August 29, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
179 
and also allowing the claws of a bird to grow to such a degree 
that the bird cannot freely hop from perch to perch or on to the 
wires of the cage without the danger of its sickle-shaped claws 
becoming trapped. The consequence is that many a valuable pet 
songster is brought to a premature death. — 
Respecting the catching or handling of birds I will quote from 
a chapter in Mr. Hervieux’s old bird treatise. He says, “ Canary 
birds sometimes suffer much for want of a little precaution. 
Sometimes a Canary bird is put quite out of order by being 
handled too roughly. You will hear him when he is in your hand 
make a noise like the snapping ofa finger. This cry or noise is 
followed by some drop of blood coming from his beak, and then 
you may see the bird as it were stunned and not able to extend 
his wings. You must put him again immediately into his cage, 
cover him with some thin transparent cloth,and hang him in some 
place out of any noise of people that he may not be disturbed, set 
his meat and drink on the bottom of his cage, taking away the 
perches, and give him good food ; if he survives twenty-four hours 
there is hope that he will not dye [die] of it, but will only be 
gaunt and thin. This generally only happens to Canary birds 
that are wild and unruly, being commonly those that have been 
reared by both cock and hen. To prevent this accident you must 
use precaution, drawing near the cage out of which you would 
take the bird by degrees ; you must give him notice at a distance 
either with your mouth or hand, for if he be taken by surprise, 
though he does not fall into the danger I have spoken of, it often 
happens that when you miss taking him at first he flutters about 
the cage till he breaks his head or wings. When you would take 
a Canary bird that is in a volery [a fly] you may use a sort of 
little net made purposely to catch them. Some make a little sort 
of trap cage, which they set into the volery with some sweet eat- 
ables in it, as simnels or biscuits ; the Canary birds soon run into 
it, one after another, and sometimes several of them together. 
Those that are taken in it you put into a cage and return the trap 
to the yolery till such time as the bird you would catch is in it, 
and then you return all the others you have no occasion for into 
he yolery.” f . 
: The Heed net and trap cage are good ways of catching birds 
from a large fly or from a room, but in place of the spring “trap 
cage,” which Mr. Hervieux evidently intended for the purpose, [ 
would suggest the use of a cage with a swing door (one of which 
kind I have adopted), so situated upon the floor of the fly or room 
that with a length of thread attached the swing door can be pulled 
to when many birds have hopped therein. I prefer this method 
to a spring trap, which might in its action break a bird’s leg. 
Mr. Hervieux certainly had an eye to the danger of a spring 
trap, for further on in the same chapter he says, “T find this a 
yery conyenient way of taking Canary birds out of a volery, and 
must own this method does not scare them, and consequently 
they are out of danger of those accidents above mentioned, which 
happen when taken or caught by hand; but Iam sensible of an 
accident which may happen, and therefore discourages me from 
practising this way, and that is that as the trap is falling to shut 
in the birds others may be hopping upon and about the trap door, 
which falling in the meantime quick and before the birds that are 
on the edge can be gone they are in great danger of having their 
claws broken, and sometimes the birds killed; therefore I leave 
the curious to make choice of what they shall think most for their 
convenience and being least hazardous for killing their Canaries 
when they are to take any out of their voleries.” The old work 
in many respects is not only really practical, but somewhat quaint 
in its style. 
Overgrown claws or beaks may be kept down. by carefully 
operating upon the same with a sharp penknife, but not so to pare 
away the horny substance until there is a danger of blood coming 
forth. The termination of the thin vein of blood running along 
each claw may easily be seen by holding up the claws before a strong 
light, and it is mostly at the extreme point of the beak that the 
horn will require to be cut away. Respecting the latter operation 
not one in twenty birds will require its beak reducing, still I have 
had several instances where the upper mandible has overlapped the 
end of the lower one by more than the eighth of an inch, and thus 
hindering the birds from picking up their seeds. The use of plenty 
of grit sand will tend to keep down the growth of claws, and a 
piece of the cuttle fish suspended inside the cage will keep down the 
beak. When handling a bird do so with some care and confidence 
with the thumb of your left hand over the neck, and so holding 
the bird that it has not too much play, for I have known many 
instances of blood vessels breaking when the birds have been 
held too loose.—Guno. J. BARNESBY. 
VARIETIES. 
ALTHOUGH a month has elapsed since harvest commenced 
only a comparatively few fields are cleared of the crops. For 
miles the grain is still exposed, the great bulk being in stook, but 
much has perforce remained on the ground untied on account of 
the heavy rains. In some districts the corn is sprouting, and 
unless bright days recur and continue for a week or ten days 
much injury will result. Already the quality of the barley has 
suffered considerably, the grain being stained, and not in the 
bright condition coveted by the maltsters. The crops in well- 
farmed districts are generally heayy, and more straw is produced 
than has been the case for some years. 
