378 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 7, 1£91. 
calculated to place the matter before farmers in a manner to 
arrest their attention and promote their best interests, that we 
emphasise its teaching, and extend its usefulness by bringing 
the pith of it under the notice of our readers. 
At the outset the grave charge is brought against poultry 
shows of “ useful properties having been almost entirely ignored, 
and prizes have been awarded for accuracy of marking in feathers, 
symmetry of comb, and other fancy points, having no reference 
whatever to the value of fowls as market or table poultry, or as 
egg producers.” Deterioration all round in practical utility is, we 
are told, the outcome of such shows. We agree that undue 
stress has been laid upon fancy points, yet we must claim that 
the prizes now offered at some of the shows for dead poultry 
and eggs is a step in the right direction, and the extension of 
such classes is a thing much to be desired. 
It is usefully explained that the constantly increasing numbers 
of imported eggs, especially from France, is not owing to the 
existence of large poultry farms abroad, but rather to fowls being 
kept everywhere, “ every peasant proprietor, every hordier, with 
perhaps two or three acres of land, keeps fowls, the produce from 
which is collected by dealers who scour the country.” Well, we 
have something very similar to this in the great chicken rearing 
district of Sussex, where every cottager and farmer rears all he 
•can, some sending them to London dealers, but the majority being 
icollected by the dealers’ carts. Although the middlemen have the 
bulk of this business in their hands, it is still a very profitable one 
to the producer. But it involves constant attention and unflagging 
industry, for the chicken rearer is on the alert from dawn till 
dewy eve, and it is precisely a want of such attention that causes 
poultry to hold such an insignificant place in the farming industry 
of this country. From 200 to 300 head of poultry can be kept 
profitably on a single farm, and the number varies according to 
■accommodation or system. No doubt portable poultry houses 
-offer great facilities for the production of eggs, and with a visit to 
them twice daily there should be no difficulty in the way of 
keeping the maximum number of hens on even a medium-sized 
farm. Given that number and a good ordinary strain of farmyard 
Black Minorcas, if we place the average produce at 150 eggs 
per hen we have the respectable total of 15,000 eggs for every 
100 hens kept. 
Even when eggs only are the primary consideration there must 
be a systematic rearing of chickens every season, and for winter 
■eggs early broods before May must be had. Mr. Tegetmeier gives 
much valuable advice about this matter. The nests, in accordance 
with Nature, should be on the damp ground, or in boxes containing 
moist earth. When the hen has sat a week the eggs are tested at 
night or in a dark room. Use a piece of stiff cardboard having an 
oval hole in it slightly smaller than an egg. Hold the cardboard 
upright between the eye and a lamp, place the egg against the hole. 
If the light shines through the egg clearly it is not fertile ; if it 
does not, and the egg appears quite dark, it is fertile, and may be 
replaced under the hen. The other eggs should be withdrawn 
from the hens and kept as food for the prospective chickens. Of 
this food he says —“ The first food for the chicken should be egg 
and milk (the clear eggs removed from the hens answer admirably 
for this purpose). Each egg should be beaten up with a couple of 
tablespoonfuls of milk, and set into a custard-like mass by the side 
of the fire or in the oven. This should not be given to the 
chickens until the hen has been abundantly fed with corn, and has 
satisfied her own hunger. For other food I much prefer to use a 
little Canary seed or Egyptian dari to crushed grits, which are apt 
to become rancid from the external covering having been removed. 
Bread and milk can also be given to the chicks, and sweet meal 
and milk ; but much loss in rearing chickens occurs by the use 
of old meal which has been exposed to the air after grinding, and 
has become pungent and acrid.” 
Of breeds, preference is given to Black Minorcas for eggs ; we 
are able to endorse this selection, as we have found it entirely 
satisfactory. For table poultry a cross between the Dorking and 
either the old fashioned English Game or Indian Game is re¬ 
commended as affording a hardy, early matured and very plump 
breed. This is of special importance to home farmers, to whom 
repeatedly recommended the first cross. The fallacy of crossing 
we have for mere size, as has been done with Cochins, Brahmas, 
Langshans, &c., is explained, and the wisdom of careful selec¬ 
tion and caution in bringing about changes is also usefully ex¬ 
pounded. 
