82 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 22, 1880. 
Turnip hoeing will be continued, and in some districts where labour 
is scarce we find that the Swedes, Turnips, etc , have made such rapid 
growth lately, and are so thick in the lines, that it will he difficult to 
complete the hand-hoeing in a proper manner if the work is delayed. 
We therefore recommend wherever the plants are thick in the rows 
that, instead of dragging or harrowing the lines across, to work the 
horse hoe across the lines with three cutting shares—that is to say, 
by reversing the outer shares or knives. The plants will then be cut 
out into bunches at the required distance, or indeed any distance, by 
a correct adjustment of the shares. This plan has the advantage of 
moving the ground as well as setting out the plants in hunches at 
intervals, and maintains them in growing condition until they can he 
singled out in a regular manner by hand-hoeing. Sowing common 
Turnips will still be continued with the prospect of a useful crop. 
Planting or ploughiug-in plants of the Thousand-headed Kale may 
be continued, or in fact various kinds of Cabbage or Broccoli may be 
planted during the month of July with a fair prospect of obtaining 
a useful crop, especially of the small Drumhead Savoy, for late spring 
use. At this time, too, may be sown the new variety of Early Horn 
Carrot seed as sold by the principal seedsmen ; these roots will be 
ready for sale in bunches in the vegetable markets for consumption 
in the autumn and early winter months, and will pay well where the 
land is within reach of any large town. The early fairs for sheep are 
now taking place, particularly of the Hampshire or West Country 
Downs, and if the ewes are purchased now they will offer to the ram 
almost immediately on their arrival at their new home. They should 
receive a generous diet, and particularly cake or cracked Beans at the 
time they are f eding upon the Clover or Saintfoin leaves, with a fold 
of Rape at night time ; we consider Rape as the best vegetable food to 
induce the ewes to offer early to the ram. As fast as the ewes have 
been served they may be drafted and kept until lambing time without 
cake or any food costing extra money. The dairy cows will now in 
some instances be on the wane as to the quantity of milk given unless 
food besides the pasture grass is supplemented, especially where the 
grassland is inferior in qualify of herbage. Various kinds of green 
fodder will still be available for the purpose when its use has been 
anticipated, such as Clover, Lucerne, spring-sown Trifolium, Jate- 
sown summer Vetches with tall Rape, &c. 
ROUP IN FOWLS. 
Roup is the most troublesome, offensive, and with the single 
exception of cholera, the most fatal disease that the poultry 
breeder has to fight against. It generally commences with 
hoarseness and sneezing, and while in this stage may be easily 
cured. In the second stage of the disease the eyes become 
swollen, and nose and eyes discharge a thin watery substance 
that thickens and becomes very offensive as the disease progresses ; 
ulcers form in the mouth and throat and around the eyes, the 
head swells, one or both eyes are closed, the comb turns black, 
the fowl loses its appetite, wastes away and dies. 
Roup never comes without a cause, and the cause may be found 
in damp, filthy, ill-ventilated houses, wet swampy yards, impure 
drinking water, food that is insufficient in quantity and quality, 
crowding too many fowls in one building without paying the 
slightest attention to the sanitary regulations necessary to keep 
them in good health. 
Roup is contagious, and when it once gets started in a district 
the premises of the most careful poultry breeders are liable to be 
invaded ; but if you permit none of the causes mentioned to exist 
around your own premises, and provide dry well ventilated 
houses, so arranged that the fowls will not be exposed to draughts, 
it will go a long way towards preventing this insidious disease 
from getting a hold among your fowls. 
The fact that fowls sometimes get along amid the filthiest 
surroundings with no attacks from roup, shows that filth and 
this disease are not inseparably connected. Roup in poultry is 
like diphtheria in the human subject. It is a disease as different 
from all other diseases as Wheat is from Oats, and, like Wheat 
or other grain, must spring from seed. The filthiest drains, cess¬ 
pools, or streets near human habitations may not cause diphtheria. 
Before this disease appears in a locality the filthy districts 
and the clean ones are alike exempt, but after it appears the 
places having the worst surroundings offer it the most congenial 
home, and it is apt to come there soonest, stay longest, and show 
the most severity at such places. But the cleanest, neatest 
families are not entirely exempt from diphtheria either. Just so 
when roup is not epidemic, the fowls in the foulest poultry houses 
escape its ravages; but when it is prevalent in a country it 
thrives and shows the most malignant form in damp dirty fowl- 
quarters. 
When the roup makes its appearance among fowls, separate 
the sick from the well fowls at once, and thoroughly cleanse and 
disinfect the house. Whitewash the inside of the house, clean 
and disinfect the feed boxes and drinking vessels, and afterwards 
fumigate the house with sulphur. 
