290 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 5, 1883. 
good feeding. They should not generally have much root food, espe¬ 
cially of Mangold, without meal mixed with the roots cooked by 
steam. 
Bottled Milk. —A new milk company has been formed in New 
York for supplying pure milk delivered in bottles. The cows which 
furnish the milk are healthy and well fed. They are inspected 
regularly by veterinary experts, as are also the stables and drinking 
water, by members of the Board of Health or other suitable persons. 
The milk is inspected every day to see that the temperature is right, 
and that it is clean and perfectly sweet. The milk is packed in glass 
bottles holding a pint or quart, and these are sealed and then sur¬ 
rounded by ice. The seals are never broken except by the consumer. 
The price received is 10 cents per quart, while ordinary milk usually 
retails at 8 cents, though it varies, according to the supply at different 
seasons, from 6 to 10 cents. Cream is also bottled and sold by the 
same system at 40 cents per quart. The Secretary of the Company 
states that except just after a fall of snow it is next to impossible to 
deliver clean wholesome milk to New York families by the ordinary 
methods. Most of the milk is sold from 40-quart cans with wide covers, 
and in retailing it through the street the covers are removed for every 
quart of milk sold, and while the milk for each customer is being 
taken out with a long-handled small dipper, the street dust which 
often fills the air like clouds, is blown into the milk in spite of the 
best efforts of the milk pedlar. The Company has been organised 
but a short time, but is gaining the confidence of its customers. The 
physicians are the best friends of the Company and the enterprise, as 
they find it is about the only milk they can safely recommend or use 
freely .—(American Cultivator.) 
OUR FOREIGN EGG SUPPLY. 
per great hundred was remunerative to our French neighbours, or it 
is not probable that the trade would have increased nearly threefold. 
It may also be remarked that, with an increased demand and a more 
certain and well-established market in this country, the price rose 
rapidly; and although the next ten years show an average value of 
only 7s. 1 ^d. per great hundred, the price that in 1870 was only 
6«. 1 hcl. was in 1871 7s. 9d .; in 1S72, 8s. 2f cl .; in 1873 (the highest 
average attained), 9s. Of d.\ in 1874, 8s. Ilf d. For the next five 
years the value remained somewhat stationary, with perhaps a slight 
tendency to reduction, while the same remark holds good in reference 
to the number of eggs imported. We can fairly deduce, however, 
from the figures given above, that our French neighbours must have 
pocketed very large profits from the egg trade with this country 
during the last ten or eleven years, and therefore that, if English 
farmers had given to poultry-farming, or rather to egg-producing, 
the proper and necessary attention, they would have profited by no 
small proportion of the money that found its way abroad. It is 
certainly difficult to see why egg-producing, which is so large a 
source of profit to our neighbours, should prove itself a source of 
loss when undertaken by British farmers. 
From the table given above it appears that fifteen or sixteen eggs 
are annually imported from France for every head of population in 
Great Britain ; and if it is taken into consideration that the French 
do not import any eggs from other countries for their own con¬ 
sumption, and that they are greater consumers of eggs than the 
English, probably requiring twenty eggs per head of population, it 
will at once be seen what an important industry egg-producing is in 
France. It should be observed that the average price, from year to 
year, is the price at which eggs are imported into this country. A 
deduction for profit to several men must be made, and this leaves a 
greater margin for profit to the producer in this country as against 
his competitor abroad. We purposely make no mention of the 
freight from France to London, as this item of expense will be fully 
compensated by the cost of carriage in England, unless farmers 
succeed in making special arrangements with the railway companies 
for quick transit at reduced rates .—(British Trade Journal.) 
It is a well-known fact that England is largely dependent upon 
France, and in a lesser degree upon Belgium and Holland, for her 
supply of eggs and poultry. The quantity and value of the eggs 
imported into this country has for years past been increasing rapidly. 
The table which we give below, compiled from the Board of Trade 
returns, showing the number and value per great hundred (120) of 
the eggs received from France alone, will give some idea of the 
growth of this trade during recent years, and is a conclusive proof, 
if any be needed, that it is high time the farmers of England began 
to consider poultry as being a source of profit quite as worthy of 
their attention as their Shorthorns, Southdowns, or Berkshires. 
