December 14, 1876. J 



JOUBNAIi OF HOBTICUliTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



523 



{Broken).— I and 3 C. J. Salt. 2, T. Tenniswood. 8, S. Banting. Yorkshire.— 

 Clear, Ticked, or Variegated Yellow.— 1, 2, and 3, J. Thackrey. Clear, Ticked, 

 or Variegated Buff.—l and 2, J. Thackrey. S.G.Turner. Cinnamon.— Jonque. 

 —1, C.J. Salt. 2, J. Adams. 8, J. Athersuch. Buff.— 1 and 2, J. Adams. 3, 

 Eice 4 Co. Goldfinch Mule.— Any Variety except Dark.—l and 2, C. J. Salt. 

 S, J. Stevens. Dark Jonque or Buff.—\ and 2. C. J. Salt. 3, Maokley Brothers. 

 Ant other Variety. — 1 and 2, J. Stevens. 3, J. Smeaton. 



BRITISH BIRDS.— Goldfinch.— 1, W. Fortb. 2, W. & C. Burniston. 3. R. 

 Allsop ; Cleminson & Ellerton. Linnet —1. G. Jobling. 2 and 8. W. Carriok. 

 8, Cleminaon & Ellerton. any other Variety.— 1, R. Humphrey. 2 and 8, 

 3. Lacey. 8, T. Raper. 



FOREIGN BIRDS.— I, J. Sorafton. 2, R. Pearson. 8, S. Bunting. 



Sellino Class.— 1, Brown & Gayton. 2, CleminBOn & Ellerton. 3, W. 

 Forth. 



Judge. — Mr. G. J. Barnesby, Derby. 



CANARY TREATMENT. 



In reply to " M. S., Sevenoaks," respecting hia Canary with a 

 diseased beak, Mr. Barnesby says :— 



The reddish-yellow swelling on the beak (the upper mandible 

 I presume), most likely in the first instance proceeds from a 

 cankerous and inflammatory affection of the nostrils, which in 

 an early stage of diBease might have been, and even now may be, 

 checked with an application of lunar cauBtic and lard made into 

 an ointment, in the proportions of 4 grs. of the former to about 

 half an ounce of the latter. It is the disease alone which brings 

 about the irritant swelling and spongy corruption upon the beak, 

 causing it to grow unshapely. In very advanced cases recovery 

 is hopeless. In such instanoes the birds are better replaced by 

 iealthy ones ; but your bird being a five-year-old is no doubt a 

 great pet, and your wish may be that " Dickey's himself again," 

 sooner or later. 



To aid the sufferer, in the first place on every other day for a 

 week administer inwardly one drop of castor oil, and for the 

 same period alternate the doses of oil with the above prepared 

 ointment, eaoh outward dressing of whioh consisting of a portion 

 about the size of a small hempseed, placed on the extreme base 

 of the bill and partly on the bird's nostril. Not unfrequently a 

 yellowish substanoe, the size of a hempseed, will form in or 

 about one side of the nostril, causing much pain and difficulty 

 of breathing. With the aid of the ointment such accumulation 

 may often be loosened and removed, inflammation stopped, anil 

 the nostril regain its proper function. Afterwards occasionally 

 dress the bird's beak with oil of sweet almonds, applied with a 

 Email camel's-hair bruBh, and at any time that the spongy ac- 

 cumulation may appear loose gradually remove as much as you 

 possibly can with the aid of your thumb nail, operating tenderly. 



During the period of the bird partaking of oastor oil give daily 

 a little sweetened bread and milk, and at the end of about eight 

 days continue the usual diet of seed, omitting the rape unless 

 scalded. Mix with the seed a pinch or two of floury brimstone 

 <sulphur), and let the bird have a piece of salt to peck at, which 

 is an excellent blood-purifier. No lump sugar, but let the bird 

 amuse itself with peoking at a pieoe of fresh carrot occasionally 

 placed in the wireB. Bird seed should always be well sieved 

 before giving to birds. The dust, and there is a great deal in 

 some seeds, tendB to aggravate any little affection of the nostrilB, 

 ©noourages asthma or wheezing, and lays the foundation of 

 diseases which often baffle those most skilled. One point bird- 

 keepers should never lose sight of, that of giving their pets fresh 

 water at least once a-day. 



In all oases of disease cleanliness is most essential ; in faot, at 

 any time, or all times, whether a bird be ill or well, and 

 " M. S's." sufferer would be much benefited and outwardly 

 purified (considering its affliction) if it could — after the fore- 

 going treatment, say in a fortnight — be manipulated upon as 

 •follows: — Wash the bird all over, from beak to tail, with soap 

 and warm water of the temperature of about 95". Mind the 

 water is not hot. Use a partly worn-out soft shaving-brush or 

 piece of old flannel. After well rubbing either article upon a 

 niece of common washing soap commence operating upon your 

 bird. After five minutes rubbing and dabbing all over the 

 bird's feathers it will be ready for rinsing in another basin of 

 water of equal temperature, which is necessary to remove all soap 

 from the feathers. Have at hand a clean soft linen or cambric 

 cloth, to absorb from the feathers as muoh moisture as possible. 

 Afterwards place your prostrate bird upon a cloth on the bottom 

 of a cage, and in about twenty minutes before a fire (not too 

 close, mind) you will see your bird upon the perch recovering 

 from its ablution. Whilst washing the bird hold it in your 

 clasped hand, head upwards, securely, but not to squeeze it, and 

 do not press it too tightly around the neck, or you will frill the 

 feathers of the same likened to a Jacobin Pigeon. I have not 

 space here to devote in extenso the modus operandi of bird- 

 washing, but it is simple enough, and I say Try your hand. It 

 will cleanse your bird from some of the corruption plaguing it. 

