424 



JOURNAL 0? HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 22, 1864. 



the other upon a pear placed on the chimney-piece. " What 

 can you he doing, doctor ? " exclaimed the gentleman upon 

 entering the room. " Hush, my dear friend," was the reply, 

 "that pear will be ripe in just ten minutes, after that it 

 will be spoilt." Turn the ten minutes into ten seconds, and 

 the anecdote applies to the cooking of bacon. 



As to "W. H. B.'s" last inquiry, I can say nothing, 

 having had no experience of smoking. When the flitches 

 are taken out of the tray, they are rubbed all over with 

 bran, and then hung in the kitchen. Pieces are cut from 

 them as wanted. 



Another letter which has come into my hands runs as 

 follows : — 



"Dear Mr. Editor, — In a paper from a "Wiltshiee 

 Rector," lately published in your admirable Journal, I find 

 a curious proposition as to the advisability of transforming 

 wives into cooks, or cooks into wives. May I be allowed to 

 enter my'solemn protest against the former idea ? The latter 

 is, of course, no business of mine, and it may be that cooks 

 possess a cure for exigeant husbands as well as for bacon. 



" Good cooks are, doubtless, excellent things, but I grieve 

 to be obliged to own how much better are men than women 

 cooks. I believe this is an acknowledged fact. Let me then 

 base a proposition on the fact — let the husbands be the 

 cooks ; let men at Oxford take honours in devilled bones 

 and rechauffees, and let hashes [and fricassees settle the 

 wranglers at Cambridge. — An Overworked Wife." 



" Au Overworked Wipe ! " This title goes to my heart, 

 there should never be even one overworked wife. Let me 

 hope that it is an imaginary title ; let me fancy that this 

 overworked wife is no wife at all, but a maiden lady, who 

 imagines wives are overworked. But yet, after all, I fear it 

 is a true title, for she is so overworked as not to have read 

 my paper carefully. If she turns to it some leisure minute 

 — say after the bairns are in bed, the gudeman asleep in his 

 chair, and the servants doing their duty, she will see that 

 no "proposition is made as to the advisability of trans- 

 forming wives into cooks, or cooks into wives." As to the 

 latter, I merely quoted a true anecdote ; as to the former, 

 I simply stated that woman is the cook, that it is so. I 

 said, "Among the countless thousands of benefits and 

 comforts coming to us from woman's presence in the world, 

 stands this — she cooks for us." And with few exceptions it 

 is so, I imagine, throughout the world, or at any rate 

 throughout our world — England. All I suggested was, 

 that it would be well if ladies knew how to cook, giving as a 

 reason, " that the best mistress is the one who knows how 

 work is done", and jokingly looked to lady cooks as a re- 

 source in extremity. How many a woman by birth a lady, 

 and now in the colonies, wishes she knew a little more of 

 the usefuls ! 



By the way, I see another reason, conclusive' to my mind, 

 that "Overworked Wife" is a wife, inasmuch as she con- 

 fesses, albeit she is grieved to do so, that men cook better 

 than women. So she knows us, through one good speci- 

 men, her lord, and acknowledges us to be superiors even in 

 cooking. But for my part may no morsel ever reach my 

 mouth that was not cooked by woman's hands. Let the 

 light fingers still mould my pastry, turn my pancakes, stir 

 my preserves. Let no man cook for me. If he must do 

 something of the kind, I would trust him to make my 

 pickles, perchance they would be all the sourer. Even 

 wranglers would make a sad hash of the hashes, I should 

 not be surprised if they went into the ashes. Devoutly 

 wishing that " Overworked Wife " may be so no longer, 

 I will bid her good-bye, just quoting one fine of Tennyson. 



" Man for the field, and woman for the hearth." 

 Tes, even for the hot hearth. — Wiltshire Eector. . 



their way into the empty box, which was then lifted off, and 

 placed on the bee-stand. The box, full of water and combs, 

 was then lifted gradually out of the tub, the water escaping 

 by the holes through which it entered. The whole operation 

 occupied but a few minutes, and scarcely any bees were lost. 

 The short time necessary prevented the honey from becom- 

 ing dissolved, and as the greater number of cells are sealed 

 up, there is really little danger of such loss being sustained. 

 After the water was drawn off it was found to be only slightly 

 sweet, the combs soon became dry, and the honey was in no 

 way injured. — (California Fanner.) 



[We fancy very few British apiarians will be induced to 

 try this mode of depriving bees, which seems indeed to 

 savour not a little of the primitive method of washing gold 

 as practised in California and other diggings.] 



