January 19, 1S71. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOKTIGULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



i^ingaziDe" is publishecl in monthly parts, price 3s. 6tL It mny bs ob- 

 tained tlitoughany bookseller. 



CrsTEKN IX Greenhouse iSubsc}ibcr).—lt will benefit ratlaer than de- 

 toriovate the air in the house. 



Drac-^sxa Leaves Broxwn'ed (E. C, Eciit).~T!he Dracrena leaf seems 

 as if it had had a chill, or been scorched by the snn when damp; but 

 DracEua leaves, jitst like those of evergreens, do not last always, bu:; a 

 few are lost every year. 



Raising Vines from Eves (A Bcriinncr). — The eyes can be struck in a 

 Cucumber frame, where the pots may be plunged in a bottom heat of 75'-', 

 and a corresponding top beat. The eyes may remain until they have 

 not room enough, and should then be moved to a house where they can 

 have a brisk bottom heat and a moist top heat, potting as required. 

 Train the canes from 12 to 16 inches from tho glass, and far enough apart 

 to allow tliem room to devolope their foliage. It is not likely if grown 

 with Cucumbers that they would form canes of sufficient strength for 

 iruiting nest year, for under such, circumstances it id hardly possible to 

 give them the light and air they requiie to form strong well-ripened 

 canes. 



Potatoes (G. ^.).— Messrs. Earr & Sugden advertise Thomas Almond's 

 Yorkshire Hero, and also RintouTs New Early White Don, but we do not 

 observe Transell's Seedling down in their present list. 



Potatoes for Seed, and Fteo^^ted (Ti'. S.)-— Neither unripe, nor badly 

 growQ. nor small Potatoes will do well for planting ; in fact, I prefer unripe 

 tubers as seed, and of course the smaller they are the nearer they should 

 be set together, and the closer the rows should be. Thoroughly frosted 

 Potatoes will now bo perfectly soft, and the sooner they are separated 

 irom those which remain firm, and are cast away, the better. Then the 

 tubers which are tirm had best be spread thinly, without touching each 

 other, on a dry floor or upon boards, and be allowed to remain there till 

 they show signs of vegetating, and in that case they will certainly do for 

 seed ; but should they show no sign of pushing by a month or two hence, 

 let them be boiled down for the pigs, or otherwise used in the household 

 ■by those who do not objrct to discoloured or sweet-tasting Potatoes. The 

 unripe, uglies, and tho little ones had better undergo the spreading 

 process in a dry twili^^ht shed, or somewhere secure from frost, and whon 

 their shoots are tolerably prominent, scoop away the inferior "sprits," 

 leaving one or two ef the strongest eyes from each tuber according to 

 their size, and that will prove a means to secure a much finer and more 

 even crop. This practice is more to be regarded than early iilantiug. 

 — K. Fenn. 



Heatixg a very smalt, Propagating House (Novice).~-'Wc Ihiuk that 

 heating by a tank in a house 10 feet by 9 feet, and heating by piping, are 

 both good. "Were we, as you propose, to heat the small propagating 

 house by means of a conical boiler, wc would prefer having on each side 

 -a bed Si" feet, a pathway of 2 feet, two 3-inch pipes covered with rubble 

 under each bed, and two 2-iQch f ipes all round for top heat. 



CovEB FOR Heated Tank [Calcaria). — Perforated zinc will do very 

 well for covering your tanV, provided the water in the tank is rarely 

 above llu~. Slate covered with cocoa fibre refuse, if you keep the bottom 

 of the cocoa fibre damp. When it becomes thoroughly dry the heat will 

 not rise freely through it. It looks cleanly on the top. and the heat given 

 to the bottom of the pot is prevented escaping. Clean ashes or sani 

 answer very well in such circumstances, as all the heat comes from the 

 slate. Even in their case, though it may often be advisable to keep the 

 surface rather dry, that next the slate should be moist, which is very 

 easily managed. 



Proposed Hot-water Piping (K. r.JB.).— We prefer No. 1, with three 

 flows and one return. 



CucujiEER House (T. M., Boc/idaie).— You do not tell us whether your 

 house is to be a lean-to or span-roofed. As it is to be 12 feet by S fe-^t 

 inside measure if it be span-roofed, we would have a bed of 2 feet 

 9 inches on each side and a pathway down the centre. If a lean-to, a bed 

 of from 3 to 4 feet wide in front would do, and there might be narrow 

 shelves on the back wall for pricking out seedlings, &c. In either case, 

 lor early work you would need two 4-inch pipes below the bed and two 

 pipes ail round for top heat— that is to say, to work in the dead of winter. 

 A small boiler would therefore be necessary, but, as often stated, it is 

 always expensive to heat a small place with hot water ; but if you regulate 

 the firing by well attending to draught as lately stated, you will minimise 

 the lo5s of heat by the chimney. If we hid to heat such a place for 

 Cucumbers that we did not commence with until the first or second 

 month of the year, we would, in the case of a lean-to house, take a stout 

 flue all round except the doorway, enclose the flue in front of the house 

 for a bed to be placed over it, and leave the back flue exposed for top 

 heat. If you give more particulars we may be able to do better for 

 you. 



Converting a Btjildtng into an Ice House {Young).'~3j your pro- 

 posed plan you would so lessen the size of the house if you built the wall 

 inside, that the house would be little more than 10 feet by 6 feet inside. 

 Now it is 12 feet by 9 feet. Were we to make that house into an ice 

 house we would leave it of that size, and sink the floor inside not 3 feet, 

 but 6 or 9 feet, build another wall outside the present house 9 inches from 

 ■the other, leaving tho space between airtight— pretty well as good as 

 stuffing the space with straw or sawdust— and then have a roof of 18 inches 

 of thatch over the present tile roof, and the eaves reaching beyond the 

 enter wall, which outer wall we would cover with as light a colour as 

 possible. 



