March ?.] 
TIIE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
315 
the goat’s milk is not good, but it is high flavoured, i 
and very similar, when well made, to “ Parmesan.” j 
01’ course in England a “ flock of goats” would be j 
useless, for no sale could be found for the cheese ; 
but T do think, if two or three were kept by those 
who live in wild districts,it would materially increase 
their comfort; and the children would be reared in 
greater health, and with less anxiety, if a basin of 
goat’s milk was provided for them at breakfast and 
supper time. The only mischief I believe a goat is 
accused of doing, is “ barking young trees;” but these 
are not often found on hills or commons. The plant¬ 
ing days are nearly over, the axe being, I regret to 
say, much more in request at the present time than 
the spade ; therefore, the slight amount of injury they 
are capable of committing is more than compensated 
by the gain and pleasure that is derived from them. 
My second interloper is more, properly speaking, 
the inhabitant of the garden than the farm-yard ; for 
where rabbits are kept you usually see their hutch in 
a retired comer of the garden. However, I dare say 
some of my young friends will not think a few words 
on “ rabbit keeping” very much out of place. They 
are great favourites with children ; and it is very ma¬ 
terial (in whatever rank of life it may have pleased 
God to place us) to encourage children in their love 
of animals, which is so natural to all of them. 
Having something depending on them for its “daily 
bread” inculcates habits of attention, kindness, fore¬ 
thought, and regularity; all very material points of 
character if you wish your child to be a “comfort to 
himself and those around him.” Having said thus 
much on the policy of having some living creature 
for the child to look after, I must tell you that, if 
properly managed, rabbit keeping becomes a most 
profitable concern. They require, it is true, some 
little care and attention, but in how many cottages 
are the children lounging about, only in the mother’s 
way. If, instead of this, they were collecting roots 
for the rabbits, and attending regularly to them, no 
time would be lost, and the results would be a rabbit 
for dinner once or twice a week ! 
Rabbits require to be kept very clean, or they be¬ 
come a nuisance to everybody about; and, indeed, 
they cannot thrive unless they are kept clean and 
dry. An old box can be converted, with a very little 
ingenuity, into a convenient hutch. Each hutch 
should have two compartments, one darker than the 
other; as the rabbit always prefers having a quiet 
dark retreat, into which it can retire when frightened. 
The number I should advise a cottager to begin with 
would be three does and one buck. They begin 
breeding at five or six months old, and produce from 
four to ten young ones at a birth. Instances are on 
record of one pair of rabbits having sixty young ones 
in a year. Of course this hardly ever occurs, and I 
am half inclined to doubt the possibility; however, 
it is true that they increase in a very rapid manner, 
and in that way well repay the trouble expended on 
them. I find I have not space to say a word about 
the management of these useful little creatures, but 
must delay that till the next month; in the meantime, 
I hope what I have said will have the effect of esta¬ 
blishing a goat and a pair of rabbits in many a cot¬ 
tage home.__ C. M. A. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** We request that no one will write to the departmental writers 
of The Cottace Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble 
and expense; and we also request our coadjutors under no circum¬ 
stances to reply to such private communications. 
. Soot Water ( W . C.). —This is as good a liquid manure as you 
can apply to your camellias, whether u-hite or red. In the first place, 
soot water is not black ; and if it were, the colour of a manure lias 
no influence upon that of the flowers to which it is applied. A coloured 
manure may be traced into the sap vessels of the stem ; but it is 
digested and changed during its passage through the leaves, &c., 
before it reaches the petals. If your azaleas have flower-buds, they 
will bloom this season. We do not know Thornton’s Practical 
Botany. 
Slug Mixture (Sabrina). —Your mixture of 1 lb. quicklime and 
1 lb. of flowers of sulphur, stirred well, and boiled in six pints of 
water, will form a sulpheret of lime—a most nauseous compound, 
which will destroy both slugs and caterpillars. If used cold, and 
washed off soon, we do not think it will injure your plants. The best 
trellis you can have against your house will be galvanised iron netting. 
See Fox’s advertisement. 
Hyacinth Offsets ( Alfred Paddle). —As the offsets “have left 
the parent bulbs ” in your water glasses, you may cut them oft’, and 
plant them in pots as you propose ; but they are scarcely worth the 
trouble. 
Ants on Peaches ( Faversham). —We are quite sure that the ants 
did not “ eat the points and young leaves ” of your young peach-tree 
last year. The destruction was occasioned by some other insect, or 
some exudation of sap, to feast on which the ants visited it. If they 
came after insects, they did you good ; if to feed on the exuded sap, 
they did you no harm. 
