140 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 27. 
of beards or long hair. In this opinion I am confirmed by 
an experienced correspondent, Mr. W. H. Place, of Hound 
House, near Guildford, who remarked, in a recent obliging 
communication:—“ I found that the short-haired goats, with 
very little beards, were the best milkers ; but from these I 
seldom had more than four pints a day at the best (I should 
say three pints were the average), and this quantity decreases 
as the time for kidding again approaches (the goat carries 
her young 21 to 22 weeks). They should not be fed too 
well near the time of kidding, or you will lose the kids. In 
winter I gave them hay, together with mangold wurtzel, 
globe and Swedish turnips, carrots, and sometimes a few 
I oats, and these kept up tlieir milk as well as any thing, but 
of course it was most abundant when they could get fresh 
grass. The milk I always found excellent, but I never had 
a sutlicient quantity to induce me to attempt making butter, 
except once, as an experiment; my cook then made a little, 
which was easily done in a little box-churn: the butter 
proved very good. I found the flesh of the kids very tender 
and delicate.” 
1 find also from some East Indian friends, that the milch 
goats of Bombay and Calcutta are the chief source of the 
supply of milk at those places, and that for this purpose 
the Surat breed arc preferred, which are smooth-haired, and 
devoid of either beards or horns. 
I can add little to Mr. Place's information as to their 
food; mine have generally fed out of the same rack as a 
Shetland pony, with whom they are on excellent terms. The 
pony throughout the summer is soiled with cut grass, and I 
notice that the goats pick out the sorrel, sow-thistle, and all 
those weeds which the pony rejects. There is hardly a weed 
or a plant, in fact, which is rejected by the goat. It has 
been calculated, indeed, that— 
The cow eats 
270 
and rejects 
218 
ordinary plants. 
Goat . 
44!) 
120 
Sheep. 
487 
141 
9 > 
Horse. 
203 
212 
Hog . 
72 
271 
99 
In the garden (if they are, by any chance, allowed to 
browse) I notice that they select the rose trees, common 
laurels, arbutus, laurestinas, and the laburnum. Of culinary 
vegetables, they prefer cabbages and lettuces; they also bite 
pieces out of the tubers of the potato. They carefully pick 
up the leaves, whether green or autumnal, of timber trees ; 
of these they prefer those of the oak and elm, and delight 
in acorns and oak-apples. We are accustomed to collect 
and store the acorns for them against winter; spreading 
the acorns thinly on a dry floor, to avoid the mouldiness 
which follows the sweating of acorns laid in a heap. As I 
have before remarked, none of these astringent substances 
affect the taste of their milk; and I may here observe, that 
with ordinary gentleness there is no more difficulty, if so 
much, in milking a goat than a cow. 
{To be continued.) 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. All communications should be addressed “ To the Editor of 
the Cottage Gardener , 2, Amen Corner , Paternoster Row, London 
Tenant Removing Shrubs (C . S.).—The book from which you have 
obligingly sent us an extract is no authority; nor is the decision in 
Cooke v. Anderson. It was merely the decision of a SheritPs Jury 
summoned to assess damages. If the defendant was a nurseryman (and 
we are not told that he was not) he undoubtedly could remove the shrubs. 
Then, again, we have no copy of the case laid before Mr. Tidd ; the facts 
of that case would probably remove all doubts. You may remove your 
shrubs, See., if you please, but we are of opinion that if you do, and there 
is no agreement to justify you, your landlord may recover damages from 
you. It is a very true axiom, be assured, that no man should be his own 
lawyer. We do not see the importance of establishing the right in the 
tenant to remove shrubs, because it is in his power before he enters upon 
any premises to have an agreement with his landlord permitting him to 
do so. 
Anagallis Cuttings (Ignoramus ),^It will much benefit your three 
little anagallises to cut off their tops ; do it at once, and'try them 
again as cuttings, but keep the rooted halves, or older plants, in pots all 
the summer tor store plants to keep all the winter. This is always the 
best tune to look out anagallises for next year, as they do not lift well in 
the autumn, nor strike readily from cuttings at that season. They keep 
better in rather strong loam. 
Tagetes Lucida (Ibid).— It is liable to go off as it did with you after 
cutting down; it is best treated as a biennial: sowing seeds of it, or 
making cuttings every year. 
Stephanotis floribunda (R. E.) —The “ fuss,” as is always the 
case in such instances, was merely to procure seeds for the purpose of 
examination, to prove if the right place was assigned to the plant by the 
botanist who first described it. Botanists, like lawyers, look sharp after 
each other. A few lines on the “ variety,” would indeed be interesting; 
but recollect Asclepiads offer a dangerous ground for any speculations ; 
bare facts only will suit. Has the cottony matter about the seeds been 
usefully employed ? 
