June 3. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
155 
poisonous machineel tree. It is also stated that they will 
readily eat manufactured tobacco without suffering from its 
noxious effects. Dr. Macculloch, in a letter to Sir Walter 
Scott, mentions a he-goat on board ship, whose diet con¬ 
sisted, except on holidays, of pig-tail tobacco, carpenter’s 
chips, and krippered salmon:—‘ The depredation on the 
fish,’ he says, ‘ became so serious that we were obliged to 
hoist them into the shrouds out of his reach. Indeed, I 
never could discover any thing which the goat would not 
eat, except oakum, which always puzzled him.’ During 
winter, goats will feed on indifferent hay or straw, furze, 
heath, thistles, cabbage-leaves, potato-peelings, cold boiled 
potatoes, old ship biscuits, or, in fact, almost any thing that 
is presented to them. 
“ The variety and coarseness of the goat’s food,” con¬ 
tinues Mr. Fennell, “the hardiness of its nature, and the 
ease with which it accommodates itself to either an out or 
in-door life, enable the small landed cottager to keep it 
nearly as well as the farmer. The parishes about Montor, 
near Lyons, without pasturage or meadows, support nearly 
12,000 goats, kept in stables throughout the year, and yield¬ 
ing a produce of more than a million of francs. However 
closely confined, goats are still very healthy animals, and are 
excellent live stock for ships; for when the weather is so 
stormy as to kill geese, ducks, fowls, and almost pigs, goats 
will continue well and lively; and when no dog can keep the 
deck for a minute, a goat will skip about with impunity. 
The goat seems able to bear any climate, and wherever it 
has been introduced it seems to have rapidly multiplied. 
Mackinnon, in his ‘ History of the Falkland Islands,’ 1840, 
observes, that goats are found in one or two islands near 
West Falkland, and have increased amazingty, for the 
original stock were only landed a few years ago by a whaler.” 
The he-goat engenders at a year old. The she-goat can 
produce when seven months old. She generally yeans two 
kids. 
The manure of the goat is perhaps the most powerful of 
all our domestic animals. This was shown by M. Boussin- 
gault, a celebrated French farmer and chemist, in connection 
with the nitrogen which they contain. He published a table 
indicating the quantity of each kind of manure required to 
replace 100 parts of good farm-yard manure, from which he 
concludes that to produce the same effect there must be 
used ( Quar. Jour. Agri., 1848, p. 377) 
18£ parts of the excrements of the goat. 
36 do. sheep. 
54 do. horse, and urine mixed. 
63£ do. do. of the pig. 
73 do. of the solid excrements of the horse. 
97| do. of the mixed excrements of the cow. 
125 do. of the solid do. 
Such are the chief facts which I have deemed likely to be 
useful in inducing the extended keeping of the milch goat. 
It is an animal that, I feel well assured, may he kept with 
equal advantage by the cottager and the dwellers in large 
houses. It is useless to compare it with the cow, or to 
suppose that the goat can supplant it in situations where the 
cow can be readily kept; but in the absence of pastures, and 
in places where there is too little food for cows, I feel well 
convinced that, with ordinary care and attention, and a 
moderate firmness in overcoming the prejudices of those 
unaccustomed to the goat (and without these are found in 
the owner, live stock never are profitable), the value and 
the comfort of a milch goat are much greater than is com¬ 
monly known. 
The waste produce of a garden is exceedingly useful in 
the keep of a goat. By them almost every refuse weed, all 
the cuttings and clearings which are wheeled into the 
rubbish yard, are carefully picked over and consumed. To 
them, the trimming of laurels and other evergreens, pea- 
liaulm, and cabbage-stalks, etc., are all grateful variations in 
their food. In winter, a little sainfoin hay, or a few oats, keeps 
them in excellent condition. In summer, the mowings of a 
small grass plot, watered with either common or sewage 
water, will, with the aid of the refuse garden produce, keep 
a goat from the end of April until October. 
With only a little care, therefore, it is evident that the 
supply of new milk to a family is within the reach of more 
householders than is always regarded as possible, and that, 
to those who will set about it with only ordinary patience 
and industry, many a little dairy may be comfortably esta¬ 
blished by those who have no other conveniences for such a 
purpose than an enclosed yard, or an out building for a 
milch goat, and perhaps a plot of grass in a garden to help 
to find it food. 
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 .” 
Dutch Pits {J. E., Liverpool). —We recollect seeing a good account 
of the mode of constructing these, to suit various purposes, in the third 
volume of The Gardeners' Magazine. Their chief feature is heating by 
dung and tan, chiefly by linings, and a tan or dung-bed inside, defending 
the linings from wet and cold winds, and protecting the glass with straw 
covers, or mats, surmounted, it would be advisable, with a waterproofed 
covering. See Mr. Fish’s statements last week about pits. In forcing 
by dung, it is of importance to avoid, by one of the many means resorted 
to, all access of rank steam from the fermenting material into the atmo¬ 
sphere of the pit. If this is not sufficient, specify your wants, and they 
will be attended to. 
