264 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ March 31, m 
Swedes and Bean meal, with cake and cracked Peas always in the 
troughs. Where there is a provision of Thousand-headed Kale it is a 
valuable food for lambs to run forward to; still we prefer that fatting 
lambs should have no young sprouted greens of any sort if good 
sound roots can possibly be obtained. Teg sheep having been win¬ 
tered with the view of being sold fat, now or after being shorn, 
should at this time receive Mangold and Bean meal if the Swedes 
are all consumed; for although there is an amount of danger from 
stoppage of urine whilst good wether sheep are eating Mangolds, yet 
the only alternative is grass food, such as water meadows or Italian 
Eye Grass, but in consuming either of these the change from root¬ 
feeding is so great that some losses must be expected from diarrhoea. 
The long-woolled flocks in the midland and northern counties are 
now in the midst of lambing, and in nearly all the districts where 
the pastures are early grass will be forthcoming when required ; the 
other alternatives are Mangolds and Italian Bye Grass, but to provide 
these they must have been seeded by anticipation last year. Wean¬ 
ing calves will now require attention, and excellent calf food is sold 
by Messrs. Simpson. Bowick ifc Co., Thorley, aud others. 
VARIETIES. 
Grass for Permanent Pastures. —Messrs. Carters’ manual on 
laying down land to grass (published by Messrs. Sampson, Low, and 
Co.), contains much information of interest to landed proprietors and 
agriculturists. The whole routine of preparation for sowing, manage¬ 
ment of the land and crops, manuring, &c., is concisely detailed. An 
interesting chapter on the geological formation of soils is provided, 
and descriptive lists of the various grasses and other useful fodder 
plants submitted. 
- Fancy Pigeons, by J. C. Lyell ( Bazaar Office).—We have 
here a useful addition to Pigeon literature. Mr. Lyell gives a very 
complete list of all the works upon the subject which have been 
published. He deals largely with the Toy varieties, and fully 
describes some of the less known foreign sorts. The illustrations 
are numerous and well executed. 
- American Cheese. —We cite the following from a daily 
paper:—We have long ceased to know what butter is made of, and 
now, it seems, equal uncertainty is to prevail with regard to cheese. 
People who eat American cheeses should be careful where they buy 
them, for twenty-one factories are at work in St. Lawrence, County 
Albany, U.S.A., making cheese out of lard. The gentleman’s name 
who has invented this new delicacy is Crapser, and he is an Assembly- 
man of the Albany Committee of Public Health. Mr. Crapser makes 
no secret of his process of manufacture. The new cheese is made 
from sweet milk, from which cream has been removed at 40° Fahr., 
after standing twelve hours. Ho chemicals are used in this process, 
except some colouring-matter. Mr. Crapser regrets that he has to 
work on the sly, but “ the honest farmer would not take any advan¬ 
tage ; ” he gets along with them by paying more for their milk than 
it is worth. Seven of his factories are now making the lard cheese, 
which goes to Chicago, Boston, New York, and Baltimore ; and 2500 
boxes, each weighing GO tbs., were made last year. 
- The Crops in Italy in 1880.—The following official statistics 
of grain and Potato crops in the year 1880 have just been published, 
and are as follows Rye and Barley, cultivated area, 1,193,577 acres ; 
total production, 19,350,735 bushels—average per acre, 16*21. Oats, 
cultivated area, 949,832 acres ; total production, 19,039,527 bushels— 
average per acre, 20’03. Wheat, cultivated area, 11,721,345 acres ; 
total production, 148,045,753 bushels—average per acre, 12‘28. Maize, 
cultivated area, 4,301.125 acres; total production, 89,448,293 bushels 
—average per acre, 20 80. Bice cultivated area, 380,727 acres ; total 
production, 27,274,288 bushels—average per acre, 47'82. Potatoes, 
cultivated area, 171,255 acres ; total production, 7,043,022 cwts.— 
average per acre, 41T2 cwts. 
