152 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t August 12 , xeso. 
suspected patron, unless the lactometer indicated a few degrees 
below 100. It is, we believe, the practice of the New York 
Board of Health to proceed against a dealer only when his milk 
indicates 90°. 
The skimming of milk cannot be detected by the lactometer ; 
in fact, as is generally known, skimmed milk can be watered so 
that it will have the density of good unskimmed milk. Any 
experienced dairyman can tell by the appearance of suspected 
milk whether it has been much skimmed or not. For the detec¬ 
tion of a moderate removal of cream the cream-gauge is a very 
unsatisfactory test, upon which very little real dependance can be 
placed. Many methods have been proposed for the approximately 
accurate determination of fat in milk, which shall not require too 
much time and manipulation, but nearly all of them have failed 
to answer the purpose. Marchand’s lactobutyrometrical test, a 
full account of which is given in the report of the Cornell 
University Experiment Station for 1879-80, has most successfully 
stood the test of time, although it is not yet all that could be 
desired. It requires but little apparatus, and the manipulation 
is easy and short. Such a description of the method as would be 
of any practical use to our inquiring friend would take up so 
much of our space, that we must refer him to the report, which, 
as has been already stated, can be had on application to Professor 
G. C. Caldwell, Ithaca, N.Y .—(New York Tribune.') 
PRESERVING EGGS. 
The provident housewife should now be busied with preserving 
the superfluous eggs of summer against winter scarcity. We 
believe the recipe long ago given by the Hon. Mrs. Arbuthnot, “ the 
Henwife,” par excellence the best. She wrote : “ Once a week 
I clear my baskets, selecting only perfectly formed eggs ; the 
slightest fracture or imperfection in the shell would cause the 
failure of a whole batch. I place the eggs carefully in a jar and 
pour over them lime water, which is made by dissolving quick¬ 
lime in the proportion of two shells to four gallons of water. 
This must stand a day at least till the residue has settled at the 
bottom of the vessel. The clearer portion is then poured over the 
eggs so as to cover them. Should the jar not be full fresh eggs 
are added from time to time, and as the lime water rises it is 
poured into another jar ready to be filled in like manner. Be 
careful that the eggs are at least an inch below the surface of 
the water ; place a plate or lid of wood over them to prevent 
their floating ; tie up the jar and label it, stating the date and 
number of dozens.” 
PIGEONS—PARTING THE BIRDS—FLYING. 
PIGEON FANCIERS must now be thinking of parting their birds 
—at least, if they have accommodation for doing so. Pigeons 
which were mated early will by this time have been occupied 
long enough with the arduous task of rearing successive families. 
We"believe the season has in general been a good one for Pigeons ; 
we certainly have never reared more or stronger birds a 
strange contrast to last year, which we found absolutely disas¬ 
trous to young Pigeons ! It is often difficult to know exactly 
when to part pairs. The hens generally lay again before their 
last squeakers can feed themselves, and so we are tempted to go 
on from nest to nest. If we allow this much longer our birds, 
specially the hens, will not be well through the moult by the 
showing season. Either the last-laid pairs of eggs must be trans¬ 
ferred to common birds, which are stronger and can be allowed 
to breed as long as they like, or they must be destroyed. The 
hens should then at once be removed and placed in a house with¬ 
out cocks and without nesting places. 
We are glad to see that the world in general, apart from mere 
Pigeon fanciers, seems now to take considerable interest in Pigeon 
flying ; at least, we judge so from the constant notices in the 
daily and weekly papers of interesting flights. The Graphic of 
Saturday last states, “ On the 25th July a Pigeon started from 
London at 6 A.M. and arrived at Cologne exactly at 12, thiis 
‘doing’ the distance in twelve hours.” It is well that the public 
should be interested in the subject, for in case of national emer¬ 
gencies homing Pigeons might be of the greatest use, as they were 
during the siege of Paris.— Fancier. 
VARIETIES. 
The Poultry Club. —We understand that a Committee meeting 
of this Club is to be held to-morrow (August 13th), at the Charing 
Cross Hotel, at noon. 
