August 3. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
341 
J many of tlio selected chicken found their way to the sale 
; room. Under my own eye last season many of these birds 
were so manufactured ; dining the autumn, after the breed¬ 
ing of stock purposes was over, a buff Cochin cock was al¬ 
lowed to run with some Dorking hens, the eggs of the light- 
j est hen were hatched, and the Chicken were all greys, some 
1 were clear-legged, some white-legged, others five-toed; but 
several had well-feathered yellow legs with four toes, and 
these were undistinguishable from a large number of the 
birds sold as Brahmas. On examination, I found the frontal 
j groove strongly marked, although, as might be expected, in 
; a rather less degree than in a pure bred Cochin. 
“ The birds originating in the Malay or Chittagong cross 
have been chiefly imported from America, I cannot there¬ 
fore give the particulars of their manufacture, but the long 
snaky neck, the upright gait, and the peculiar carriage of 
the head, render other evidence unnecessary. These birds 
also have the characteristic groove. 
“After what has been stated, it will scarcely be expected ; 
that any lengthened description of these birds should be I 
given. The best are simply Cochins, and as silver-pencilled 
Slianghaes or Brahma Pootras, they were originally avowedly j 
exhibited at the London shows. The Mongrels have every 
variety of form and almost of colour ; from the most cele¬ 
brated yards are shewn clear legs and feathered legs; yellow 
legs, and white legs; pea combs and single combs; white 
birds, grey birds, and even black birds, all pure Brahmas !! 
! One person writes, that they roam over acres; another 
authority states, that they are more domesticated than 
Cochins. On the one hand, you hear of their laying eggs as 
large as those of turkeys; and on the other, of their being 
of the average Cochin size. One day, they are said to 
crow like their bulf relations; and the next, we hear that 
their voices are much more mellifluous. 
“ My opinion of their merits and demerits may be stated 
in a few words ; of the half breeds I will only say, that they 
are worthless for stock purposes, as they do not breed true 
to any particular character; of the true grey Cochin I may 
state, as far as my experience goes, that they are generally 
leggy compared with the best buffs, and that in many of 
them there is a remarkable tendency (especially in the 
hens) to accumulate internal abdominal fat, or, in other 
words, to ‘ go down behind ’ a state of things generally 
terminating in irregularity of the egg organs, which running 
on into inflammation is frequently fatal; at the same time, 
however, I have no doubt but that by careful breeding for a 
season or two they may be produced in every respect equal 
to the buff birds. Dr. W. C. Gwynne, who has reared them 
longer than any other amateur in this country, states his 
conviction that the genuine strain are a very good variety of 
grey Cochin, without the slightest cross: this verdict re- i 
speeding them, coming as it does from one of the greatest 
admirers and most successful rearers of Brahmas, will, I 
have not the slightest doubt, be eventually universally ac¬ 
quiesced in; with regard to their hardihood as chicken, I 
may state that the most successful rearer of Cochins in the 
year 1853, to whose plans I have already alluded, and who j 
spared no expence in getting first rate stock, informs me 
that he has reared Brahmas and Cochins in the same brood, 
j and that he has not found the former by any means the 
I hardier variety.” 
It is obvious that Mr. Tegetmeier knows more of the 
practices of the manufacturers of Brahma Pootras than he | 
j chooses to publish. 
In support of what he states relative to the Brahma 
Pootras not producing chickens similar to their parents, we 
; are informed that there was much evidence afforded about 
1 three weeks since. This was in a County-court case, at 
i Great Yarmouth; Preston v. Gabernalzi. The suit was for 
TO, claimed for Brahma Tootra eggs ; and the evidence 
clearly established that those eggs did not produce grey 
chickens. 
SOAP-SUDS FOR GARDENING PURPOSES. 
