Angast 81, 1871. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HOETICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



167 



•sirady peat, with a free admistare of sharp sand. Pot so that the crown 

 of the bulb may be from 1^ to 2 inches below the rim of the pot. Water 

 gently, and place in a cold pit or house where protection can be given 

 from frost. In spring remove it to a cool, airy, light house, and water so 

 as to keep the soil moist, bat do not deluge the soil with water, fornotbing 

 is so injuriou3. When the stalks are about 6 inches high top-dress with 

 Tich compost, and water copiously. 



Nadal's Engine ( W. 3/.).— We do not kno^v where yoa could obtain it, 

 Eefer to the advertisement. 



Planting a Border with Fruit Trees (A Cottage Gardener).~ln 

 ihe border 11 feet wide you will not have room for a row of Raspberries 

 and two rows of pyramid Pear trees. The Pear trees would require all 

 the space. You may plant them 2i feet from the walk, and 6 feet asunder 

 as you propose, omitting the Raspberries altogether, or you could ha,ve 

 two rows of Raspberries alone, which should be put in at the same dis- 

 tance from the walk as the Pears, and 4 feet apart in the rows. Two strong 

 or three moderately strong canes should be planted together. You will 

 require thirty stools in each row, sisty for both, or ISO canes. The best 

 Raspberries are Red Antwerp and Fastolf, size and quantity being the 

 ■desiderata. 



Soil for Bedding Plants (Idem).— The soil of your garden if a good 

 light loam will make an excellent compost for potting bedding plants, 

 adding one-fourth rotten manure, or, better, fresh horse droppings free of 

 «traw, one-fifth sandy peat, and one-sixth of silver sand and charcoal, the 

 iwhole made into a heap and turned over frequently in frosty weather. It 

 will be in good condition after it has been three months in the heap. 



Destroying Wasps in their Nests (G. F.).— You refer probably to 

 fthe cyanide of potassium. Either that or carbolic acid poured into the 

 nest at night, and the entrance then stopped up, would suffocate the 

 ■whole of the inhabitants. A strong solution of the cyanide has usually a 

 piece ol lint 3 or 4 inches square dipped into it, and then placed inside 

 Che entranc3. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



BE OMNIBUS REBUS.— No. 3. 



Cbooked breasts are among poultry torments. One cook 

 among many has been noted on the chicken run, a little leggy it 

 may be, but such a beauty ; and at last he is to be handled. He 

 is taken off the perch at night. Master and man are present : 

 the former expects the latter to say, " He is a beauty, sir." 

 tiike our friend Lord Burleigh, be shakes his head and says 

 nothing ; but his silence is eloquent. The master takes the 

 bird in bis hand only to discover it has a very crooked breast. 

 It is more than tiresome, and he says there must be mismanage- 

 ment somewhere. The man says it is not his, and they part 

 mutually dissatisfied. But there must be a cause for every- 

 thing, and it should be the part of those who take an interest 

 in the subject to go into it. We have nearly or quite half a 

 •eentury of poultry experience, and treat it as a question of 

 perches. 



Except in Turkeys, crooked breasts are not so common as 

 they were some years ago, and that of a Turkey, far worse than 

 that of a fowl, amounts to a real deformity. In a market it 

 will take off a third of the value of a bird. Some people will 

 not believe the perch has anything to do with it, and others 

 say it is hereditary. We differ from both. To the first we say. 

 Did they ever see a crooked-breasted Pheasant ? To the second, 

 Can they introduce us to a yard where the deformity is not a 

 very small fraction of the number kept ? The Pheasants 

 «hoose their own perches, and good, kind, clever Dame Nature 

 tells them what is good for them. While still poults they roost 

 ander or with their mother ; then they jump on a small bough, 

 but still close to the hen ; as they grow older they perch higher, 

 but on good-sized boughs, and near the trunk of the tree. 

 They never perch on a small one, which requires them to hold 

 ■it tight and to lean on it for support. A fowl never becomes 

 •crooked-breasted after it has arrived at maturity. The de- 

 formity is contracted in youth while the breastbone remains 

 ■cartilaginous and impressionable, and takes the shape of the 

 perch. Pheasants do not always perch. In many heath dis- 

 tricts where they abound, and oak trees do not, they roost in 

 the heath. In our poultry experience we have reared many thou- 

 sands of chickens, hundreds aninilly. Many of our Brahmas 

 and Cochins never perch ; as long as they are chickens they 

 roost in the rip with the hen. When they pass into the adult 

 house, where perches are provided for them, they never use 

 them, they perch on the ground in the corners. 



