d8S 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ May 16, 1865, 



REMOTiyo Flowkk*8tbx8 prom Tulips {ASub$criber). — We do not expect 

 any parlicalAr fiood to uhse from cutting off the fiower-sCalk unleas it 

 ?how6 symptoms of sc«diDg, when it had better be taken off. Do Dot take 

 up the bulb UDtil all foliage and flower-stems have quite ripened and died 

 down, as Nature In this, as in mo9t other cases, doett her own work bent. 



REARi^fo Amartlus prom Sekd (G, H.).—'The process is very tedious, 

 and takes at leaot three years to produce a bulb large enough to flower. 

 It may, however, be accomplished by sowing the seed as soon as it can be 

 had, and allowing it to remain on the surface of the soil for some time 



before glvinc: water, when hoat and moisture may be applied at the same 

 time, and all during the time the plants seem growing; but when they 

 neem to stop withhold water by degrees, and let the small bulb repose and 

 rest, and remain completely cool and ilry for two or three months, when 

 the process of growing on may bo repeated. It is possible you may obtain 

 seed from the trade, but it is not at all plentiful. 



Names op Plants (E. S.).— Your flowering tree is the Bird Cherry 

 (Ptunus padus). (If. R. Jf.).— Carpinus betulus. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the Week ending May 13th. 











THERMOMETER. 





























Datk. 







Air. 



Earth. 



Wind. 



in 

 inches. 



GaKERAL Remarks. 















Max. 



Min. 



Max. 



Min. 



1 ft deep. 



2 ft. deep. 









Sari. 7 

 Mon. 8 

 Tues. 9 

 Wed. 10 

 Thara. 11 

 tVi. 12 

 Sat 13 



Uean 



29.980 



29.,S89 



60 



32 



50 



531 



S.E. 



.37 



Dry haze ; rain ; showery ; cold at night. 



29.914 



29.755 



70 



46 



55 



53 



N.E. 



.12 



.Slight fop; dry haze; fine; overcast; rain. 





29.542 



72 



40 



55i 



53 



S.W. 



.73 



Fosgy ; low white cloudf ; very fine : thunder, lightninfj. and 



29,493 



29.485 



52 



42 



56 



53i 



N.E. 



.60 



Rain ; showery ; cimstiint heavy rain, {heavy r^^inat night. 





29.48S 



57 



41 



55 



521 



N.W. 



.13 



Cloudy anrl ihow»^ry throughout; cloudy at night. 



29.913 



29.799 



63 



28 



55 



=4 



S.W. 



.00 



Cloudv ; low dusky and wh te clouds ; very tine at night. 



29.979 



29.943 



66 



38 



54 



53^ 



s. 



.09 



Very fine; cloudy and fine; overcast; rair. 



29.805 



29.C99 



62.65 



38.14 



55.21 



53.00 





2.03 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



TAKEAT TO COCHINS. 

 " Taken to Cochins !" "Well, and how came that about ? 

 A devotee to Bantams, the smallest of fowls, to become a 

 keeper of the largest! — a lifelong worshipper, to speak 

 figuratively, of Game, the perfect in symmetry, to fall in 

 love with Cochins, who have no syinmetry at all ! But 'tis 

 human nature to go from one extreme to another. Eome 

 republican became Eome imperial, and the democratic boy 

 becomes the tory man. A friend six feet two in his shoes 

 was the other day walking round ray rectorial domain, and, 

 catching sight of Will Waddle (that is the name of my 

 Cochin cock), exclaimed. " Well, what a monster !" "Yes, 

 but he is so gentle." •' Ah ! we giants are a gentle race," 

 responded Six-feet-two. " True, so you are." 



"Taken to Cochins! And how came that about?" I 

 again exclaim, for it .seems odd to myself, as I carry with 

 difficulty in both hands ray present feathered pets, for my 

 late ones I only wanted one hand. Well, it came about in 

 this way ; I have often wished to keep large fowls since I 

 have resided here ; but how was I to manage it with no 

 back yard, and no divisions save of privet and faurel between 

 stable-yard, and kitchen garden, and flower garden ? I have 

 frequently puzzled my head, but all in vain. " How can it 

 be done ?" I bad meditated upon this text, but the fruit of 

 my meditations had been nought. At last a sudden thou-rht 

 struck me— a bright first thought, quite an inspiration ; it 

 was Sir Isaac Newton and the apple over again. Why, was 

 there not my pigstye in a corner hidden by my stable? 