Ground Over-dunged (Sigma). —You can only practically ascer¬ 
tain this by observing whether such crops as peas, and beans, and 
strawberries, &c.—crops cultivated for their fruit—are over-luxuriant; 
that is, productive of more stems and leaves than available produce. 
Geraniums (Ibid). —These taken up last autumn, and kept out 
of the soil (covered with hay) in a room, had better be potted at once; 
for they ought not to be turned out into the borders until May. The 
dust arising from the coal-ashes in which you plunged your pitted 
plants, though it has covered their leaves, will do them no harm. 
Exposure to a shower of rain, or to a watering from a fine-rosed 
watering-pot, will put them all right. 
Fruit-tree Stations (Capt. Forrest). —These, which are to be 
against a wooden fence, had better extend on both sides of the fence ; 
because, as you observe, “ the fence not having a foundation like a 
wall, the roots will be as apt to go one way as the other.” Your car¬ 
penter will be a better adviser than we can be as to the covering for 
your manure tank. 
Stove for Greenhouse (J. B. H.). —As you do not intend to 
have either chimney or flue, it does not signify which you employ; 
they are all injurious alike by the large amount of carbonic acid and 
other deleterious gases which they emit. 
Carnations, &c. ( Bianthus ).-—The party you mention we know 
to be trustworthy, but we cannot recommend him or any one else. 
You may obtain Double Russian and other violets from any of the 
florists who advertise in our columns. There is a double white violet, 
but we have not seen it. You must water your carnation cuttings, 
so as to keep the soil gently and uniformly moist; it would only mis¬ 
lead you to say water them so many times a week. 
Prices of Poultry (Tooting). — Mr. Nolan, Bachclor’s-walk, 
Dublin, we are informed charges as follows ;—The Spanish fowl of 
first quality, from 15s. to 20s. each; Barking, 25s. each; Butch 
every-day-layers, 10s. each—cocks and hens the same price ; Cochin 
China fowl, 30s, each ; Rouen and Aylesbury Bucks, 10s. each. 
Dahlia (IK. S.). —How can you imagine for a moment that we 
can tell its name from seeing a single petal ? 
Hotbed for Cuttings (J. M .).—Pray refer to page 14fi. 
Sir George Shiffner’s Pigs (A Correspondent). —Can any one 
inform our correspondent whether “ the breed of pigs for which the 
late Sir G. Shifl'ner was so famous are peculiar to Sussex?” and he 
will be obliged by “ a description of them, and by information as to 
where the pure breed may be purchased.” 
Super-piiospiiate of Lime (T. IK.).—This is made by mixing 
together bone dust and oil of vitriol; and full particulars are given at 
page 28 of our first volume. The reason the water will not circulate 
in your pipe is, that the return to the box from whence the hot water 
is wished to flow, is partly up hill! 
Payne’s Improved Cottage Hive (Rev. W. P. Bartlett ).—No 
bars of wood are to be inserted in this, nor should they in any other 
hive, for the combs to be supported by. At page 305 of vol. i., you 
will find the size of the small hives. If the small hive is put on in 
April, and renewed if filled, the bees will not swarm. We do not 
know Knight’s hive, but we do know that the less complicated a 
hive is the cheaper it is, and the more easily managed. (H. A. E .).— 
You may buy them at Messrs. Neighbour, High Holborn, London. 
The hives are not sold separate, we think. 
Transferring Bees (Tyro). — In Mr. Taylor’s “ Bee-keeper’s 
Manual” you will find very full directions ; and it is too long for ex¬ 
traction. We recommend you to let your stock in your “ old, dingy, 
single hive ” swarm this summer, and then in the autumn to unite 
the bees in that old hive to the swarm from it in your new hive. 
Thanks for your fact about resuscitating bees. 
Ten-week Stock-seed (J. Price). —It is quite a matter of uncer¬ 
tainty whether the seedlings will be double-flowered ; and we can only 
say, that any florist who advertises in our columns will supply you 
with seed likely to meet your wishes, if you write to him. 
Thousand-headed Cabbage (Clericus, Beds.). —This is quite 
ditferent from the Brussels sprouts. Fresh pig-manure may be dug 
in advantageously at the bottom of the trench for mangold-wurtzel; 
but it is very bad using fresh dung for onions. Have you no spot 
manured for the previous crop on which you can grow them '! '1 he 
plot where celery was grown, for instance. In sowing onions, we tread 
the ground after sowing, but some gardeners do so before sowing. 
The improved breed of Essex pigs may be purchased from W. Fisher 
Hobbs, Esq., Boxtcd Hall, near Colchester. Is it certain that mice 
took your peus out of the ground, though thickly covered with soot? 
Surely it must have been after heavy rains had washed the soot away. 
