10 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 6. 
oatmeal at her side, rolls out peices about the thickness of 
a man’s little finger, and one-and-a-half-inches long, clips 
them one by one into a bason of milk, and then opening 
the beak of the bird with one hand, with the other forces 
the oatmeal pellets down its throat; each bird in its turn 
undergoes the same treatment, and when the crops are 
all filled, the birds are returned to the pen, and generally, in 
a few minutes after being fed, all are fast asleep; it gene¬ 
rally takes from two to three weeks for fatting a bird, after 
which it must be killed, or will quickly die ; during all this 
time the dung is not removed from under the pen where it 
drops, and what with the closeness of the atmosphere, and 
the richness of the food, gives out an odour not very inviting. 
Should any of your readers feel- desirous of fatting their own 
birds by cramming, they will find the following hints useful. 
The best thing to fat fowls with are oatmeal moistened up 
with broth, made by boiling, or rather stewing, a sheep’s 
head and pluck, in a sufficient quantity of water until the 
meat parts freely from the bones; the oatmeal must not be 
sloppy, but about the consistency of dough. It is advisable 
in all novices to make the pellets rather smaller than recom¬ 
mended above, for fear of choking the birds; every pellet to 
be dipped into milk, and gently forced down the bird’s 
throat; if the milk is made lukewarm, and a, little sugar 
added, the fatting will be hastened. The fowls must, by all 
means, be kept dark and hut, or the fatting will be delayed, 
and double the quantity of food required. The dung will 
be found very valuable, but so strong, unless mixed with 
three times its bulk of earth, that it would kill everything it 
came near. This caution may be necessary, because I hap¬ 
pened to know a lady who had some of this manure (neat) 
applied to her flower-borders, the consequence being that 
everything was destroyed. 
After this long digression, let us return to the subject of 
fatting'Cochins. I am acquainted with a farmer’s wife who 
annually fats between five and six hundred Dorkings for 
the London market. A gentleman sent to her several 
Cochin fowls to fat, and requesting her to make them as fat 
as possible—of course, paying her well for her trouble. 
After several weeks’ trial, she returned the birds, being 
unable to make anything of them; in fact, they were as fat 
when placed in the pen as when they came out. I have 
myself killed several Cochins, but could never get them fat; 
their flesh was rich and juicy, but the yellow skin, large 
bones, and quantity of offal, particularly gizzard, fully bears 
me out in my assertion—that the Cochin will never make a 
good market fowl.*—W. Lesnam. 
SUGGESTIONS FROM THE GARDEN AND 
THE FIELD. 
By Cuthbert JV. Johnson, Esq., F.R.S. 
{Concluded from Vol. xi., page 408.) 
ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 
The evidence which organic chemistry affords of the 
wisdom and beneficence of the Deity, is, indeed, every way 
worthy of the primary attention of the searcher after truth. 
Amidst the multitude of organised substances and operations 
continually presented to our observation, in our gardens and 
fields, the first remark which forces itself, as it were, upon 
the mind of the chemical observer, is the simplicity of the 
design, and the small number of the elementary bodies em¬ 
ployed. These, indeed, are facts which press upon the 
attention of the most careless student in chemistry. He 
discerns neither confusion in the constitution of living 
bodies, nor irregularity, nor variation in the composition of 
any of those with which he seeks to become acquainted. 
Chemical substances, in fact, are found to combine in definite 
proportions with mathematical regularity, and the elemen¬ 
tary substances with which the chemist converses are much 
fewer in number than is commonly believed. The chemist 
is only able to detect, at most, sixty-two simple or chemically 
* To this excellent communication we must append one note. If we 
were to confine our attention to the long-legged and extinguisher-bodied 
cock Shanghae so usually exhibited, Mr. Lesnam’s verdict against them 
must be confirmed; but we know of breeds in which both cockerels and pul¬ 
lets are as meaty-breasted as Dorkings.—E d. C. G. 
undecompounded substances or elements in the great circle 
through which he ranges. 
The. very simplicity, indeed, of the materials employed, is 
evidence of the Wisdom of the Artificer. There is a total 
absence in the works of the Creator of all unnecessary mul¬ 
tiplication of ingredients. No chemical philosopher ever 
succeeded in simplifying these. If, for instance, water is 
composed of two simple bodies (oxygen and hydrogen), 
and sugar of three (carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen), no one 
has ever produced either substance with less. 
This, too, is not a remark applicable only to particular 
organic substances, but it extends to animal and vegetable 
substances in general. It is a fact as universal as remark¬ 
able, yet contrary to every reasonable expectation. That a 
metal or an earth should be composed of a single substance, 
is, perhaps, a conclusion to which any intelligent person 
might be expected to arrive; and, in fact, they are composed 
of either one two, or at most, three substances; but 
that this remark should also correctly apply to organic 
matters, would appear to be very improbable; little would 
such an enquirer imagine that the whole mass of animal 
and vegetable substances were equally limited in the number 
of their constituents ; still less would the magic transform¬ 
ations of these constituents be deemed probable. It re¬ 
quires, indeed, some stretch of the imagination to believe 
that when the two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, are com¬ 
bined together, that the liquid substance, water, is produced; 
but still more strange does it appear that when these two 
gases are combined with charcoal (the carbon of chemists), 
that these three substances should produce almost all the 
substances found in vegetables; that by merely varying 
their proportions all kinds of substances should be the 
result; in one proportion a solid, as gum,in another a liquid, 
as alcohol (spirit of wine); that by uniting these in one 
proportion, sugar should be the resulting compound; in 
another vinegar; that in the flour of wheat, they should 
form our food; but in oxalic acid one of the most virulent 
of poisons. 
By this simplicity of constitution this great end-is accom¬ 
plished—the facility of support to animal and vegetable life, 
the two great classes, the constituents of which are naturally 
and continually transformed from one to the other. For it 
is evident, that if the grass on which the cow feeds had not 
been composed of the same elements as herself, that then 
the grass she consumes could not have been assimilated in 
her composition. 
The limits I have prescribed to myself are nearly ex¬ 
ceeded ; it is needless to continue to multiply instances of 
the goodness of God, derivable from the chemistry of 
animated and inanimate nature. Every page of a com¬ 
plete system of chemistry might be adduced, as all tending 
to the same end. I leave, therefore, these facts to be 
answered by those whose powers of belief in the 
achievements of chance, of formations without an object, 
and of creation without any regard to the happiness of the 
created, are far greater than mine. 1 rather intend those 
remarks for the perusal of those who can see in the well- 
regulated phenomena of chemistry, not the fruits of accident, 
but the works of a Divine Artificer, whose every work betrays 
his omnipotence—an omnipotence, too, exercised only for 
the good of his creatures, for their welfare, and for their 
happiness. 
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 
croup versus roup. 
I have lately received many letters from different persons, 
relative to these diseases, arising from the coincidence that 
the similarity of their names has caused them to be con¬ 
founded together. 
Group is inflammation of the windpipe, its symptoms 
being a rattling or peculiar noise in the throat, a difficulty 
of breathing, in bad cases the mouth being kept partially 
open, sometimes the coughing up of some thick tenacious 
mucus ; in croup there is not any discharge from the nostrils, 
nor swelling of the face; frequently the partial closure of 
the windpipe gives rise to a peculiarly loud trumpet-like 
noise as the bird breathes, which, in some cases, is even 
almost musical. The disease yields most readily to a little 