Poultry Chat. —IF. A. E. says, “ I was witness to a curious fact the 
other day of a hen removing eggs from one nest to another. I had placed 
a set of eggs for a hen to sit upon. Before she took to her nest, another 
hen in the next box, separated only by a wooden partition, wishing to 
lay, and not liking my having taken her nest egg away, actually, with 
her beak, pulled four eggs over into her box. I called my family to sec 
it, and again put back the eggs, when she again pulled them back with 
her beak. Another hen I have has done the same thing twice, though I 
did not actually see her. I have been much interested in the statements 
of poultry in your excellent publication. I am keeping an exact account 
of mine, which are very fine Dorkings. From eleven hens I had as fol¬ 
lows :— January , 94 eggs; February , 122 ; March, the first fortnight 93, 
the last fortnight from five liens (the rest sitting) 5Q— 152; April , from 
five hens the first three weeks, and three hens the last week, 8/. I have 
been most unfortunate in chickens, almost all the eggs proving addled, 
without any reason I can assign. Also eggs with thin shells, although 
the fowls have abmidutice of lime. They are fed on barley, but have the 
run of fields.” 
Egg-eating Fowls. — G. S. says, “ The cause is almost always a dis¬ 
like to the nest from being too much exposed. If the eggs are laid in a 
place they like hens will not eat them. When the egg-eating first 
occurred, I placed the contents of the mustard-pot in an egg-shell, which 
had the desired effect for some time.” 
Feeding Young Goldfinches (E. D. B.). —The best food for young 
goldfinches is scalded rape-seed and sopped-bread mixed together, and 
given to the birds about every half-hour or hour ; and it is indispensable 
to their well-doing, that a drop of water should be dropped in tlieir 
mouths after each feeding, which is readily done by dipping the stick, 
flattened at the end a little, in some water, and letting it drop into their 
mouths, should they be open, and if not, the moment the drop of water 
touches the tip of the beak, they will perceive the moisture, and readily 
admit it.— William Raynek. 
Nectarines (J. H. } Derby ).—Our correspondent says, that the tree 
has produced more than one fruit from each blossom. Surely your necta¬ 
rine-blossoms must have been in bunches. We have often seen twins 
attached to each other, the product of monstrous blossoms, but do not 
remember to have seen more. Your fruit will require thinning im¬ 
mediately. You may reduce them to two-inch distances now, and con¬ 
tinue removing some occasionally, until five to seven inches apart near 
the end of the stoning period ; say, beginning of July. 
English Rhubarb.— M. says : “ In a late number of your Magazine, 
I noticed the statement that rhubarb-root grown in England is of little 
or no use. Calling to buy some Turkey rhubarb seed in Manchester 
lately, I was told there is a good deal grown near Sheffield, and sold as 
foreign. I was also informed that a tincture is made from the root. Wc 
have grown the Turkey, that with a deeply-indented leaf, for many years, 
and so well is its value known, that nearly all our roots have been stolen. 
I have found it most efficacious, both as an aperient and tonic medicine ; 
in the latter case, in combination with ipecacuanha and Castile soap, and 
have received the grateful acknowledgments of those benefited thereby. 
The sort now in use, with a pointed leaf, is also most useful, but not so 
powerful, requiring a larger quantity. I will only add, that the stalks make 
most excellent vinegar, which has been greatly admired.” There is no 
doubt that the roots of English-grown rhubarb are purgative, but it is 
equally true that medical men state that a larger dose of it is required 
than of that produced in a hotter climate. 
Bees (J. K .).—Although your hive is a strong one, it is not sufficiently 
so to allow of the bees going up into the bell-glasses so early ; it would 
have been better to have waited another fortnight before putting them 
on, especially in this ungenial spring. Indeed, it is always better to let 
the bees show evident signs of want of room before putting on the 
glasses, and then they will enter them and commence working at once. 
Bees (IF. A. E.). —When a cap or super-hive is put upon a stock of 
bees it is best to open all the holes, if the cap or super will cover them ; 
if not, only such as it will cover. 
Over-fertile Soil (A Constant Reader). —It is rarely wc hear com¬ 
plaints of this kind. If it arises, as you suppose, from the turf and leaf 
compost, trench your ground, turning the surface-spit to the bottom. 
This null probably prevent your plants producing more leaves than 
flowers. 
Diseased Melon-leaves (Surah). —Give them more bottom- heat, 
and more air. 
Moving Hive (L. S.).— If you had attended to what has appeared 
in our pages more than once, you would not have had to mourn over 
your 200 benumbed bees. Put them under the hive at night. When a 
hive is obliged to be moved, it must be done only a few inches at a time, 
or the bees will next day fly to their old locality, and be injured, as in 
your case, or entirely destroyed. 
Seed Crusher. — An Old Subscriber wishes to know where he can 
purchase a small mill for crushing barley and other corn for feeding 
chickens. 
