July 18, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 59 
with black crests. We would fain add them to our list of the 
rarer Polish. We could get no tidings of the existence of any in 
France, or even of anyone who had ever seen them. 
We heard much from French fanciers of an amateur in one of 
the central departments who devotes his attention greatly to 
Polish, and has fine specimens of every known variety. We have 
been promised an introduction to him, and hope on some future 
day to visit his yards and report upon them. Meanwhile we shall 
be very glad if these notes upon breeds which, though almost 
lost to us, yet do exist not far off, should induce any fancier to 
give them a trial._—C. 
FATALITY IN YOUNG RABBITS. 
Every doe Rabbit will breed half a dozen times, and have 
as many young at each litter; therefore a stock of three does 
anda buck may be multiplied in one year to over a thousand, 
because each young one will be able to breed when six or eight 
months old. Fortunes could be quickly reaped at Rabbit keep- 
ing if the increase continued at such a ratio, but unfortunately 
it does not, for many of the young are lost. These causes are 
mot far to look for. ‘The first plan seems to be to ascertain 
what kind of food the Rabbits like best, and then to force this 
upon them almost to their death, and certainly to the great detri- 
ment of their health. Young cabbage is often a great favourite 
with little Rabbits, but nothing is so bad for a constant supply 
of food. It is often given entirely, and many diseases result 
from it. When the young Rabbits are born they are apparently 
quite free from hair, but on looking carefully on the back a little 
silk hair can be discovered, which increases every day till the 
Rabbits are about a fortnight old, when a little wool grows. This 
increases for a week or two, and when they are about five weeks 
old they pass through a moult. This is a very dangerous time, 
and seems, like distemper in dogs, quite unavoidable and always 
to be expected. The best thing to do is to leave the young with 
the doe till the attack is over, and then to remove them into warm 
hutches. With the utmost care some will die, but the numbers 
may be greatly reduced by proper precautions. Extra attentions 
in warmth and food will not be thrown away and will be likely 
to save a few lives. As they attain a little over a month old a 
kind of looseness is very prevalent. The damp excrement sticks 
to the hocks and dries on, forming a hard scale, and frequently 
causes diseases of the hocks and feet. It has other bad effects : 
it gets on the skin and causes the hair to mat; then it can only 
be pulled off by causing pain to the Rabbit. The worst effect 
of the disease is that it is very weakening, and is as often caused 
by excessive heat as by improper food. Too much green or moist 
food will also cause the disease at any time. The only cure is to 
suddenly change the diet and give plenty of dry farinaceous food. 
The hutch should be cleaned out frequently, and a change to 
another hutch will be well. 
Exercise is very good for the young Rabbits, and they should 
have it every day, the more the better if they enjoy it. The 
yard should be dry and inaccessible to cats. A grass plat well 
bounded affords a nice running ground for the young ones ona 
fine day, and they will nibble the short grass. If there has been 
much rain for some time the grass will be toodamp. One of the 
results of a want of exercise is pot-belly, of which we have 
already spoken. Young Rabbits are particularly liable to it, 
and it is a very serious complaint. One sees it very much in 
Rabbits bred under young people’s care, and the cause is the 
giving of too much green stuff. Exercise and judicious feeding 
2re the only remedies that can be prescribed, and they act much 
better as preventives than as cures. A cure may be effected in a 
week or two if taken in hand at once before the skin is very tight, 
but if left for a fortnight or more before being taken in hand the 
effects may be very disastrous, and may quite destroy the young 
Rabbit’s chance of life. : 
The'skin of young Rabbits is very soft. In their gambols, 
especially at exercise, sometimes a nail will tear the flesh and 
make an open wound. The amount of harm caused by this will 
Gepend almost entirely upon the state of the Rabbit’s health. If 
it is poor and ill the wound will fester if not taken in hand, but 
if the Rabbit is plump—not oyer-fat—it will generally heal, and 
the hair will grow over the place if not deep. In any case pre- 
cautions may be taken, especially if the Rabbit is either very fat 
‘or lean. The wound should be washed out with warm water at 
once as soon as it is discovered, and the hair around carefully cut 
eff with a pair of scissors. A little sweet oil may be applied if 
the wound looks very raw, or a little water bandage if there seems 
any chance of festering. : 
Above all adopt with young Rabbits a systematic course of 
treatment, and keep them warm, dry, and very clean.—GuTA. 
VARIETIES. 
