. 

 22nd.— Showery in the morning, fine afternoon, but looking very atormlike 



about 7 A.M., and very early dark. 

 23rd.— Showery, bat cleared at 10 a.m., and continued fine till 4 p.m., except 



a sprinkle about 1 p si. 

 24th.— Bain at 8 a.m., fine by 9 A. II , and a very pleasant day, though looking 



stormlike occasionally. 

 25th.— Slight showers at times, but a very pleasant day on the whole ; cola in 



the evening. 

 2iith. — Beautiful day throughout. 

 27th. — Another very fine day, and without any appearance of rain or stovm. 



A dry S.ne week, with steadily rising barometer; temperature in eai'ly 

 morning of 26th quite chilly.— G. J. Symons. 



COVENT GARDEN MARKET.— July 28. 

 The improvement in the weather has somewhat raised our hops? for the 

 late portion of the cropj of soft fruit that may yet remain. The greater 

 portion, however, is irrecoverably gone, and large quantities of Lammas and 

 other common Pears come to hand all scored as though done with a knife. 

 Importations have largely increased since the bad weather ant in, consisting 

 chitfly of Apiieot^. Grt.en^'a;,'e3, and Pears. In addition to the West Indian 

 Pines some have recently come over again from St. Michaels. 



Apples i sieve o 



Apricots box 1 



Cherries lb. 



Chestnuts bnshel 



CorrantB j sieve 2 



Black do. 2 



Figs dozen 8 



Filberts lb. 1 



Cubs lb. 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse.... lb. 2 



Lemons ^100 8 



Melons each 2 



d. 



6 to I 

 6 4 



FEUIT. 



s.d. 



Mulberries lb. 



Nec'arines dozen e 



Oranges ^100 



Peaches dozen B 



Pears, kitchen.... dozen 



dessert dozen y 



Pine Apples lb. 3 



Plums 4 sieve 2 



Quinces dozen 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries lb* 



Walnuts 1/oahel >» 



ditto "^100 1 



8. d- B. d. 



OtoO 



veqetables. 



Artichokes dozen 8 



Asparagus ¥^ 100 4 



French bundle 



Beans. Kidney \ sieve 2 



Broad i sieve 'i 



Beet, Red dozen 2 



Broccoli bnndle 



Brussels Sprouts 4 sieve 



Clbbatie dozen 1 



Carrots bunch 



CapBicuma ^100 



Caulifluwer dozen 3 



Celery btmdle 1 



Coleworta.. doz. bunches 



Cucambers each 



pickUng dozen 



F.ndive dozen 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



Herbs bunch 



Horseradish bundle 



0to6 



8 



a. d. e. d. 



Leeks bunch 4toO 



Lettuce dozen 6* 



Mushrooms ...pottle » ^ " 



Mustard 4 Cress.. punnet " * " 

 Onions ba.shel 3 0b 



pickling quart ^ ^ 



Parsley doz. bunches ^ ^ 5 



Parsnips dozen 



Peas quart 1 J^ j 



Potatoes bushel 4 ^ * 



Kidney do. 



Radishes .. doz bunches 



Rhubarb buodle 



Salsafy bundle 



Scorzonera bundle 



Seakale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach boabel 



Tomatoes doaen 2 



Turnips bunch 6 



Vegetable Marrows. .doz. 2 



1 1 



4 '.'0 



1 6 ,j 



1 "0 



0, 



8 4 