 There close by was the manure-heap of course, all screened 

 from view by a well-grown privet hedge, giving an interior 

 some G yards square. " I have it," I exclaimed. " I'll take 

 to Cochins; it will be large enough for them inside the 

 hedge." A brief consultation followed with my old man, 

 great at pigs and potatoes, and of whom it is said by the 

 maliciou.') that he is his master's master. I explained to 

 George that as Cochins did not fly, a little wire netting put 

 round the bottom of the hedge would bo sufficient ; then a 

 low gate. Then the little building used sometimes as an 

 extra pigstyo would do for a fowl-house, as they do not perch 

 high, and aU would be complete. He approved, entering 

 into my plan warmly. I was charmed with this, for ho 

 usually thwarts me, throwing buckets of cold water upon 

 my plans. I guessed the reason of his hearty acriuioscence. 

 He a-lt the Cochin fancy would bo good ground on which 

 we should meet to compromise matters, for he lived in daily 

 fear that, in spite of all, I should some day have fuU-sized 

 fowls running about wherever they liked, and that would 

 break his gardening heart altogether. My Game chickens 

 Ust summer frightened him ; when they grew a little large 

 he said, " Sir, I hae been a thinking them Game vowl make 

 810 a caddie in the garden, that you'd better break off their 

 lege short "— i. «., send them to table. I took the hint, and 



sold them immediately. Well, after my new plan had been 

 talked over, off went our coats, and we worked together in 

 the best of humours. We cut the hedge down to 4 feet 

 high, put in several little posts outside, stretched the wire 

 netting from pojt to post, hung our gate, put up a thick 

 low perch in the desired pigstye, and there was the walk 

 and house quite ready. There was the manure heap, there 

 the cinder ditto, there a clear sunny space ; and we looked 

 on, feeling that "in all labour there is profit," and pleasure 

 too. Then said George, " Tnere, now, the vowls 'ult be with 

 the manure, and all the dirty things be together." He could 

 not help being slightly severe. Everything being prepared, a 

 pen of Cochins soon arrived. George grew enthusiastic, having 

 now no fears about his garden ; and after a pause (he makes 

 long pauses now and then, and I know something will follow 

 them) — " Now, I ha' been a thinkin that the farmer 'uU let 

 me make a hole through they boards into his vield ; a little 

 pick o' grass 'uU do um a zight o' good." I asked my good 

 neighbour, best of yeomen and churchwardens, and the 

 request was at once granted. All this happened two months 

 ago ; and since that time I have been daily watching the 

 habits of Cochins in a corner formerly avoided, but now full 

 of interest — formerly dull, but now rendered lively, and a 

 source of keen gratification, owing to the presence of fowls. 



J. G. Wood somewhere says, " If you want to understand 

 the ways of birds, go and stand or sit out of doors near 

 some trees, remain motionless, and soon the birds will come 

 out all round, .just as if you were not there." I have fre- 

 quently followed his plan with some success. The same 

 plan may be followed, and with far greater success, in re- 

 gard to fowls. I go and sun myself in my Cochins' yard 

 when my head has grown dizzy with desk work, or I fail in 

 breaking in a refractory sermon — they will be obstinate 

 sometimes, even with tolerably fluent composers — and watch 

 my Cochins. But to return. First, in praise of Cochins, I 

 would notice what has indeed often been remarked upon, 

 but cannot easily be magnified — viz., their great docility. 

 Never once have they attempted to get over my four-f eet- 

 higli fence, nor even mounted the still lower wall of the 

 pigstye, although it is broad at the top and tempting. On 

 the nest I feed the hen from ray fingers. I raise her, she 

 does not resist. I extract an egg or a chicken, she trusts 

 me. Should they walk out of the opened gate, they are 

 most easily driven in — hold up a handkerchief, it is enough. 

 I saw a great number so driven in, and most soberly they 

 returned to their quarters, two and two like a ladies' school, 

 — not an ordinary ladies' school, for there was not a giddy 

 one or a single hoyden among them, but rather a quaker 

 ladies' school of all sober-minded girls. At the same time 

 and place some Bantams had escaped, and how they flew, 

 and resisted, and struggled for the mastery ! saying, in 

 spirited Bantam liinguago, "Go in again I No, not if we 

 can possibly help it, that we wo'n't!" Cochins are more 

 like sheep than fowls. You can drive them, and they huddle 

 in a corner and quietly gaze at you. Then, too, with their 

 wonderfully soft fur-like feathers — they are certainly more 



