260 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 26, 1872. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Chester Poultry Show. — We have only just received the prize list. It 

 shall be published nest week. 



Brahma Pullets Fat (Ignoramus). — It is natural for a pullet to put on 

 fat before she lays ; but the fat that is put on by high feeding four times 

 per day, is not only -wasteful, but it is injurious to the birds. You must not 

 be guided by hooks entirely. A tyro will see whether birds are growing satis- 

 factorily ; and if you do not know it we will tell you, that to be fattened is to 

 be spoiled, when the subject is a laying pullet. This is thefrequent cause of 

 death in the early days of laying. Where there is a good run, the midday 

 meal may be almost an imaginary one, while those of morning and evening 

 should he l, j)ieces de resistance." 



Ducklings' Wings Twisted (J. G. A. B. B.). — The wings will never come 

 right. It is a deformity. It is fatal to exhibition birds, and it is hereditary, 

 as we know to our cost. If all the ducklings came with it, the seller of the 

 eggs should make you some reparation. 



Spanish Fowls LosnfG their Neck Feathers (Subscriber). — Ton should 

 tell us more. The space is good and ample. Has it any sun ? We suppose 

 not. Is it paved? We suppose it is, as it has no herbage. Admitting our 

 supposition to be correct, it is an unfavourable place ; but if people anxious 

 to keep poultry would be as painstaking in providing for them as those are in 

 finding places at windows, on leads, and in yards, and in compounding soil 

 when they want to grow flowers, and have not an inch of ground on which to 

 do it, we should hear of less disappointment, and success would he the rule. 

 The feathers are picked from each other by their fellows. Their organs are 

 deranged, and they require something they cannot get. The nearest approach 

 to it is feathers, therefore they eat them. In this, as in all other mischief, 

 there are ringleaders. Watch and remove them, Shut them up separately. 

 When they are moulted you may turn them out with impunity. Turn to 

 landscape garden T ng for your fowls. Get some cartloads of road grit and 

 gravel; put them in heaps about the haunts of the fowls and add to them 

 some large sods of growirg grass; put them on the tops of the heaps. Get 

 some seeding lsttuces, and stick in the heaps so that they will staud a good 

 pull. Fowls must scratch if they are to be healthy, and they cannot do so 

 on the hard unyielding Scoring cf an ordinary yard. It is not the exercise 

 they want ; but when they are scratching they turn the earth over, and dis- 

 cover all sorts of things that we cannot see, hut that are, nevertheless, 

 essential to their well-doing. An uneven surface is also better for them 

 than a level one. Feed on ground oats or barleymeal and house scraps, but 

 above all let ycur birds have plenty of green food. 



Hearing of Game Fowls, &c. [Manx}. — Any of the many poultry books 

 will give yon all the information you require as to the points and rearing of 

 Game fowls, &c, but none will give you a list of all the different, sorts past 

 and present. With the prohibition of cock-fighting, the local breeds were 

 discontinued, and since the introduction of shows the list has been still 

 lessened. The Blacks, Dims, Whites, Blues, and Brassy-winged are seldom 

 seen, the lists are made up of Black and Brown Beds, and Duckwings. It is 

 only those which pay that are kept. The list would be a curious one, and some 

 of the old names in papers in our possession are far more vigorous than 

 refined. 



Geese Egg-hatching {E. H.). — Tour water accommodation is sufficient 

 for any Geese and for any number. Cochin-China or Dorking hens can 

 only cover four or at most rive eggs. Are there not common Geese kept in your 

 neighbourhood ? We are never friendly to the mixture of sitting and non- 

 sitting breeds. Ton cannot distinguish the eggs. If you can buy or hire 

 common Geese for sitting, keep the Toulouse. If you cannot, keep the 

 common. 



Poultry- keeping {Yorkshire). — You will find none of the non-sitters that 

 will he confined by a fence 4 feet high. They are wanderers. You can shut- 

 up your bre( diag stock in the half-acre you devote to them. If you sow your 

 grass ?eeds at once the ground will be well settled before you have chickens to 

 run upc n it. If you propose to wall- in your fruit garden, you could easily and 

 cheaply make your fowl-honse by building against the wall at either end, and 

 have a s^uth-west aspect. Although not essential, this latter is an advantage. 