A clever Game cock placed on the palm of the hand should 

 balance ; his legs put under him are spread out that he may 

 stand when he wants to get up, but he does not want to clasp, 

 and he rests on his feet. The Pheasant does the same on the 

 perch. Nature tells him to have the trunk between himself 

 and the wind, and instinct has taught him the broad arm of 

 the bough close to it is the most natural and most secure roost- 

 ing place. It he be disturbed he stands up, and takes his 



flight at once. Where birds are compelled to roost on im- 

 proper perches they are seen to wobble ; first they look as 

 though they would fall down in front, then as if they would 

 fall off backwards, at last they clasp with their feet, they gra- 

 dually widen them till they rest on their breasts. Their feet 

 prevent them from falling oS, but they rest on their breast- 

 bones, which take the impress of the perch. It is not rest it 

 the energies of the bird are to be taxed to maintain itself in 

 security. That only is rest which is the entire cessation of all 

 muscular action, when the feet are drawn up under the body 

 and the toes are expanded, and they form, as it were, a layer so 

 constituted as to supply a rest for the body in its natural posi- 

 tion. Enough of perches ; and there will be those who will 

 say, " Enough of this paper." We forgive them ; we are sorry 

 for them ; but if they will deign to follow Nature our occupa- 

 tion is gone. As they will not, we have to do it for them. 



Moral. Follow Nature. Cochin-Chinas, and Brahmas, and 

 Pheasants do just as well on the ground as on perches. Why 

 do fowls seek the cross beams of barns, the eaves of out-houses, 

 the mangers of an old cart-house, the calf pen that is not in 

 use ? Because there are old wide beams on which they can 

 rest. Make your perches accordingly, and if your fowls prefer 

 to remain on the ground, let them do so. See that their 

 chosen rest is thoroughly cleansed every day. Hundreds of 

 thousands of Pheasants are reared by hand every year ; neither 

 they nor their parents are ever provided with roosts. 



Why did we choose our heading ? Because we determined 

 to treat of all our principal queries, and our next is the saving 

 of food. When we are idly disposed we like to take down 

 "Bewick." Who does not ? Apart from the marvellous wood- 

 cuts and the correct description, the little tail illustrations are 

 inimitable, and a fund of amusement and enjoyment. This 

 morning we saw the representation of a very old man leaning 

 against a wSll to protect himself from the rain, while under- 

 neath was written — 



" Did yontli but know what age would crave, 

 How many a iienny it would save." 



All may not have, or may not read "Bewick," but we are not 

 sure that the quotation will not bear a wider and better appli- 

 cation than the feeding of poultry. At any rate, our limits 

 this week afford no more space, and although we headed this 

 " concluded," we think, seeing how closely we have kept to our 

 test, we must, as Mr. Crummies says, have another "last 

 night," and conclude in our next paper. 



POULTRY-KEEPING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 



HOUSES AND YARDS. 



I LABOUR under the same diffieulties as Mr. Wright, but my 

 arrangements are somewhat different ; therefore, perhaps, a 

 description may not be unacceptable to some of your readers. 

 I keep only Buff Cochins ; in fact, more than one breed in such 

 a space is out of the question. 



My space is 66 feet by 18 feet, and is enclosed by a 6-feet 

 wall on one side, and 3-feet palings on the other, and across 

 the ends. I have four houses and yards. The first stands in 

 the bottom corner on the right-hand side, is built of brick, and 

 measures 6 feet square, which I found built : to this I added a 

 yard 15 feet by 13 feet. The next yard is 15 feet by 4 feet, and 

 the next 8 feet by 3 feet, each having a house 3 feet square. 

 The next and last is 13 feet by 8 feet, with a house 3.J feet 

 square. These three houses are made of wood. 



Each yard is enclosed by palings 3 feet high, li inch broad, 

 and half an inch thick. Between the pales I have nailed a 

 ceiling-lath to keep the birds from fighting and to make the 

 yards warmer. One yard is entirely shaded ; each of the other 

 three has its shed, with the back to the snn, measuring 3 feet 

 deep and 3 feet high. The width of two is 4 feet, the other 

 10 feet, and are covered with sacking gas-tarred, supported by 

 pieces of wood an inch square. In the door of each house is 

 a pane of glass 4 -johes square, and a hole suffioiently large 

 for the birds to go in and out. A flap covers each hole at 

 night, which is raised to a horizontal position in the daytime 

 by means of a piece of twine, to keep the rain from beating in. 

 By means of gates two or three yards can be thrown into one. 

 The floors of the houses and yards are composed of a layer of 

 ashes 12 inches deep, and a layer of gravel of the same thick- 

 ness from a lime pit. The gravel is turned up about six times 

 a-year. 



Outside the yard is a coop, 3 feet by 2 feet, into which I put 

 broody hens, by which means they are always cured in three or 



