August 22 . 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
403 
four acres, English, and though in a most dilapidated and 
lamentable state of cultivation when I took it, I have been 
enabled, under the advice of The Cottage Gardener, and 
the articles of Messrs. Beaton, Errington, and others, to 
bring it into something tolerably respectable. 
In our Farmer’s Club (of which I am a member) we are 
at present discussing “ Whether Guano is a good manure 
for grass land.” „ . , * . „ 
I am about adopting a method with my fruit-trees (all 
standards) which is much used in America, viz., scraping 
. and clearing them of all superfluous bark, moss, and 
! fungus. Do you approve of this ? [Certainly.] In America 
j they get rid of the American (Blight) Bug, by placing a 
1 leaden gutter round the trunk of the tree; this gutter being 
I filled two or three times during the smmer with lamp oil. 
This, with scraping the trees, especially at the joints, and a 
little pruning, constitutes all the care and attention that is 
paid to them. The Black Currant does not grow well in 
America. _ , .. „ 
Plants of Medicago circinata (or Caterpillar plant), Ccn- 
tavrea Americana, Sphcnogyne speciosa, Calcndrina speciosa, 
and Bartonia aurea, flourish here. 
My Indian Corn is in bloom (August 4), and the Peppers 
have fruit on them, some ready to pick.—W. Harding 
Warner, Melrose. 
CHICK AND CHICKEN versus CHICKS AND 
CHICKENS. 
“ An’t please your honour,” quoth the corporal, “I have fed all the 
^"“Call them a,tens. Trim,” said my uncle Toby, knocking the ashes 
It is ‘ ox or oxen’s,’ please your honour, in your honour’s dictionary.’ 
“ Thou sayest true, Trim, it is an o.v or an oxen, hut when thou speak- 
est of more than one, thou must say oxs or oxens." 
“ And yet,” continued the corporal, many writers and others call 
them oxen, though they arc alluding to a whole yard full. ,, 
“That is the very reason, Trim, that I now point out thy erroi. 
Tristam Shandy. 
In pity's sake, kind reader, do not think that the above 
absurdity is mine. It appeared in a contemporary journal, 
where it was inserted with the design of throwing ridicule on 
those, who, like myself, always use the Saxon word, chick, as 
a singular, with its proper Saxon plural, which is chicken; 
and from whence I have copied it, merely substituting the 
words oxs and oxens for chicks and chickens. The wiitei 
who so readily undertakes to inform others, seems, like 
many other would-be-instructors, to have a profound igno¬ 
rance of the subject; permit me, therefore,to mention,that 
chick is an Anglo-Saxon word; and that in the Anglo-Saxon 
tom’tie plurals were often formed by the termination en 
thus we have ox, oxen; child, children; house, housen, 
brother, brethren; and chick, chicken; &c., &c., &c. It, 
therefore, we must have chickens, let us be at least consis¬ 
tent in absurdity, and, like stupid mens and womens, talk ot 
our childrens and breihrens, our oxens and our housens. 
W. B, Tegetmeier. 
WEIGHT OF STRAWBERRY. 
Tttere appeared in a late number of tho Morning Herald 
newspaper, an extract from the Montrose Standard, to the 
effect that a Strawberry weighing Pj ozs., had been grown 
by Mr. Anderson, of Montrose, and announcing it as some¬ 
thing very uncommon. This, I presume, it is ; but I have 
seen this exceeded by a Strawberry gathered by a gentleman 
in the immediate neighbourhood of Bath, on the l«th ol 
July last, which weighed If ozs., and making the scale to 
preponderate well. Should this fact be beyond yoiu ex¬ 
perience, or that of any of your coadjutors or correspon¬ 
dents, and you deem the thing worth while, and of a corner 
in your Cottage Gardener, perhaps you will oblige a 
constant reader by referring it to your constituents. I say 
nothing of such Strawberries as weigh one ounce, or tliree- 
quarters-of-an-ounce, but nothing of the size of tho first- 
mentioned have I ever seen in shop or on table.— Senex. 
POULTRY FACTS AND SCRAPS. 