From an admirable paper on dairy farming read at the Mid- 
land Farmers’ Club by Professor Sheldon we extract the following 
on the testing of milk: The quality of really pure milk being 
found to vary so very much, and according to such a variety of 
causes, it will be seen how very difficult it is to determine 
with fairness whether or not it has been adulterated with water ; 
but if it is found to contain over 10 per cent. of cream it may be 
reasonably set down as being of average quality. There are 
various methods of testing the quality of milk, but most of them 
have the serious disadvantage of requiring either considerable 
time or skill, or both these, in their determination. The test by 
analysis is the most exact, but this can only be done by a clever 
practical analyst, and it is necessarily a tedious and expensive 
process. The quickest test is made by the lactometer, but the 
fatal objection to this is that it is easy to cheat it. The cheating 
may be done by simply taking a portion of the cream from the 
milk and putting in some water in the place of it. Cream and 
water being each somewhat lighter than milk, it follows that the 
specific gravity of the milk is easily maintained by a substitution 
of water for cream. The simplest test is the common graduated 
glass cream gauge, but the objection against this test is that it 
takes at least twelve hours in demonstration, yet it is sufficiently 
accurate for all practical purposes. There is yet another method ; 
I saw it tried at the International Dairy Show in Hamburgh in 
the spring of last year. The milk is put into a glass tube similar 
to a cream gauge, and the tube is then corked up and placed 
securely in a socket in a wheel, which is afterwards caused to 
revolve at a great speed. The rapid revolution causes all the 
cream to collect at one end of the tube—the outer end—and the 
creamless milk at the other. It is a simple contrivance, speedy 
and satisfactory in action, the whole operation being completed 
in about ten minutes or less. 
Durine the trying period of moulting, says Mr. Flower 
in the American Fanciers’ Journal, on no account should the 
cocks be permitted to run with the hens; the birds should be fed 
generously, and given a little of the Douglas mixture if moulting 
does not progress satisfactorily. The mixture is composed of 
half a pound of sulphate of iron to half an ounce of sulphuric 
acid dissolved in two quarts of soft rain water; dose one table- 
spoonful to a pint of water, placed in a vessel for the fowls to 
drink from at will. In lieu of this a few old rusty nails put into 
the drinking vessel will have a beneficial effect. Few if any 
fowls ever die from moulting, but in fowls where so much depends 
upon the colour and marking of the plumage as in this breed, it 
behoves the fancier to see to it that his stock are well cared for 
during this trying period of their existence. 
—— 109,000 quarters of foreign wheat recently came to the 
port of London in one week. As we have in the United Kingdom 
23,908,314 acres of permanent pasture, and 6,459,404 acres of 
cloyers, saintfoin, and grasses under cultivation, and as they are 
especially favoured this moist season, we need not be surprised 
at the fall in price of butter, milk, and cheese. Only 1s. per acre 
difference on this immense area represents a sum of £1,518,130, 
either in quantity or value. There must certainly be a con- 
siderable increase in the production of meat. Grass farmers 
have little to pay for horse or manual labour, seed, or machinery. 
—J. J. MECHI. 
Ir appears that a German colonist upon the island of 
Jaya has successfully tried the cultivation of the native bee, Apis 
dorsata, which hitherto has been valued by the natives only for 
the larve. Herr Mayerhoffer even expresses the hope that it will 
be possible to acclimatise the Jayanese bee in Europe. 
—— On the evening of Sunday, July 14th, on the porter on 
duty at Ledsham station, on the Chester and Birkenhead Railway, 
going to light the lamp of the distance signal, a swarm of bees 
was found in the lamp. The swarm was hived and removed, and 
the lamp lighted in time to prevent danger to the trains. 
THE man, says Mr. G. W. Neihardt, that adorns his home~ 
with shrubs and flowers, raises delicious fruits for his table, and 
desires the education of his children in every useful art that 
agriculture and home affords, will succeed in keeping bees. On 
the other hand, the one who has not the interest or energy to do 
all these things need not expect to get either money or honey 
from bee-culture. Some of the requisites to care even for a few 
stocks of bees are first a love for the bees. No one succeeds well 
who keeps bees with only large profits in view, for in this business 
“he who maketh haste to be rich” will surely fall into a snare. 
Second, knowledge and energy to do the right thing at the right 
time. This can be attained by reading and observation, and time 
and money thus expended will prove a good investment. Third, 
faith that bees will pay if rightly kept. A like faith is necessary 
in this vocation as that which the farmer exercises in all his farm 
matters. 
— Youne chickens and ducklings will obtain a large part 
of their living from insects, if they have the opportunity. Itisa 
good plan to give up a part of the orchard to poultry. Chickens 
and ducks want shade as well as sunshine, and thrive better for it 
during the summer. They are always on the watch for worms 
and millers, and greedily deyour every insect that falls from the 
trees. They are fond of fruit, and consume the windfalls, which 
harbour the insects that are so destructive to fiuit. A brood of 