 A wooden house with a slate or tiled roof would answer every purpose, and is 

 very durable if it is kept tarred every year. Any poultry book will tell you 

 how to make the house. If yon keep fowls in any numl ers they must have 

 access to the acre and a halt you intend to cultivate, hut you may shut them 

 out while the chickens are very small. You will find it convenient to have 

 another small house, a wooden one built against the wall in the opposite 

 corner; it would do for f od, &c, and would be a convenient place for a few 

 laying hens. Yen can get a man to do all you want for the wages you name, 

 provided you are mostly a"- home, and the requirements of che garden are not 

 too great. Your wages are g03d. We know no place where yon could see 

 what you describe. We advise you to buy Baily's book, as a plain and prac- 

 tical treatise, and to begin in a small way, enlarging and acting on your own 

 experience. There is more learned by losing a pound than by reading three 

 books. The profit of your poultry will from your description depend much on 

 eggs. They are most profitable in the winter,and only pullets lay then. Your 

 table poultry will be mast profitable if produced early before others have it. 

 Anything yon produce will make a better return if you have it when others 

 have not, and it is more valuable if produced before than after its natural 

 seascn. You may sow grass at any time, subject to repeating the operation 

 in case of entire or partial failure. We always write to Messrs. Sutton, of 

 Reading, stating our requirements, and have every reason to be satisfied with 

 their mixtures. There is no such thing as a poultry farm in England. We 

 know no breed that will suit yon better than Brahmas. In catering for a 

 market be sure to kill them young. A small quantity of good succulent meat 

 is more valuable than a larger of hard tasteless food. 



Aylesbury Duck's Bills Spotted (R. Jones). — The spots you mention 

 are very common, even among the best birds. They are not indicative of 

 impurity, but they are a great disadvantage at an exhibition. We know no 

 safe mode of removing them. Where they are quite superficial they may he 

 removed with pumice-stone, but there is always the dangor of causing bleed- 

 ing and disfigurement. 



Crystal Palace Poultry Show (An Exhibitor). — When the schedules 

 are ready we have no doubt that it will be duly announced. 



Management of Fantall Pigeons (R. E. H.). — Fantails require no 

 particular management, except that they should have roomy nesting places, 

 so that their tails should not be broken or in any way injured. Make their 

 nests of Bhert straw cut into lengths of about 3 inches. Feed them twice 

 a-day — in the morning at nine, and in the afternoon at three, sometimes on 

 brown peas, at other times on small Indian corn. 



Bees, Bee Hives, and Homey. — In the notice of Burton-on-Trent Floral 

 and Horticultural Exhibition, instead of Mr. J. Young, Hornington, it should 

 have been Mr. Charles Young, Hornington, near Burton-on-Trent; and in the 



prizes for honey the second prize was awarded to Mr. Young for a super con- 

 taining 35 lbs. nett., and not to Mr. J. Pegg. 



Washing Pigeons (G. H. G.). — Wa.h the worst of the dirt off with tepid, 

 water, and let them afterwards have a pan of clean water daily ; they will 

 wash themselves every morning. 



Comb Broken Down— Feeding (J. G. Webber). — By all means feed at 

 onee, and liberally, as we are doing with some of our own stocks that are weak 

 in supplies from overswarming. The bees no doubt have put all to right b in 

 the hive, and there is no reason they should not do well. 



Electro-plating (B. A. . — We know of no simple process. 



Tomato Chetney. — H. J. N. wishes for a recipe for making this. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 



Camden Square, London. 



Lat. 51° 32' 40" N. ; Long. 0° 8' 0" TV. ; Altitude 111 feet. 



Date. 



A.M. 



In t 



he Day. 

 Radiation 







• ^ d 





= ~ 



~ 



Shade Tem- 





1872. 



33 = 8 



ter. 



.S3 



= . a . 



perature. 



Temperature. 



a 



Sept. 







In 



On 







Pq-fiJ 



Dry. 



Wet. 

 deg. 



p° 





Max. 



deg. 



Min 



snn. 



grass 







Inches. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg. 



deg 



deg. 



Da. 



We. 18 



29.705 



59.5 



55.4 



s.w. 



6>.0 



63.0 



54 3 



88 3 



51.2 



— 



Th. 19 



29.623 



54.7 



514 



w. 



5S.5 



61.9 



44.9 



115 8 



41.8 







Fri. 20 



29.772 



48.3 



45.9 



N.W. 



5H.9 



57.0 



S8 8 



100.8 



36 3 



— 



Sat. 21 



29.759 



47 2 



44.'3 



S.W. 



54 8 



58.9 



36.5 



106 2 



34.4 



0.0E8 



Sun.22 



29.833 



47.3 



41.8 



N.W. 



