August 19. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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325 
d’Heronville followed my example, ami Juliette also, when 
she knew wliat had happened. 
“ We puzzled our brains to guess how the chicken could 
get under the pot. Juliette penetrated the mystery. This 
pot was the same one with which the coachman had fed the 
fowls. The chickens, jumping upon the edge of the pot, 
had upset it, and one of them was caught in the trap. It 
had seen the light through the cracks and broken places, 
and had tried to get rid of its covering.”— -L'Enfant du 
Carnaval. Vol. ii. chap. 7. 
Cocks and hens penetrate, now as then, here, there, and 
everywhere. No hen is old enough or ugly enough to be 
destroyed. Many a hen “ with a happety leg,” survives 
some accident which has lamed her for life ; but she seems 
to be only the more highly respected on that account. 
! Perhaps that deference to the Scotch notion may be one 
cause for the overflowing superabundance of eggs. At the 
time and place where these words were written (May 17, 
1852), eggs were, then and there, sold at the rate of 17 
sous for 20. They had been even cheaper, namely 10 sous 
for 20 ! And ah this while supplying the voracious demand 
of the English market, to which, however, all the towns 
along the coast, Dunkerque, Gravelines, Montreuil, Dieppe, 
&c., help to contribute. It is astonishing how I can get my 
omelette at such a reasonable rate. 
Throughout France, eggs are sold by the hundred of 101 
(or with very hberal dealers 105); the quarter of a hundred, 
or quarteron, is always 20, and the demi-quarteron 13, so that 
during the weeks that eggs were, in this market, 10 sous the 
quarteron, they were cheaper than three a penny. I could 
eat two eggs every morning for breakfast, and could get 
change out of a penny for that item of the meal! D. 
(To be continued.) 
PO ULTRY VARIETIES—M ALAYS. 
I have been much interested in reading the various 
descriptions, &c., of the different classes of poultry which 
have, from time to time, appeared in The Cottage Gar¬ 
dener, and shall be glad to And a continuance of articles 
written by able writers, who have made any particular class 
of poultry their fancy. It will then follow, that those who 
have inclination, as amateurs, to commence keeping poultry, 
will have some sound standard to follow in selecting stock 
birds for that purpose. It has seldom been my experience 
to meet with an amateur who was thoroughly conversant 
with the different points of merit in many varieties of fowls. 
I have found many who may, for years, have paid attention 
to one particular breed, and whose judgment on that par¬ 
ticular class was undoubtedly sound, who appeared to know 
but little of the merits of other descriptions. If any such 
would, from time to time, enlighten and gratify the public 
with their opinions and experience on such birds as they 
have paid such attention to, it might prove of much value. 
There can he httle doubt but that the breeds of poultry in 
this country have been much improved during the last few 
years, and much of this improvement must be attributed to 
the poultry shows which have been instituted, and carried 
out with so much spirit, and which have induced parties in 
easy circumstances to spend both time and money in rivalry 
with their neighbours. That this spirit is increasing, is 
evident from the prize sheets which are now before the 
public. 
I observe, with pleasure, that in the Birmingham prize, 
list for 1852, a distinct class is allotted to the different 
colours of Cochin-Chinas. This, I think, is likely to work 
well, as many first-rate birds are produced in both light and 
dark colours; and it has appeared to me, that if no en¬ 
couragement was to be given to the breeders of good birds, 
unless they happened to be the fancy colour, that the 
stimulus to the fancy would receive a severe check-. For 
though light buff is at present a prevailing fancy, this fancy 
may suddenly change, and parties who have paid great 
prices for stock birds of the fancy colour may be completely 
chagrined at finding another season that the furor is for 
dark or white. 
The article headed “Malay Fowls," in No. 195, appears to 
me to be written by some one well versed in the points and 
weights of good birds of this description, and contains also 
good suggestions as to the improvement of other breeds 
from it before it becomes quite extinct. For some years I 
have paid considerable attention to this breed of fowls, and 
know that it is difficult, even now, to procure really good 
birds of this class (which, by-the-by, I esteem fully as 
good as their more favoured neighbours, the Cochins); and 
I should have been glad to have seen something more of 
a spirit to recover and improve the breed, rather than let it 
die out for want of encouragement. 
