February 21.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
but alas ! the learned dignitary has put a stumbling 
block in his way : instead of the simple, old-fashioned 
square, or saddle-backed boiler, with its capacious 
fire-box below, which, like a begging-bag, would bold 
little or much, we have saddled upon us a mis¬ 
shaped sort of a thing, which on its arrival at our 
premises attracts no little attention, as to what it is ever 
intended to be. Presently, a polite gentleman, or his 
man-of-all-work, follows after it, extolling its wonder¬ 
ful qualities for the required purposes; and often, in 
all probability, the greater part of the back-wall of 
your house is pulled down, the interior disarranged, 
and a hole dug deep, and large enough for the cellar 
of a prince, and perhaps water rushes in, to get rid of 
which your grounds have to be cut, and no end of 
trouble endured. But we will suppose this curiosity 
put in its place, pipes attached, fire applied, and you 
are invited to inspect the apparatus, and feel the con¬ 
genial heat it imparts ; well, all this done, the trades¬ 
man takes his departure, with an additional testi¬ 
monial to his list of patrons, to repeat the same 
thing at another place. Now, let us follow the matter 
out: we said the house was well heated at the trial, 
and so it was—one or other of the attendant workmen 
stirring the fire every few minutes; well, when Mr. 
Leather-apron leaves the premises, the fire may not 
then be wanted for some little time again; something 
may want putting to rights in the inside of the house, 
and when our poor stoker-boy gets directions to put 
the fire on, he attends to it with pleasure—the thing 
is new ; he has not to stoop and shovel in coal, but ho 
has to put some coke into a funny-looking throat at 
the top, just like putting letters into the box of a 
village post-oliice. Well, this certainly is nice; looks 
well at it, and goes away, returning again bye-and-bye 
he finds the fire is out; to kindle it again, he quickly 
applies himself, charitably thinking it must be the 
damp (the fire not having been lately on) that 
makes it so unwilling to burn, but hopes all will be 
right shortly. How often he may repeat his visits I 
need not say, but at length he gets it to burn, and 
seemingly all is right at bed-time, and the fire on 
then. Well, he puts on as much coke as he can cram 
into the funny little fire, filling the hopper as well, as 
the brioklayer that set the boiler told him to do, as a 
sort of night food for this extraordinary progeny ; 
well, in the morning be hastens to it, finds, to his 
consternation, that the fuel he put on is therejust as 
he left it; runs into the hot-house to look at the ther¬ 
mometer, which he finds 10° below what it ever 
ought to be, and back again to the boiler, with all 
the maledictions he can think of; at the same time 
taxing his ingenuity as to the quickest way to get 
the fire up before his master enters that house, and 
trusting he will be able to manage it better the next 
night. Well, the next night he takes care and forces 
the fire well before bed-time ; and at the final cover¬ 
ing up, puts no more coke on than just what the fire¬ 
box part will contain, and in the morning is some¬ 
what consoled to find it had burnt away, the fire out, 
and the house not so very much under the mark as 
the preceding night. Well, this is repeated once or 
twice, when lo! a clear star-light night betokens frost, 
and the boy has orders from his master to put a little 
more than usual on all the fires, conseq uently again tries 
filling the hopper, and again with the same result. 
Now, this is not an over-drawn picture; I have 
had more experience in the capacity of stoker than 
most of people, certainly more than those who write 
about heating, and have had boilers of various makes, 
—conical, cylindrical, or spiral, all with hopper-feeding 
appendages, but I have never yet seen one that was 
283 
calculated to work well in a general way : the liopper- 
hole was too small, large lumps of coke are apt to choke 
it up, and some of the fire-box partitions are also so 
small as not to hold anything like the quantity ne¬ 
cessary to put on before leaving it for the night; and 
when there is no certainty of the fuel in the hopper 
finding its way into the fire, even with the greatest 
of care and attentive practice, it certainly speaks 
very forcibly that such an appurtenance ought to be 
dispensed with ; and I may inform those advocates of 
novelties, while quarrelling over their supposed in¬ 
fringements of patents, that I have seen more than 
one of their coffee-pot-looking patents, after fruitless 
attempts to make it answer, pulled down, laid on its 
side, something like that useful utensil, and some 
alteration of course in the insertion of the pipes, and 
a capacious fire-box placed below it, and then it 
served very well; the whims of the inventor, in these 
cases, being buried in the brick-work, to the great 
satisfaction of the gardener attending it. Now, I do 
not draw my conclusions from the failure of one, two, 
or three cases ; I have had several under my charge, 
and have also had a good share of the humble calling 
of attending to them, without which I think no man 
is entitled to give an opinion of their merits; but 
having drawn this letter to a greater length than I 
intended, I must leave the conclusion thereof until 
my next, when I will give some particulars of the 
arrangements of pipes, and other matters.—S. N. 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. 