- British Agriculture in 1880.—Mr. Henry F. Moore has 
issued a manual on this subject, being a first contribution to an 
annual history of agriculture. It is principally a reprint of articles 
that had been contributed by the author to some influential news¬ 
papers, and contains instructive tabular records of the agriculture 
of the year. The following extract will show the character of the 
work :—■“ On an average of fourteen years the value of the Wheat crop 
to the farmer when the seed has been deducted is £7 4s. 11 d. per acre ; 
for the first five years, I860 to 1870, it was £8 7s. lOd.; for the last nine 
years, £0 12s. 2d .; and for the last five years—namely, 1875 to 1879, 
only £5 18s. 3d. per acre. The diminution between the first five 
and the last five years has been £2 19s. 7d. per acre, or a loss of 
nearly 37 per cent. Should present prices rule during the current 
harvest year an average of 40s. per quarter will bring the general 
average value of the Wheat crop of 1880 to not more than about £5 10s. 
per acre to the farmer. Fail in price as well as decrease in yield has 
conduced to reduction of the area latterly cultivated. The imperial 
corn average, or price in the selected markets employed for fixing 
the tithe rent-charge, averaged 53s. for fourteen harvests. It was 
55s. 7 d. for the first five harvests—namely, I860 to 1870 ; it was 
51s. 6hd. for the last nine harvests—namely, 1871 to 1879; and it 
sank to 48s. 9%d. for the last five years ending with 1879. Should 
the present Wheat crop have to be sold, as appears most likely, at 
no more than about 40s. per quarter, the average price for the last 
three years will be 42s. 10d., or 10s. a quarter below the average 
of the last fourteen years. According to no calculation of agricul¬ 
tural experts has it ever been shown how this cereal can be grown 
with profit in ordinary farm practice to realise only £5 10s. up to 
£0 per acre for the grain, unless rents and labour cost and public 
charges are materially modified. Yet, hitherto no one has demon¬ 
strated how the crop can be altogether banished from future rota¬ 
tions, or what necessary straw crop may be substituted for Wheat 
with a clear prospect of being remunerative in a majority of seasons.” 
CHICKENS AND COOPS. 
The subject is a trite one ; every novice in poultry-keeping 
delights to give his or her particular instructions for the manage¬ 
ment of chickens, and every poultry book has an elaborate chapter 
on the same subject. Indeed, it has often struck us that carefully 
to follow the rules of some of them would make poultry-keeping 
a somewhat irksome toil rather than a pleasurable recreation. 
Every year there are among our readers—at least, we hope so— 
novices who may be glad of a few simple and practical hints 
derived from the experience of an old hand. We will try to avoid 
all elaboration of detail, and to make them as plain as possible. 
When the earlier chickens of a brood have been hatched from 
twenty-four to thirty hours they with the hen should be removed 
to a coop. It is not worth while keeping them waiting for any 
still unhatched after so long a time. If, however, there are eggs 
which show any signs of life in them, and there happens to be 
another hen on the point of hatching, they may be removed to 
her. If the mother appears ravenous she should first be placed 
by herself in the coop with plenty of food and water, and the 
chickens should be kept in the nest or a warm basket till she is 
satisfied. They should then be put down before her, and some 
light food, such as bread crumbs and yolk of hard-boiled egg, 
dropped before them ; the hen, if a good one, will break it up 
temptingly before their eyes ; they will eat what they want and 
creep under her breast. It is rare to find a hen wild and trouble¬ 
some at such a crisis ; if one should be so, leave her as much as 
possible to herself. She may step on a chicken or two, but if a 
fussy attendant rushes in horror at her she will probably trample 
upon all. Young chickens are much tougher than the inexperi¬ 
enced think, and when released from a wide foot often jump up 
as if nothing had happened. If, however, a hen is really a crusher 
of chickens she must be marked, and never again employed as a 
foster-mother. 
The two all-important points now to secure the success of a 
brood are their housing and their food. We will here confine 
ourselves to the former, and reserve the latter for another article. 
Coops must be well made, watertight, with a good protection in 
front to keep out driving rains, and still well ventilated. It is 
pitiable to see the acts of cruelty which are often unconsciously 
perpetrated by the ignorant on wretched hens and chickens, which 
are exposed to every gust of a March wind in wicker coops. We 
have often expostulated with people who used such coops, and we 
have been told that many a brood is reared successfully at road¬ 
side cottages in such a way. This may possibly be true, but then 
the cottager runs out twenty times a day to look to them, turns 
them to catch every ray of the sun, protects them with an old 
sack from the wind, and at night probably takes them into the 
