August 15. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
371 
repeated large and accumulated dressings—hence the 
value of old meadows; and, on the other hand, part of 
tho fertilising results of soluble and liquid - manures is 
not to be called their own, but is owing to their stimu¬ 
lating action on the latent resources of the soil. 
Where the liquid is strong, and its application so 
long continued as to rot upon tho surface all the haulm, 
stubble, and other remains of former vegetation, the 
process is analogous to the free application of caustic 
lime; to paring and burning; or to trenching down the 
surface-soil of unreclaimed land. A new source of 
fertility can hardly be said to have been added to the 
soil; but what was previously lying useless is thus 
brought at once to profit. But it is plain that liming, 
paring and burning, or trenching, are any of them 
preferable methods of accomplishing the end in view. 
Our conclusions are these. Domestic manure has 
very similar properties with Guano and liquid farm¬ 
yard-manure. Like the latter, it should be collected 
with every precaution against admitting water, &c., into 
the receptacle. (Where water is made use of in the 
water-closet, chloride of zinc, or of lime, should also be 
employed.) The same substances are the best to mix 
with each: viz., dry earth, peat, gypsum, or charcoal.* 
It is best to be covered in immediately when applied to 
the ground unmixed. For surface-dressing it should be 
made up into a compost, unless the application be made 
sparingly in wet weather. Its stimulating properties re¬ 
quire to be distinguished from its intrinsic value as a 
manure. There appear great objections to its applica¬ 
tion when very largely diluted with water; and most of 
the advantages of irrigation may be obtained by pure 
water only. Undiluted, it contains ninety-four per cent 
of water, and is thus bulky and expensive, as compared 
to Guano, when it has to be removed some miles before 
application; and when mixed with rain-water, large 
cinders, brickbats, and useless refuse of every description 
(as is commonly the case in large towns), it will hardly 
pay for getting out and carting away. Yet there can be 
no doubt that each individual is capable of restoring to 
the soil what will enable the soil to reproduce his yearly 
stock of vegetable food. J. J• 
The variation between the prices obtained by good 
specimens of the different breeds of Fowls a year since, 
and those current at the present time, is not un- 
frequently quoted as indicating a decreased interest in 
the matters of the poultry-yard. To this, however, we 
must demur, considering, as we do, that a wide dis¬ 
tinction should be always drawn between the several 
motives that may have influenced purchasers, whether 
at public sales or elsewhere. The intrinsic value of a 
fowl that is intended to provide for our own domestic 
wants, or as tlio ordinary saleable produce of our 
poultry-yards, has usually been lost sight of in a large 
* Professor Way states that no substance equals newly-burnt charcoal 
as a ilcodoriser, and that newly-burnt animal charcoal is the best of all. 
This brings strongly to our remembrance the “ ashes of an heifer newly 
burnt,” which, in the old law, were made use of for purifying the 
andean.—J. J. 
majority of those cases where prices have been given far 
in excess of those now reportod. But such intrinsic 
value of tho Fowl and its produce, under ordinary 
circumstances, is, after all, the great point to which the 
efforts of Poultry Societies have been directed; for 
assuredly it is their legitimate object, although in some 
instances it may not have been sufficiently borne in 
mind. 
Hence, one of the main causes of the “ disappoint¬ 
ment of the Poultry-keeper,” who constantly became a 
purchaser, either from an erroneous opinion of what 
was likely to meet his wants, or, possibly, still more 
frequently because a particular breed happened, either 
from novelty or on better grounds, to be at that time 
principally in demand. His want of success, and con¬ 
sequent discontent, may often be attributable to one or 
either of these causes; but even if other reasons are to 
be sought for, they are at hand in sufficient abundance 
to account for all such unprofitable terminations of his 
recently-acquired taste. Good birds, of a suitable breed, 
may have come into his possession, but at the same 
time they may be ill-adapted to his conveniences for 
keeping them : thus, Hamburghs have been seen by us 
inmates of an area; the Game-fowl pining in the narrow 
limits of the back-yard; and Spanish assigned but a 
closet for their abode, with occasional occupation of the 
window-ledge for exercise and air. Failure—by which 
term we would signify unprofitable returns—were here 
inevitable, and the sooner death terminated disease and 
misery the better for the poor victims. But poultry 
casualties and mishaps are by no means limited to 
owners of narrow means, such as those to which refer¬ 
ence has been just made; for lavish expenditure in 
houses and yards may be, and constantly has been, 
incurred with no better eventual results as to the con¬ 
dition and health of their inmates. Numbers orowded 
in an insufficient space, imperfect ventilation, and bad 
management, the birds stuffed at one time to repletion, 
at another neglected and without food for hours, are 
conditions under which many a valuable bird is doomed 
to exist. Should it be any matter of surprise, there¬ 
fore, that fowls, thus treated should disappoint their 
owner’s anticipated gains ? 
Thus, it will plainly appear, that poultry-keepers of 
every grade have themselves to blame in very many of 
those cases which are too credulously reliod on as 
evidencing tho demerits of their fowls. High and low, 
alike, have thus made one or more mistakes on points 
such as errors in selection, their means of accommoda¬ 
tion, food and management, and, last not least, calcula¬ 
tions of sales even before the eggs have been laid from 
which the chickons aro to be hatched. Now, hore human 
—not feathered—bipeds are to blame. If the Spanish, 
Hamburghs, and Game, had enjoyod wide and healthy 
walks; if Shanghaes, more adapted to restricted bounds, 
had not been there overcrowded, and if, in both 
instances, they had been properly fed and managed, 
the expectations of proportionate profit to a reasonable 
amount of purchase-money would have had every chance 
of being realised. 
