330 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 3. 
six peas, which are somewhat ovate, not compressed, 
eighth-twentieths long, seven-twentieths broad, and the 
same in thickness. The ripe seed is white. 
The seed was sown on the 5th of April, and the 
MARROW. 
WHITE PRUSSIAN. 
plants bloomed on the 2Gth of June. The blooms 
dropped, and the slats appeared, and on the 10th of 
July the pods were fit to be gathered. 
This is an old and very prolific variety, well adapted 
for field culture, and long a favourite in gardens, but 
now superseded. 
Woodfoud Marrow. 
Plant of ft strong and robust habit of growth, like a 
vigorous-growing Marrow, rising with a stem three-feet- 
and-a-half high, which is sometimes simple, but gene¬ 
rally branching at about half its height from the 
ground. The pods begin to be produced at little more 
than half the height of the plant, and from that point 
to the top every joint produces single or double pods, 
amounting in all to eleven on each ; they ai - e single or 
in pairs, in about equal proportions, about tliree-inches- 
and-a-half long, seven-tenths-of-an-inch broad, quite 
smooth, and of a very dark green colonr. When ready 
! to gather, they are rather flattened, but as they become 
ripe they assume a round shape. They contain, on an 
average, eight peas in each, which are of a very dark 
J olive-green colour, rather thick in the skin, and very 
closely packed, so much so as to bo quito flattened on 
the sides adjoining. 
This is a very characteristic Pea, and may at onco be 
detected from all others, either by the ripe seed or tho 
growing plants, from the very peculiar dark green colour 
which, when true, it always exhibits. 
The seed was sown on the 5th of April, and bloomed 
on the 21st of June. On the 20th the slats appeared, 
and on the 18th of July the pods were quite filled. 
This variety comes in at the same time as the Imperials , 
and is rather before the Scimetars. ft is more adapted 
for a market Pea than for private gardens, its dark 
green colour favouring the popular prejudices. 
R. H. 
(To be continued.) 
With parent birds of infinitely better quality than those 
from which chickens of 1853 were produced, and with, 
at least, equal attention to food and management, 
Shanghae broods of the present year are far below our 
former average. 
This refers to the White, no less than to tho Cinna¬ 
mon and Buff. With respect to the first-named, in¬ 
deed, not one will bo suffered to live of some forty 
chickens bred from birds of sufficient merit to carry off 
a first prize, with good competition, at a provincial ex¬ 
hibition of some note; and the Buffs were equally 
successful on the same occasion, and almost equally 
unfortunate in their offspring. 
The above cannot be regarded as an isolated instance, 
for north and south, east and west, similar complaints 
are re-echoed, and whether we look to the reports, of 
public shows, or the circumstances of private yards, the 
same conclusion must be arrived at. 
It seems, indeed, to be a generally-recognised fact, 
that great deterioration is manifest in the Shanghae 
race, but the causes commonly assigned are rather, 
logically speaking, “ accidents,” than of such universal 
influence as would account for what we see and hear of 
in every quarter. Among those, breeding for colour 
only, over-fed stock birds, an insufficient extent of run. 
and breeding-in-and-in, are conditions under which such 
a result is usually considered to have been brought 
about, and, doubtless, such impolitic management 
would be fully adequate to produce the effect referred to, 
wherever it can be proved to have existed. In our own 
experience, however, we plead “ not guilty ” to charges 
of this nature, and many other breeders equally careful 
in these respects, report in similar terms with our own of 
the present state of their Shanghaes. Some further 
cause must, therefore, be sought for of more general 
application than all or any of the foregoing. 
Climate would, of course, be all-powerful in such a 
case, but here, apparently, England has hitherto offered 
as suitable an abode for the family as their own 
Chinese habitat. In fact, so far as mero strength of con¬ 
stitution is concerned, the Shanghaes seem to yield to 
nono of our nativo-born fowls, and are, moreover, un¬ 
questionably superior to many. Still, in this direction 
the only possible clue to tho present generally-dcte- 
riorated state of the race would appear to exist, and 
it is a question deserving of attentive consideration, 
whether tho influence of climate, apart from mero tern- 
