July 26, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



S3 



leaves of the current year's growth. If the evergreens are overgrown and 

 require cutting-back Eeverely the best time to perform the operation is daring 

 moist mild weather at the close of March or early in April, at which time 

 yon may cut them back to any extent, shortening any irregularities of growth 

 in August. 



Transplanting Evergreens (Idem). — Late in September if the weather 

 is moist and until the middle of November, and from the middle of February 

 until the middle of April, are the times we have been moBt successful with 

 evergreen removals. Hemlock Spruce maybe moved at the same time. It 

 is a very graceful tree, but requiring shelter and a moist situation, doing 

 fairly well in moderate shade. 



Kleinla eepens. — "J. B." wishe3 to know where it can be obtained. 



Applying Liquid Manure to Vines (J. W. L.). — When the Grapes are 

 swelling liquid manure does most good, and as a general rule that is the best 

 time to give the border a thorough drenching with it; but if the drainage is 

 defective all due caution must be taken not to overwater, or shankiDg will in- 

 evitably follow. As you manured the border last winter no doubt the rain 

 water has conveyed much nutriment down to the roots; but as the crop is 

 heavy do not hesitate to pour on sewage if the drainage is sound, for there 

 can be no question that it will be beneficial to the Vines, promoting both the 

 BwelliDg of the fruit and a strong wood-growth for the nest season. Wecon- 

 gratulate you on your successful management of such old Vines. 



Briar Stocks for Koses (Q. C. A.).— Stocks of the Dog Rose Bhould be 

 procured in autumn, towards the month of November, for ordinary soils; bat 

 if to he planted in wet ground the spring is preferable. The most advanta- 

 geous plants for stocks are those two or three years old, about the thickness 

 of the thumb, the bark of which is either of a smooth grey or grey striped 

 with green. The stock should be long, straight, and with a good root. 

 Before planting, all the old decayed roots should be carefully trimmed off, as 

 well as all superfluous knots or branches. If a saw is applied for this pur- 

 pose ihe wounds should be closed up with the pruning knife and the cica- 

 trices covered with grafting was. The stock thus prepared of the height 

 desired should be f-traight and smooth as a walking-stick. If planted in 

 lines posts can be placed at intervals with a rail, to which each stock may 

 he carefully attached by osier bauds. This is the best mode of planting for 

 a nursery ground. 



Flat Stage around Greenhouse (Eve). — The best description of stage 

 for a greenhouse is one formed i f laths li inch wide and 1 inch thick, with 

 one-inch space between the laths, nailed to cross pieces 3 inches by 24, fixed 

 3 feet apart, one end let into the wall and the other end supported by wooden 

 uprights 3 inches Bquare, which should stand upon a brick or stone base 

 slightly raised above the floor. The laths to be fixed widest side upward, 

 and the cross pieces narrowmost ; the whole to be dressed and have at least 

 three coats of oil paint, to be thoroughly dry before the pots are placed upon 

 the stage. 



Names of Plants (Miss Dennis).— Catalpa syringaa folia. (B. C. G.).— 

 Lonicera Ledebouri. {Student, Badlow). — We cannot name so many, nor 

 from such imperfect specimens of weeds. (Mrs. Holmes). — We cannot name 

 florists' varieties. {Twelvemonths Subscriber).— Your Fern is probably a 

 species of Acrostichum. The Mock Orange is Philadelphus coronarius. 

 (H. N. 0.). — 1, Rhododendron fermgineum; 2, Gentiana caucasica; 3, 

 G. acaulis ; 4, Genista sagittata; 5, Astrantia major. (A. W. 0.). — All forms 

 of Athyrium Filix-fcemina. 1 aod 2 appear to be the var.Frizellia;. (T.Perry). 

 — l,_Stachys sylvatica; 2, Centaurea nigra; 3, Prunella vulgaris; 4, Agri- 

 monia Eupatoria; 5, Hypericum pulehrum ; 6, Crepisvirens. (P. McDonald). 

 — Cannot name from specimen sent. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON 0HE0NI0LE. 



WEEDING. 



It is time to begin. Probably many have been weeding 

 their yards of wasters for Borne weeks past, and birds which 

 evidently would never develope into good specimens have in 

 many places been by now doubtless eaten. Well and good : such 

 breeders work wisely, and by making room afford more scope 

 and opportunity for the rest to thrive. There are, however, 

 very many fanciers who never weed, who allow every bird they 

 can breed to come to maturity. They cling to a false hope that 

 a bad bird may in time make a good one, or that someoue will 

 give them 3s. or 4s. more than the table price of a bird, even 

 though it may be a sooty- footed Dorking or a white-legged Ham- 

 burgh, because it is reputed to be of a good strain. "We beg 

 fanciers in their own interests as well as those of the fancy in 

 general to abstain from doing this. Annually we have a larger 

 glut of useless birds in the market, and annually we find the 

 prices for good specimens decrease ; we do not mean of such 

 birds as will win at Birmingham or the Palace, for those will 

 probably always maintain their prices, but we allude to good 

 specimens which would hold their own at country exhibitions. 

