168 



JOUKNAL OP HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ Angust 81, 1S71. 



four days. Each house is furnished with moveable perches 

 about 6 inches high and 4 inches broad. These are not intro- 

 duced into the chicken houses till the birds are about sis 

 months old. The remaining space — 47 feet by 18 feet — is 

 grass, except the gravel walk, which is 3 feet wide. The drop- 

 pings are removed from the houses, yards, and grass daily. 

 This I find as little trouble as doing it once or twice a-week ; 

 besides, the droppings are not then trodden into the ground. 

 By these means I keep my birds perfectly clean and healthy. 

 I have lost but one adult bird in four years. I never lose more 

 than one chicken or two in a season, and those have been 

 weakly, and have died when they were a week or two old. 



I keep six hens and a cock, and rear about thirty chickens, 

 and I prefer this number to a greater. As proof of condition 

 I may mention that I have never exhibited till the last two or 

 three weeks, and my best birds have taken the first prize on 

 each occasion (five) ; and I had not to wash a feather. The 

 grass, which Mr. Wright mentions as a " difficulty," has been 

 laid about three years, and is in excellent order. If the turf 

 be laid in November and the birds be kept in their yards 

 for a month or six weeks, using the beater freely in the mean- 

 time, it will have a good start. The chickens will not suffer 

 much from their confinement at six months old. After this, 

 if any particular spot be attacked, water it well and frequently, 

 and drive a few pegs in, leaving the ends 3 or 4 inches out of 

 tie ground. The chickens are on the grass during the whole 

 of the day, except an hour when the old birds take their turn. 

 They do not require any other green food either in summer or 

 winter, in fact they refuse it. This week I sent away a pullet 

 f jur months old that weighed 5 lbs., and I have one or two 

 which would weigh rather more, I think. I have reared some 

 large birds in this space : one which I have, the cock, I bought 

 when he was four months old, and he is fifteen months old 

 now, and weighs about 13 lbs. The brick house, wall, and 

 paling enclosing the space I did not pay for : the rest cost me 

 tinder £5.— "W. J. Peace, DHffieJd. 



[We shall be obliged by the farther notes you proiJer. — Eds.] 



PEIZES FOR POULTRY REARED BY THE 

 WORKING CLASSES. 



" H. J. O.'s " letter opens a new field for usefulness, by 

 pointing a way to encourage those who rear poultry under 

 great difficulties. Whatever is done under circumstances which 

 preclude many from any attempt, and under which fair success 

 is achieved only by very great trouble, is worthy of special 

 notice, and if possible reward. It is a custom in some of our 

 country shows to have prizes for poultry reared in the district, 

 but I am not aware of any case where rewards are offered for 

 the birds reared by the working classes resident in towns. 

 "Expel Nature by a pitchfork, and yet it will return," said an 

 old proverb in our school Latin Delectus, and here is a proof of 

 its truth. A love of poultry must surely be expelled when an 

 artisan or working man has been obliged to shift his quarters 

 to London, or some large town ; but no, it will not be expelled. 

 It is a case not dissimilar to the love of flowers, still keeping its 

 hold even up a London court. Fancy, as "H. J. 0." writes, a 

 man taking " a long journey after a root of grass, or a handfnl 

 of leaves," and striving, and at last succeeding, by dint of 

 industry and effort, in raising his chickens to maturity. Snch 

 a man does deserve a prize card or a medal to hang up in his 

 house, a few shillings in his pocket. 



There is another view in which this subject may be regarded. 

 I hold strongly than any cause which brings different classes of 

 the community into friendly intercourse, is a good cause. 

 People frequently think ill of each other from no other reason 

 than that they do not know each other. Class prejudices have 

 often no other source. If the working men could but more 

 frequently meet the gentlemen (often as laborious workers as 

 themselves), both classes would be the better. The German 

 bond is a love of Fatherland ; and now in England I long to 

 see a mutual esteem grow up among men in different spheres ; 

 such once felt would make men trust each other, and then love 

 each other. I think with this in view as one motive, the sug- 

 gestion in " H. J. O.'s " letter should at least have a careful 

 consideration from the committees of our shows in large towns. 

 I think, too, this foreshadowed plan would cause the working 

 classes to frequent the shows in larger numbers. This would 

 be well, as an extension of wholesome recreations for workmen 

 is what we all desire ; increase these and the temptations of 

 the publichonse will be lessened. Nothing I should like better 



than to^ see pens filled with birds reared under the greatest 

 difficulties, and the class who reared them looking on and en- 

 joying themselves.— WiLTSHiEE Eectoe. 



