JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
64 
f January 19, 1882. 
each quart of water, and apply a linen bandage wetted with the 
same solution. Let the horse have liberty outdoors during the 
daytime when weather permits, and let him go loose in a box 
stall or shed at night, instead of being tied up. Give morning and 
evening during every other week, mixed among the food, a powder 
composed of a drachm of carbonate of iron and two drachms of 
powdered gentian root. Keep constantly some common salt placed 
in a corner convenient for the horse to reach at will without mixing 
it among the food.” 
POULTRY NOTES. 
SOME of our contemporaries have published the disqualification 
of a pair of Black East Indian Ducks at Cambridge as if it were 
the result of some fraud discovered. This was entirely an error, 
the exhibitor merely having sent by mistake two Ducks instead 
of a Duck and drake, to his own manifest disadvantage. 
There was an interesting class at the Poultry Club Show for 
Polands of any other than the three generally recognised varieties. 
It was the first occasion on which, to our knowledge, such a class 
has ever been given in England. Mr. Beldon showed some very 
fine Buffs ; Mrs. Ricketts a good pair of the same variety ; Mr. 
Rawnsley and Mr. O. E. Cresswell sent Whites. Those who 
remember this breed thirty years ago say that they should have 
blue legs, but both these pens have white. 
Thus far the season has been a wonderful one for the fertility 
of early eggs. If only we escape a severe late winter and still 
severer spring, we may hope to see more forward chickens next 
summer than we have seen for some years past. 
We are glad to observe a reviving interest in Japanese Silkies. 
We have often recommended this breed as most useful for rearing 
delicate Bantams and Pheasants. We have of late discovered that 
they have another merit—viz., if hatched fairly early the pullets 
lay well through October and November, when hardly any other 
birds are laying. A class for Silkies was again given this year at 
Birmingham and at the Poultry Club Show. Prizes are also 
offered at the forthcoming shows at Wolverhampton and Yeovil. 
We advise our readers who are fanciers of waterfowl to pay a 
visit to the ponds at the Regent’s Park Gardens. These have of 
late been greatly extended, and fancy waterfowl of many kinds 
may now be seen in much happier circumstances than formerly. 
We lately learnt there that a pair of the beautiful and delicate 
Japanese Teal lived safely through the winter of 1880-1881, 
entirely the old quarters, and remove the poultry at least a hundred 
yards from the present location to a dry and high ground provided 
with new and clean housing, roosts and nest, with ready access to pure 
water and grass, and ample roaming grounds, also proper shading 
by means of trees and bushes. Provide regularly the roosting place 
and its surroundings with plenty of ashes. This disease is rarely if 
ever known where a cool shade, clean runs, fresh cool water, and 
green food are accessible. Treatment may be attempted in the 
beginning of the disease, but is next to useless when the disease i3 
advanced ; and it is the best course, with a view of putting a stop to 
the disease, to separate from the healthy ones all that have a 
dumpish or unhealthy appearance, and destroy the diseased ones, and 
bury them deeply in some distant place where the poultry can have 
no access. In the beginning of the disease give each hen a pill pre¬ 
pared of five grains of powdered prepared chalk, the same quantity 
of rhubarb, three grains of cayenne pepper, and sufficient mucilage. 
If the pill is too large it may be divided into smaller ones, and the 
whole given at one time. If, after six hours, the relaxation is not 
checked, a grain each of opium and ipecacuanha may be given every 
four to six hours .—(Prairie Farmer.) 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Feeding Fowls {Workman ).—We cannot decide the question which you 
submit, as we know only one side of it. The following relative to the subject, 
which we extract from our poultry manual, appears to bear directly on the 
question at issue :—“ Let every keeper of poultry remember these three most 
important truths. 1st, That overfeeding, whether by excess of quantity or ex¬ 
cess of stimulating quality, is the cause of the most usual diseases and deaths 
in the poultry-yard. 2nd, That a daily supply of green food, grass, or cabbage 
leaves, or other kitchen refuse, is most conducive to the health of poultry. Even 
for chickens a week old it is necessary. 3rdly, That a dry mass of sand, or 
earth, or coal ashes is absolutely required for poultry to busk in daily. It keeps 
them free from vermin, and is as needful for them as a bath is to preserve health 
in human beings. This mass of dry material should be under a shed to protect 
it from rain, and should have a little gravel and limy rubbish mixed with it. 
Poultry pick out from it little pebbles to promote the grinding of their food in 
their gizzards, and chalky matter for the formation of the egg shell. For five 
hens and a cock of the large kinds the following would be a good week’s allow¬ 
ance :—5 lbs. of barleymeal; 10 lbs. of potatoes, boiled and mashed; 7 lbs. of 
whole barley ; 3 lbs. of rice boiled; 3 lbs. of bran scalded. They should have 
their food three times a day. The barleymeal, potatoes, rice, and bran should 
be mixed together, and li lb. given to them morning and evening, and 1 lb. of 
whole barley in the middle of the day. The supply of green food may be with¬ 
out limit.” 