Utilising House Sewage (A. B. G.)— We mis the entire sewage of 

 the house by letling it run into a tank, and we apply it in spring and 

 summer by means of a pump, either by hose or bucketsful, to Asparagus, 

 Rhubarb, Cabbagcworts, Oaions, &o., having gutters made purposely 

 between the rows. In winter, if needed, it may be poured over vacant 

 ground. 



Name of Fruit {Josci^h Biirf/e^-s).— Hollandbury. 



Names of Plants {J. IFzHs}.— Physalis Alkekengi. We did not know. 

 until shown by its eir^cton your writing, that the juice of the fruit totally 

 -obliterates ink. {Jaincs). — We cannot name plants from their leaves only. 

 (H. Giddings). — 1, Dendrobium Gibsoni : 2, Cyrtochilum leucoehilum. 

 (J. J, JicHfsei/).— Nephrodium molle. (A. S. B., Norfolk).— lE^chyn^nfans 

 Paxtoni. (J, M ).— The Oncid is O. barbatum. The other we do not yet 

 recognise. : 



POULTRY, BSE, AND PIGEON CHB,QNICLE. 



INQUIRY. 



In reply to Mr. Preston's inquiry on January olh, I beg to 

 state that at the beginning of October I sold George White, 

 147, Culford Eoad, Islington, about fifteen fowls, for which he 

 agreed to give me £3 18s. He acknowledged their arrival, and 

 said he would write again soon. Hearing nothing further, I 

 wrote again, when he replied he had mislaid the invoice, and 

 asked for another, which was sent. Afterwards I wrote for the 

 money several times, generally receiving no answer. At last 

 " Bogers " wrote, saying Mr. White was in Scotland, and would 

 not return till December 14th, when my letter should be at- 

 tended to. Since this date I have written three times on the 

 subject, and received no reply. My last letter was returned, 

 saying he had gone away. Seeing your inquiry, I forward this 

 statement as a warning to others. — C. B. 



THE "STANDARD'S" CORRESPONDENT ON 

 CxiRRIER PIGEONS. 



I HAVE thought proper to draw your attention to an article 

 on the Antwerp or Belgian Pigeon which has appeared in the 

 Standard newspaper, Tuesday, December 27th, and I believe 

 there is a second article by the same person in a more recent 

 copy of the Standard, which I have not yet seen. — E. W. 



[In reply to " E. W.," I beg to state that I have read both 

 the letters in the Standard. I was glad that such letters 

 should appear in a widely-read daily newspaper, because the 

 wonderful powers and utility of the messenger Pigeons would 

 thus come before the notice of many who are wholly or partly 

 ignorant of such birds, reaching thousands of persons who are 

 entirely out of the range of the fancy and its special organs. 

 Mr. E. W. AUdridge, of Old Charlton, Kent, the author of the 

 letters, wrote them, I have no doubt, with a good motive, but 

 they are not free from error, and a part of his second letter is 

 certainly not written in good taste, and reflects in harsh, and 

 I can venture to say, untruthful terms (doubtless from igno- 

 raact) upon Pigeon fanciers. Speaking of the English fancy 

 Carriers, the high-class birds, he says they will not bring up 

 their young ; this is a mistake, for they, as all fanciers know, 

 are excellent parents. Mr. AUdridge also errs in regard to 

 fiist-class homing birds being worth only Is. each. He is also 

 in error as to the preference given by him to young birds, in 

 one ease of actually nine weeks old, over birds of mature age. 

 His preference of hens over cocks is also, I think, an error, 

 as well as his objection to using birds while breeding. 



Bat there is a passage in Mr. AUdridge's second letter which 

 I particularly wish to notice ; it is this — " For those who care 

 to know all about Pouters, Fantails, and such-like useless 

 t>incy kinds — kinds I again strongly advise your readers to have 

 nothing to do with, for I presume I am not addressing members 

 of the ' fancy,' or subscribers to some Pigeon club, liold at the 

 Pig and Whistle, somewhere — for such persons there are books 

 published, which they can peruse, and, possibly, derive great 

 satisfaction therefrom. I have never read one, and have not 

 the least intention of doing so, as I am not a ' Pigeon-fancier ' 

 in the iisually accepted sense of that term, or a Pigeon-dealer." 

 Now, I do not in the least know what position in life Mr. AU- 

 dridge occupies, but I can assure him that I, as a clergyman 

 and rector of a parish, and an ardent Pigeon-fancier for life, 

 know the principal fanciers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 

 and that his sneer at the fancy is wholly misplaced. Very 

 frequently — indeed, it is almost a law in human nature, 

 people most strongly condemn what they least understand. 

 Mr. AUdridge says he has never read books on fancy Pigeons 

 (I possess nearly a dozen, and some very high-priced ones), 

 and most certainly he does not know Pigeon-fanciers. As to 

 the " Pig and Whistle," I remember being present two years 

 since at the annual dinner — rather banquet, of the North 

 British Columbarian Society, held at the Hanover Hotel, Glas- 

 gow, where the company consisted of gentlemen of private 

 fortune, officers, merchants, and men ot^ large means and good 

 position. After dinner a handsome piece of plate was pre- 

 sented to the President, and really— really Mr. AUdridge, the 

 whole affair was not of the " Pig and Whistle " kind. Then I 

 received a card of invitation to the dinner of the National 

 Peristeronie Society, held at the dining-room of the Crystal 

 Palace. Mr. AUdridge may call the Grystal Palace " The Pig 