Greenhouse {K. I ).—This matter has received, and will presently 
receive more attention. At present, we will reply shortly to your ques¬ 
tions. 1st. The proportions, 27 feet long, 10 feet wide, 6 feet high in 
front, 9 feet high at back, against a south wall, will answer very well, but 
will neither be so elegant nor so useful as a span-roofed house of similar 
dimensions. 2nd. Expense. —We have lately mentioned the price of 
bricks, timber, glass, and iron piping, and the average price per foot for 
glass and wood complete—we decline just now doing more. The builder 
thence may form his own deductions easily, and thus judge near enough 
of the price of any estimate he may get. Locality influences prices so 
much. A fair price for a good article will be the cheapest in the end. 
3rd. If convenient, we would have a door in each end, and the front part 
of the door in a line with the front shelf, or two feet from the front wall. 
It is always more pleasant to walk through a detached house than to go in 
and return back again. 4th. As to arranging the inside; with 2 feet for a 
shelf, 2ft. 9 in. from the ground, or 3 inches below your fruit glass, and 3 
feet for a path-way, you will have 5 feet as the base for a stage or platform. 
The first, with four or five shelves, would be best for stocky, dwarf plants ; 
two shelves or platforms of wood or slate would be best for larger ones ; 
while for specimens to grow from three to five feet high, one level plat¬ 
form, about 2 ft. 9 in. to 3 feet from the ground, would be the best. 
5th. It will add to the cheapness, and lessen the danger from breakage, 
by having the top lights fixed, and give air by shutters or windows in the 
back wall, opening the front sashes, or ventilators in the wall beneath 
them. Did you, as recently advised, follow this mode, and have strong 
sash-bars wide apart, and thus save the necessity for having above two 
or three rafters you would lessen the expense for wood. 
Yew-Hedge (H. B.). —The yew-liedge thirty feet high, may, without 
any harm, be reduced to any height required, and this is a very good 
time to cut it. Your own proposal to reserve some of the side-shoots, to 
prevent a formal appearance, is a matter of taste. We care nothing for 
a hedge which is not perfectly formal in the strictest sense of the word. 
Tree Mignonette ( Hortense ).—Your tree mignonette has been in 
bloom since last Christmas, and now begins to look yellow ; pick off 
every flower and seed-pod; indeed, cut it in as you would a standard 
rose, and let it produce no more flowers for a long time. We would 
always reserve our tree mignonette for winter use; and by keeping it 
growing, without letting it flower all the summer, we would have it as 
strong as any one could wish. We would now plunge it out of doors, 
and after two or three stoppings we would repot it about the end of July. 
Tropceolum tricolorum after Blooming {Ibid). —By the time 
the flowers are over the leaves will turn yellow ; you then stop watering, 
turn the plant out to a shady place to take its chance till all the stems 
wither, then take a fine meshed sieve and turn the ball into it ; this will 
catch the little tubers, which will be numerous or not, according to the 
strength of the old one, and your close following our instruction. Never 
heed what he, she, or they say or practice, you follow The Cottage 
Gardener’s advice, and he will owe you as many thanks and more 
than you owe to any of the writers. 
Hoses Newly Budded {Jane). —Here is a general rule for newly 
budded roses:—all suckers from the roots to be cut as soon as perceived; 
not to cut out any of the side-shoots from the stem the first year after 
budding, but never to allow such side-shoots to grow beyond six inches 
in length. Another rule is, but it is not absolute, not to allow the first 
shoot from a bud put in last year, to flower; as soon as the rose-bud is 
seen, the shoot ought to be stopped, like a side-shoot, and the M next 
break” will form the head and bloom finely. The leaves getting out 
only on the ends of last year’s shoots, “ tell tales.” Your rose-trees have 
not been pruned, and the roots are either too strong or very weak. You 
will have to cut them back by degrees ; one or two shoots now, the same 
a month hence, and so on to the middle of August, without any harm. 
Some disease has taken the yellow shoots of the Persian rose, have them 
cut out and the head will soon adjust itself. The suckers from the Bour- 
sault will never make stocks, but you can bud on them as they are with 
advantage, if you use strong-growing sorts to train up with the old Bour- 
saults. Roses come from layers, and as freely as carnations, but the 
tongue should be on the upper side in nine cases out of ten. This keeps 
the parts from snapping or breaking off in the operation. 
Nutt’s Hives {J. R. S.).—Our reason for not recommending Nutt’s 
liivgs, is because honey is very seldom obtained from them ; indeed, only 
