Febmsry M, 1S65. ] 



JOtTKKAL OF HORnCtTLTUEE AND COTTA&E GAKDENER. 



183 



logues sometimes have not sufficient printing. Take the "any 

 other varietr cliiss," how often are the names of the birds 

 omitted? This must be the fault of either the secretary 

 or the exhibitor. If the former, he ought to be blamed ; if 

 the latter, he ought to be disqualified for incomplete entry. 



Can any plan be devised for putting a stop to painting 

 legs, itc. ? Publicity does not seem to lessen it, as a name 

 exposed by you some months ago is shortly afterwards found 

 out at the same game again. TVhy not add a nile that all 

 such pens should be forfeited to the committee ? It would 

 also be weU and, I think, perfectly allowable for the secretary 

 to intimate to the judge that certain pens would require a 

 close inspection as a "painter" and "' dyer " is the exhibitor. 



" SeUing classes " have become very fashionable. Have 

 they answered the ends for which they were designed ? I 

 fancy not. I know that at one show first and second prize 

 pens were claimed by their owners before the show was 

 judged I in fact, entered for the prize, not for sale. I doubt 

 if this can be remedied, a law preventing it could so easily 

 be set aside by a friend claiming the pen ; but it is worthy 

 the consideration of exhibitors and committees. Possibly, as 

 it is a class that pays very well for its extra prizes, com- 

 mittees will wink at this. 



I do not think that managers of shows always carry out 

 sufficiently their promise of paying every attention t-o the 

 specimens. I have frequently before in your pages said that 

 as regards fcKjd, they are too generous, but " every care " 

 includes other matters, and the size of the exhibition pens is 

 one of them. Baskets are bad, the open spaces let the 

 cocks' tails protrude, and they are ruffled and broken. When 

 baskets are used there should be some discrimination, so as 

 not to "give a smaller basket to Cochins than Bantams. 

 Another point, often urged, and nearly as often forgotten, 

 the placing all the entries in a class in the same light, is 

 essential to please exhibitors. 



Lastly, to bring my long yarn to a conclusion, I would 

 make another suggestion that I think would greatly increase 

 the entries. Gradually it has become an established rale to 

 limit Game hens to one. Bradford has set the example in 

 all the breeds. It was allowed that the specimens at this 

 show were first-rate throughout. Had not this rule some- 

 thing to do with it ? ilany have a single very good hen. 

 Again, the carriage is lessened, and now that some of the 

 railway authorities seem to throw cold water on us instead 

 of helping us, this is a great consideration, ilay Bradford 

 in this respect find many followers ! Then, perhaps, classes 

 for "pairs of pullets " might be better than they now are. — 

 T.B.A.Z. 



P.S. — I have just seenllr. J. Wright's note as toBrahmas 

 at Bradford. I gather that he had a catalogue, and threw 

 it aside because it had no Brahma class. This, I think, was 

 a mistake on his part ; had he sat down and penned his 

 reasons for not sending entries he might have received the 

 amended schedule, and this is a kind of pressure on the 

 committee by which the admirers of any comparatively 

 ' unacknowledged variety of fowl may make themselves heard. 



THE LAWS OF XATOIE 



Iir EELiUOX TO POtTLTET KEEPING FBOM A COlIStEBClAl 

 POIXT OF TIETV. 



In my preface I stated that I should confine myself 

 exclusively to giving publicity to such facts as I had proved 

 by actual experience, lly knowledge of the world cautioned 

 me not to introduce anything which might savour of theory, 

 particularly to a class of readers who undoubtedly by their 

 education are conversant with the laws of nature, on which 

 facts are based. I was, therefore, but little prepared to have 

 so many questions to answer, which more or less compel me 

 to do that which I endeavoured to avoid in fear of being 

 considered pedantic. Though I feel flattered by the great 

 interest my treatise has created, and though an explanation 

 of the laws of nature will prove interesting to many, yet I 

 trust tha.t my correspondents will not consider it a want of 

 deference on my part if I abridge as much as possible my 

 explanations, but still with a due regard to giving a satis- 

 fectory reply to all inquirers. 