In fattening for market or table, feeding three times a day with 
coarse fresh oatmeal mixed with milk, the first meal being given 
at sunrise, is advised. About a. fortnight being the time given 
as necessary to fatten fowls. When cramming is resorted to 
the oatmeal is mixed with boiling milk, and a little mutton fat 
added to the mixture. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Our cross-bred lambs from first cross Suffolk ewes and Hampshire 
Down sheep are fine, sturdy, vigorous animals, just a little larger, perhaps, 
than those from pure Suffolk dams and Hampshire Down sheep. ■ All of 
them were early lambs, and are now so forward that we have had to 
consider carefully what shall be done with them. The best ewe lambs 
will be fed so as to keep them in lusty condition, as ave intend breeding 
from them next season, but they will not run with the tups till next 
November, or till they are between ten and eleven months old. There 
will, probably, be a few barrens among them, but only a few ; for at 
that age ewe lambs in high condition have hitherto answered very well, 
and we prefer the little extra outlay involved for food to waiting 
another season for a lamb. For-ward wethers will be pushed on so as to 
come out for the butcher in August or September, but later ones will 
not be fed so highly, as they will be held over as hoggets for winter 
folding. 
Many graziers arc almost at their wit’s end for food for the stock ; 
well will it be if they are not also straitened so much in means and 
credit as to have to sell stock at a sacrifice. Better not do so if it can 
possibly be avoided, for a change of wind and a few warm showers 
would now quickly clothe the fields with verdure. The trial is certainly 
a severe one, and animals in purely grazing districts are falling off sadly 
in condition. 
Meanwhile work on arable land goes gaily on, harrows, rollers, and 
cultivators being in full swing, and root crops are being got in with un¬ 
usual celerity. Horse-hoeing corn, too, is being done with unusual 
quickness, and, what is more to the purpose ,with excellent results, for 
weeds uprooted now under a clear sky and drying wind are soon dead. 
Much caution is necessary under present conditions of weather in 
harrowing spring corn. This is done to destroy Charlock, but it 
frequently loosens the Barley plant so much in the soil as to cause it to 
suffer severely. We have had Barley so badly infested with Charlock 
that we have ploughed it in Barley and Charlock together, and sown 
Oats. Some weak pieces of corn will have a dressing of 1 or 2 cwts. 
per acre of nitrate of soda should the weather become showery. Where 
mixed seeds are sown with Oats it is better to refrain from top-dressing 
with manure, and so avoid the risk of a too vigoroirs growth of corn 
to the damage of the “seeds.” 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 82' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
on a 
Hygrome- 
d . 
*0+^ • 
Shade Tem- 
Radiation 
oti > 
ter. 
perature. 
Temperature. 
April and May. 
g O'*"* 
iS r-l 
In 
On 
MS os 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Qo 
Max. 
Min. 
snii. 
Rrass 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday.26 
30.032 
42.8 
39.0 
E. 
45.9 
53.0 
32.2 
92.7 
23.4 
— 
Monday.27 
29.814 
48.1 
44.9 
E. 
44.9 
61.3 
31.9 
100.4 
23.0 
Tuesday .... 28 
29.5.55 
67.1 
47.2 
N.W. 
45.9 
66.3 
40.9 
111.3 
32.4 
— 
Wednesday.. 29 
29.816 
48.3 
40.8 
S. 
47.7 
6i.O 
37.6 
68.8 
27.9 
— 
Thursday.... 30 
29.713 
64.9 
51.2 
S.W. 
47.2 
63.9 
46.4 
97.1 
43.0 
— 
Friday . 1 
29.649 
65.2 
61.6 
S.W. 
48.9 
59.9 
62.0 
92.7 
50.9 
0.168 
Saturday.... 2 
29.658 
61.6 
48.6 
s. 
48.9 
67.3 
46.3 
96.8 
41.2 
0.169 
29.747 
51.1 
46.2 
47.1 
69.7 
41.0 
94.0 
34.6 
0.837 
REMARKS. 
2Gth.—Bright early; overcast aftei 8 A.M., but a good deal of sunshine in afternoon. 
27th.—Bright till 3 P.M., then generally cloudy. Solar halo at 5 p.M, 
28th.—Brilliant morning; cloudy at times in afternoon. 
29th.—Cloudy, with spots of rain. 
30th.—Overcast with occasional drizzle early; fair day, with occasienal sunshine. 
May 1st.—Gale from S.W. and heavy rain in morning ; frequent sun in afternoon. 
2ad.—Overcast, with one or two heavy showers in morning; alternate rain aud sunshine 
In afternoon. 
At last the temperature has risen to the average, the harometer has fallen, and we 
have a little rain.—G. J. Stmons. 
