JOURNAL OF HOETICULTiniE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 17, 1865. 



1 



one laying, those first laid will produce a majority of pullets, 

 and those last laid a majority of cockerels. It would cer- 

 tainly be very desirable to bo able to regulate this matter 

 to some extent, and I hope this new idea will be carefully 

 tried by enough of your readers to ascertain if there is any 

 truth in it.— F. H. 



THE 



COLOUE OF THE BILL OF THE 

 AYLESBURY DUCK. 



Permit me to aslc, "Why is it that the cream-coloured bill 

 of the Aylesbury Duck is held to be an indispensable quali- 

 fication at all our poultry shows ? Judging by my own ex- 

 perience, I must confess my entire disbelief in that being 

 the natural colour, because, if natural, the mere change of 

 locality could not affect it. Now, it so happens, I have re- 

 peatedly claimed at various shows a prize pen of Mrs. 

 Seamons, containing Ducks with bills of the orthodox coloui-, 

 of course, and although I have tried all manner of means to 

 preserve their delicate pristine shade, yet with all my care 

 I have invariably faUed. Two or three months sufficed to 

 change the former sickly paleness into the healthy orange 

 bloom to such an extent, as totally to unfit them for com- 

 peting against Mrs. Seamons or Mr. Fowler. I have not the 

 least doubt if my bu'ds had been returned to Aylesbury, a 

 brief sojourn there would have effectually blanched the bill to 

 its prize-taking shade. This being not only my experience, 

 but that of a great many other lovers of these beautiful 

 birds, is it not natural for us to suppose that there is some- 

 thing in the chai'acter of the soil in which Ducks are con- 

 stantly boring for food, to account for this ? The soil of the 

 Aylesbui-y vale, I understand, is a compound of clay, sand, 

 and chalk — a mixture quite sufficient in my opinion, to pro- 

 duce by constant working in it, as Ducks do, the peculiar 

 colour of the Aylesbury's bill. If in this respect my supposi- 

 tion is correct, it must be pronounced an injustice to exhi- 

 bitors living in less favoured localities, for poultry commit- 

 tees, more especially the Birmingham Committee, to persist 

 in maintaining the cream-coloured bill as a " sine qua noa." 



There is another consideration in connection with this 

 question to which as food-producers and food-consumers it 

 behoves us all to give our serious attention. 1 allude to 

 that of weight. While the Eouens, with their unfettered 

 and world-wide competition, are gradually but sui'ely making 

 their way upwards — bidding fair ere long to outstrip the 

 celebrated exploit of Mrs. Seamons' 27 lbs. pair of Aylesburys 

 at Birmingham, the Aylesburys appear to have reached the 

 goal of their ambition, and are resting complacently on the 

 laurels they have won, contented if only one pen should save 

 the honour of the class at Birmingham, while all the rest, 

 from the second-prize downwards, were left in the unenviable 

 position of vanquished rivals. Now, by renouncing the cream- 

 coloured biU as the only standai-d, the consequence would be 

 to bring into action an amount of feeding-experience un- 

 known before, and instead of 27 lbs. being the isolated 

 maximum weight at Birmingham, it would be the minimum. 

 The fine large frame of this species waiTants me in making 

 such an assertion, now that we see what has been accom- 

 plished in the Rouens. We cannot therefore but deprecate j 

 a rule which, instead of stimulating the competition of the 

 community at large, unwittingly serves to confine that com- 

 petition to a small section of it. 



It also will not be out of place here to draw the attention 

 of the Bii-mingham Committee as well as exhibitors to the 

 foUowing significant facts, which will show to the former 

 that the proposed alteration will tend somewhat to the in- 

 crease of their funds, and to the latter what they have to 

 expect under a continuance of the present system. 



