506 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 30. 
I 
times, in deep delving, and other such processes as serve 
to bring much profit without extraordinary display. 
About Lettuces, Spinach, Kidney Beans, a Cucumber-bed, 
Ac., 1 think I need say little; our readers do not require 
amplification on these nick-nackeries every day. I would 
rather address myself to the question of profit, for although 
it has been the fashion to cry—“ a good time coming, boys ; ” 
a cry engendered by the high amount of commercial pros¬ 
perity which has taken place through the blessings of peace; 
yet, I should now urge that this cuckoo cry be laid aside for 
awhile, and say, there is a serious time coming, boys. Leave 
oft' dreams and visions about luck; and fall back on that 
kind of moderation in desires, perseverance, industry, and 
simple and single-minded trust in Almighty God, which 
have characterised the truly great and good in all ages. 
High culture must now be the aim of all who would have 
a good garden; the fork, the hoe, and the spade, must be 
kept a-going, and a judicious forethought exercised in carry¬ 
ing out such operations, always having regard to the weather. 
A prudent and diligent manager of a plot of ground will 
escape much of his neighbour’s extra labours, and, at the 
same time, attain a greater degree of success, by joining a 
good head to a sound pair of hands and heels. 
Let me here repeat advice about the manure-heap. This 
is no trifling affair with any cultivator of the soil; certainly 
not with the cottager. My advice is this: never let your 
manure-heap get hot—warm but not hot—say about the 
heat of new milk. Never let rain enter and pass through 
it like a colander, or steep it. I remember, when a lad, 
hearing a lark of some sailors, who, in the days when tea 
was beginning to be used in England, took a fancy to try 
this outlandish thing. They boiled it, strained it, and after 
pouring away the liquor dished up the tea-leaves with 
pepper and salt. They thought it poor diet, as well they 
might. I much fear that many use their muck-heaps little 
better. It. Errington. 
APIARIAN’S CALENDAR.— April. 
By J. II. Payne, Esq., Author of “The Bee-Keeper's 
Guide," die. 
With the present month the apiarian’s anxiety for the 
preservation of his bees will, in a great measure, cease, for 
where any are alive and in health, it must have been by the 
most careful attention in feeding, Ac. The mortality has, 
indeed, been very great this winter; many persons of my 
acquaintance have lost all. I am happy to say that I have 
not been so unfortunate, for I have at present three out of 
fourteen alive; but, perhaps, the most trying time is now 
approaching, for the bees are aroused into activity, and the ; 
population is rapidly upon the increase, that should a week ! 
or two of cold wet weather set in, the few that are left will 
be in great danger, unless well-supplied with food; and at 
this time I would say that barley-sugar is the best. 
Pollen.' —The whole tribe of Crowfoots are now making 
their appearance, all of which are eagerly sought after by the 
bees, but more especially the Pile-wort (Ranunculus Jicaria), 
which affords them such an abundance of pollen during tho 
months of March and April, and which abounds in meadows, 
pastures, and hedge-banks. Seeing an abundance of it 
carried into a hive is a sure proof that the stock is in a 
healthy and thriving state ; but, let it be remembered, that 
pollen has nothing whatever to do with supplying the bees 
with food, for they will die from starvation with the combs 
filled with pollen, for it is only in the larva or grub state that 
they eat it; therefore, if the stocks have not a store of honey, 
go on to give barley-sugar. 
Hives. —It is now time to have a supply of new hives for 
the summer's use, for by no means put a swarm into au old 1 
hive except it should be one of last year’s already filled with i 
clean new comb; this, as I have before said, will be a great \ 
help to the bees. 
AVasrs. —Queen wasps appear to be more numerous this j 
spring than usual; suffer not one to escape. I have been 
fortunate enough to kill all that I have seen—a good syringe 
is a most useful instrument for the purpose. 
AV ATER. —Let water be placed in the vicinity of the apiary; 
at this season it is very important; the bees must have it, j 
and if not supplied to them, they will go to brooks or ponds i 
for it, where many of them will be drowned. 
