March 1G. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
471 
Farmer, of the productions and profit of Broom corn says:— 
j “ I raised this year a piece on forty-eight rods of ground. 
I After cleaning oft’ the seed, I had so large a pile I thought I 
; would measure it.—I had twenty-five bushels rounding 
i measure; a little over a half-bushel to the square rod, or 
about eighty-five bushels to the acre. I need not say the 
land was rich to produce such a crop; but it was not culti¬ 
vated as it should have been. It was planted in drills, and 
the cultivator passed through it once, and then I went 
j through with a hoe and thinned it out, but it was left too 
I thick, so that there were many small heads. The seed is 
excellent to feed sheep and lambs, and poultry, whole ; but 
for all other feeding it should be ground. It is heavier 
than oats, and I think worth more per bushel when ground.” 
—Iowa Farmer and Horticulturist. 
THE SHANGHAE FOWL. 
Tt is unjust to deny that they possess individual points of 
great beauty, even if tho “ tout ensemble ” be not so sym¬ 
metrical or so attractive as that presented by tho Game fowl. 
Their most inveterate opponents must admit that the head 
of a good Cochin fowl is handsome—that in the face-expres¬ 
sion of the pullet, especially, there is much beauty, and also 
a loving tenderness and an intelligence not observed in other 
poultry, which make them especial pets with those who rear 
them. There were grace, symmetry, and majesty, in the 
birds belonging to Mr. Harrison, of Snelston, which took the 
first prize at Derby, and which, indeed, made them appear to 
belong to a different race of birds from those long-legged, 
bony, shapeless, distorted, things which generally pass 
under the name of Cochin-China fowls. Not every cow 
with short horns can be fairly considered as a type of those 
beautiful and useful animals which, emanating from the 
meadows and byres of Charles Codings, in Durham, have 
spread themselves over the kingdom under the appellation 
of “ short horns nor should every mongrel fowl with long 
legs, short tails, and ugly bodies, bo considered as the re¬ 
presentatives of the Shanghae fowls of Sturgeon, Punchard, 
Herbert, and Fairlie. Honored names these! who have 
kept tho field against all comers, for buft’, partridge, white, 
and black Cochin’s respectively. Not but that in some stray 
combat they have been beaten, as Staunton in a solitary 
game of chess, or Pilch in a single inning at cricket, but in 
a season’s campaign they are ever victorious, and public ac¬ 
claim awards to them a place in Poultry annals as high and 
as honored as those occupied in the “ Herd Book” by Col- 
lings, Bates, and Ducie. But to return from the breeders 
to the breed. Let the best specimens of each variety be 
considered in a review of their respective merits, and it will 
be found that they are not destitute of beauty. The “ buffs,” 
perhaps, are more adapted to the quiet, sober taste of 
English people, to that peculiar sense of the beautiful which 
regards an entire suit of black as the appropriate and grace¬ 
ful dress of a gentleman, and denounces variety or colour in 
costume as vulgar and “ unbecoming.” Hence the popu¬ 
larity of these said “ buffs” or Sturgeonite Cochins ; but the 
Partridge ones, in perfection, are not to he despised. The 
white variety (if variety be strictly applicable to birds which 
cannot be depended upon for continuing their characteristics 
in their offspring) is very handsome, when obtained of good 
form and colour, like the fowls from Mrs. Herbert’s, of 
Powiclc. They possess deep red combs and wattles; and 
with these, beaks and legs which rival the golden splendour 
of those of the Blackbird. These red combs and golden 
legs contrast beautifully with their milk-white plumage. 
Upon a grass lawn, stretching out in front of some old man¬ 
sion, like Haddon, or Ilardwicke, they look very attractive, 
and with Peacocks, and golden-pencilled Hamburghs, form a 
group fit for the inspection of Majesty, and would have 
fascinated the pencil and the brush of that immortal poul¬ 
try painter with the hard name, Hondekmter. 
However, utility should precede beauty; and in the esti¬ 
mation of the British Farmer, “ handsome is that handsome 
does; ” and here the Shanghae fowl will not be found 
wanting. As I have said before, they are excellent layers, 
and arrive at maturity earlier than any other large-sized fowl. 