EGG PRESEBVrNe. 



1. Question : Does it iii.ite any difference to preserve eggs a 



few days old 9 — The egg comes from the hen at blood-heat, 

 the liquid then fills every part of the shell, gradually the egg 

 cools, and the air contained in the egg is condensed, thus 

 leaving a vacuum. Now as the shell is porous, and the pres- 

 sure of the outer air much greater, it forces itself gradu- 

 ally through the pores of the shell until the equilibrium is 

 re-established, thus forming the depression of the flmd part 

 observable in old eggs at the round end; and as the contact 

 of the air with the fluid pai't very soon alters the taste, and 

 renders them unfit for hatching from, it becomes essential 

 that the eggs should be preserved as early as convenient 

 after being laid. 



2. flr74y should eggs he preserved better in rarified air than by 

 ■merely pacl-ing them in air-tight jars ? — The variations in the 

 temperature of the atmosphere from below freezing point to 

 summer heat are important considerations in preserving 

 eggs. The elasticity and expansive properties of air need 

 not be explained here, as they will require a full expla- 

 nation under the questions in reference to regulating heat. 

 I will, therefore, only say, that if an air-tight jar were 

 closed up during cold weather without the air within being 

 first rarified it would, provided it remained air-tight, stand 

 a good chance of burstiug dm-ing the summer heat, which 

 would expand the air in the jar, and the pressure on the 

 eggs wotdd be so great that a ciuantity of air would be forced 

 on the fluid through the pores of the shell. Were it possible 

 to preserve the eggs immediately on being laid at the 

 temperature of blood-heat, and during the hottest simimer 

 days, the jars would not require rarifying; but as such con- 

 ditions are almost impossible to command, as the eggs must 

 unavoidably on cooling absorb a certain amount of air, and 

 as the atmosphere might become still warmer than on the 

 day of filling the jars, it becomes necessary to rarify the air 

 in the jars even in summer, although not to such a degree 

 as during cold weather. The air in the jar being thus 

 rarified its fermentation through the shell will not only be 

 prevented, but the excess of air in the egg will actually be 

 withdrawn until the equilibrium is re-established. — G. K. 

 Getelin, C.E., Londo^i. 



(To be coHtinaed.) 



PEESEEYING EGGS. 



I CAN bear witness to the efficacy of the mode of preserv- 

 ing eggs, described by your correspondent "' T. G." When 

 they are carefully di'ied before being deposited in the crate, 

 I have seen eggs preserved in this way perfectly sweet after 

 the lapse of several years. Eggs, however, preserved in the 

 ordinary way — that is, by rendering the shell impervious to 

 the atmosphere, or by being placed in Mr. Geyelin's air-tight 

 jar, are more useful in the kitchen, and those processes are 

 more simple and expeditious than that of blowing each in- 

 dividual egg, which is necessai-y to the desiccation essential 

 ■^o the process described by " T. G." — E. S. M. 



HIYE TEIIPEEATUEE. 



Those apiarians, of whom there are large numbers who, 

 at the present day, make the study of the honey bee a 

 scientific ptirsuit, are aware of the advantages accruing 

 from an equable temperature of the hive, and of the evils 

 which may result from a fluctuating or rapidly varying 

 temperature — not that it is desirable to obtain a warm 

 temperature through the winter months, which might cause 

 too great a consumption of stores, but that a hive should 

 not be affected by those gi-eat fluctuations which all freely 

 conducting materials must induce. We must all, however, 

 agree that a cool hive is a great desideratum through the 

 hot summer months, during which the crowded inmates may 

 work instead of clustering idly at the front of their close and 

 oppressive domicile. This object can be but imperfectly 

 attained whilst we make use of a material so free in its con- 

 ducting properties as wood, as variations of the external 

 temperature must necessarily affect the interior. Straw has 

 been generally considered in some measure free from this 

 objection, but, during my thermometrio observations I have 

 found a very slight and unimportant difference between the 

 internal temperature of wood and straw hives. 



It may be remembered by some readers of The JotjenaI/ 



