250 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t March 23,1882. 
publication, neither did the gentleman to whom it was addressed, 
nor the committee before which he laid it privately. The person 
libelled, or rather his aiders and abettors, seem to have thought 
themselves lucky to get a copy of the libel, and they alone circulated 
it; yet it was taken as a published libel. An acrimonious contro¬ 
versialist may well paraphrase the words of the prophet of Uz and 
say, “ Oh that mine enemy had written a letter ! ” 
2, The question of privilege. On this point, which is, of course, 
much bound up with that of the publication of a libel, we must con¬ 
fess to having had ideas which also have been rudely dispelled. 
Privilege, it seems, cannot be pleaded if it bo proved that malice 
animated the writer. It logically follows that if A should write to 
his intimate friend B something to the disparagement of C, to whom 
it could be proved that he before owed a grudge, and should have 
the misfortune to drop his letter into the gutter instead of put¬ 
ting it into the letter box, he would, were the letter to be picked 
up and published, have no power of pleading that it was a privileged 
communication. 
W e make no comments on the law or its interpretation; we 
simply draw logical deductions, and hold out warnings to disap¬ 
pointed exhibitors of poultry. The columns of some of our contem¬ 
poraries have often teemed with letters from unsuccessful exhibitors 
which might have been easily construed as the offspring of a malicious 
animus, which would have prevented all after pleading of privilege 
should their writers have got into some such hobble. 
One more point must not be lost sight of—an appreciative jury 
may estimate the damage done by rash writing to the character of a 
libelled person even more highly than he estimates it himself. In 
the case lately tried the plaintiff’s counsel opened by asking no 
damages at all, yet the jury awarded him £50. The moral is, if our 
birds will not always agree in their nests or on their runs we must 
as fanciers be very careful how we take up the cudgels for our respec¬ 
tive favourites, even though they be but broody hens, or their, as 
far as our experience goes, somewhat less trustworthy substitutes— 
incubators. 
Through the aforesaid trial it incidentally, but very clearly, 
transpired that all such contests of incubators as were held at 
Hemel Hempstead, however laudable the motives of those who start 
them, are far from satisfactory. Surely the fancying, or rather incu¬ 
bating, public can judge for itself which machine answers best, and 
the public is not in these days so very backward in making its 
experience known. All experience of life shows us the extreme 
unwisdom of arguing from single instances to general rules. Such 
a contest is practically a single instance, for the mistake of one hour, 
or once mismanaging a regulator, may affect the whole result. We 
have known the first trial of an incubator an utter failure, the second 
a perfect success, not from any great change in its management, but 
simply because the manager had by a little experience acquired the 
knack of regulation. 
[“ Publication” for the purposes of the law of libel is perfectly 
distinct in its meaning from the same word in its ordinary accepta¬ 
tion. To publish a libel it is only necessary to write it and give it 
or send it to any person or persons. Iso formal printing or making 
public of a libellous statement is required to satisfy the provisions of 
the law. Morally, the injury done may lie at the door of the person 
who makes the libel public; legally, the writer has to bear the con¬ 
sequences.] _____ 
We have before us the schedule of a show of poultry and Pigeons 
to be held at Lincoln on April 27th, 28th, and 29th under Poultry 
Club rules. The classification and prizes are very fair. 
Messrs. Boulton & Paul of Norwich have sent us a much 
enlarged and most attractive illustrated catalogue of their appliances 
for poultry, Pigeons, and pheasants. Some of the houses and aviaries 
are really beautifully planned. We especially admire a Pigeon cote, 
the internal fittings of which are arranged on the model of those 
recommended in Fulton’s “ Book of Pigeons.”—C. 
A CURIOUS EGG. 
At the foot of a short article on the above subject in last week’s 
issue, you note that occurrences similar to the one described denote 
either that the egg-producing organs are out of order, or that the 
hen is about to stop laying. I admit the truth of this opinion with 
reference to the instances you give, but it ceriainly does not apply 
to the “curious egg ” I have described. In the first place, there is 
not the slightest evidence to infer that the egg-producing organs 
of my hen are out of order; and secondly, I may state that the 
hen has not stopped laying, nor does she give any signs of doing 
so. In my case a perfect egg was enclosed in another. This in¬ 
dicates that there was not any diminution in the number of yolks 
discharged from the ovary. In other abnormal enclosures there 
is an absence of yolk, showing deficient action of the ovary, 
although the functions of the various parts of the oviduct may be 
carried on as usual.—T. Frederick Pearse, M.D. 
[Our correspondent, as a medical man, probably draws a some¬ 
what fine distinction between the ovary and the oviduct, both of 
which we characterised as “ egg-producing organs.” In the case 
he records the abnormal action was, no doubt, confined to the 
oviduct, which did not properly perform its functions. It was in 
this sense we said that these cases denote that the egg-producing 
organs are out of order.] 
