150 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ August 24, 1871. 



own raising you could have Mignonette, Pints, Perpetual Carnations and 

 Picotees, Chinese Primulas, and Violets, especially The Czar. A little 

 over 45^ in cold weatherwould bringthesein. Some annuals, as Collinsia 

 bicolor, also come in well. As you are a yonng gardener, and you pur- 

 pose doing all this where you live at a distance from the garden in which 

 you work during the day, we would advise you to be careful to have 

 everything you do straightforward afd aboveboard. We say nothing of 

 the principle involved ; but some people would think that a man who 

 worked so industriously for himself would not be the most suitable for 

 them, and then they are apt to think about temptations. 



Glass foe Yinert and Orchard House {H. B.).— For a substantial 

 house such as you speak of, we would not have it less than from 12 to 

 14 feet in width, and, taken altogether, no plan would suit you better 

 than Mr. Beard's, and the glass we would use for such fruit purposes 

 would be 21-oz. sheet If wood is determined on for the roof, then you 

 may either glaze in the old way or place the glass in grooves. We could 

 not enter on the subject without more particulars. The best mode of 

 ventilating would be by small sashes at the top and sashes in front, 

 moved all at once less or more by wheel and racket or other means. The 

 best mode of heating the three divisions would be by hot water ; and if 

 you made the central division the warmest you could place the boiler 

 against that, and then by means of valves take the heat to either end- 

 honse as wanted. The cost of such a building will greatly depend on 

 the mattrial and the finish given to it. We could not help you better 

 than by referring you to our advertising columns, where the prices of dif- 

 ferent kinds of buildings are given almost every week, but then you must 

 . make up your mind and avoid extras afterwards. 



Heating with Hot Water, (Delta). — There is no chance of your heating 

 the house, if the sketch given is correct. However, it is less on the dif- 

 ference of 10 feet in level between e and a, than the difference between 

 the level of the top of the boiler and the point a, that the difficulty will rest. 

 If by taking the supply-pipe at once to the bottom of the boiler, taking 

 the return-pipe also near the bottom of the boiler, and either sinking the 

 boiler or elevating the pipes to the point A, so as to have that a foot or 

 two above the top of the boiler, then the circulation will be secm-ed. 

 Under present arrangements we think you are sure to fail. 



Bed Spidee (S. 7i.).— Syringing, keeping the air moist, and dusting 

 with flowers of sulphur are the best treatment you can adopt. The 

 " Garden Manual " will suit you. You can have it free by post from our 

 office if you enclose twtnty postage stamps with your address. 



Tree Ecree (J. Green). — The caterpillar that attacks your Apple 

 trees is that of the Wood-Leopard Moth, Zeuzera assculi. 



Name of Plakt (i7jif?er-Garcft'?ie7-).— Pilea muscosa. 



poultry, bie, ahd pigeon chro:^icle. 



DE OMNIBUS REBUS.— No. 2. 



" DoCTOB, I am not ■well." " What have yon been eating ?" 

 " Sir," said a friend of onrs, " there is no doubt mine are 

 among the best-bred cbiclsens in England, and they are well 

 fed, but they do not get on. Will you kindly look at them ?" 

 We did so, and found a large number with their care-worn 

 faces, narrow bodies, large protuberant crops, long weakly legs 

 sadly in-kneed, and preferring squatting to walking. "Very 

 unsatisfactory," we said. " Get rid of all the cocks at once. 

 May do something with the pullets. What is their food 1" 

 " Cabbage, sometimes raw and sometimes boiled ; potatoes, 

 always boiled; bran, Indian meal, rice, and some sharps." 

 "Bad feeding," we said. "Well," replied our friend, who has 

 only lately taken to poultry, "you must admit these are things 

 they would not get in a state of nature." " Granted," said we ; 

 "but in a state of nature they would get a hundred things 

 they cannot get here." " Wei), then, please tell me what your 

 idea of artificial poultry-feeding is." 



It is very hard, say we, to consider poultry living in a natural 

 state where their haunts are expected to be tidy. Clean dirt 

 must be allowed. It is unpardonable to let the dirt of the 

 birds lie about ; but that for which we plead is the disturbance 

 by scratching of heaps which have been swept up. We can- 

 not ask that our feathered friends should be allowed the run of 

 the garden, but if they can be permitted access to a shrubbery, 

 or to a garden, or stableyard, where there are waste and dung 

 heaps, they not only find food there, but they do much good. 

 Their's is a searching inquiry. While the dark mass is turned 

 over and over the busy beaks are at work every instant, pick- 

 ing food, invisible so far as we are concerned, not so to them ; 

 larvJE, embryos, grubs — all are devoured. Let us illustrate 

 this. We once saw sixty-one grubs taken from the crop of a 

 hen Pheasant. That was one morning's meal. How many 

 thousands of similar pests had she destroyed ? She had paid 

 for the stray grains of corn she had picked up during her short 

 life. It is the same with the fowls. The grubs, &c., are sent 

 to feed them, and they are sent to eat the grubs. All things 

 are thus equally balanced. 