From the Board of Trade returns for March it appears that no less 
than 199,922,640 eggs, valued at £619,236, were imported into 
England during the first three months of the year 1882, and tbi3 
compares with a total of 170,977,040 eggs, valued at £569,456 
received during the same period in 1881. It seems to us that 
English farmers would have no great difficulty in diverting into 
their own pockets a large proportion of the considerable sums of 
money which now find their way across the Channel in payment for 
the eggs we receive. 
The table which is annexed goes back to the year 1856, with the 
view of showing the enormous increase in the importation, and the 
gradual augmentation in value per great hundred. From 1856 to 
1874 inclusive the returns are given for alternate years, and from 
1871 to 1879 yearly :—■ 
Average Price 
Number of Eggs Value. per 120. 
1856 
Imported. 
177.230,600 
£ 
278,422 
s. d. 
.. 5 8 
1858 
131,685,000 
303,617 
5 5 
1860 
167,695,400 
478,658 
6 11 
1862 
232,321,200 
593,813 
.. 6 1 
1864 
335,298,240 
835,028 
5 11* 
1866 
438,878,880 
1,105,653 
6 0| 
1868 
383,969,040 
1,009,285 
6 3 
1870 
430,842,210 
1,102,080 
6 1$ 
1872 
405,701,040 
1,394,152 
8 2f 
1874 
538,087,440 
2,913,725 
8 11 j 
1875 
580,212,360 
2,078,659 
.. 8 7 
1876 
502,534,800 
1,864,135 
8 10$ 
1877 
441,369,920 
1,602,038 
8 9 
1878 
448,190,400 
1,599,776 
8 6] 
1879 
412,935,720 
1,391,609 
8 1 
A study of this table will show how, with slight variations, the 
price of eggs per great hundred has gradually risen from year to 
year. Whereas for the ten years from 1856 to 1864 the average 
price was 6.?., it rose from 1864 to 1874 to 7s. 1 %d., and during the 
five years from 1875 to 1879 the average was within a fraction of 
8#. Id. It is, we think, fair to assume that the average price of 65 . 
Poultry with Scaly Legs. —I am happy to inform the Editor of 
the Journal of Horticulture that the remedy which he recommended 
for the scaly legs of poultry in the paper of Feb. 1st has been quite 
successful. The scales came off in large pieces, and the legs are now 
clean and healthy. I am much obliged for the advice.—A. S. 
[We shall be glad to know whether it is the sulphur or vaseline 
remedy that has proved efficacious.] 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Incubation (An Old Reader ).—Artificial hatching occupies just the same 
time as the natural process. For full details of incubators see "POULTRY,” 
published at this office weekly, price Id. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden Square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40” N.; Long. 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, Ill feet. 
date. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Rain. 
1883. 
March. 
Barome¬ 
ter at 32« 
and Sea 
Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
| Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
deg 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 2.5 
29.817 
31.8 
S.W. 
36.8 
44.4 
27.2 
86.1 
23.5 
— 
Mon. 26 
2:1.243 
32.4 
N.W. 
37.3 
46.2 
32.2 
92.2 
29.4 
0.033 
Tues. 27 
29.510 
85.1 
33.0 
N. 
37.7 
452 
26.3 
94.4 
23.3 
0.010 
Wed. 28 
30.079 
36.3 
32.9 
N. 
37.4 
45.8 
27.7 
94.4 
23.9 
— 
Thurs. 29 
30.144 
42.8 
37.4 
s. 
37.6 
48.6 
28.4 
87.3 
24.1 
0/38 
Friday 30 
29.436 
46.2 
44.8 
s. 
39.0 
52.6 
42.') 
55.4 
37.9 
0.1C8 
Satur. 31 
29.928 
40.0 
37.4 
N.W. 
39.5 
57.0 
32.5 
101.4 
28.5 
— 
29.740 
38.9 
35.7 
37.9 
48.5 
30.9 
87.3 
27.2 
0.189 
REMARKS. 
25th.—Bright and cold. 
26th.—Very fine bright morning ; overcast in afternoon ; thickly falling snow 
from 4 to 5.30 P.M. 
27th—Very cold, frequent shivers of snow, with bright sun at intervals. 
28th.—Bright and fine throughout. 
29th.—Fine and bright, with much wind and dust. 
30th.—Dull and rainy until 5 P.M. ; fine starlight evening ; much warmer. 
31st.—Fine, calm, bright day. 
A fine but rather wintry week. Temperature rather more than 3° above 
that of the preceding week, but yet about 3° below the average. The last day 
of the week and of the month was warm and spring-like. G. J. SYMONS. 