Mis- carriage in Hens (A New Subscriber) .—This case is some¬ 
what singular. Our correspondent says :—“ I have three hen Ban¬ 
tams and one cock; one of the hens commenced laying, but after 
laying three eggs in three weeks, suddenly took to laying soft eggs, 
and yolks of eggs without even the skin ; this happened day and 
night till she died. Another commenced laying to-day, and after 
laying one proper egg, immediately laid a soft egg, and she seems in 
a fair way of following the first one. Can you tell me the reason of 
this, and the cure (if any) ? They have a night-house, a stone shed, 
an ample walk, plenty of old mortar, chalk, &c. ; are fed with 
barley, oats, barley-meal, raw meat, water-cresses, potato, and turnip, 
and have plenty of fresh pump-water every day.” This we take to be a 
clear case of over- excitement. Give the hens a teaspoonful of castor oil; 
do not give them any animal food, nor anything else but boiled vege¬ 
tables and scalded barley-meal. You feed your poultry too highly; give 
them not only less stimulating food, but less food altogether. 
Dutch Every-day Layers (Rev. F. W. Pyc). —Our corres¬ 
pondent wishes to know where he can obtain a pair of these, and the 
price. Much obliged ; we have now plenty of seed. 
Ivy Torn from a House ( Carig Cathol). —On no account would 
we destroy the old ivy. No doubt part of the long shoots have 
snapped, but let them be cut below the fracture, and the bottoms 
will soon furnish strong suckers to supply the place of those broken. 
Let every shoot be disentangled, by cutting off the smaller branches 
which interlace, and be fastened to the wall with strong hooks. We 
have seen large pieces of torn-off ivy saved by such means. If you 
could save one-third of the old wood this way, and at regular dis¬ 
tances, and cut down the rest to near the surface of the ground, your 
house will be furnished again in less than half the time it would take 
to do so from young plants or seeds. Even if the whole of the old 
stems were to be cut down to the ground, we would rather trust to 
the old roots for a fresh supply than to any other method. 
Cochin-China Fowls {E. Muggridge).—l\\ answer to your 
query at page 246, Mr. Martin Doyle says “The average height of 
the finest specimens of Cochin-China cocks is at least six or seven 
and twenty inches. They have, mostly, a rudimentary, and frequently 
a complete fifth extra toe, which is hereditary, and so adherent to the 
breed as to induce a suspicion of their close relationship to the Dork¬ 
ings. The legs are of a pale flesh colour.” 
Insects {Tyro, Plumstead). —The insect in the small box is not 
a Wireworm, but one of the Snake millipedes (see vol. 2, page 139). 
The large white grub is the larvae of the common Cockchafer. 
Hyacinth Offsets (IF. X.).—Whether in pots or in water- 
glasses, we never remove these from the parent bulbs. But as much 
salt to your earth intended for manure as will give the land, to 
which it is applied, a dressing of .salt at the rate of ten or twelve 
bushels to the acre. 
Hors {Dr. Rooke).— These do not come within our province ; 
being strictly a farming produce. They are raised from seed, which 
can be obtained of the London seedsmen. A deep light soil suits 
them best. The poles should be ten or twelve feet above the surface of 
the ground, lleid’s syringe is the best for vinery and greenhouse use. 