THE DELICACY OF TOLAND CHICKEN. 
Tiie tendency of Polands to droop and die just before 
attaining their full size, is, unfortunately, too well knovvn 
to the rearers of this beautiful, and, under certain cir¬ 
cumstances, profitable variety; there is, in fact, a much 
greater tendency in them to consumption than in any other 
family of fowls. 
Consumption is, in all cases, caused by tho presence of 
scrofulous tubercles in the lungs. When these diseased 
tumours appear in any other part of the body, the com¬ 
plaint, though essentially arising from the same cause, is 
not popularly termed consumption. Tho circumstances 
giving rise to consumption are, damp and cold, with insuffi¬ 
cient and bad food, and, above all, an hereditary pro- 
disposition. 
The symptoms of this disease are in fowls, unfortunately, 
not observed in the earlier stages; and it is not until 
tubercles are formed, and the case is perfectly hopeless, 
that any serious complaint is suspected. As the disease 
cannot be cured, it is the more important to endeavour to 
ascertain if the predisposition to it can in any manner be 
obviated. The causes which tend to prevent consumption, 
or other forms of tuberculous disease, are precisely the 
opposite to those producing them. A residence on a dry, 
sandy, or chalky soil, not exposed to cold winds from the 
north or east; a proper supply of sound, nutritious food; 
and a well - sheltered habitation, are among the chief pre¬ 
ventives to be relied on in the case of poultry. Where I 
suspected a tendency to the disease in any valuable chicken, 
I should not hesitate to give a small portion (say half to a 
wholu teaspoonful) daily of cod-liver oil (mixed with meal), 
which would have the twofold advantage of vastly improving 
the condition of the fowl, and, by its peculiar action, 
arresting tho tendency to this disease; but in advanced 
cases, where tubercles are really formed, all the oil from all 
the cod-fish in the sea would not preserve the life of the 
patient, be he a feathered or an unfeathered biped. Among 
other breeds, consumption is a much rarer disease than is 
generally imagined. I have made post-mortems of many 
hundred fowls, and find, that striking out the Polands, the 
deaths from tuberculous disease, in any form, are not more 
than five per cent. Cochins, whether buff or grey, seem 
remarkably exempt from it; and the complaint that carries 
off Dorkings during cliickenliood is of a totally distinct 
character. 
VARYING APPETITE OF FOWLS. 
A Lady once remarked to me, concerning my strong 
recommendation of w r orms and insects as the best possible 
animal food for chicken and fowls, that She thought worms, 
like oysters, went in and out of season, as they were some¬ 
times eaten voraciously, and sometimes refused, by fowls, 
especially by Cochins. I have repeatedly noticed, on throw¬ 
ing a flower-pot full of large worms to a number of fowls, 
that they were greedily devoured by some, and refused by 
others; and that the fowls who took them most eagerly were 
the laying hens and the growing chicken. The explana¬ 
tion of this circumstance is sufficiently evident, both grow¬ 
ing animals, and those laying eggs, require a large proportion 
of flesh-forming or nitrogenous food, out of which the mate¬ 
rials of their growth, or their eggs, may be obtained;_ lienee, 
their appetite for such substances ; for the natural instinct 
of animals leads them to select such things as are required 
to supply their bodily wants, and to refuse that which is not 
requisite. Even man, whoso natural instincts. have been 
modified by artificial customs, is still under their influence , 
and our liking and loathing of fat meats, in wintoi and 
summer, shows that our varying appetites depend upon the 
variation of our bodily requirements. A uselul lesson may 
be gleaned from this circumstance, namely, that we ought 
to take care that our laying hens, and growing chicken, have 
a due supply of flesh-forming or nitrogenous food; the 
worms and insects they obtain, when they have a free run, 
certainly form tho best mode of supplying such a want; 
hence, one great advantage of not cooping hens with 
chicken. Of the various grains used in feeding, rice con¬ 
tains the least, and grits the largest, quantity of flesh-form¬ 
ing materials—hence, the inferiority of tho former, and 
superiority of the latter, as a diet for chicken. A more de- 
