18 
THE COTTAGE GARDENEE. 
October 7. 
shallow; one foot was the depth of hot dung, hut this was 
trodden very firmly down on the hrick bottom, and enclosed 
by a little brick-wall to that height. I wished to try if a 
largo and shallow mass woubl produce and retain the heat 
as well as the same quantity in the usual more cubical 
shape, and I think it did so. Most of the tropical plants 
likely to be experimented upon, such as the South American 
Scilmniiicte, and the like, would, if our climate continued as 
it is to day, be in their beauty, as to blossom and good de¬ 
velopment, about Christmas day. We, therefore, try to 
give tliem such a start, by means of tbe bottom-heat, as 
will enable them to begin soon enough to be ready to flower 
and thrive while our fine weather lasts ; but this, the per¬ 
fection of the thing, will not be done till we try Mr. Beaton’s 
plan of a cheap and simple means of bottom-heat, always 
at command ; while above ground, the plant enjoys what it 
never gets in our plant-houses, fresh air and exorcise. 
Many men have many minds, and so liave the many 
members of the large family Amaryllis. Scarcely any two 
require exactly the same treatment. The name of the sorts 
should be given to prevent jioor Editors giving evasive 
answers. Mucli of this difficulty will cease when warmed 
boi'ilers in the open- In two mimites I shall be on 
my hobby, so adieu.—A CoRREsroNrENT. 
(From whom we hope to hear very often.—E d. C. G.) 
ME. lUVEES’S CRYSTAL EALACES. 
To gardeners and amateurs. You are all well aware of 
the annual trouble and expense of fruit-trees on walls, 
after prunning, nailing, and covering {but uol lu-niccfimj'), 
for that is almost an impossibility in our nortlioni parts, 
and frequently is an entire failure in the more southern 
districts. Gardeners have been for years crying out— 
“ Tm afraid I shall not be troubled with much fruit this 
season, as my peaches, pears, plums, and chomos, all 
apparently are cut off by the frost, and it’s nothing but an 
entire disappointment." Now, to prevent all this, I woidd 
earnestly recommend all horticulturists and lovers of gar¬ 
dening to step into Mr. Kivers’s nursery, and see there 
fruit grown to the gi-eatcst perfection, such as poaches, 
idums, pears, apricots, and apples. I, myself, was highly 
gratified, two months ago, by a visit to his nursery, likewise, 
at the same period, to the seat of Lord Boden, where I saw, 
in both places, peaches and apricots in pots, laden with ad¬ 
mirable fruit. What would bo more pleasing and interesting 
than to have one or more of these pots, with the sides washed, 
and the surface covered with a carpet of moss, placed on a 
nobleman’s table, with three to fo\u- dozen of beaiitiful fruit 
on each plant, which is very easily to be had with only a 
slight attention. There is no nailing, no tying, and no 
covering at night with these, only a little additional watering 
and pruning, as our kind friend Mr. 11. directs. And I am 
sure that the ladies would take great pleasure in gathering 
the fruit themselves in their dining-rooms. Some are ajit 
to say that the “orchard-houses” are nothing more than 
rickety cow-sheds, but for them to bo convinced about that, 
I should strongly recommend them to pay one of those 
structures a visit. I’erhaps some of our aged friends, in 
the same capacity of gardening as myself, would like to 
know liow Mr. E. manages to produce his fruit so 
aliundantly, and if they impiire of him, I have no doubt he 
will inform them, as I know ho is alway's pleased to give 
any one information concerning their well-doing. I can 
safely say', that I could grow fruit in the same way very 
satisfactorily, although not of so much experience as some; 
but I hope, as glass is so cheap, that I shall be able to see, 
one day or other, an orchard-house as large as the Crystal 
Talaco that stood in Hyde I'ark. A. B. C. 
rOULTEY MANIA. 
DORIvlNG, versus COCmN-CniNA. 
“ Tantas componere tiles.” 
(To decide so great a controversy.) 
Virgil's Eclogues. 
