50 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 25. 
sized pigs I have supposed you to have. If your pigs 
are a quick-feeding sort (and no others ought you to 
buy), you will find that in five weeks from the time 
you first began to feed them well they will be ready 
for the butcher. Give them the oats when theirtrouglis 
arc empty, so that they may swallow it dry. A little 
salt mixed with the potatoes sharpens their appetites. 
I have just now killed a pig fatted on this plan (with 
the addition of a little refuse milk from my dairy), 
and the pork is quite equal to any that has been 
fatted on barley meal, and at very much less expense. 
Some future day I will give you some receipts for salt¬ 
ing the pork, for, however well your pig may have 
been fatted, the bacon will not be worth eating un¬ 
less it has been properly cured. 
Poultrv. —According to my promise I now give 
you a few more hints as to the management of your 
poultry. I hope some few of my readers followed the 
advice I gave them last month; if so, you have by 
this time a sufficient number of eggs to “sit your 
hen.” I suppose your “ first hen” will be a pullet, con¬ 
sequently she will not cover more than nine eggs. 
Now, if you have had any luck, you have at least 18 
eggs. I can fancy I hear you say, “What nice break¬ 
fasts the other nine will make.” Not so fast, my 
young friends; remember—“ Who dainties love, will 
beggars prove.” Try hard to sell your eggs. If there 
is a gentleman’s house in your parish take them there, 
and I dare say the lady will give you 6d or 8 d for 
them, if you tell her you are trying the poultry plan 
from The Cottage Gardener. When once you have 
pocketed the money, put it carefully by, and next 
month I will tell you what to do with it. Now, to 
return to the nine eggs, put them into an old hamper 
or behind a bundle of wood that will not be moved, 
and place your hen on them. Look carefully about 
to see if there are any rat holes; if you find one, 
collect some broken glass and stop it up with that. 
I have had whole nests of eggs run off with by these 
mischievous creatures. There is also another enemy, 
a two-legged one, you must guard against—I mean a 
young child. I do not know if I have not had more 
losses from a little child’s fondness for watching and 
taking care (as she called it) of the hen, than I have 
from the four-legged enemy. Try and keep the hen 
quite undisturbed ; she will come off her nest when 
she requires food, but have it ready for her, so that 
she may not be long off the nest. Be careful always 
to have clean water for the poultry, and save all tire 
ashes you can; put them in a corner under the hedge; 
you will soon see how pleased they are with them. 
Always have the place they roost in cleaned out once 
a week. Nothing thrives without cleanliness, and I 
dare say you remember the old saying, that “ Godli¬ 
ness and cleanliness are very nearly related to each 
other;” and, now, wishing you good luck, I will lay 
down my pen till next month. C. M. A. 
THE POULTRY-KEEPER’S CALENDAR. 
November. 
By Martin Doyle, Author of “ Hints to Small 
Farmers ,” die. 
The cottager who has a garden and yard ought to 
keep poultry; the one will supply much food for them, 
and the other, besides affording the necessary space 
and accommodation, will obviate occasions of dispute 
which often occur between neighbours when their 
cocks and liens break bounds and nay unwelcome 
visits. 
Fowls. —Wo begin with the most important. In 
Great Britain the rural cottager’s stock of fowls has 
been limited to six hens and one cock, cither because 
his means do not permit him to keep a larger num¬ 
ber, or because his employer fears the depredations of 
his labourer’s poultry on his com fields, and therefore 
forbids him to keep more than a small number. Prom 
this cause the Scotch hind in particular is almost uni¬ 
versally restricted to keep but six hens and one cock, 
and from this usual rule has probably arisen the 
common hut mistaken notion, that the cock should 
not have more than half-a-dozen concubines, whereas 
by the laws of nature he might be indulged with a 
score of them, if he could preserve domestic order 
among so many. At this season dry and warm lodg¬ 
ings are very necessary for fowls. Tlieir yard should 
be paved or covered with fine gravel or ashes, and if 
practicable exposed to the sun. Eowls become mise¬ 
rable and ill in cold moist weather, if they have not 
a dry and warm roosting-place at night, and shelter 
by day. Pip, roup, diarrhoea, rheumatism, and gout, 
are common effects of the influence of cold moisture 
upon their kings. Therefore the rafter of a warm 
cottage, and a nook for laying near the chimney, 
affords health and fecundity to the poor man’s hen, 
which are not enjoyed in winter by the fowls of the 
richer one, who keeps his poultry in a cold outhouse. 
Warm food, too, causes hens to lay more frequently. 
But besides temperature, liens are much influenced 
in laying at this season by the period at which they 
have moulted. Old fowls cast their feathers later in 
the season and more slowly than younger ones, and 
recommence the laying, which had been interrupted 
during the period of moulting (which occasions phy¬ 
sical derangement), later than hens which had moulted 
earlier. That the laying is chiefly stopped by the 
changes which take piace in the constitution of the 
hen while she is casting her old feathers and pro¬ 
ducing now ones, appears from the fact that hens lay 
freely in February and March, which are actually 
colder months than those of November and December. 
Hens that have moulted early in autumn will some¬ 
times be disposed to sit at the present season, in 
which case a brood may be reared for the Christmas 
markets, when chickens are worth from 7s to 10s a 
couple. 
We shall reserve our observations upon hatching 
until tbespring—the usual season ofhatching. Among 
the common barn-door fowls the Dorlciny breed holds 
perhajis the highest place. It is larger than the or¬ 
dinary sorts, and distinguished by having two toes 
behind, besides three in front. The body is round 
and plump, and the colour both of the plumage and 
legs is frequently white. The flesh is delicate, the 
hens are good layers, and their eggs, though some¬ 
what smaller than those of the Spanish and Poland 
breeds (which are also highly prized) aro large. Al¬ 
though often entirely white yet they 
are more frequently dappled with 
grey. The five toes, without count¬ 
ing the spur, however, is the chief 
distinctive character of this variety. 
It is the Qalius pentadactylus of 
Temminch, and is also spoken of 
as the “live-toed” kind by two other naturalists, 
Buff’on and Bechstein. Hundreds of years ago Aris¬ 
totle, Columella, and Pliny, mentioned a variety with 
a similar number of toes, and it is curious that they 
also were celebrated for being good layers. Our draw¬ 
ing gives the portraits of a pair of first-rate Dorkings. 
The flesh of fowls which roam about the poultry 
yard, and feed on corn with a natural appetite, is as¬ 
suredly the best flavoured; yet, since grossly heavy 
poultry is in market demand, the cottager’s family- 
will find it beneficial, at this time of year, to cram 