Give the well fowls a tablespoonful of castor oil apiece, and 
fumigate them by throwing a handful of sulphur on a pan of 
live coals placed in the house after the fowls have gone to roost. 
Give sulphur, pulverised charcoal, and pepper in the food once a 
day until the disease disappears from your premises. 
If the sick fowls have not advanced beyond the first stage of 
the disease give them a large dose of castor oil, fumigate 
thoroughly with sulphur, feed only cooked food seasoned, and 
in addition give three drops daily of a solution of carbolic acid 
and water—sixty drops of water to one drop of the acid forms a 
solution. In mild cases this course of treatment will cure in less 
than a week. 
After the disease has progressed so far that the head and eyes 
have become swollen, the matter from the nostrils offensive, and 
the mouth filled with ulcers, kill the worst cases and bury them. 
Give the others the same treatment recommended for the mild 
cases, except that chlorate of potash may be given in the drinking 
water once a day, and pulverised chlorate of potash, or burnt 
alum applied twice a day to the ulcers in the mouth and throat. 
Do not return the fowls that have been cured to the general 
poultry house for at least a week after recovery .—{Prairie Ifew.) 
TOY PIGEONS—THE NUN. 
Thebe are few prettier Toy Pigeons than the Nun. In the old 
Pigeon books it always had a prominent place, and is well de¬ 
scribed in the “ Dovecote and Aviary,” a charming book of the 
days of our childhood, but now rather behind the times, since 
Pigeon fancying has become quite a scientific pursuit. Nuns 
were formerly far more popular among fanciers than they are at 
present; this change is, we fear, due to dishonest practices which 
the mania for exhibitions has stimulated. The variety is one 
which it is not easy to breed to anything like perfection, but 
which unfortunately is easily “improved” by trimming. The 
result of this is that unscrupulous exhibitors have so often carried 
off prizes with trimmed birds that honest fanciers have become 
disgusted, and have either given up the breed or keep their birds 
at home, and committees of shows seldom give special classes for 
it. The Nun is not a bird of many points or those very difficult 
of description, but its markings require to be very precise, not 
only for correctness from a fancier’s point of view, but even to 
satisfy an ordinary eye for beauty. It is a small Pigeon with 
small straight ( i.e ., not “ downfaced ”) beak, and has the feathers 
all round the back of the head turned upwards, so as to form a 
cup or shell extending almost from ear to ear. The general 
plumage of the bird is white with the exception of the tail, the 
flight feathers, and the head, which are of some one colour, hence 
doubtless its name, the coloured or black head giving the idea of 
a Nun’s veil. The chief merit of a good specimen is the precision 
of the head and wing markings. 
1, The head should all be coloured within the shell, while the 
curling feathers of the shell itself should be white ; the coloured 
part should extend downwards from the extremities of the shell 
in a nice curve and form a well-rounded semicircle on the breast. 
The difficulty is of course to get these peculiar markings clear 
and defined ; in the shell the coloured feathers are apt to extend 
backwards, and on the other hand white ones often appear on the 
cap of the head itself. It is net difficult to see that a little pluck¬ 
ing of these, which it is almost impossible to discover, may make 
the greatest difference in the appearance of the bird. On the breast, 
again, the semicircle is often ill-defined or misshapen, and the 
same process will make it perfect, or as fanciers call it “ clean cut.” 
2, As to the flights. The old books give the proper number of 
those that should be coloured as six; of late several more have 
found favour with judges. Our idea is that eight or nine give the 
bird the prettiest appearance, causing the white part of the wing 
to look nicely rounded off. If possible there should be the same 
number on both sides. A bird which has this perfection is very 
valuable. 
The eye of the Nun should be “pearl ”— i.e., the iris of a very 
pale pink. The colour of the beak varies, Nuns with black mark¬ 
ings having dark, those of ail other colours pink beaks. The 
colours of the markings are black, red, yellow, and blue, and they 
are called black, red, yellow, and blue “beaded,” according to 
their colour. Blacks are by far the most numerous, and certainly 
the contrast between their general plumage and their markings is 
very pretty. Good reds and yellows are rarely seen ; in English 
lofts blues are almost extinct. We have seen them, and much 
admired the softness of their appearance, especially when mixed 
with the other varieties. The German fanciers occasionally send 
over Nuns with markings reversed — i.e.. the body black or 
coloured, the bead, flights, and tail white. Such are no novelty, 
for Temminck says (we quote the translation of the “ Dovecote 
and Aviary,”) “ the most beautiful specimens are those which are 