It lias been considered, at the two last shows at Bir¬ 
mingham, that the birds in this class were deficient in 
merit; and I would suggest, would not attention to their 
improvement have been more likely to have been drawn by 
the offer of premiums at least equal to the Spanish and 
Cochins ? That they have points of real merit, I think no 
one will dispute who has had opportunity of cutting them 
up, and knowing at the same time the ages of the fowls so 
disposed of. Last year I raised a number of them, and at 
six to eight months old killed most of the young cocks for 
the table, and found them weighing from seven to nine 
pounds each. This is no mean weight, and the quality was 
quite on a par with any ordinary fowl. They are birds that 
are easily kept within circumscribed limits—mine rarely 
attempt to fly over a wall three feet high. They attain a 
great weight in a short time, lay a rich egg, have strong 
constitutions. They are noble-looking birds, and will repay 
those whose fancy leads them to give them a trial. Let us 
not quietly see good stock like this sink into oblivion, but 
let such of your readers who have any doubt of their merits 
give them one trial, and judge for themselves.— One in 
the Ring. 
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,” 
X. Y. Z.—We have two letters lying at our office directed for “X. V. 
Z. if the party for whom they are intended will send us a ready- 
directed and stamped envelope, we will enclose them in it, and post 
them. 
Secretary of the Liverpool Poultry Snow.—In answer to 
many queries for the name of this gentleman, we reply, it is Mr. H. 
White, Warrington ; but we confess we think that the society of which 
he is the very efficient official, and, indeed, all similar societies, would do 
no more than justice to us, as well as to themselves, by advertising tlicir 
meetings, with the particulars desired by intending exhibitors. 
Alpine Strawderry (J. B . H .). —If you mean the white variety, we 
can testify that it is not lost, for we have it in our own garden. Cun any 
reader tell where “ the true Chinese breed of pigs is to be purchased ? ” 
Taking Honey.— “ Rusticus” seeks “information as to the best 
means of taking honey, without destroying the bees, from a swarm of 
this year, treated originally according to the plan advocated by a £ Country 
Curate,* ” in which instance “ the comb is well filled, and the hive has 
thriven well; the swarm having been much enlarged by following the 
plan of removing the old stock, and putting the swarm in its place.” 
And your correspondent further asks—“ Wiil common driving answer, or 
if not, what is the best plan ? ” Fumigating with pup-bull, or any other 
narcotic, I do not, under any circumstances, recommend, where clean 
honeycomb is a desideratum. Indeed, I am as averse as ever to fumi¬ 
gation at all where it can be avoided. Though I often have occasion to 
adopt it, and find it useful in experiments, it has generally proved to me 
a filthy, unsatisfactory process in itself. If bees are to be saved, there¬ 
fore, I still continue to patronise driving, though I cannot ensure its 
universal success. Vet I have never found it fail ultimately where the 
hive is strong in bees and full of comb. In very heavy hives, however, 
a new difficulty presents itself; the comb may become disengaged, and a 
smash ensue. Nothing but extreme care will prevent this. It would 
not answer as “ Rusticus ” suggests, to remove the swarm away, and put 
the old stock in its place, which is close by, because only the older and 
useless bees would leave the swarm, besides which, 1 imagine there would 
be much fighting. If the bees must be saved, cither fumigation or 
driving must be had recourse to. Rut I have lately come to the con¬ 
clusion, I-think, that the brimstone-pit is, after all, the most profitable, as 
certainly it is the least troublesome method, and as little cruel a way as 
any of managing spoliation-stoclcs in autumn. It is the most “ profit¬ 
able,” because I believe that but a very small proportion of the full-grown 
bees which are added to a stock in August survive till February, while 
they will certainly consume much honey. I am now, therefore, only 
careful to save the ceiled brood-comb, of which large quantities, “ spes 
gregis ” (the hope of the swarm), are found in all good stocks in early 
autumn. It is the issue of this brood upon which depends the pros¬ 
perity of every stock another year. For the best way of doing this, 
see the “English Bee-keeper” (Rivington’s), pages fil and ltia. If, 
however, a stock intended for preservation is weak in bees in autumn, 
then the addition of any full-grown bees is of coarse advantageous, as 
tending to induce the queen to lay at once with renewed vigour. Let your 
correspondent, if he still is bent on saving all his bees, try what driving 