POULTRY EXPERIENCE PURCHASED. 



Some years ago I had a couple of fowls presented to me 

 quite unexpectedly, when my knowledge of poultry consisted 

 entirely of neatly dissected parts nicely roasted, as a leg, wing, 

 or part of the breast, and in that benighted condition (we did 

 not subscribe to a " Poultry Chronicle " in those days), 1 treated 

 them very much the same as Mr. L. Wright describes in his 

 very amusing letter last month. They lived in a small paved 

 yard, had plenty of hot sun and cold water, with barley ad lib., 

 and I thought they were very ungrateful to pine and die in 

 the face of such good treatment. Not so soon discouraged, I 

 purchased some more — just to please the children, I said — 

 studied attentively the poultry part of your Journal, while my 

 liege lord carefully perused the gardening operations, and by 

 that means I discovered that other means were requisite and 

 necessary for their welfare. I allowed them half our small town 

 garden, and for a time (spring time), all went on swimmingly, 

 until I was afflicted with an unconquerable desire for White 

 Cochins. Their snowy-white plumage and pretty intelligent 

 faces so completely took my fancy that I did not rest until I 

 was possessed of some of the best I could buy. I durst not lei! 

 what they had cost, for even I thought it an awful lot of money. 

 But, alas ! alas ! before I had had them a fortnight they no longer 

 deserved the title of White Cochins. They moped about, 

 seemed lame, and troubled with perpetual diarrhcei, wasted to 

 skeletons, and finally gave up the ghost, leaving the cock to 

 mourn his untimely loss, and me, their mistress, to moralise 

 upon the vanity and uncertainty of human pleasures in general, 

 and the keeping of White Cochins in particular. 



The cock I put in the run with the common hens by way of 

 consolation, and then by selling the eggs laid by a sort of 

 Silver-pencilled Hamburgh, I had a flock of black and yellow 

 chicks slightly feathered in the legs, that commenced laying 

 last January. I set the eggs, and was very successful with early 

 birds ; but as the summer advanced, one by one they have 

 died. More than twenty have I lost in three months, and only 

 those hatched from the cross of Cochin and Hamburgh. They 

 first appear lame, and sit about, rising only to feed, which they do 

 till the last greedily, although there is not a particle of flesh on 

 their bones. On opening them the liver is soft and pulpy, and 

 it, with the whole of the entrails, is covered with hard yellow 

 lumps about the size of a large pea or nut. The heart and 

 gizzard are always healthy. What am I do to prevent this 

 vexatious disease ? I feed them in the morning with the best 

 barley mixed with good wheat, scraps from the kitchen, and 

 barleymeal wetted with water from the swill tub in the evening. 

 We have removed to the country, and they have a large yard 

 with the run of the road and stables, though they do not get so 

 much grass as I could wish. 



This year I am " going in " for Dark Brahmas, so strongly 

 recommended by your correspondents, and I have a few very 

 promising birds, which I keep separate by shutting them in 

 the large gardens (but they make dreadful raids on the young 

 cabbage plants and neglect the lawn), and it is for their sakea 

 I trouble you for your opinion. Is that disease peculiar to 

 Cochins (and I suppose the Brahma is a kind of Cochin), or is it 

 caused by any treatment of mine — such as overfeeding, &a. ? I 

 have searched through all the back numbers, and though I find 

 something similar, I do not find the disease exactly as I 

 describe it.— T. E. L. 



[We are almost wicked enough to be glad that the Cochins 

 died, since they are the cause of our receiving your clever and 

 interesting letter. The disease you mention is not of common 

 occurrence, nor is it peculiar to Cochins. Cocks are never 

 attacked by it ; hens are when they are improperly and over- 

 fed to force them to lay. We have never known it to be here- 

 ditary, and cannot conceive why your fowls have it. We do 

 not quite understand the nature of their run — a large yard, 

 with the run of the road and stables, but not much grass. We 

 must therefore go to generalities. We have the highest opinion 

 of the Brahmas. They are hardy in constitution, pleasing in 

 appearance, good layers and sitters, and good mothers. They 

 are not large eaters. Like all fowls, the more range they have 

 the better, but they will bear confinement well. They will do- 

 even in a small pen. As our object should be to keep them as 

 well as possible, we should try to provide them in confinement 



