October 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
05 
having a field thickly studded with heads of thistle¬ 
down, if so were his determination. 
There is no accounting for tastes. A Scotchman 
is reported to have taken several heads of thistles 
to the antipodes, as mementos of father-land! and 
already the rich virgin maiden loam, fit for heavy 
corn crops, is becoming actually covered with this 
plague of a thistle ! Some time ago we passed through 
the centre of a large field where the crop had failed, 
and saw a full quarter of an acre together of 
! Groundsel in full seed, wanting only a slight breeze 
i to scatter it far and near; though it seldom mounts 
so well as the Thistle. More lately, on a farm boasted 
about for its high agriculture, some of the liedgos were 
bristling with Thistle-down, as if the cultivator, like our 
Scotch countryman, really loved the Thistle; and never 
could see or have too much of it! Public opinion— 
the laughing, the bantering, or the scowling such a 
system down might do much. But this opinion will be 
inoperative in some cases. There are minds so consti¬ 
tuted as never to feel so pleased as when riding a hobby 
that they find their neighbours opposed to. Some other 
remedy must be held in reserve; and in these days, 
when the bubble of protection is fairly burst; and when, 
to secure abundance of food to the community, and in¬ 
dependence and comfort to the cultivator, the earth 
must produce, in armfulls, something better than weeds; 
our legislature might soon do a more foolish thing than 
in passing a small penalty for every ripe head of Thistle- 
seed found in field, hedge, or wayside. R. E. 
Tuie was, and not many years since, when “ a Pigeon 
Eancier ” was associated in all men’s minds with Coster- 
mongers, Pugilists, Rat-catchers, and Dog stealers, and 
for no other reason that we can discern than that the 
majority of Pigeon Fanciers were artisans—men who 
lived in the courts, alleys, and other by-places of the 
metropolis. Such men, in those days, drew towards 
them no sympathy—they were the profane vulgar—the 
pariahs of Society—and their pursuits were deemed 
scarcely fit to be mentioned within audience of “ ears 
! polite." The Auricula and the Polyanthus became 
■ “ vulgar flowers,” for they were pets of the Manchester 
and Spitalfields weavers; and the remnant of this bad 
spirit lingers with those who talk of abandoning Pine- 
j culture, now that this fruit is become familiar to “ com- 
I mon people.” Such pride and exclusiveness would have 
i a heaven for gentility, with a wide gulph between that 
and the heaven of the poor. 
j Gladdened are we by the knowledge that these sen¬ 
timents are gradually lessening both in intensity and in 
the number of their disciples, and respect for the man, 
rather than a belief in the degradation of his pursuit, is 
now felt for him who shows a taste for the purer occu¬ 
pations of life. 
The cultivator of a Pansey in a court-yard of White¬ 
chapel, and the breeder of Pigeons in Drury Lane, is 
now more often thought of as one who exhibits a praise¬ 
worthy frame of mind—and that the love of nature 
implanted in our first parents in their state of innocence 
being yet uneffaced, he is raised in the scale of worthi¬ 
ness. It is justly felt that he clings to all he can of the 
country—that though he cannot have a flower-border, 
he finds the best substitute within his reach in a flower¬ 
pot upon his window-sill—though ho cannot have a 
poultry-yard, he has all he can of its tenants, over which 
to be solicitous in the pigeon-hutches of his attic. The 
man in whom such tastes remain and triumph over all 
opposing difficulties, so far from being altogether bad, 
is one in whom much that is estimablo prevails. We 
have too long watched and made notes among Cottage 
Gardeners not to have had this fully proved, and to 
rejoice in the knowledge that it may be admitted as a 
rule, that he who loves the country love3 virtue too. 
Plow strong the prejudice must have been against the 
pursuits of the masses was never so strongly demon¬ 
strated as in the prejudice against the breeding of Fancy 
Pigeons. The Dove, or Pigeon, is associated with all 
that is holy in Christianity, and with much that was 
held sacred in Mythology. Its very name in Hebrew, 
Jona, is derived from a word signifying gentleness, and 
from the day it brought the olive-leaf to the ark, both 
the plant and its winged bearer have been esteemed 
emblematical of peace. Even the Brahmins tell of their 
deities assuming the form of the Dovo; Mohamed had 
an attendant spirit in the same form; and in tho same 
similitude has appeared the Divine Spirit. Yet, not¬ 
withstanding this sacred association, notwithstanding 
the gentleness and beauty of the bird, its rearing and 
cultivation, until very recently, has been anathematized 
as “ a low pursuit.” 
Common sense is prevailing, and, consequently, pre¬ 
judice is giving way even here, and we are well pleased 
with the prospect of seeing the breeding of Pigeons 
improve by the side of poultry-keeping. Nor is this 
taste for Pigeons without the support of any one plea 
that can be urged in favour of rearing poultry. Beauty, 
gentleness, profit, are common to both, and in antiquity, 
the Dove-cote might claim precedence of the Fowl-house. 
We might, without much difficulty, trace the rearing 
of Pigeons back to the remotest ages, and evidence is 
abundant, we think, to show that so far from our various 
breeds of Pigeons all owing their original parentage to 
the Stock Dove, that every region had its particular 
variety. On the present occasion, let us rest contented 
with the pigeon-keeping of the Romans. 
If we turn to the pages of the agricultural writers of 
that great nation, we find that their knowledge on this 
subject was ample and accurate. The directions given 
for the erection of the Dove-houses, for feeding, for 
cleanliness, and other minute particulars, are such as 
might be repeated in the pages of a modern author, and 
accepted as sound instruction. There is one fact to 
which we will bear testimony, and which we do not re¬ 
member to have found noticed in any modern author. 
“The whole Dove-cote, says Columella, ought to be 
polished with w/wteplaister, for these birds are especially 
pleased with that colour.” 
These conquerors of the world were acquainted with 