By the term “ maturity,” I mean the age at which a bird 
will commence laying eggs, and thus perpetuate its race. 
They will, moreover, prove hardier than any other fowl, 
except the Game breed; at least my experience supports this 
assertion. In a very elevated position, with the thermometer 
for many days at lti or 14 degrees below the freezing point, 
and during tho night of January the 3rd, three degrees below 
zero, six Cochin fowls, live Spanish, eight Dorkings, and 
four Golden-pencilled Hamburghs, had to brave the cold, 
with no further protection than that afforded by a common 
poultry shed, without artificial warmth. Upon the first, the 
cold left no appreciable mark; the Spanish were sadly 
“ mauled,” the combs of all of them shrinking into small 
dimensions, and becoming as black as a choked cobbler ; 
the Dorkings also suffered slightly (with one exception); 
tho only parties escaping scatheless being the Cochins and 
the Hamburgh fowls. Of these two, the birds from the 
Celestial Empire had the advantage, for they laid eggs 
almost daily, while their pretty companions postponed this 
duty until the mercurial tube of the thermometer should 
attain a more respectable position in society. 'When this 
has been achieved, they will, doubtless, again resume their 
cackle, or, to use the fine language of our apothecary, they 
“ will express themselves in tho natural language of philo¬ 
progenitiveness.” 
And now, what are the points which a good Cochin- 
China cock should possess? It should be of large 
size—an adult bird of two years old ought to weigh at 
least ten pounds—it should have a round head, short, thick 
neck, a broad back, and strong shanks, wide apart—the 
shanks and legs and outward toe should be well-covered 
with feathers, and the toes should be four in number, tho mid¬ 
dle ono being much longer than all others. The eye should 
be large, reddish in colour, and expressive. His feathers 
should be abundant—the saddle feathers large, and flowing 
gracefully downwards to the ostrich-like tail. The comb 
should be upright, indented, and projecting backwards ; the 
hinder parts of the birds should have a square appearance 
from a mass of soft “ fluffy feathers.” The faults to be 
guarded against are those which approximate the fowl to 
the Malay, that is, a long face, long, clear shanks, and close- 
fitting feathers; or to the Dorking, by a fifth toe destitute of 
feathers. The early-imported birds were many of them 
crossed by these fowls, and the stain will frequently show 
itself oven in the third generation. The Amateur demands 
a uniform colour in the Buff, free from white or mealy 
spots, and similar unity in the black and white varieties. 
Practical farmers can afford to smile at these niceties—and 
look to form, quality, and substance as preferable tilings. 
If a fowl, like a Dutchman’s tulip, were a thing merely to 
look at, these fancies might be very well; but so long as the 
essential characteristics of this breed be guaranteed by shape 
and size, it will suit both the farmer’s pocket and his future 
success to wink at a “ dark hackle,” or a “ mealy wing.”— 
Verbum sat sapientibus —which our clergyman tells me is 
the Latin for the wise saying, that a nod is as good as a 
wink to a blind man.—(A Derbyshire Yeoman, in the Derby 
Reporter.) 
GREAT MORTALITY AMONG BEES. 
I stated, in my communication to you, last summer, that 
tho honey season ceased on the 18th of June in this 
district; I will now inform other apiarians of my fate. My 
stock, last year, consisted of eighteen hives, four of which 
swarmed, so that at the end of the season I had twenty-two 
hives. Three out of the four swarms died early in the 
autumn, and to-day I have discovered that fourteen more 
are dead, in many of which there is plenty of honey, but 
only a few dead bees. The continued damp and foggy 
weather, in November and December, succeeded by intense 
frost, seems to have acted most injuriously, for many of the 
combs were covered with mould. Some of the hives were 
in bee-houses opon to the south, others on stands facing 
east, and all protected by bee-pots, with a quantity of tow 
under them, to keep the hives warm. Perhaps some of 
your apiarian correspondents who may, or may not, be 
similarly situated, can give me some information, why and 
wherefore the great mortality. — A Country Lector, 
Tadcaster. 