In some of your recent numbers, I see complaints of 
the havoc the maggot is making among the Onions in Kent, 
and I also see enquiries for a remedy. I once used soap 
and water, freely administered to a row of Celery, which 
was in a fair way of being devoured by maggot, with complete 
success; and have no doubt but it would be equally success- i 
ful with Onions, At every house where there is a garden ! 
the soap-suds should be saved for this, and similar purposes, 
such as to destroy the slugs, &c., about the roots of sea- 
kale, ifcc. A solution of soft soap, applied with a painter’s 
brush to Apple trees, is a cheap and speedy way of getting 
quit of the American bug. I have also completely cleared 
in the same way my Morelia Cherry trees of the filthy insect 
with which they are invariably infested. It is far more 
effectual than syringing, it being so difficult to hit the whole 
of the under side of the leaf with the syringe or garden 
engine, whereas, the paint brush reaches every part, and a 
woman or boy will soon do a number of trees.—A. C. B. 
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 
VERTIGO. — TREATMENT AND CURE. 
The following successful case has been kindly furnished 
me by Dr. Wm. Gust Gwynne. It appears so instructive and 
interesting, that I have much pleasure in laying it before my 
readers. The bird had previously an attack of vertigo, 
which yielded to two smart doses of jalap and a stream of 
cold water on the head. 
“ I will now tell you the sequel of the case of vertigo in 
my Brahma cock, of whose treatment and recovery I gave 
you the particulars in a former letter. He had not been 
cured above eight or ten days, when he was again seized with 
the same alarming symptoms of threatened apoplexy as be¬ 
fore only in a much more aggravated form. It was with the 
greatest difficulty—indeed, only at the expense, now and 
then, of a sprawling tumble in the effort to do so—that he 
could keep his feet at all; for although, while in the act of 
falling in one direction, he could just manage to catch him¬ 
self up, the want of control in the effort was such that the 
force of the rebound would nearly prostrate him in the 
opposite, like nothing so much, in fact, as the abortive 
attempts of a man 1 very drunk indeed,’ to maintain a re¬ 
spectable equilibrium. 
“ There was evidently a high degree of excitement about 
his brain, as shown by a fiery brightness about the eye, in¬ 
creased restlessness and constant crowing; the latter, by 
the way, being a very ludicrous and undignified perform¬ 
ance ; for by the time he had got half through the stave, 
the effort made to bring it out with stentorian effect was too 
much for him, and he always found himself in the act of 
capsizing backwards, and the exertion required to recover 
himself from this humiliating position quite marred the 
harmony of the strain. However, this annoyance was got 
over in a manner which shewed, that though his legs were 
of little use to him, his reasoning faculties still served him ! 
in good stead; for more than once he had recourse to a | 
wall, and supporting himself against it, he had his crow out i 
comfortably, sounding a satisfactory defiance to allShanghae 
cocks within hearing, whether black, white, buff, or grey. 
“ But to the treatment: I at once took an ounce of blood | 
from him by opening a vein under the wing; gave him a 
good dose of jalap and castor oil, and every three hours put 
his head under a stream of cold water. The next day I 
repeated the bleeding, and took away some blood by making j 
some cuts in the comb with a lancet, and repeated the medi¬ 
cines, &c. The third day he was decidedly better; and in j 
two more days was quite recovered. A few days after 1 
turned him with the hens, when lie relapsed, and I was 
obliged to submit him again to treatment. Fearing to re¬ 
duce him too much by again bleeding, I had recourse to a 
seton at the back of the head, and employed the medicines 
as before ; but he remained in statu quo, the complaint hav¬ 
ing evidently become chronic. I then tried mercury, with a 
most satisfactory result; a four-grain blue pill twice a day 
for two days, and once a day for the three following days, 
completely removed the vertigo, and he now walks as well 
and steadily as ever." 
I received this account in March, and on enquiring after 
the bird last week was informed that he was as well as ever, 
but that, as a measure of precaution, was to be kept by him¬ 
self until after next moulting time. 
In oue of his letters respecting this case, Dr. Gwynne 