— Iris estimated that 5,000,000 sheep, valued at £2,500 000, 
were destroyed, directly or indirectly, through the lack of pas- 
arage consequent on the drought that has lately prevailed in 
Australia, 
—— WE never saw the root crops on the various farms in 
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire look more promising than at the 
present time. The heavy and frequent recurring rains that 
followed the drought of July have caused turnips and mangold 
wurtzels to grow with great rapidity, and the crops are in most 
instances not only full but quite cover the ground. Should the 
winter prove mild the crops in all probability will be too large for 
the requirements of the stock, especially as the pastures also con- 
tain an unusual quantity of green food. Late potatoes are also 
looking well, but are in extreme danger of being overtaken by 
the disease, which is certain to be virulent if the rains continue 
much longer; already some fields are affected more or less seriously. 
Tue “ Veterinarian” says that not less than ten thousand 
head of cattle have been attacked by the cattle plague in the 
province of Smyrna. It also exists in other localities in Turkey, 
both European and Asiatic, as well as in Russia in the government 
of Bessarabia, Volhynia and Podolia. In Italy, the disease pre- 
vails in the province of Naples, but the whole of the Austro- 
Hungarian Empire is free with the exception of the Cattaro 
district. 
A TRANSATLANTIC contemporary says a farm sixty miles 
long and ten wide in one tract, mostly fenced, is that of Miller and 
Lux, cattle monopolists of California. They have 80,000 head of 
stock, own 700,000 acres_of choice land, and are rated as worth 
$15,000,000. 
—— AccorDING to the recently published agricultural returns 
for Ireland the number of holdings in the Sister Kingdom is 
600,000. The total acreage under crops is 5,203,000 odd, showing 
a decrease of 62,196; the decrease in cereals was 31,174; in green 
crops, 87,249. The number of acres under grass is 10,124,745; 
fallow, 16,971 ; woods and plantations, 330,816. There is an increase 
in live stock—that is, in horses and mules, 9953; sheep, 106,721; 
goats, 13,324; and a decrease in cattle of 12,847, and in pigs of 
199,372. The number of scutching mills in Ulster is 1162; 
Leinster 13, Munster 20, and Connaught 17. 
BAR-AND-FRAME HIVES. 
UNDER the above heading your correspondent “ HARDY OF THE 
HILus” gives an interesting account of his visit to his Dunoon 
friend, and I quite agree with him that pure honeycomb from the 
super is the best if not the only form it should be put on the 
table. He must, however, bear in mind that the bees store the 
various honeys methodically and distinct. His recommendation 
to sling the contents of the black broodcombs (best given to the 
bees for their own support) to fill supers is a very questionable 
procedure. Besides the double labour, waste and loss of time to 
the bee, such mixed blend could never compare with pure virgin 
honeycomb collected and stored naturally. 
That the first-cross Italian is more irascible than the black or 
yet pure Italian is a fact familiar, and cannot be gainsayed by 
any with the requisite experience, which, did your correspondent 
possess, would readily agree with me that such first-cross Italians 
store more rapidly and defend it better than the pure bees of 
either variety. 
It is rather fallacious to estimate the value of a district from a 
single visit, and the comparative merits of bees and systems of 
management are obviously best obtained by their being wrought 
side by side in the same district. 
Eyery intelligent bee-master ought to have his bees thoroughly 
in command by the contents of his hives being moveable. It does 
not necessarily follow he should be continually pottering and 
smoking amongst them. During the honey flow the less disturbed 
they are the better, save giving empty and remoying completed 
supers. 
Cottagers of our district working on the swarming system com- 
plain bitterly this season of the loss of time watching their bees, 
and after all the trouble and expense of feeding find that their 
swarms fly off to people the dead skeps and enrich their careless 
neighbours who let theirs perish from want. A labouring man 
when once taught can well appreciate improved management. I 
remember some years ago one at a job here telling me of an 
immense skep he had he meant to “smeek.” To save them from 
the brimstone pit, for a consideration he consented to let me have 
the bees provided I would show him how they could be driven. 
The skep turned out to be the largest straw I ever saw. Comb 
after comb was cut out, and the loaded tops he carried in to his 
wife for to run, and on my asking him what he meant to do with 
the long stretches of brood and empty combs, he said the children 
would have them to play with and then would be thrown on the 
