July 11, 1878. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
39 
and said that when the warm weather comes then the young stock 
will look after themselves, and that little further care need be 
taken. This is an error, which, like most other errors, contains a 
certain amount of truth. It is true, of course, that the hazards 
from damp and cold winds are past, the delicate season of feather- 
ing through which young birds are apt to be dainty and pine is 
generally over, and a period which should be one of constant 
. hearty appetite and rapid development has succeeded. There are, 
however, many little things to be attended to in hot weather such 
as we have had of late. Disease is most easily generated during 
heat and drought, and seems then peculiarly fatal and infectious. 
The most frequent and certain source of it is want of ventilation 
in poultry houses. We suspect that few people have an idea of 
the suffering endured by fowls through hot nights in ill-ventilated 
houses and coops. A closed coop with an air hole or two in front 
does well enough for a hen and brood in February or March (for 
our own part we should eyen then prefer a greater amount of ven- 
tilation), therefore it is thought the same coop must suit the half- 
grown brood in June or July. Only let the master or mistress 
open it some morning and investigate the state of the air within ! 
For old birds and young alike thorough ventilation is now abso- 
Iutely needed. If possible the doors of all houses should be left 
open all night. It is the nature of birds to rise early, and insect 
provender may be found through the early hours in dewy grass 
which is not procurable later. Where, however, it is impossible 
to pursue this plan—i.e., where thieves are feared, or the bird’s 
range is too extended for it to be safe for them to wander at 
large before people are about—there must be thorough ventila- 
tion through the houses over their heads. 
A large number of our own young poultry roost in trees through 
the summer, indeed our Turkeys do so at all seasons. Trees are 
their most natural abode, and we always find them do best there. 
Of course some risk is run, but we prefer now and then losing a 
bird through some accident to boxing all up in houses. They 
become very hardy, and by the autumn their numbers are so 
thinned by constant weedings that the select few are easily and 
comfortably accommodated in half the number of houses that 
would be required if all had to be housed at midsummer. 
Coops, too, must be ventilated—i.e., their fronts should never 
shut up to the top, or nearly so. If they are constructed with a 
weather board to protect the open part fresh air canalways getin, 
but wet cannot. In settled fine weather a piece of wire netting in 
front is even preferable to any boarding at night. They must, of 
course, be opened very early in the morning. We find small move- 
able houses, about six times the size of coops and without bottoms, 
capital contrivances to succeed coops. They are at first placed 
where the coop has last been with open door, and the broods soon 
take to them. They are moved from day to day, and need no 
cleaning, for grass land is immensely benefited by this gradual 
process of manuring. 
Diet, too, should be changed in heat. The fare of a native of 
Hindostan is very different from that of a Laplander, and for 
physical reasons ; we should for the same vary our own and our 
pird’s diet with the temperature. Rice (boiled) and the less sub- 
stantial meals will now make a good change, and for grain dari 
in lieu of wheat ; but above all cool water is of the greatest im- 
portance. Not only should all water vessels be emptied and 
refilled morning and evening, but they must be placed in the 
shade. Heated water is most prejudicial. It will be found to keep 
purer and cooler now in deep pans than in the shallow ones used 
for very young broods. 
We haye, of course, been speaking about the treatment of early- 
hatched birds now half grown. In establishments where a regular 
succession of chickens for the table is required there will still be 
young broods ; these, strange thoughit may seem, are by no means 
so easily reared now as earlier inthe season. Country people have 
an old saying about the delicacy of “ blackberry chickens ;” this 
probably means chickens hatched during the parching heat accom- 
panied by eastgwinds which we often have when blackberries are 
ripe. If similar weather comes in June or July the effects are 
like on newly-hatched chickens ; they seem to wither up, refuse 
their proper food, and rush with unnatural cravings at dried leaves 
aad bits ofsticks. We do not pretend entirely to account for this, 
but fancy it is due to exhaustion analogous to sunstroke, and to 
dryness of the ground, which does not afford insect food. The 
coops should, if possible, be. put in moist places among trees, 
and the soil round them watered ; a little meat chopped fine 
should be given to the broods, and some iron tonic mixed with 
their water. At times all remedies fail, and in yards where, as a 
tule, nineteen out of twenty April or May chickens are reared 
whole broods in the summer go off at from ten days to a fortnight 
old; this, however, generally happens where disease has begun 
before any care has been taken, and is rarely the case in well- 
ordered establishments.—C. 
VARIETIES. 