Cock EiCiiixiuo, as a national pastime, has become de- 
lunct, and in lieu thereof, the owners of cocks liave entered 
into strife among themselves; happily, however, the fight 
is a bloodless one, and in the main is limited to ink- 
shodding. Most learned have been the controversies, most 
contlicting have been the facts; and but one truth stands 
conspicuously forth, namely, that a fowl which passes under 
the name of “Cochin-China,” is just now “the pet of the 
fancy.” We hate foul play, and, therefore, candidly confess, 
that will/ this has come to pass we cannot determine. Yulgar 
people insinuate, that it arises from a vain desire to imitate 
Majesty in small things; and just as the daughters ol' the 
honest burgesses of this realm, on all occasions, threw back 
their veils in a coil around the sides of their bonnets, and 
tied them in a knot under their cliin, on hearing that tho 
Queen, in a stormy day, was seen with the bonnet thus 
accoutred, so have “ Cochins” become the fashion, because 
a few “noble specimens” of the breed ocou|ded a conspi¬ 
cuous position in Her IMajesty’s aviary. iVc reverence 
royalty, wherever wo find it. When a king squints, it 
becomes his subjects to squint likewise. AVe have heard 
of a courtier who said he would bow to a thistle, if it were 
surmounted by tho crown of his sovereign. AVe honour the 
sentiment. AVhere is the hungiy donkey that would not 
perform a like act of homage? 
But to return to the Cochin-China fowl ; what arc its 
qualities ? In what special excellence does it transcend 
the whole race of Spanish, Dorkings, Bolands, or Game ? 
In size—in that estimable quality in which a painted sign¬ 
post suiqiasses one of Mulready’s cabinet pictures—in that 
important endowment in which Daniel Lambert was supe¬ 
rior to Lord John Russell, and in which the elephant sur¬ 
passes a man. All its qualities arc colossal; and, therefore, 
in an age when pcopile wish “ to get as much as they can for 
their money,* they are popular, fashionable, and “ the pet 
of the fancy.” It is true, that when they arc young, they 
are superlatively ugly; when at adult ago, superlatively 
tough; and when old, these two qualities are blended in a 
superlative degree. But then, they arc very large, veiy 
dear, and very fashionable; and these quahtio.s, with tlio 
majority, are sufficient to compensate all other defects. 
The poultry-shows, generally, proclaim that these tailless 
birds arc, as wo have decribed them, “pets.” They have all 
the “ prestige ” of novelty. All the fervour and enthusiasm 
which Englishmen lavish on foreign favourites, Avhethcr 
Italian singers, Frencli ballet-girls, Swiss valets, or Gei'man 
nurse-maids, are now bestowed on these emigrants from 
India, Cochin-China, and the Malay peninsula. Their 
uami's appear daily in large capitals in the advertising 
sheets of the Times, the Gardener's Chronicle, and other 
first-rate journals. Air. Stevens, the auctioneer for .all the 
property connected with natural history in its wide-spread 
ramificatiou-s, exhausts his oratorical powers in their praise; 
and every dandy who hears of poultry-shows exclaims— 
“ Aw, I’ve no taste for these things, except, aw, except for 
Cochins ; the rest are low, sir, decidedly low.” And yet, in 
spite of all this dilettanti dandyism—this popular favour— 
we venture to predicate, that tho Cochin-China fowl will 
disappear as such ;—like the Arab horse in F.ngland, it will 
become lost in crosses with other breeds, and be repre¬ 
sented by a race possessing their great size, without any of 
the numerous defects which now characterize the bird. 
During tbe past summer, wo saw a Cochin chicken 
running about at three months old, W'ith “ dowl ” upon hi.s 
back, with legs nearly as long as a Flamingo’s, and as 
bare behind as a picked goose. He had, it is true, 
“ roughed it ” bitterly, and, therefore, did not resemble very 
closely the pets of Sturgeon and Bunchard—yet he was a 
genuine Cochin; and around him, reared under, and c.x- 
posed to precisely the same influences (birds of the same 
nest and hatch), wei'e gaily congregated chittepr.ats, half- 
bred game chicks, and a host of mongrels, carrying in their 
veins as heterogeneous a mixture of vital fluid as rolls in 
the arteries of a Yankee, and yet these were all w'cll-fea- 
thered, respectable, and decorous, waring their tails with 
modest dignity, while the unfortunate Cochin r.an about 
as bare, if not as ornamental, as that variegated baboon, 
who rejoices in the euphonious name of “ Cynoocphalus 
maimon.” It would become tho exertions of bemwolent 
young ladies to make flannel coverings for those ornitho¬ 
logical nudities, if such n breed is to be encoimaged to the 
exclusion of the more useful and ornamental denizens of 
the poultry-yard. 