 The rubbish we see at show after show in the sale classes, the 

 few shillings we see charged for birds and eggs of well-known 

 strains, the perfect trash we see at auction sale-rooms, all help 

 to tell the story, and to Bhow that hundreds of birds which 

 would make wholesome and palatable food are allowed to accu- 

 mulate, in the hope of Belling them, until they have passed the 

 time when they would have proved the most serviceable for 

 home consumption. ThoBe clinging to the hope by holding on 

 these waBters — badly marked, under-feathered, or faulty-clawed 

 birds, that they may some day obtain a better market for them, 

 do not surely realise what extra cost is entailed in the keep of 

 those fowls. They literally eat their heads off; and when at 

 last in a fit of despair they are sent by the owner to an auction 

 sale the low prices they probably fetch cannot repay the price 

 of the food that they have eaten, not to speak of the cost of 

 carriage, entry fees, and baskets, and above all of the room they 



have taken up at home which better birda should have had. 

 This latter is a great point. 



When yards are small or grass runs limited the smaller the 

 number of birds that are retained the better will they be. Over- 

 crowding means ruin to all. Underfeeding means the same ; 

 consequently how much better must a dozen birds progress in 

 a small yard than a score in the Bame place. The breeder is 

 indeed fortunate who has but few specimens under the mark. 

 By careful breeding, however, after a time the number should 

 of course be lessened, but there are very few good breeders who 

 do not obtain some " weeds " every Beason. An amateur who 

 has had any fair amount of experience should know what to kill 

 and what to leave ; and even if occasionally a mistake is made 

 the surviving birds will be better for the extra accommodation 

 and food. But mistakes like these seldom occur ; and at any 

 rate the veriest beginner oan weed-out Bingle-combed birds 

 which Bhould be double, or, vice versa, those with wrongly co- 

 loured legs and beaks or wry tails, and specimens with plumage 

 which no moult can ever make right. After he has bred for a 

 year or two his experience would be larger, and he could weed 

 out many others which before in ignorance he allowed to live. 

 There are plenty of beginners, we are sure, who buy the best 

 birds they can obtain for money, who get Bome skilled person to 

 mate them up for them, and yet who never come to the front in 

 the way that they ought to do. We believe the reason is that 

 they hatch too many for their accommodation and then do not 

 weed them out enough. Such a plan may do very well where 

 unlimited range can be given and the food can be supplied as 

 liberally as it can be eaten, though even then the more the knife 

 iB used the better will the survivors be. There are, however, 

 many who have only a piece of a garden or a tiny paddock at 

 their disposal, but who wish to be winners and to breed ex- 

 hibition chickens ; were such to kill off with discretion as soon 

 as the birds were fit to eat in any form one-half of all they bred, 

 we feel sure they would do infinitely better with the remainder. 

 We would not, of course, recommend amateurs to Bet to work 

 slaying half their broods when they had reached a certain age 

 just for the sake of reducing the number to make room for the 

 others, as that would indeed be ridiculous; but when they have 

 acquired the means of distinguishing between fair and positively 

 indifferent birds, then they Bhould never spare the latter. 



No better time than the present is there to weed. In the 

 interval of writing these lines we have been out to condemn two 

 couples of chickens, and yet at many Bhows last year we saw 

 worse birds than those ordered to death; but we are assured 

 from experience and from the systematic way in which many 

 great breeders set about it, that it is very much better for any- 

 one who wants to establish or keep up a strain and make his 

 poultry profitable to send out to the fancy, or allow visitors to 

 inspect only half a score of well-conditioned and well-grown 

 than two hundred indifferent birds. As we said before, now is 

 the time to set to work, for most chickens by this time have 

 come to the age when merit can be determined upon ; and in all 

 good faith we believe that those who weed freely now and in the 

 weekB which are coming on will have eventually much to be 

 grateful for, by obtaining better-grown specimens, and conse- 

 quently better prizes or better prices. — W. 



WHICH IS THE MOST PROFITABLE BREED 



OF FOWLS? 



It is manifest that we must choose one of those breeds whose 

 misBion in life is apparently to produce eggs at their master's 

 pleasure, and from whom human art and skill have taken away 

 the natural detire of sitting. A tabulated form, in which is a 

 scale of the merits and demerits of each breed, will probably show 

 in the simplest manner an answer to the question. Take the 

 following breeds as the representatives of the non-sitting class : — 

 Egg- Hardi- Quality of Size of 



producing. ness. Flesh. Egg. Total, 



Spanish S .. 2 .. 3 .. 1 .. 9 



Leghorns 2 . . 1 .. 3 .. 2 . . 8 



Hamburghs, Spangled . 2 .. 2 .. 2 .. 2 .. 8 



„ Pencilled. 1 .. 3 .. 2 .. 3 . . 9 



Black.... 2 .. 2 .. 1 .. 2 .. 7 



Minorcas 2 .. 1 .. 1 .. 1 •• 5 



There is bo little difference in these six leading varieties of 

 layers that there is no necessity for a wider variation of the 

 scale in the above table. The figure 1 will represent the highest 

 excellence in each characteristic, the figure 3 the lowest. Of 

 course there is wide room for difference of opinion as to the 

 merits of the various breeds specified, but the general ex- 

 perience of the writer is in accordance with the table— the 

 Pencilled Hamburgh ranking first as a layer, but last in size of 

 the egg and in hardiness ; the Spangled Hamburgh being equal 

 to the Black except in the quality of flesh ; the Leghorn beiog 

 the equal of the Spanish in this last characteristic ; the Minorca 

 scaling the highest in all points except that of laying, and being 

 equal to the Leghorn in hardiness. All being unreliable and 

 almost worthless as sitters, no comparison is made between 