 Study the few remarks I have given, and if you perform clumsily 

 at first you will do better in future. Nothing like experience. 

 Bird-washing is necessary in other respects than for exhibition, ' 

 especially when the birds are exposed to a smoky or murky 

 atmosphere. Nothing encourages disease more than dirt, and 

 it is necessary that not only the birds should be kept wholesome, 



but also the cages they are continually penned up in. Clean 

 perches and grit sand are two essential requisites. 



MOVEABLE versus FIXED COMBS. 



Having endeavoured to answer some of your correspondent's 

 Mr. Pettigrew's) remarks on moveable comb hives, I will now 

 proceed to explain, as plainly as possible, for the benefit of the 

 novice Borne of the advantages of moveable over fixed oombs, 

 more particularly as regards profitable honey returns, your corre- 

 spondent having already ceded their superiority for scientific 

 and experimental purposes. 



Take the case of the straw competitive hive already alluded to. 

 An imported Italian queen was placed at its head in autumn, 

 and continuous ample feeding was resorted to, whioh induced 

 great activity, and pollen was freely carried in. The last bottle 

 food unfortunately collapsed, but the population being so nu- 

 merous, were held competent to make good all damage after a 

 clean board had been Bupplied. In the early summer this hive 

 became so listless as to oall for a thorough examination of its 

 contents, when I discovered that, owing to the above accident, 

 the masses of maturing autumnal brood bad been chilled, the 

 combs were in a damp and moulded condition, and so far as 

 fixism was ooncerned its doom was sealed. A nucleus box 

 was at once procured and stocked with four frames of empty 

 comb, and the queen with the remaining handful of her sub- 

 jects transferred, stimulated with a little feeding. Her majesty 

 true to the prolific instinct of her race egged rapidly, one frame 

 was removed for queen-raising elsewhere, and a full one of 

 ripe brood given in lieu. Then an exchange of a second took 

 place, the nucleus by-and-by becoming so orowded that its con- 

 tents had to be transferred to a Stewarton breeding box shortly 

 thereafter ; that had to be nadired with a second, and the young 

 colony throve so well as to be independent of autumnal feeding. 

 In short, what stood condemned by fixism became through 

 mobilism one of the best going colonies I now possess. 



Mr. Pettigrew describes we apiarians as " bee-farmers," we 

 accept the term. Farmers have their crops to reap, so have we. 

 A good deal depends on the staff of workers, ours fortunately are 

 all willing and industrous hands. Tour correspondent prefers 

 the old black aborigines, we go in for the Italian Creoles, they 

 are larger, bolder, we are sorry to confess much more irascible 

 insects than their blaok competitors ; then comes the question 

 of the reaper, on which all farmers, bee and otherwise, are sorely 

 exercised. Your correspondent solves the difficulty by sticking 

 to the old straw skep, always providing it is big enough, which 

 we may liken to the antiquated reaping hook, while we on the 

 other hand go in for an improved implement, the Stewarton 

 reaper. It is a self-acting machine, and has top delivery, with its 

 several parts all moveable for transfer or repair. I will now 

 proceed to take a look at the working of the two, beginning with 

 the Stewarton. 



By a compartmental arrangement the harvest as rapidly as 

 reaped is sifted, the finest portions being placed together in 

 several sectional divisions, each subdivided into seven separate 

 parts, so thoroughly complete that it can pass from the lip of 

 the bee to that of the consumer without being contaminated by the 

 touch of human hand. The shallowness of the sections admit of 

 their more rapid completion, with the consequent advantage of 

 realising the highest price, section after section finds its way 

 into consumption, and nearly all being disposed of before the 

 owner of the old tool places his first sample in, possibly as in a 

 season such as the past, an overstocked market. 



The farmer possessing the Stewarton reaper with his harvest 

 in his pocket, before going to have a look at his neighbour over 

 the way beginning work, must first see to his machines being 

 properly laid past for the next season. Some of his very best 

 are clogged with an overplus, others are going light. How is 

 the surplus to be got rid of? A whisper from Ealing Eise says, 

 " Sling it, can't ye 1 " but the " weak oats " left behind the fanners 

 we always use for feeding purposes, and mobilism again comes 

 to our aid. We exchange overloaded for empty combs where 

 required, no drain on the pocket for sugar feeding, not a bee is 

 injured, or moved from its much-loved home. Here surely is the 

 really humane system. The rich have given of their abundance, 

 the poor have no lack ; all are benefited, the vacant cells in the 

 one case, the needful food in the other induces in both cases to 

 the bee farmer autumnal clutches and early spring broods. So 

 much for mobilism. I will now take a look at fixism. 



Here stand the large straw skeps in much larger numbers 

 than before, the straw hives ; and despising the principle that 

 " nnion is strength," permits large working parties to split 

 up into lesser bands, and waste both their time and store in 

 barn-building, at the very top of the season too, and in en- 

 deavours to make up the leeway all is thrown together higgledy 

 piggledy. And now comes the real barn work, the separation of 

 the wheat from the chaff. And how is it to be accomplished ? 

 Only by the " killing the goose for the golden egg " system — the 

 demolition of the stacks. The very best iB invariably first singled 

 out for destruction, the farmer carefully preserves and points 