It is said the cause of the slow increase of lions is that the 

 young lionesses die in teething, and so few survive, the males 

 fight to the death over them ; disabled young lions are fre- 

 quently met with in the neighbourhood of water. Fancy 



musing over a wounded lion, after the fashion of Jaques and 

 the stag ! We prefer it should remain fancy. We have long 

 thought it would be a pleasing mission if we, in " our Journal," 

 tried to reconcile poultrymen and gardeners. A friend of ours, 

 a clergyman, had an idea that food exercised a great influence 

 on the nature and habits of birds. (3-ame cocks were his 

 hobby, but they would fight. He would try bread and milk 

 diet. Twenty smart young Black Reds disported themselves 

 together in a small paddock overlooked by his dressing-room. 

 They were fed on bread and milk. They had the thew and 

 sinew, the bright eye, the fearless demeanour, and all the pro- 

 perties of the Game cock ; but the matutinal crowing ended in 

 no disagreement, and all went well. Our friend thought their 

 nature was altered. Every morning he rushed to his dressing- 

 room window and threw a few crumbs to his friends. In his 

 eyes they really seemed polite to each other, no chasing and 

 scrambling after the food, almost making way for each other. 

 Long success emboldened him, and he boasted of his experi- 

 ment and the result. One morning on looking, " as was his 

 custom," not a bird was visible. He rushed to the bell, but 

 before he pulled it he heard a hurried knock at his door, and 

 " Oh ! sir, do come down," from his man. " What is the 

 matter?" "Oh! sir." "Well, do tell me; what is the 

 matter?" " The cocks, sir." " That 's enough; I'm coming." 

 Many lay dead, one only was trying a staggering walk in the 

 middle of the pen, the others essayed to stand by leaning 

 against the wall, and by using the ends of their tails and wings 

 as additional supports. Bat what had caused this sudden 

 change ? A puUet had by some means or other got in, and — 



" Like another Helen, fired anoUier Troy." 



The bread-and-milk diet broke down. 



Under certain circumstances poultry and gardens agree. At 

 the time of year when there are no chickens, when the days 

 are about fix hours long, and when the shrubberies and gar- 

 dens are about as growing as a dining table, they agree ; but 

 as soon as one has some chickens, and the other a show o£ 

 green meat, disagreements begin. " Thay plaguy chickin doos 

 more harm in a day than all the blights, frostissis, and grubs 

 would in a week ;" so says the gardener. The poultryman — 

 "He'll be blowed if the garden aint a nuisance. There's as 

 much row over a lettis as if it wus gold, and as for dammidge, 

 why look at the cottagers. They grows twice as much, twice 

 as good, don't spend arf the money, and lets the chickin rue 

 anywhere. They believes, and they're right, as they doos 

 good." There is no doubt that in their examination of the 

 rubbish heaps they devour much that would become injurious 

 when developed, and that in the early spring they turn over 

 the leaves and detect mischievous things as they approach the 

 surface, cheered by returning light and warmth. We are dis- 

 posed to think that, like the hen Pheasant we have mentioned, 

 they pay well for that which they eat. One point, however, 

 cannot be doubted ; access to such places is, if not necessary, 

 most beneficial to the health of fowls. A fowl will starve to 

 death on the best corn that can be given if it be given under 

 conditions of perfect cleanliness— i.e., in a carefully swept 

 paved yard or in a room, and if it be always of the same kind. 

 They require change. We can learn much in the management 

 of our fowls by consulting our own nature. If Fortune had 

 been so kind, or so unkind, to us as to provide us with more 

 than ample means, a sumptuous table, a large attendance, 

 rendering it unnecessary for us to do anything for ourselves, 

 we should not care for exercise, we should have little real ap- 

 petite, we should be drowsy, and at last the doctor would 

 declare we had an inactive liver. We do not, of course, mean 

 this other than in the case of those who, without any vicious 

 propensities, have sluggish minds and like tJ make themselves 

 comfortable. So where fowls are over-fed they get fat and 

 lazy, they loathe the good plain food given to them every day, 

 and the man says, " Those fowls are not right, they don't 

 feed." Change is tried till the whole list is exhausted, and 

 eventually they die of " fat liver." If Fortune ceased her 

 favours to the man, or the poultryman ceased to feed the fowls, 

 a cure would be the result in both cases. In the first case 

 labour and short commons would improve the appetite and 

 restore the liver. Abernethy's prescription for gouty and 

 dyspeptic men was a good one : " Live on two shillings per 

 day and earn them." When the fowls wo'n't feed, cease feed- 

 ing. For a day or two the fat favourites will still sulk and 

 squat about, but after that time they will begin to ask where 

 the food is, and as it does not come to them they will seek it. 

 Natural appetite returns, the liver begins to act, and they run 



