March 9, 1882. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
207 
the farm is not equal to do both simultaneously the farm cannot be 
expected to yield fair commercial profits in return. Nor do we expect 
that the opportunities for work can be circumscribed like that of the 
tenant farmer, who would often do better than he does if he had the 
means and capital employed for the purpose, making good an obser¬ 
vation we have often used—that there are more bad farmers for want 
of means than for want of brains. 
We have recently received a list of prices for Oats and Barley, &c., 
from a seed-corn merchant or w'hom we purchase, and although those 
who turn their attention to the growth and sale of the best selected 
stocks of seed corn charge very high for them still it answers our 
purpose, for by sowing a few acres of high-priced seed corn we in the 
following year are provided with seed of high quality and purity, 
which we can seldom secure for certainty in any other way. We are 
alluding to the Yictoria White Oats, the selected Early Blossom, 
Improved Waterloo, and White Tartarian, also Black ditto. These 
are all valuable varieties, of which it is of the highest importance 
to secure pure samples. In referring to Barleys we have offered to 
us the Improved Golden Melon, Peerless White, and Beardless White, 
together with Improved Chevalier. We can also recommend the 
Improved Goa summer Tares for present sowing and also further 
on, so that the green fodder may come for use in succession in accord¬ 
ance with the requirements of the horses, sheep, and other stock 
during the summer. 
Hand Labour .—The setting-out and marking of oak timber for 
sale should now be done, as the tree3 will be likely to bark or strip 
early this year. The Elm, Ash, Beech, &c.. should have been cut 
before this, but it cannot now be further delayed without injury. 
Both men and women will still be required in work connected with 
Potato planting, and the land which was autumn-tilled comes to 
hand admirably this year where it is clean ; if not quite so the women 
go before the ploughs and fork out any bunches of couch, and this 
completes the preparation in a workmanlike manner. Men are 
employed in planting Cabbages with the spade, which plan we 
have practised during the past twenty-five years, for whether the 
season is dry or wet the spade-planted roots will always grow better 
than those put in with the setting stick. We notice with much 
pleasure that a prize of ten guineas has been awarded to a Mr. Peter 
Kilpatrick by the Highland Agricultural Society for an excellent 
essay on the planting of Cabbages, preparation of land, manures 
used, and weight of crop, and we were further gratified to find that 
planting the roots was done by the spade in accordance with the 
plan formerly used and recommended by us. 
POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 
We publish the following as a specimen of the letters which we 
constantly receive asking questions in respect of the management 
of poultry— 
44 Would you kindly let me hear if the old-fashioned idea of 
feeding fowls well when laying makes them lay for a short time, 
but sooner cluck than if more sparingly fed, and so make them 
lay longer ? I give one quart crushed Indian corn per day to ten 
hens, with hot potatoes and indianmeal as much as they will eat 
going to roost. They are laying now, and to keep them doing so 
I am told to take all corn away. Is this advisable 1 They weigh 
6 lbs. just now.— C. E. C.” 
We have on several occasions particularly dealt with the sub¬ 
ject, but as doubtless each year brings new readers we answer 
the letter fully. 
Fowls when actually laying require to be well fed, as there is then 
a more severe drain upon the system. The quantity of food must, 
however, even then be so calculated as only to keep them in good 
condition, and not to cause them to put up fat. A great deal also 
depends upon the quality of the food given. Our correspondent 
feeds on crushed Indian corn in the morning apparently, and 
indianmeal mixed with potatoes at night. This food is quite un¬ 
suitable for laying fowls. Indian corn is the most fattening food 
that can be given, and contains a smaller proportion of gluten than 
almost any other grain. It should only be used sparingly with 
fowls of any sort, and not at all with Asiatics. The soft food 
should be given in the morning. Hot potatoes mixed with about 
double their bulk of coarse middlings, or pollard as it is called in 
Ireland, makes good feeding for the winter season. Later on 
potatoes should be discontinued except for an occasional morning. 
Grain should be given as the evening meal. Oats, barley, 
buckwheat, and ordinary wheat, all make good feeding, and it 
is a good plan to use first a sack of one and then a sack of some 
of the others for a change. Both for the morning and evening 
meil only as much as the birds will greedily eat should be 
giv n, none being left to be about under their feet. 
Our coirespon ’cnt does not say of what breed her birds are, so 
that the statement as to weight is not much of a guide in answer¬ 
ing her question. If they are of a large breed, such as Asiatics or 
Dorking--, the weight would be about right, if o' a smaller breed 
they are probably overfat ; but how the birds handle is a better 
guide as to this than mere weight. 
