488 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 30, 188S. 
PLANTS IN POTS. 
s. 
Q. 
a. 
s. 
d. 
B. 
d. 
Arbor Vitre (golden) dozen 
6 
0 to 12 
0 
Foliage plants, var., each 
2 
0 to 10 
0 
Aspidistra, dozen 
18 
0 
36 
0 
Genistas, per dozen .. 
8 
0 
10 
0 
Aspidistra, specimen plant 
5 
0 
10 
6 
Geraniums, Ivy, per dozen 
4 
0 
8 
0 
Azaleas, each . 
3 
0 
4 
0 
Heliotrope, per dozen 
6 
0 
8 
0 
Calceolaria, per doz. 
6 
0 
9 
0 
Lobelia, per dozen .. 
4 
0 
6 
0 
Cinerarias, per doz. 
8 
0 
10 
0 
Lycopodiums, dozen .. .. 
3 
0 
4 
u 
Coleus, per doz. 
6 
0 
9 
0 
Marguerite Daisy, dozen ., 
8 
0 
10 
0 
Cyclamen, dozen 
9 
0 
12 
U 
Myrtles, dozen . 
6 
0 
4 
0 
Dracaena, various, dozen .. 
12 
0 
30 
0 
Palms, in var.. each .. 
1 
0 
15 
0 
Dracaena viridis, dozen .. 
9 
0 
18 
0 
„ (specimens) .. .. 
?i 
0 
63 
0 
Erica, various, dozen 
9 
0 
13 
0 
Pelargoniums, per dozen .. 
9 
0 
15 
0 
Euonvmus, var., dozen .. 
6 
0 
18 
0 
„ scarlets, per 
Evergreens, in var., dozen 
6 
0 
24 
0 
dozen 
3 
0 
R 
0 
Ferns, in variety, dozen .. 
4 
0 
18 
0 
Rhodanthe. per dozen 
4 
0 
6 
0 
Ferns (small') per hundred 
4 
0 
6 
0 
Roses, per dozen. 
8 
0 
24 
0 
Ficus elastica, each .. .. 
1 
0 
7 
0 
Spiraea, per dozen 
6 
0 
12 
0 
POULTRY. 
This is the best time of the whole twelve months to make 
changes and improvements in the poultry of the home farm, 
having well in view all possible requirements of the house¬ 
hold, and striving by the light of experience, of past success or 
failure, to render the supply of poultry and eggs perfect. Per¬ 
fection in this matter being easily defined as numbers of 
chickens small in the legs with deep-heshed, plump breasts, plenty 
of eggs all the year round, and a full supply of other poultry— 
Turkeys, Geese, Ducks, Pigeons, Guinea Fowls, each in their 
season, all of the best. 
Easily said but not so easily done by any means, and in our 
connection with home farms we have had much difficulty in the 
maintenance of a really full supply at all, to say nothing of the 
high class produce which we have ever striven for, and in 
the obtaining of which there is no insuperable difficulty. 
At the outset, or whenever reforms are set about in good 
earnest, ways and means must have due attention. If we would 
have quality in our chickens we must have plenty of Dorking 
hens, either coloured or white, and cross them with the Old 
Game cock. When young birds are purchased specially for this 
purpose they must be kept apart from all other breeds. This 
is so obvious that any mention of it might well be thought 
uncalled for. It certainly ought not to be required, but we 
once took much pains in the purchase of young birds for this 
purpose, and then found the home farm bailiff had turned them 
down with other breeds kept specially for their eggs. 
With ordinary care the chickens from this cross are as 
entirely satisfactory as they are superior to all other chickens 
for table. In this matter mere size does not tell, heavy, coarse 
birds of whatever breed having no chance in competition with 
the Game-Dorking chicken. We, therefore, make it a special 
point to keep up an unbroken supply of them. The only way 
of doing this is to get a tolerably clear idea of the actual 
number required, and to allow a liberal margin beyond this for 
all possible contingencies, any surplus chickens being eagerly 
purchased by the higglers or poultry dealers. 
Milk, oatmeal, and suet in mixture is the favourite food of 
the wholesale chicken fattener for market. We have used it 
with satisfactory results when the chicken_s have been shut up 
in fattening coops. But we are bound to say that we have had 
excellent chickens as plump and fat as heart could wish, fed 
on oatmeal made into paste with milk, and some whole maize, 
and they were not shut up at all, but were let run on grass with 
access to abundance of grit and dust, and had as much food as 
they could clear up when it was giveu to them. This requires a 
little judgment and care, so that no food is left lying about for 
sparrows and other pests after the chickens have done. 
For eggs we certainly prefer Minorcas We say this without 
prejudice, and with no wish to detract aught from the merits of 
other breeds. To anyone wishing to start a yard of Minorcas 
or other pare breeds now, we strongly advise procuring a stock 
of young birds in sufficient numbers now to ensure a full supply 
of eggs when wanted. If winter eggs are required, then procure 
March, April, and May hatched pullets. But do avoid buying 
sittings of eggs. We were shown an Orpington cockerel recently 
which we were told had cost 15s., as it was the only living 
I'esult of two sittings of eggs purchased from a famous Orping¬ 
ton breeder. 