- Bird Preservation. —Lord Dartrey has been calling at¬ 
tention to the general disregard shown in Ireland to the Acts for the 
preservation of birds and seafowl. The police are apparently too 
much occupied with the preservation of human life to think of that 
of the unfortunate birds. 
- Duclair Ducks.—W e learn from a letter to a contemporary 
that Miss Mary Arnold has been searching in France for Duclair 
Ducks. We are much interested in any additions to our aquatic 
domestic birds, and shall be glad to hear the result of the search, still 
more to see the birds in the exhibition pen. 
- We have received the schedules of the poultry shows to be 
held at Winslow on September 16th, and at Worcester on Septem¬ 
ber 18th and 20th. The former is that of the Royal and Central 
Bucks Agricultural Association, which has generally been held at 
Aylesbury. The classes are much the same as usual, and for birds of 
any age. The classification of the Worcester Show is on the 'whole 
good, though we much regret to see but one class for all varieties of 
Dorkings. It is confined to chickens of the year. 
- Heavy Rainfall. —From Leicester we learn that the heavy 
rainfall of Saturday night and Sunday morning has caused the River 
Soar to overflow its banks and submerge large tracts of land. At 
Sileby, Barrow, and Cotes, and the neighbourhood of Loughborough 
the waters are out to a serious extent; in some instances the roads 
are 2 feet under water. The meadows near Leicester present a de¬ 
plorable aspect, sheets of water extending for miles, and in many 
instances the crops have been destroyed. A considerable quantity of 
hay in process of making has been washed away. 
- Wheat in America. —The Prairie Farmer says — “The 
capacity of this country for the production of Wheat seems to be 
almost illimitable. Corn does not thrive well at an elevation greater 
than that of 5000 feet, while Wheat can be raised between 2000 and 
3000 feet higher. In the far west there is an area of two hundred 
million acres of land where Wheat will grow and corn will not. The 
capacity of the Canadian North-west for Wheat production has been 
previously adverted to in these columns. It is believed that in this 
territory alone all the bread needed by the world can be produced. 
The chief obstacle to this last-mentioned consummation is the dis¬ 
tance of that region from the principal markets ; but, as mentioned 
in a previous number, the increase of railway facilities and the 
already existing system of water communication are on the way to 
furnish an early solution of the problem.” 
- Fumigation for Gapes. —Entomologists always prescribe 
as a cure for gapes in chickens to remove the worms from their 
windpipes with a feather or horse hair. The truth is, not one person 
in a hundred has the requisite skill to perform this nice surgical 
operation ; hence the remedy, though often repeated, is valueless. 
A much better way is to kill the parasites with tobacco smoke. 
They then let go their hold on the mucous membrane of the wind¬ 
pipe, which stops the spasms and relieves the chicken at once. They 
are afterward probably thrown out, or at least never give any further 
trouble. The remedy is safe and sure. We have never failed in a 
single instance in this treatment of chickens, although in many 
instances they were in the last stages, and hardly able to walk. The 
smoke may be blown into the nostrils through a pipe by enclosing 
the head in a little bag, or where there are a number of chickens 
affected they may be. put in a basket and covered with a cloth, and 
then placed over an iron or earthen vessel, in which the tobacco may 
be burned, the smoke being forced into the basket by a cloth spread 
around. The chickens should be examined every few seconds, and 
whenever one becomes stupid it should be taken out and laid on the 
ground, where it will soon recover .—(New York Tribune.) 
_Manufacture of Foreign Cheeses. —A few of the conti¬ 
nental cheeses have been on a small scale imitated in this country ; 
it is obvious, however, that they will not be extensively produced 
until the taste of the people has been so educated as to create an 
equivalent demand for them. Such education is, however, no doubt 
going on. The Gorgonzola, a famous Italian cheese,in some respects 
resembling the Stilton, has been very successfully imitated in 
Leicestershire, and there can be no doubt that, with the exception of 
the Roquefort, all the more worthy and popular of the continental 
kinds of cheese can be successfully produced in England. Whether 
