December 13. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
147 
EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 
Rtumbles for Bee-hiye Making. —Your corres¬ 
pondent’s question under this head is better answered 
in person, and practically, than in writing, and par¬ 
ticularly the mode of splitting the bramble, which 
I fear he will not do without a teacher, or some prac¬ 
tice. The brambles used are those fine long shoots 
of the last summer’s growth. They are to be cut in 
the winter after the leaves are fallen, and, perhaps, 
after frost they will cleave the better. They are then 
first split in half (after trimming ofF the prickles), 
and each half again split in two ; this is done with 
a small knife ; a clasp-knife, or gardener’s knife, will 
do very well. The knife is inserted at the largest 
end, and continually moved backward and forward 
on the edge, sideways, by which it progresses down 
the middle of the bramble ; the regular motion keep¬ 
ing it from glancing out, or diverging to one side 
more than the other. This is done the second time, 
so as to split the bramble into four parts. The pith 
on one side, and the rind or bark on the other, is 
then scraped off (usually with the back of the knife, 
by being drawn under it when held firmly down on 
a piece of leather tied a little above the knee of the 
operator.) By this process the bramble is rendered 
thin and flexible, and is then fit for use ; only if not 
used directly it will require to be laid a short time 
in water to make it supple before using.—T. Morgan. 
Poultry.—I have found a very ready way of ob¬ 
taining a good sort ©f poultry to be, to select some of 
the nicest silver pheasant hens of the neighbourhood 
without a particle of game blood in them. These 
should be crossed with a pure Dorking cock; and if 
his plumage corresponds to theirs, so much the bet¬ 
ter. I keep all the ten toed pullets, and cross these 
again with another Dorking. There are so many 
points of resemblance between the two breeds that I 
suspect the one to be degenerated from the other; 
and there seems some reason to suppose that renewal 
is better than cross-breeding. Full-grown poultry 
bear exposure to cold and wet better than very young 
chickens. For these, shelter and warmth are abso¬ 
lutely needful; but many of my friends, who have 
begun at first with pure-bred Dorkings, direct from 
the poulterer, have found them to have too great 
delicacy of constitution. From their youth up, poul¬ 
try, to be profitable, should be uniformly supplied 
with a due proportion of food; and this practice, fol¬ 
lowed out from generation to generation, produces 
that tendency to get rapidly into condition, which is 
the grand characteristic of the improved breeds of 
our'domestic animals; and the descendant of a well- 
fed race will thus become, to a certain extent, the 
representative, in money value, of so much good food 
and good housing accumulated in his portly person. 
This tendency will only last a very few crosses under 
a worse treatment. I can hardly believe it to be 
wholly the result of race; but some kinds seem to 
have a much greater facility of acquiring it than 
others; the latter being generally a long neglected, 
but hardy, half wild stock. Whether there is any 
analogy to this view of matters in our own species— 
whether we are too much neglecting the laws of na¬ 
tural economy, in blindly following out the rules of 
political economy, in the scanty pittance doled out to 
half of our agricultural labourers at the idle time of 
the year—and whether a working man should not be 
kept in decent condition the year round, in order 
that he may be at once ready to go to work when re¬ 
quired—are questions, perhaps, beside the subject of 
your pages, but, nevertheless, they will obtrude them¬ 
selves in these days of fearful visitation. So much 
for breed and the principle of condition; now for 
the practice, which we have found very success¬ 
ful. First, we use plenty of cayenne with the 
food, as recommended by Cobbett; it is useful 
before and during the whole of moulting time, as 
also a free use of salt during the whole year. We 
also allow them, occasionally, bacon-rinds, and other 
scraps of salt meat. Three years’ experience of this 
plan has proved that, instead of its causing the loss 
of feathers, it keeps the birds in very high feather 
and health. Fowls bought out of the market have 
been found unwilling to peck oats, or to drink pure 
water, until they have had a lump of salt given to 
them, which they have readily devoured, and then 
begun to both eat and drink with a good appetite. 
Secondly, we are in the habit, in winter, and in wet 
weather, of considering all bottoms of bottles, lees of 
port wine, of elderberry, and of all home-made wines, 
odd heel-taps of porter, ale, or spirit, as the per¬ 
quisites of the poultry. These should never bo 
thrown away; and, most happily, our butler does 
not object to these views. About a quarter of a pint 
of this stimulating compound, diluted with water, 
may be occasionally mixed with the food of a dozen 
fowls. Our poultry, also, peck all the bones, and 
come in 1'or many scraps of meat and bits of fat, 
also any drops of milk. You must observe, that one 
meal in the day is composed of meat, milk, and fat, 
with some of the potent liquor above described, when 
it can be spared. A little meal is, also, added 
occasionally. Barley seems to answer better than any 
other grain whatever: the hens lay better, and are 
less liable to gorge themselves when fed with it than 
with oats. By this stimulating diet, in bad weather, 
we keep up a high breed of poultry, with very little 
shelter, or confinement, or extra attention, except to 
the young chickens.—Y. Y. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers 
of The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble 
and expense ; and we also request our coadjutors under no circum¬ 
stances to reply to such private communications. 
Sea-Weed ( W. M. H.). —We have no special experience in em¬ 
ploying sea-weed as a manure for raspberries, but we knew a garden 
near Southampton which produced abundant crops, and yet never 
had any other manure. We should fork it in between the rows now, 
and in a fresh state. 
Error.— A most grievous mistake was made by the printer in in¬ 
serting the Fruit Garden, at page 107 , of our last number but one. 
The last seven lines of the first column should be inserted after the 
30th line from the top of the second column. 
Hot-bed making (C. P., Brixton). —Some plain directions by 
Mr. Weaver in our present number will suit you. 
Diseased Apple and Pear Bark (W. J.). —We have examined 
your specimens in vain for the scaly insect you mention. The barks, 
however, are beginning to be affected with canker, and we should 
think, from their appearance, that your soil is wet and requires drain¬ 
ing. Draining will check the progress of disease, nnd even the pre¬ 
valence of insects, for both are promoted by excessive moisture in the 
juices of the tree. Scrub the stems and main branches with soap¬ 
suds and urine. 
Rose-tree Stocks (G. J. Bell). —You may move them now from 
the hedge-rows where they are growing. The pumpkin seed you 
mention we find all abortive. Grimstone’s Egyptian peas and John¬ 
son’s Wonderful Long Pod may now be obtained of the seedsmen. 
Brocoli laid in (Z eta). —Your strong-growing brocoli plants, 
laid in with their heads to the north, will raise them perpendicularly, 
and flower where you have placed them. 
Carrots tasteless (Ibid). —You say that these, “grown on a 
heavy soil, which had been previously trenched and limed in Fe¬ 
bruary, taken up a month ago, dried and stored away in ashes, are 
without the slightest flavour, and after being put into cold water and 
boiled for about four hours are still hard and unfit to eat. Is the 
lime, or want of manure, the cause ? Putting them into boiling water 
has been tried, and with the same results.” Your soil and deficiency 
of manure are the causes of this defect in your carrots. They never 
are so well-flavoured when grown in a heavy soil as they are in a rich, 
light soil, and their slower growth always tends to produce woody 
fibre and consequent hardness. Manure your plot now which you 
intend to sow with carrots in the spring. Give it a very heavy dress¬ 
ing of fine coal-ashes, mixed with fowl or pigeons’ dung, and throw 