Cows MilkdsG Themselves. — Simultaneously with your 

 articles on this subject, I met the following notice in Mr. 

 Baring-Gould's " Iceland," and copy it in vindication of the 

 poor maligned hedgehog, 



" I noticed a cow with a great hamper tied between her 

 hind legs. This, said the farmer, is a cow which milks her- 

 self and when once they have taken a fancy to their own 

 milk, a complete circulation is established and they give up 

 eating." — A. Z. 



OUR LETTER BOX. 



Silver-pencilled Hamburgh Cock's Tail {R. W.). — Inadvertently the 

 description we gave at page SS-t is that of a Spangled Hamburgh cock's 

 tail. The Pencilled Hamburgh cock's tail should be ample, full-feathered 

 foundation, colour black, the sickle and principal feathers edged with silver. 

 The black should predominate, except in the tail coverts, where the silvering 

 may be increased. 



Guinea-fowls Roosting in Trees ( W.). — Very young Guinea-fowls are 

 like young Pheasants, being susceptible of cold ; but the same similarity 

 exists when they are grown up, and they are then hardy enough to roost 

 anywhere. A hard-plumaged bird with his head under his wing, and 

 his body in the smallest compass, his legs gathered well under him and 

 buried in the feathers, does not suffer much from cold or wet. Instance 

 Pheasants in coverts. 



Young Chinese Goose Laving (£. A. F.).— It is not a very uncommon 

 occurrence, and we have known the young reared when the ground hasbeen 

 often covered with snow. 



Poultry Making a Raid (R. L.) — Put wire-fencing 5 or 6 feet high. 

 Paint it green and it will be hardly visible. It will keep ont all fowls, but 

 we will not answer for Turkeys or Guinea-fowls, especially the latter. They 

 are the hvaanas of domestic poultry. 



Cochin-China Fowls (F.).-We cannot recommend any dealer. It; is 

 entirely a matter of taste whether the White, Buff, or Partridge-feathered 

 variety is selected. We prefer the Buff. When we require fowls of any 

 breed we attend an exhibition, and buy pullets from one owner and the cock 

 from another. Never breed from brother and sister birds. 



Duckwing Game Bantams' Legs and Weight (R. T. Banlam).— Game 

 Bantams' legs may be of any colour, bnt they must match. The lacings of 

 a Sebright should be moderate, neither heary nor light, but if choice is 

 necessary between extremes we should prefer the former. It must, how- 

 ever, be lacings, not blotchy, or in patches of any colour. There is no 

 fixed weight. They cannot be too small, and formerly the cock was limited 

 to 17 ozs. 



Cockatoo Eating its Feathers (C.).— The cause of your Cockatoo biting 

 off the tops of its feathers is an irritation of the skin, owing to its having 

 had food of a greasy nature. Feed it on soaked or boiled Indian corn, 

 scalded bread without milk, hemp and canary seed, and let it have a tepid 

 bath occasionally on a warm day. If the bird will not bathe in a soup plate 

 full of tepid water, pour the water over it through the fine rose of a water- 

 ing-pot. 



Lice on a Goldfinch {G. R. B.).— Dust under the feather?, ?nd espe- 

 cially under the wings, with flowers of sulphur. Wash the cage thoroughly, 

 and fill the crevices of the floor with the sulphur. 



Woodbury Frame-Hives {William Carr).— It is perfectly certain that 

 well-made frames, when properly filled with comb, will keep their perpen- 

 dicular position without the aid either of propolis or bottom guides of any 

 kind. Imaginary difficulties appear in this case to have led to fancied im- 

 provements, which, so far as we can perceive, have not even the merit of 

 novelty to recommend them. The one you describe was tested and rejected 

 by Mr. Woodbury manv years ago. 



"Notched Bars for Frame-hives {A. W. B.).~ We have no doubt that 

 Messrs. Neighbour will, on application, readily supply the deficiency. 



Ligurian Queens (J. M.).— The statement is untrue. Mr. Carr never 

 possessed a Devonshire-bred bee.— A Devonshire Bee-seepek. 



Removing Honey fkok Hives. — Two years ago we tried 

 the following experiment on a hive of bees, from which 

 it was desired to take the honey: — Having bored a few 

 holes near the top of the hive it was then inverted, and an 

 empty box of the same size placed over it ; both were then 

 lifted into an empty tub, into which water was slowly 

 poured, allowing time for the liquid to penetrate through 

 the holes, but not too fast, in order to avoid drowning the 

 "bees. As the water rose among the combs, the bees found 



LOKDO^S" MAEKETS.— -jSovembeb 21. 

 POULTRY. 



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