Keeping Poultry (S. II .).—There are probably no more useful fowls for 
table than Dorkings. For providing fowls for table and eggs all the year round 
we have found a cross between Dorkings and Cochins serviceable. This is a 
question, however, on which there is a diversity of opinion, and poultry keepers 
usually soon find out which breed best suits their requirements. Our poultry 
manual, post free for 6 ^d., will be useful to you, as it contains much information 
relative to several breeds, and on the management of poultry generally. 
Managing Pastures on Chalk (IF. C .).—Chalk hill pastures, commonly 
called downs, have been generally ill-used from time immemorial, the practice 
being to feed with sheep in the summer and fold them on the arable land at 
night time, thus robbing daily the pasture which was already too poor to bear 
anything but the most scanty herbage, we know, however, of a few instances 
where farmers manage better, and manure the land, waiting until there is grass 
enough to fold oil with the sheep, which receive cake and remain on the pasture 
night and day ; thus the grass is consumed in season, and manure enough left 
to insure a better and improving crop in the future. Guano and nitrate of soda 
we consider the best manure for chalk downs or any grass land resting on chalk, 
as some park land does in the southern and eastern counties. 
We continue to receive questions about Pekin Bantams, and 
often see advertisements from fanciers who require “ good ones.” 
For their information we may state that many experienced breeders 
would be glad to give a long price even for some bad ones. The 
truth is that the breed is almost extinct, and to the best of our 
belief is entirely in the hands of one person, who refuses to part 
with both eggs and birds. 
Lady Dartmouth’s beautiful little Frizzled Japanese received 
their due in the shape of second prize at the Poultry Club Show. 
We always thought them hardly dealt with at the Crystal Palace, 
where they were passed over on the ground of not really being 
Japanese Bantams. They have undoubtedly every characteristic 
of the breed save that their feathers are frizzled and not smooth. 
It would be a difficult matter, however, for a judge were good 
Frizzled Brahmas, or Spanish, or any other breed to be exhibited 
in the general classes ; we fancy they would in most cases be 
passed over. We remember Frizzled White Polish at the Paris 
Exhibition of 1878, which were duly noticed in the Polish class. 
—C. 
Chicken Cholera. —This disease is generally due to neglect and 
bad management, exposure to sun without sufficient shade, stale and 
impure drinking water, foul and offensive quarters, absence of a 
regular supply of fresh green food, and confinement. The opposite 
to these conditions constitutes what is required to prevent the appear¬ 
ance of this disease where it has already developed. Abandon 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32'40” N.; Long. 0® 8'0" W.; Altitude.lll feet. 
date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
i a 
® <£_ 
Hygrome- 
0 . 
**-< , 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
0 
1882. 
S co <u u 
ter. 
£ a 
cv—i O 
dS.o 
perature. 
Temperature. 
S3 
January. 
<3 S* -3 
££ 
In 
On 
SQ ® cj 
Dry. 
Wet. 
5 o 
Pi 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 8 
30.220 
4!.8 
39.6 
s.w. 
40.8 
49.8 
30.5 
52.2 
29.4 
0.556 
Mon. 9 
30.086 
39.6 
39.3 
N.W. 
41.7 
49 8 
37.9 
72.3 
34.1 
Tues. 10 
30.336 
37.7 
36.9 
w. 
40.7 
47.3 
35.6 
53.4 
27.3 
_ 
Wed. 11 
30.168 
48.4 
47.4 
w. 
41.3 
52.3 
37.1 
59.8 
31.6 
0.018 
Thurs. 12 
30.414 
45.4 
45.0 
s. 
42.5 
50.5 
44.4 
5».6 
87.‘» 
Friday 13 
30.429 
45.3 
44.2 
S.E. 
43 2 
48.2 
41.6 
65.6 
34.4 
_ 
Satur. 14 
30.539 
40.7 
39.0 
s. 
42.8 
43.2 
39.6 
43.6 
39.2 
— 
30.313 
42.7 
41.6 
41.8 
48.7 
39.0 
56.8 
33.4 
0.574 
REMARKS. 
8th.—Fair morning, slight rain, with high wind after 1 P.M. 
9th.—Very fine bright day. 
10r.li.—Fair, but dull. 
11th.—Very fine morning; slight rain and dull afterwards. 
12th.—Fog and very dark from 8 to 9 A.M.; generally dull and damp. 
13th.—Fine spring-like day. 
14th.—Overcast, but fair. 
Temperature rather lower than in the previous week, but still far above the 
average.—G. J. Symons. 