THE POULTRY CLUB. 
A meeting of the Committee of the Poultry Club was held at the 
Charing Cross Hotel on Friday, March 3rd. There were present the 
Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dutton in the chair, the Earl of Winterton, 
and Messrs. R. A. Boissier, O. E. Cresswell, A. Comyns, A. Darby, 
H. R. Dugmore, S. Lucas, C. F. Montresor, and L. Norris. 
Election or Members. —Mr. J. Rodbard Rodbard of Aldwick 
Court, Wrington, Somerset, was elected an honorary life member of 
the Club. 
The following new associate was elected—Allen Silver, Long Mel- 
ford, Suffolk. 
Annual Accounts.— The annual accounts for 1880 were examined 
and approved. They showed a balance in hand as on the 31st Decem¬ 
ber of £120 15*'. Aid. 
Standard of Excellence. — A distribution of the work of 
collating the draft forms of Standard filled in by fanciers amongst 
the members of the Committee was made, and directions given as to 
sending out draft forms for one or two varieties which had in the 
first instance been omitted. 
Date of Meetings— Some alterations were made in the dates 
fixed for meetings of the Committee, and the following are now the 
correct dates—Friday, March 31st; Wednesday, May 3rd ; Monday, 
June oth ; Wednesday. July 12th ; Friday, August 4th. —Alex. 
Comyns, lion. See., 47, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., March 6th, 1882. 
PROFITABLE POULTRY-KEEPING. 
My motive for having in 1881 over sixty cocks and hens in my 
yard 16 yards long by 3 wide, was to see if I could keep such a 
quantity in health and comfort. Upon this I am satisfied. My 
shed now contains twenty-four hens and two cocks ; six of these are 
pullets not laying. Their roosting house is 12 feet by 4, fitted 
with nests. There is a wood erection at the end of the yard, 
with a feeding slide for dry grain, and for comfort on wet days, 
and the yard is kept well bedded with straw. Plenty of pure 
spring water is supplied through a lead pipe and spiggot. They 
have also a large sugar hogshead cut through the middle, and well 
supplied with dry ashes and lime for a dust bath. 
Poultry in confinement must have animal food. My week’s 
supply is before me. First, refuse from the slaughter house, 
nett weight 14 lbs. ; to this is added 14 fts. ground Indian corn, 
lbs. bran or sharps, 2 ozs. ground black pepper, and 4 ozs. 
Epsom salts. The animal material is placed in an eight-gallon tin 
pot with all the kitchen refuse, and the value of one pennyworth of 
Swedish or any sort of Turnips boiled on a close range to a com¬ 
plete pulp, and poured boiling over the meal, bran, See., in a tub, 
and then taken as required when cold. If wanted warm a little 
water from the boiler is added, but I certainly prefer my birds to 
have cold meat, and as much as they can eat. I also scatter some 
dry grain amongst the straw so that they may scrape about. 
By this treatment my birds give me eggs which cost about a 
groat the dozen, and the straw when made into manure wdth the 
brushings of the hen house gives me ample manure with soot from 
the close range for a beautiful and well-stocked garden of flowers 
and vegetables of about a third of an acre. A few hens maybe 
kept at no expense farther than the attention. In the pages of 
our largest circulated metropolitan papers I have shown the great 
paying qualities of poultry; but to convince some without the 
help of the Legislature and an Act of Parliament is hopeless, al¬ 
though there are millions of money paid in these islands for eggs 
yearly, and which can be raised at home on any well-conducted 
farm at a profit.— Old Farmer. 
THE INCUBATOR LIBEL CASE. 
The long-looked-for action for libel which arose out of the incu¬ 
bator contest at Hemel Hempstead came on for trial on Thursday 
and Friday in last week in the Queen’s Bench division before Mr. 
Justice Denman and a special jury. It will be in the recollection 
of our readers that in the autumn of 1878 a contest of incubators was 
organised at Hemel Hempstead in connection with the Poultry Show. 
The principle upon which it was proposed to hold the contest was, 
we believe, in the first instance, that each competitor should send a 
skilled operator to manage his incubator. This plan, however, was 
at the request of some of the intending competitors abandoned, and it 
was arranged that all the incubators should be managed by one 
person who had no previous knowledge of artificial hatching. 
Several competitors entered, amongst them Miss May Arnold, as the 
English agent of Voitelliei’s incubator, and Mr. Thomas Christy, the 
now well-known maker of hydro-incubators. The plaintiff, Mr. F. G, 