Purchased eggs for sittings are notoriously a doubtful 
quantity, and yet they are so tempting, and it seems so delight¬ 
fully simple when one has broody hens. To listen to a certain 
worthy farmer’s wife, as we did in a market train only an hour 
or two before sitting down to write this article, it all seems 
simple enough. Said she, “ We set eighty eggs and got eighty 
chicks, an’ we sold ’em about half grown at five shillin’ a 
couple.” This to two other henwives with whom she was dis¬ 
cussing practical “ home ” farming, and who appeared to receive 
her statement in perfect good faith. But they did raise doubts 
about the rearing of Turkey poults with anything like certainty, 
and we knew they were right in their preference for a barndoor 
fowl or any other good hen as a foster-mother rather than a 
Turkey hen, because she drags them about through long wet 
grass before they are old enough, causing serious losse=. 
WOEK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Drier weather with strong cold wind has caused some difficulty 
in the sowing of Swedes and white Turnips. The only safe plan has 
been to plough, roll, and sow at once, making the complete work a daily 
matter. Though the plant does not come up quite together under 
such practice, there can be no serious objection to it. Good work has 
been done among the early sown Swedes and Mangolds, and though the 
cold weather has checked growth a bit the weeds have been got well under. 
During the past fortnight the value of quick action in manure has 
been admirably shown in the brisk growth of the Wheat dressed with 
nitrate of soda, of spring-sown Oats drilled in with a well balanced 
mixture of chemical manure, and of pasture herbage similarly dressed 
three months ago. Glad are we to have got the Carrots singled and 
weeded. This is an expensive crop, but Carrots are so much in demand 
in the light horse stables, and are so useful among stock during the last 
three months of the year that we always have an acre or two of them. 
Some slight damage may have been done by high, cold wind among 
fruit trees, but there appears to be no serious damage from this or any 
other cause. In Kent there is ample promise of a remarkably abundant 
fruit crop generally. Horse and hand hoes were kept going briskly 
among Strawberries till about a week ago, when the litter carts appeared, 
and the litter or long stable dung was thrown out of the carts by hand 
in small heaps, which were spread along between the rows by men with 
forks, women following with a stick in each hand about the length and 
size of a light walking stick, with which they worked the litter well up 
to and close around the Strawberry plants. 
By this means all splashing of the fruit is prevented, and every 
shower cleanses the litter, washing its nutriment into the soil about th® 
roots. The blossom is wonderfully strong and abundant, giving promise 
of abundance of really fine fruit, which is likely to become so cheap, that 
recourse will be had to jam making early in the season. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
OAMDBN SqUARtS, LOXDON. 
Lat.Sl® 33'40" N.: Loa?. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude 111 feet 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
IX THE Day. 
1895. 
-S fl £ 
« ^ > 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
.9 
(4 
May. 
Sm CO c8 
ca rtco 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Wind. 
Mas. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Sunday .. 
19 
Inchs. 
29-C26 
deg. 
48-7 
deg. 
46-5 
N. 
deg. 
52-8 
deg. 
51-1 
deg. 
46-0 
deg. 
63-1 
deg. 
45-8 
Inohs. 
Monday .. 
20 
29-765 
46-9 
44-1 
N. 
51-9 
55-8 
44-0 
88-9 
43-1 
— 
Tuesday .. 
. 21 
29-735 
54-9 
49-4 
N. 
51-2 
62-1 
42-8 
106-2 
37-0 
— 
Wednesday 
22 
29-863 
52-7 
51-2 
N. 
51-9 
69-0 
41-0 
113-8 
35-4 
— 
Thursday.. 
23 
29-933 
60-4 
53-4 
N.E. 
53-9 
69-9 
45-1 
109-9 
59-1 
0-038. 
Friday 
24 
29-928 
52-7 
50-0 
N.E. 
54-0 
68-9 
46-9 
107-0 
44-1 
— 
Saturday .. 
25 
29-992 
51 8 
49 7 
N. 
54-9 
70-8 
48-9 
108-1 
43 9 
29-835 
52-8 
49-2 
52-9 
63-9 
45-0 
99-6 
41-2 
0-038 
loth. —Overcast throughout. KEMARKS. 
20th.—Overcast almost throughout. 
21st.—Sunshine at times in morning; generally overcast in afternoon. 
22nd.—Overcast early; generally sunny from 10,30 A M. 
23rd.—Bright sunshine all morning; clouded over at noon, thunler and slight shower 
at 1.30 P.M. ; overcast afternoon, and shower at 3.30 p.m. 
24th.—Eine, and generally sunny. 
25th.—Overcast till 10 A.M. ; bright sunshine after. 
Another dry week; thunder on 23rd.—G. J. Si’MONS. 