LECTURES ON POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 
On Wednesday in last week Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier delivered 
the first of a series of lectures on poultry management in the 
Council-room of the Royal Horticultural Society at South Ken¬ 
sington. The course was originally intended, we believe, to form 
a principal feature in connection with an exhibition of poultry 
appliances to be held at South Kensington, but the exhibition has 
not turned out a success, and consequently the lectures are robbed 
of a good deal of the interest which they would have gained from 
the opportunities of illustration afforded by a larger exhibition. 
The hour of the day at which the lectures are held (mid-day) 
renders them available only for the ladies. These were fairly 
represented, and showed great interest in the subject; but the 
audience was not so numerous as it doubtless would have been 
had greater publicity been given to the fact that the lectures were 
about to be delivered. 
The first lecture was an extremely interesting one, and, as is 
usual in whatever Mr. Tegetmeier does, partook largely of the 
individuality of the lecturer. It was chiefly introductory. 
We would suggest that should the experiment of giving public 
lectures on so interesting a subject be again tried, the time selected 
for the delivery of the lectures should be the evening, and that far 
more pains should be taken to give full publicity to the fact of the 
lectures being about to be delivered. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Drake Ailing (C. E. C .).—Press all the water from the drake's crop, holding 
him head downwards with one hand and exercising a gentle and even pressure 
with the other. You will then be able to feel if there is any obstacle in the 
entrance of the passage leading to the digestive organs. If there be. your only 
chance of saving the bird is to cut open the crop near the top, remove the 
obstruction, and then sew up the aperture. Make each stitch separate, and be 
careful to sew the crop and the outer skin perfectly distinctly from each other. 
If you find no obstacle, give a larger dose of castor oil (a table-spoonful) and feed 
on soft food, giving no water for some time. These irregularities of the digestive 
system are frequently merely evidences of more serious ailments. 
Drench for Cows {Inquirer ).—Take Epsom salts, lib.; nitre, 2 ozs.; 
ginger and aniseed in powder, of each 1 oz.; treacle 4 ozs. Pour three pints of 
boiling water upon the ingredients, and give when new-millcwarm. If there is 
no tendency to inflammation we do not consider any drink necessary for a 
healthy cow. 
S t Planting Field Cabbages ( J. B. <t- Sons ).—This essay will appear shortly 
in the next issue of the report of the Transactions of the Highland Society, 
published in Edinburgh, and may be obtained by ordering of any newsagent or 
bookseller. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE LONDON. 
Lafc. 51° 32'40" N.; Long.0°8'0" W.; Altitude,111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
• O 
££ o3 — 
Hygrome- 
d . 
. 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
a 
1882. 
C^ r D> 
ter. 
£ d 
< O 
c-d ° 
perature. 
Temperature. 
c3 
March. 
£ & a J 
d ’*-< 
In 
On 
Hij ci 
Dry. 
Wet. 
So 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 12 
30.514 
45.8 
43.4 
N.E. 
46.2 
5 6.5 
41.4 
83.4 
38.8 
_ 
Mon. 13 
30.583 
43.2 
41.8 
yv. 
45 2 
56.7 
34.5 
101.6 
28.0 
_ 
Tues. 14 
30.465 
36.7 
36.9 
N.E. 
44.4 
58.6 
32.9 
91.5 
28.1 
_ 
Wed. 15 
30.509 
41.9 
41.0 
N. 
44.0 
60.4 
35.5 
107.7 
28.8 
— 
Thurs. 16 
30.639 
44.9 
42.9 
W. 
44.1 
62.6 
36 6 
105.6 
31.1 
_ 
Friday 17 
30.578 
43.6 
43.0 
x.w. 
41.3 
62.4 
35.8 
105.7 
299 
— 
Satur. 18 
30.345 
38.9 
38.9 
N. 
44.2 
62 8 
34.0 
94.2 
28.0 
— 
30.519 
42.1 
41.1 
44.6 
60.0 
35.8 
98.5 
30.4 
— 
REMARKS. 
12th.—Hazy at first, afterwards fine and bright; misty in evening. 
13th.—Misty early ; very fine, bright, almost cloudless day. 
14th.—Rather more cloud at times, but generally fine and bright. 
15th.—Hazy at first, very bright and fine afterwards. 
16th —Fine, bright, and warm ; very calm. 
17th.—Fine, bright, calm, and warm. 
18th.—Cool foggy morning ; bright warm da}'. 
A remarkably fine rainless week, with an extremely large daily range of tem¬ 
perature (24-2°), the nights being colder than those of the first week in January, 
and the days warm and sunny.—G. J. Symons. 