Refen-ing to tlie catalogues, I find the entries for Ayles- 

 burys average about nineteen only per year during the last 

 four years, whereas the Rouens nearly treble them — the last 

 year giving fifty-one entries, making a difference of nearly 

 JE12 in entry fees in favour of the latter, and why this sur- 

 prising difference ? Simply because the Rouens have no 

 stringent, unattainable, stipulation attached, while the 

 Aylesburys have, and aa a consequence the latter class 

 ceases to attract any entries, but from those interested, and 

 those uninitioted in the mystery. And when exhibitors are 

 informed that, with two exceptions, all the prizes awarded 



in this class at Birmingham for the last four years have 

 gone to Aylesbury, and learn also the reason, and that it is 

 utterly useless attempting to compete with Aylesbury under 

 existing conditions, I shall not be surprised to see this class 

 gi-adually dwindle into insignificance. 



Let me, therefore, in conclusion, suggest that as the 

 colour of the Mallard's and Grey Call"^ bill has been adopted 

 for imitation in the Rouens, the colour of the White Call's 

 bill should not be entirely ignored in the Aylesbury, the 

 orange being indisputably the natural colour. Not that I 

 would wish to make even this an arbitrary standard ; but to 

 make it " a fair field and no favour," I would propose that 

 the prizes should be awai-ded to the heaviest pen of birds, 

 " with bills of any shade" between orange and cream colour, 

 provided the colour of the bills of each bird in the pen 

 uniformly matched, and were besides in every other point 

 the nearest to faultless. 



These few observations are dictated by no unkindly feel- 

 ing, but purely from an honest desire to advance the com- 

 mon weal. — G. B. H. 



RABBITS. 



I HAVE tried several kinds — viz., Himalayas, Silver Greysi 

 Lop-ears, and lastly a beautiful pair of Patagonians, which 

 have just arrived from France — and out of the whole of this 

 stock not one has died from the time they have been sepa- 

 rated from the doe ; but of course I have illness amongst 

 my stock occasionally, but with a change of food they always 

 recover. 



Can any of your readers inform me the cause of a Hima- 

 layan doe sometimes having amongst the litter one young 

 one which is born perfectly black, but at the age of about 

 two months changes to the colour of a perfect Rabbit of its 

 kind? I have one now which is just changing, and I see 

 that all about the head turns white first. Both the does 

 and young ones are fed on cabbage leaves, carrots, celery, 

 &c., twice a-day, besides as much oats and bran as they 

 wish, and whenever a doe appears thu'sty she is allowed as 

 much water as she will drink while it is held to her; and 

 they are kept in very dry and warm hutches. — J. S. W. 

 Blackktt. 



LIGURIANISING AN APIAKY. 

 Will Mr. Woodbury have the kindness to give me his 

 opinion of the following project for multiplying my Ligurians 

 in the most rapid manner possible ? I want to combine two 

 objects. Fu'st, to insure as far as I can the continued 

 purity of the stock which I received last autumn from his 

 apiary ; and secondly, to displace as expeditiously as may 

 be my old black bees by the new comers. I propose to 

 obtain, next season, as many new stocks of Ligurians as 

 there are bars furnished with brood-comb in the Italian 

 hive. At the proper period — i. c, as soon as I perceive drones 

 issuing from the hive — I purpose to furnish as many empty 

 hives as I wish to have artificial swarms, each with its bar 

 and appendage. The hives are then to be immediately placed 

 on the site of the hives of black bees, just previously removed, 

 choosing a fine warm day in mid-May for the purpose, and 

 shifting the hives at an hour when the greater number ol 

 bees are engaged in foraging — say from eleven to twelve in 

 the forenoon. I assume that drones will make their appear- 

 ance in the Ligui'ian stock several days before they are seen 

 in the common ones. By this means all the black bees 

 then out of the hives will return to their former domiciles, 

 but without drones. But I imagine that if I leave matters 

 here, there will scarcely be a sufficient number of black bees 

 in the all-but-empty hive to meet the emergencies of then- 

 new and altered condition. 1 want the hive to be forthwith 

 rrplenished with comb, Ac, tiiat the new Ligurian queen 

 may at once proceed to the business of her vocation. My 

 next step will be to take a few more black bees from the 

 removed hive. This I shall essay to accomplish thus : — 1 

 shall take each hive of black bees into a dark room, or rather 

 a room lighted by only a pane of glass; by gently moving 

 the hive, not rapping it as in driving, I shall, no doubt' 

 get a considerable number of the workers, then in the 

 interior, to fly to the light, where I can examine them, and 