WE are informed that at the Royal Agricultural Society’s 
Show at Bristol this week Messrs. Sutton & Sons of Reading will 
exhibit their interesting museum of vegetable products, which will 
occupy a space of 130 feet in length. It will include, among 
many other objects, 250 dried specimens of natural grasses, models 
of their Champion Swede, collections of mangolds of the growth 
of 1877, showing its valuable keeping properties; models of 
different vegetables, collections of 1300 different kinds of vege- 
table and flower seeds, and an exhibition of valuable silver cups 
given as prizes, and of the value of £500. 
—— THE seed farms of Messrs. Webb at Kinver, Staffordshire, 
were visited on Tuesday, the 2nd inst., by the Midland Farmers’ 
Club, on the invitation of the proprietors. Messrs. Webb’s Royal 
Seed Establishment at Wordesley, Stonrbridge, is well known to 
agriculturists from the annual root shows held there each autumn ; 
but the extensive seed farms of the firm, lying more out of the 
line of general traffic, are perhaps less well known, except by 
repute, to those interested in farming matters. Mr. William G. 
Webb and Mr. Edward Webb received the party with unstinted 
hospitality. The farms the visitors had come out to see are the 
largest seed farms in the kingdom, being altogether 1100 acres in 
extent—Kinver Hill farm, 400 acres; Dunsley Manor farm, 250 
acres; Kinyer Edge farm, 300 acres; and High Grove farm, 
150 acres. Although this represents a large area for seed-growing 
purposes, it is in reality but a fractional part of the acreage Messrs. 
Webb employ. The Kinver Hill farm is in great part used only 
for trial and experimental purposes and for growing stock seeds 
of selected varieties, to be multiplied afterwards in different parts 
of the kingdom in quantity sufficient to meet the demands of a 
rapidly expanding business. 
—— THERE is one point in poultry management to which we 
wish to call especial attention, as but few persons who rear 
poultry for profit ever attach much importance, notwithstanding 
it has a great influence upon the profits. It is to keep your birds 
tame, whether they are kept up in suitable enclosure during the 
entire year, or permitted to have unlimited range, for it pays to 
do so in many ways. If you keep your birds tame, so they will 
come to you quickly at the call and eat out of your hand without 
any sign of fear or distrust ; they will always be quiet and content, 
and will fatten and thrive much better. This matter is well 
understood by breeders of the larger kinds of stock, such as 
cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, while there are a sensible few 
who apply the same principle with poultry. Many a fine nest of 
eggs has been destroyed by a wild and frightened hen, a hen 
which had early learned to fear her master or owner. If uniform 
kindness and gentleness had been resorted to, the hen would suffer 
herself to be handled while on the nest, and never once think c* 
leaving it in such a hurry as to endanger the eggs. If the poultry 
on the farm is kept tame, it is not a very difficult matter to catch 
one or more when wanted for table or other uses.—(American 
Poultry Journal.) 
—— THE Director of the mode] farm at Hubandiers, France, 
M. V. Nanquette, has published a communication on the subject 
of his experiments in feeding with Jerusalem artichokes. A 
twelve-years experience has convinced him of the great value of 
this yeyetable as food for horses and foals. Some 6 or 8 lbs. 
a day, in conjunction with oats and hay, form a most readily 
digestible ration, as shown by the results of the experiments, and 
they also improve the general health, while being of special 
service in promoting a brilliant coat. 
For the four weeks which ended on June 17th the beef 
supplies from America for British markets exceeded 5700 live 
bullocks and 8000 carcases, or 32,000 quarters. Mr. Timothy C. 
Eastman is said to have been the pioneer in this business. He 
began his first shipment of fresh beef from America to England 
in 1875, and the lot consisted of forty-five cattle and fifty sheep. 
At the close of 1876 and at the beginning of 1877 his shipments, 
mostly from New York, were from six hundred to a thousand 
head of cattle per week. He has shipped about sixty thousand 
head in all, having opened markets in London, Manchester, Liver- 
pool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, Hdin- 
burgh, Dundee, and other towns in this country. ; 
PASTURAGE OF BEES. 
Asa sequel to the conversational letter on this subject which 
has appeared in the Journal, we shall now notice some of the bee 
flowers that are considered of secondary importance, and begin 
with those that flower in spring. 
The flowers of crocuses, osiers, and willows are much haunted 
by bees. These flowers yield much pollen and probably a smal 
portion of honey. Hyacinths that ornament and perfume our 
flower gardens in early spring contain much honey, and the bee s 
in taking it from them scratch and disfigure their petals. Single 
wallflowers, apricots, peach, and almond trees are excellent honey 
plants, but it is only in warm and protected places in this country 
that apricots and peaches are grown. Bilberry bushes that cover 
much of some moorland districts like heather, are honey plants 
in the highest grade, but as they flower early in districts where 
few bees are kept very little honey is gathered from them. 
guess the honey of bilberry flowers is strong-flayoured like that of 
heather. 