GAME FOWLS, AS RECENTLY EXHIBITED. 
Poultry Societies had been for some time established 
before any high degree of excellence was manifested in 
their Game classes. Whatever the cause of this falling 
short in a race of fowls possessing so many good properties, 
and so generally kept, whether they were regarded, from 
their contentious disposition, as unsuited to the exhibition 
pen, or, from motives of a prudential character on the part 
of their owners, were kept back from public notice, it will 
probably be admitted, that until the last year or so they 
have not on such occasions been worthily represented. 
Birmingham, however, in 1856, amply redeemed any past 
deficiencies, and the striking improvement in their classes 
then effected was also in a greater or a less degree shared 
by many of the other exhibitions of that year. 
In numbers, the reds have usually preponderated, and 
of these, again, the “ black-broasted” seem to have had the 
preference. The plumage of the latter, indeed, presents 
the most agreeable combination of colour, and this especially 
in the hens. But too many exhibitors, and sometimes even 
those who ought to have passed their noviciate, have much 
still to learn in matching their birds. In this observation, 
we do not merely allude to birds of the same variety with 
differently coloured legs, or unmatched in respect of 
feather, but to the strange, indiscriminate jumbling 
together of the black-breasted, and the other reds. Surely, 
in neither sex of these several varieties is there any 
absence of characteristic distinction that would account for 
such confusion. The dusky tints of the hens of the streaky- 
breasted birds and the gingers, are in the strongest possible 
contrast to the clear light hues and delicate marking of tho 
black-breasted hens, and in the cocks the veriest tyro can 
hardly err. Yet hardly an exhibition occurs without an 
instance of such carelessness. 
The Game fowl has the widest licence with regard to the 
colour of its legs. AVhite, yellow, slate and olive, are here 
all admissible; the preference existing solely in the eye of 
the different breeders. Our own selection of the white- 
legged birds may have been influenced by the merits of the 
celebrated “ Derby ” strain, of which the white leg was 
considered an important characteristic. AATiite, or yellow, 
however, to our own eye, have a decided preference over the 
other colours. Fault was found at Leeds with a decision 
that gave a prize to a pen of black-breasted reds, in which 
the cock had a portion of the sickle feathers of his tail 
white, an appearance which has been commonly, but errone¬ 
ously, thought to indicate the infusion of baser blood. But 
for many generations this peculiarity has been frequently 
noticed in the Derby strain, but without the slightest 
evidence of either deteriorated courage, or of deficency in 
any of the other properties of the Game fowl. AVe should 
certainly prefer not to sec it; but at the same time, we would 
not dwell on it to the disadvantage of the bird. 
The white and pile birds have also been remarkably good; 
but for such perfection of feather as may gain a prize they 
would seem to require the indulgence of a good country 
run, an advantage that many of their present exhibitors 
would appear to be destitute of. All our enquiries have 
failed to connect the white specimens to which the designa¬ 
tion “ AVhito Indian Game" has so often been applied, with 
any oriental derivation. So far from it, indeed, that they 
present a marked opposition in point of figure to all game 
fowls of really Indian origin that we have ever met with; 
for the heavy, thick-set proportions of the latter are as 
widely removed from the peculiarly graceful symmetry of the 
common white Game fowl as we could expect to find in any 
sub-varieties of the same family. These white birds are, in 
fact, identical with the “ Smocks” of our Midland Counties. 
The mention of Indian Game fowls induces a remark that 
specimens of this breed are far from uncommon in the 
south of England, and around Plymouth, especially, they 
have many admirers, in whose ranks, however, we cannot 
consent to be reckoned. The fine clean head, the graceful 
yet powerful neck, with the extraordinary muscular, but yet 
symmetrical proportions of the leg of the English bird are 
all absent; and although we may gain heavier weights, 
these but ill compensate for au ungainly figure and coarse 
frame. We are speaking of the Indian Game fowl, properly 
so called ; for in more than one importation from those coun- 
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