JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
52 G 
[ June 22, 1882. 
connected with it to the purchaser. But, nevertheless, a few remarks 
from us may be acceptable to the home farmer. First of all, the 
bottom of the rick should be composed of something which will sink 
down close when loaded with the hay, such as Bean or Pea haulm, 
refuse, chaff, or cavings of corn straw may be used to keep the hay off 
the ground, which should be in a dry position on commencing the rick. 
A common four-bushel sack well stuffed with straw, and gradually 
drawn upwards as the hay accumulates, will form the chimney in the 
centre of the rick, to be carried up about the height of the proposed 
eaves ; connected with this should be the wooden trough or tube, 
about 6 or 8 inches in diameter, reaching to the outside of the stack, 
and about Si or 4 feet from the ground, to which the exhansting fan 
will be attached during the time of use. On the other side of the 
rick must be placed a small tube to allow of the introduction of the 
thermometer for ascertaining the amount of heat, which should be 
exhausted when it amounts to 100°, but in corn stacks when it 
reaches about 60° or 70°. Now this process of exhausting must be 
continued several times a day until the hay becomes nearly cold if 
water has been found in the hay when carted ; but if secured in fine 
weather when the hay has been permanently reduced below 100°, no 
injury, but rather benefit, will be derived from allowing the natural 
progress of cooling to continue without further trouble. 
The size and shape of the ricks is of consequence. The hay rick 
should be made square, and not to exceed 18 or 20 feet each way ; 
corn ricks, however, we should prefer to be made round, about 10 feet 
from the chimney or centre to the outside. One thing, however, must 
he considered with regard to corn, that it receives no benefit from 
heating like hay, but it is of some benefit to Oats or Barley, which 
will often heat, to prevent any excess ; for when Clover stalks are 
grown and mixed with it, which will often make it difficult to say for 
certain whether it will heat too much or so much as to injure the 
grain, in which case the chimney should be made in the rick, and 
treated in the same manner as for hay. If, however, we speak of the 
northern or mountain districts where fine strong crops of Oats are 
frequently grown and can scarcely ever be harvested quite dry, the 
new system will form quite a revolution in style of stacking, for both 
straw and grain can he saved in a superior and more certain condition 
than it has ever been done before. The style of corn ricks which 
we have for the past fifty years advocated and carried out, may now 
he readily approved by many who have previously failed to see the 
necessity of it. 
i*i 
POULTRY NOTES. 
We observed at the Show of the Bath and West of England 
Society at Cardiff that the poultry were in far better plumage than 
adult birds usually are in June. Probably the absence of both great 
cold and great heat since the last moult has much to do with this. 
We have before us several good schedules of forthcoming shows. 
The breeding season is over, and those who have been able to keep 
their birds in good trim up to the present time may safely show 
them. Summer shows held in tents and generally lasting only a 
single day do not injure poultry. The Bedfordshire Agricul¬ 
tural Society this year meets at Luton on July 19th. Both the 
poultry and Pigeon schedules are on a liberal scale. There are six 
separate classes for chickens. The Secretary is Mr. E. Blundell, 
Luton ; and the Judges Mr. T. C. Burnell and Mr. M. Leno. The 
Huntingdonshire Society holds its Show two days later at St. Neots. 
The classification is not extensive, but the prizes good. Dorkings 
have four classes—viz., for pair of adults, pair of chickens, single 
cock, and pair of hens, with three prizes in each. The Secretary is 
Mr. Dilley, Market Place, Huntingdon. The name of the Judge 
is not announced. Buxton will have its first poultry Show on 
August 2nd and 3rd. The prizes are fair, and the classification 
good. We observe that there is a class for “Redcaps,” the useful 
Derbyshire breed, about which we wrote not long ago. The Secre¬ 
tary is Mr. T. W. Varley, Corbar Road, Buxton. The Judges are 
—for poultry Mr. Teebay, and for Pigeons Mr. Ludlow. On 
August 17th a first show will be held at Aberavon. There are four¬ 
teen classes for poultry, with fair prizes. The Judge is Mr. T. C. 
Burnell, 
Some weeks ago we expressed some belief in the efficacy of the 
ointment remedy for gapes in chickens. Further experience 
strongly confirms this belief. We have had almost an entire ab¬ 
sence of the disease in our yards this season, save in the case of one 
brood of Polish chickens, which we omitted to anoint. The result 
of experiments made in the great Knighton yards is, we are told, 
exactly the same. The disease has only appeared in one or two 
broods, and those the very few, out of many, which had been over¬ 
looked or not anointed immediately on removal from the nest. The 
germ, whatever it be, of the future p^gue is communicated to the 
chick very soon after it leaves the shell. 