530 



56 8 



34 4 



1012 



82 4 





Mo. 23 



29 908 



47 4 



43.9 



S.W. 



519 



598 



33.0 



118:4 



81.1 0.380 



Tn. 24 



29.4;6 



49 2 



48.3 



S.W. 



- 53.2 

 55 6 



501 

 58.5 



45 6 

 41.1 



7d.8 



4S.8 250 



Means 



29.72S 



50 5 



47.1 





93.9 



38 7 j 0.7*8 



REMAKES. 



18th. — Rather dull day, with cold wind; fine evening; and very bright moon- 

 light night. 



19th. — A beautifully bright and fine day; a few drops of rain once or twice* 

 hut too little to measure. 



20th. — Rather cold and dull morning: afternoon very bright and fine, and. 

 the evening the same. 



21st. — White frost in the early morning, which was fine and bright; a sharp- 

 shower about noon, then fine hut cold. 



22nd. — "Very bright all day, but very cold. 



23rd. — "Very fine morning; rather cloudy in the afternoon; heavy rain com- 

 mencing between S and 9 p.m., and continuing more or less all night ; 

 rather warmer. 



24th. — Yery dark, dull, rainy morning, but rather warmer; frequent rain during 

 the day ; but fine night. 

 A fall of 14° in the mean temperature at 9 a.m. (and of much more than that 



on several nights) since last week seems to have carried us into winter in a- 



few days; but as tbe minimum on the 14fch was more than 12° above that of 



the 23rd, it is to be hoped that we shall have some more fine autumn weather. 



— a- J- Symons. 



COYENT GARDEN MABKET.— September 25. 

 There is no improvement to report here, business being very dull, and a 

 poor attendance. The chief article in request is good French Pears, the home- 

 grown supply being very limited at present; later sorts we hear are a better 

 crop. Potato supply large, those which are free from blight making good 

 prices. 



FBTJIT. 



Apples i sieve 3 



Apricots doz. 



Cherries per lb. 



Chestnuts bushel 



Currants i sic ve 



Black '....do. 



Fiss doz. 1 



Filberts lb. 1 



Cabs lb. 1 



Gooseberries quart 



Grapes, hothouse lb. 2 



Lemons ^-100 6 



Melons each 2 



3. s. d. 

 OtoO 



s. d. 



1 OtoO 

 



Mulberries T> lb 



Nectarines doz. 



Oranges ^10 8 



Peaches doz. 10 



Pears, kitchen doz. 10 8 



dessert doz. 2 4 



Pine Apples lb. 3 6 



Plums $ sieve 5 



Quinces doz. 10 2 



Raspberries lb. 



Strawberries "^ lb. 



Walnuts bn c hel 10 25 



ditto ^-100 2 3 



VEGETABLES. 



Artichokes doz 



Asparagus ^100 



Beans. Kidney i sieve 



Broad bushel 



Beet, Red doz. 



Broccoli bundle 



Cabbage doz. 



Capsicums 3> 1" 



Carrots bunch 



Cauliflower doz. 



Celery bundle 



Co'eworts.. doz. bunches 



Cucumbers each 



pickling doz. 



Endive doz. 



Fennel bunch 



Garlic lb. 



erbs bunch 



Horseradish bnndle 



Leeks. bunch 



Lettnee doz. 



s. d. s. d 

 2 0to4 

 



Ttf ua hrooma pottle 



Mustard & Cress. .punnet 

 Onions bunch 



pickling quart 



Parsley per doz. bunches 



Parsnips doz. 



Peas qnart 



Potatoes bushel 



Kidney do. 



Round do. 



Radishes., doz. bunches 



Rhubarb bnndle 



Salsafy $» bundle 



Savoys doz. 



Scorzonera.... ^bundle 



Sea-kale basket 



Shallots lb. 



Spinach bushel 



Tomatoes doz. 



Turnips .bunch 



Vegetable Marrows.. doz. 



d. s. d. 

 0to3 

 2 



POULTRY MARKET.— September 25. 

 We are now able to give a good guess as to the supply of Partridges. Young 

 birds are decidedly scarce and small. It is impossible to disguise the fact 

 that they decrease in numbers every year. There is no alteration in the 

 poultry niai-ket, and little excitement at the approach of Michaelmas. Formerly 

 the sale of Geese was very large at that time, but of late the consumption of 

 them has been postponed to Christmas. 



