130 



JOUENAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Aagnst 17, 1871. 



riegatis, common Ribbon Grass ; 4, Lysimacbia ciliata— nt least it would 

 appear to be that species. But you say "It grows wild here." Are you 

 sure you are right in this ? If so, be good enough to communicate your 

 name and address to us, enclosing us a belter specimen, and telling us 

 what quantity of it you find, and where the locality is. {Chesham}. — 

 1, Linaria Cymb-tlnria ; 2. Artemisia Dracnnculus; 3, Corydalis lutea ; 

 4, Euphorbia Latbyris ; 5. Polypodinm vulgare. (Coiistaiit Reader). — 

 There can be no doubt this is the Stiokiug Morel (Phallus impudicus). 

 It is common on the north of London. Strange to sny, a short time ago 

 we heard of a very similar case. The inspector of nuisances told us 

 of a house icfected with a frightful stench in the basement as if from 

 putrid corpses, that could not be accounted for. On the boarding being 

 taken up there was found a plentiful crop of this stinking fungus. It is 

 difficult to say how it could be destroyed, unless taken up one at a time 

 and burnt. (E. K. L.). — We cannot undertake to name florists' flowers. 

 We bad to pay M. for your parcel. {E. T.)— Samphire, Crithmum mari- 

 timum, red from the sun. (I^/oiihhnm). — The common Loosestrife, Lysi- 

 macbia vulgaris. (.4. C.).— The white Lily is L. longiflorum of Thunberg, 

 native of Japan ; the orange one is L, davuricum of Gawler, native of 

 Siberia. (I)iC(?^ior).— Achillea filipendulina, one of the Milfoils, a well- 

 known garden plant, and native of the East. (E. (?.).— The plant you 

 send is Lythrum Salicaria itself, true and proper. You must be magni- 

 fying differences. {W. B. Ford).— Your fronds are quite the same, and 

 are extremely young fronds of Polypofliam vulgare, the common Poly- 

 pody. (G. W. J.).— Honckenya (or Honkeneya) peploidea, the Sea Purs- 

 lane. 



POULTKY, BEE, AND PIGEOH CHRONICLE. 



POULTRY-KEEPING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 



No. 3. 



KETnENiNG now more in detail to my limited space, and what 

 may be done with it, I will first repeat that it measures exactly 

 iS7 feet long by 35 feet wide ; and that as I, for reasons already 

 given, iind it best to make exhibition a secondary object, and 

 rather to devote my small piece of ground to producing the 

 greatest possible result, the problem to be solved every year is 

 the breeding from four different pens of adult fowls, the hatch- 

 ing of between forty and fifty chickens, and the rearing about 

 thirty of them to maturity. With some varieties more than 

 this might be done; but my breed is DarkBrahmas, and it will 

 readily be believed that very careful management is needed to 

 preserve health in a space so crowded. 



First, with regard to the permanent arrangements. These 

 are not quite so good as might be, owing partly to the plan of 

 the garden, and partly to the houses, &o., having been built 

 piecemeal instead of on one regular plan. A gravel walk 4 feet 

 wide runs up the garden, leaving a border 7 feet wide on one 

 Bide. This being a few yards longer than the rest, is nearly 

 80 feet, and ha? a rude, quite open shed at each end, and 

 a wire division in the middle, making thus two runs about 

 40 feet by 7 feet. The other aide of the path, ot course, 

 measures 24 feet in width by 67 feet in length. Tje whole 

 length, against the wall runs a shed 6 feet wide, part being only 

 fenced with wire for dry rubbish, and part entirely enclosed 

 for roosting-houEes, and the whole is divided into four runs or 

 yards, measuring in width 17 feet, 13 feet, 26 feet, and 11 feet 

 respectively. Had I made the whole at once, I would have 

 made the 17-feet pen narrower in order to have made the 

 il-feet pen wider. The first two pens have houses 5 feet wide, 

 the rest of the shed being open. The large 26-feet pen has 

 two houses 4 feet wide, and two sheds 9 feet, and the last pen 

 a house 4 feet, and shed 7 feet wide. All the sheds on this side 

 of the path have wire doors, and are wired up the front, so 

 that the fowls can ba confined at pleasure ; but the sheds on 

 the border are quite rough and entirely open. The divisions 

 between the pens are boarded nearly 3 feet high, bo that the 

 Lirds cannot see each other, and wired above. 



