124 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 18. 
and twenty-two specimens of cut flowers. A cut specimen 
i of Stenochilus ( sp.), from the Lower Murray, from this gar- 
| den, took the prize as the best single specimen of a 
cut flower. 
The amount taken at the gates was JE100 14s. exclusive of 
the tickets sold in the town, being the largest amount yet 
taken at any exhibition of the Society. 
THE MERITS OF SHANGHAES. 
In a recent agricultural work occurs the following 
passage:— 
“Cochin-China Fowls.—A n extraordinary mania exists 
at the present moment about these animals; everybody 
who keeps poultry is straining every nerve to propagate 
these large ugly fowls. As they are at present entirely a 
fancy stock, I cannot give any space for them in this work, 
but I may remark, that I asked an extensive breeder of 
chickens his opinion of them, and the reply he gave mo was 
to the effect that no advantage was got by them, and that the 
present rage for them was due to fashion only.” 
The extensive breeder alluded to cannot have bred 
Shanghaes, or else he is more interested in some other 
breed. If the above remarks refer to the many “long- 
legged, bony, shapeless, distorted things which generally 
pass under the name of Cochin fowls,” and there are many 
such in this neighbourhood, I agree entirely with his 
conclusion; but it is unjust to deny that good bred birds are 
beautiful, particularly the Buffs; it is true, they are not so 
symmetrical as the Game or ITarnburgbs, but their delicate 
and novel colour in the poultry-yard, their short legs and 
compact form, make substantial amends for deficiency 
in that point; the head of a Shanghae is very handsome, 
while the eye of the hen is “ bright and prominent, with an 
expression tempering the whole of motherly patience and 
contentment that is met with in no other fowl,” and renders 
her an especial pet with her owner. 
I deny that no advantage is gained by breeding Shanghaes, 
as they have great advantages over every other fowl. Is it 
nothing that they arrive at maturity, that is, commence 
laying, some six months earlier than other breeds, and are 
thereby more prolific, and that they are hardy ? 
At the commencement of the last season, my stock con¬ 
sisted of a cock and four pullets, and the latter laid every 
day until they became broody, and as I did not at the first 
allow them to sit, by changing their house they soon 
became weaned from their nests and recommenced laying. 
So soon as I had a seat of eggs I borrowed hens 
of my neighbours, and by the end of April I had more 
than two hundred chickens hatched, the produce of my 
four pullets, and most of them were reared. In July, the 
early chickens commenced laying, and if I bad had room 
and inclination I could have reared many hundreds more, 
which would have been fit for the fable or breeding before 
pullets of the other varieties would have commenced laying; 
i and, consequently, I had hundreds of eggs throughout the 
! autumn and winter quarters for domestic purposes. 1 
, believe that a Shanghae pullet would,lay three times as many 
i eggs as a barn-door fowl would during the first two years of 
j its existence. 
I I believe them hardy, because no poultry-keeper in this 
j neighbourhood had so many chickens alive at tire end of 
l April, last year, as I had from the same number of chickens 
hatched, and now I have my houses full of thriving birds ; 
; whilst most of the farmers have lost their early broods, 
i I find the Shanghae chicken good at table, and though it 
I does not “ truss ” so well as the Dorking, its delicacy of 
- flavour, and whiteness of flesh, in spite of its yellow legs, is 
: not surpassed by that fowl. I, of course, am writing of the 
' short legged, well-bred and fed fowl, and not of the lanky 
i scare crow before alluded to, and which to increase its bulk 
j is fed on offal-flesli or greaves. 
No breed in the same period will yield so great a weight 
of food as the Shanghae in eggs and flesh, which is a strong 
argument, not only to the breech os-pocket, but also with 
i every one who is concerned or interested in the production 
of food. They have other advantages in their docility and 
i domestic habits, for, if allowed full liberty, they do not 
stray from their bounds to annoy their neighbours, nor do 
they, if required to be kept in an enclosure, require a fence 
more than three feet high to restrain them from leaving it. 
—C. Pocklington, Boston, Lincolnshire. 
BEE-KEEPING FOR COTTAGERS. 
(Continued from pays 105.) 
Giving Water. —Not much need be said as to this, 
further than that the pans should be kept full, and the 
floats sound, the moss fresh, and the water be changed three 
or four times a week. A writer in The Cottage Gardener, 
volume viii, page 42, describes an ingenious plan of giving 
water, which may, we think, be advantageously referred to 
here; he puts two or three inches of loam in the bottom of 
a large milk-pan, and having planted the pan with water- 
cresses - , fills it with water by means of a butter-firkin filled 
daily, having a very small hole bored in it, and raised over 
the milk-pan, so as to be continually dripping into it; he 
adds, that throughout the summer this arrangement pro- i 
duces him an almost daily supply of cresses. 
Narrowing Entrances.- -This is effected by means of i 
the small pieces of wood with which the “general purposes” j 
box ought to be well supplied. The- width of the entrances 
should be regulated by the degree of activity in the hive; 
when the bees crowd in coming out and going in, they 
should be widened; as the bees cease from work, they 
should be narrowed. 
Destroying Wasrs, Ants, and Motiis. —The necessity 
for destroying the large queen wasps which are to be seen 
in the spring cannot be too frequently insisted upon. 
When a garden syringe is to be had, they may be “ shot,” or 
knocked down by its means, and then destroyed. Where 
such an implement cannot be come at, they must be left to 
the tender mercies of the younger branches of the family. 
The only way that we know by which to get rid of ants, 
is to dig uj> their nests, and pour scalding water upon the 
soil whenever and wherever the ants appiear or reappear, 
and they will quickly abandon the locality in disgust. 
As to Moths, the best way to prevent then - (or, in fact, 
any other vermin) doing any damage to the hives, is to 
keep the hives very strong. If they are seen hovering 
about the entrances at night, the moths must be killed, if 
possible, and the entrances judiciously contracted. A small 
moth, called the Wax-moth, is the great enemy of bees; if 
any of the combs of a hive become infested by them, such 
combs should be cut out, or the ravages of the moths will 
rapidly increase. Keeping the hives strong, and everything 
about them clean, will most effectually prevent damage from 
vermin. 
Removing Hives from a distance. —This should be done 
at night; if the distance be but three or four miles, the 
hive and floor-board (the hive entrance having been | 
stopped) should be lifted on to a large sheet or table-cloth, 
the ends of which should then be tied together over the 
hive; through these ends a stout pole should be thrust, and 
everything having been made secure by twisting twine out¬ 
side the sheet or cloth, and round about the hive, the whole 
bundle may be carried off by two persons to its new home, 
and having been there untied, the hive and board may be 
placed on their new pedestal, or the hive, after having been 
detached from its floor-board, may be placed upon iis new j 
one; if the hive had not in its new home a floor-board 
movable with it, then it should bo detached from its 
usual floor the night before that on which it is to be 
removed, and placed upon a temporary floor-board, this 
will prevent commotion amongst the bees when it is wanted 
to move them. It has already been stated, that no sticks 
should he fixed inside the hives under a mistaken idea that 
they will assist the bees in fixing their combs; notwith¬ 
standing this, it will be as well, in removing hives from a 
distance, to choose hives in which sticks have been fixed, 
as the jolting of the conveyance by which they are to be 
carried might otherwise displace the combs; in carrying hives i 
from a distance, the same method of packing as that already 
mentioned may he adopted, and the hive slung underneath 
the conveyance. If combs should he loosened by any 