We have just been presented with a new and very ingenious egg 
case for holding an egg which has been at all crushed or crooked in 
incubation towards the time of hatching. It is, of course, oval, of 
metal, largely perforated so that air and warmth can reach the egg, 
while the hen’s weight cannot press upon it. We have not yet had 
an opportunity of trying it, but fancy that with care it may aid in 
saving many a chick. We say “ with care,” because, of course, the 
hard casing would prevent the actual exit of the chicken from the 
shell, so any nest in which it is used must be well watched. 
We hear from various sources of the season being a bad one for 
breeding Pigeons. Others attribute the failure of the hens to lay to 
the same cause that we lately did—viz., the unusual warmth of last 
winter, which caused them frequently to lay when unpaired, and 
exhausted them. 
We have often wondered how by degrees tail-less fowls were pro¬ 
duced, for we have never seen till this year any birds produced from 
ordinary fowls which had any real tendency to be tail-less. Of 
course, Cochins and some other Asiatics have a very different deve¬ 
lopment of tail to most birds, but tail they always have. We have 
this year been astonished to find a chicken from pure White Dorkings 
which up to the present time (it is two months old) promises to be 
perfectly tail-less, like Manx fowls. We have never possessed a 
tail-less bird, and have for generations bred our White Dorkings in 
purity. This chicken has all the characteristics of the White 
Dorking in comb, colour, and toes, and will, therefore, if it grows 
up perfectly tail-less, be really a curious sport of Nature.—C. 
A VALOROUS HEN. 
On opening the door of my poultry house on Thursday morning 
I was astonished to find a dead cat lying with its head out of the 
little door the fowls go out and in at, and the floor strewn with 
feathers, showing there had been a struggle in which the cat had 
got the worst of it. I had a Brahma hen and chickens in a nest 
covered with a bucket, which was upset and one of the chickens out 
of the nest and sitting in a corner, hut seemingly neither it nor any 
of the other chickens were hurt. The mother seemed none the worse 
either, and she and the chicks took their breakfast as usual, but 
neither the cock nor the other hens would come out of the house for 
any food for a long time, and at night the latter took refuge in a 
shed instead of going into their house as usual. There was an ac¬ 
count in the Daily News last week of a fight between a cat and two 
blackbirds, in which the cat was prevented by the birds from 
capturing a young one. It is beyond my comprehension how the 
hen killed the cat, as it was in good condition.— Prestwick. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
£ 
'o£ 
1882. 
June. 
O) Si C3 
c co ai a> 
? -*-> 'J1 > 
° ® 
ffl 2 cS 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
13 . 
.2 73 
+9 d 
o r~< 
So 
B <=>£ 
H 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Sun. 11 
Mon. 12 
Tues. 13 
Wed. 14 
Thnrs. 15 
Friday 16 
Satur. 17 
Inches. 
30.024 
29.816 
29.983 
29.837 
29.879 
30.204 
30.149 
deg. 
65.4 
55.5 
61.2 
58.5 
57.9 
57.1 
61.5 
deg. 
46.4 
49.0 
45.2 
53.3 
50.9 
50.4 
52.7 
N.W. 
N.W. 
W. 
S.W. 
W. 
N.E. 
S. 
deg. 
5.5.4 
55.6 
55.3 
54.9 
64.6 
64.6 
55.7 
deg 
62.8 
61.0 
58.6 
62.4 
63.3 
67.0 
68.8 
deg. 
46.2 
47.0 
41.5 
47.3 
48.5 
41.8 
45.6 
deg 
111.7 
117.7 
91.6 
102.7 
116.8 
121.4 
117.2 
deg. 
42.8 
45.8 
38 6 
48.0 
43.6 
36.9 
40.7 
In. 
0.027 
0.220 
0.012 
0.092 
0.351 
29.985 
56.7 
49.7 
55.2 
63.4 
4 5.4 
111.7 
42.3 
REMARKS. 
11th.—Generally fine, cool, overcast at times, showers at 0.30 P.M. 
12th.—Cool, but fine and bright; shower of large hailstones 9.50 A.M. 
13th.—Cold and cheerless; high gusty w 7 ind; rain commenced 6 P.M.; wet 
evening. 
14th.—Windy, but fair throughout, and bright latter part of day. 
15th.—Dull morning; slight shower 1.20 P.M.; afternoon and evening fine and 
bright. 
16th.—Pine, calm, bright sunshine, and warm. 
17th.—Fine and bright, windy at first, calm evening. 
Dull, windy, and cool; temperature lower than for nearly a month, and below 
the average.—G. J. Symons. 