I put the whole up, as far as I remember, with my own 

 hands, except a little help from a brother, and do not think the 

 total expense was more than about £15. I had a pretty good 

 wall to build against, and under such circumstances putting 

 up houses is a very simple affair. The first thing is, by means 

 of strong holdfasts, to fix pieces of scantling 3 inches by 4 all 

 along the wall horizontally, at the height you have fixed for 

 the roof, to nail the rafters on, and to fix uprights of the same 

 at every partition you want, letting them about 2 feet into the 

 ground. Opposite these yon dig holes for and plant your front 

 uprights, taking care that they are an equal height all along, and 

 when you have spiked upon these another horizontal piece for 

 the lower edge of the roof, and nailed two or three rafters to 

 teep the whole in position, you have the rough frame complete, 

 and can spike down the other rafters, and " timber-up " at 

 leisure. It is quite unnecessary to spend large sums on even 

 an extensive range of houses ; and if every man would ac- 

 custom himself to use tools, it would be better both for his 



health and his pocket, for he will never find a workman who 

 will do in a given time half the work that he can do himself. 

 X am sorry to say this, but I have always found it so. 



All these pens are generally filled up to about the beginning 

 ot December, by which time I endeavour to sell all birds which 

 I do not require, and clear, at least, the largest pen, which 

 remains then entirely empty till the end of February. This 

 run being devoted to the young chickens, it is thus tolerably 

 fresh and pure for them, as I never sot hens, from want of room, 

 till the end of February or early in March. The border, also, 

 I clear as soon afterwards as possible, and endeavour to give 

 half of it at least a month's rest. When my four breeding pens 

 are made up, one goes on half of the border, the other three in 

 the smallest three pens on the other side. I have, of course, 

 no trouble with my fii'st two sitting hens, having the two 

 houses and sheds in the chicken run at their disposal, and the 

 ground there being fresh and clean, I go on hatching till I 

 have often nearly forty chickens in the run. In order to do 

 with such a number, the manure is, as far as possible, swept 

 up off the ground (which they tread hard), two or three times 

 a-week with a soft brush, and some disinfectant (lately I always 

 use carbolate of lime), scattered in the houses. By the time 

 the first chickens are sis or seven weeks old, however, it is 

 necessary to thin the numbers in the large pen, and fifteen to 

 eighteen are drafted off to the unoccupied end of the border, 

 which has been in its turn getting fresh for them. At the end 

 of May, again, when the season for selling or setting eggs ter- 

 minates, I sell at least one cock and a hen or two, thus bring- 

 ing my four families into three, and emptying another pen, and 

 as soon as possible, at leisure, I generally dispose of a few more 

 birds so as finally to reduce my old stock to two pens. By the 

 time this is done the last-hatched chickens are getting on, and 

 room is thus mad"e for separating the cockerels. I, finally, 

 after eating two or three of the worst cockerels, generally 

 divide the chickens into two pens of cockerels and two of 

 pullets, retaining the best of the pullets in the largest run, as 

 I find by experience that they need more space than the 

 cockerels to keep in health. 



Once or twice each year every pen in my yard is thoroughly 

 dug up about 6 inches deep. I used to do it inyself with a 

 heavy Dutch hoe — a plan I can conscientiously recommend to 

 stout gentlemen in want of exercise — but I soon got tired of 

 it, and now have it dug over with a spade. The houses and 

 shed are whitewashed at the same time with a mixture of lime 

 and sulphate of iron, and all the nests, which are separate, are 

 also washed with the same. 



It is by thus giving each pen devoted to the chickens a few 

 months' rest every year, and by digging over the whole, taking 

 up always as much of the manure as possible, that I am able 

 to do so much in the space I have. My two finest pullets this 

 year weighed nearly 5 lbs. each at four months old ; and though 

 that is not equal to what I could obtain had I a grass run, I 

 am certain few breeders can beat it. The number of pens is 

 necessary to proper classification ; for before I had so many 

 divisions I could not do so much ; but people who do not wish 

 to sell eggs would require fewer breeding birds, and would have 

 the more room for chickens. Such might be able, by sowing, 

 to get a little grass each year in their chicken runs, but 1 have 

 never myself been able to do any good in this way, though I 

 have often tried, the short time I can give not being enough 

 for it to grow. 



The floors of all my houses are of concrete, or rather hard 

 mortar, and much as it is condemned in this journal, I prefer 

 it for a floor, if sprinkled freely with earth or ashes. I have 

 never had more than a few single deaths, which every breeder is 

 subject to, and believe my yard is as healthy now as six years 

 ago. The one difficulty I find is in getting that bright and 

 clear white in the plumage which is so much admired, and 

 for which nothing seems to equal the shade of living trees. I 

 have heard that there are means known to some of bleaching 

 birds tanned with the sun and acid atmosphere of a city ; and 

 I have tried chloride of lime with a little improvement, but I 

 cannot say with success. If any breeder can enlighten us on 

 this point he will remove one of the " difliculties " under which 

 I labour, in common with many others who have to follow their 

 " fancy " amid the smoke and glare of a town, — L. Weight. 



GOLDEN-PENCILLED HAMBURGH HEN 

 INCUBATING. 

 Mr. Hewitt tells us in the " Poultry Book " of two instances 

 which he has known of hens of this breed incubating steadily, 



