November 11. 
THE COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 
Ill 
latter, there is a queen, but she lays the eggs of drones 
o]ihj. Should “ E. B.” now join bees with their queen to 
No. (and I have visions of a palace in ruins, next spring, 
under the earthen pan), this queen must be dislodged a 
lew days previous to the union. But it appears that “B. B.” 
has liad several dislodged families at command, and I would 
ask, if he has never presented a spai'e queen to this auspi¬ 
cious hive ? Had it not possessed a sovereign, a stranger 
would have been welcomed witli an enthusiasm which might 
have awakened feelings of envy in the breast of the French 
I’rosident! Does not “ H. T. N’s” hive No. 1, which is 
Jlr. Taylor’s bar-hive, afford facilities for a thorough ex¬ 
amination of the combs and bees, by taking out the former 
on the bars, and so ascertaining its state as regards the 
queen ? In reading the account of the “ deadly warfare," 
my first impression was, that there had been a mistake as 
to the hive that had swarmed, but to this difficulty, I think, 
another explanation may be given. It is observed, then, that 
in summers when honey is very plentiful, bees assimilate 
readily, swarms unite, and even enter other hives; but in 
times of scarcity, all their feelings of jealousy, as weU as the 
desire of plunder, are awakened; and, judging from the 
returns in this apiary, the secretion of honey in the flowers 
this season had been very small.— Investigator. 
THE POTATO ^iIURRAIN. 
You perhaps will excuse a casual reader, hut a close ob- 
seiwer, although only an humble individual, addressing you 
upon the disease of that root which, to the poorer classes 
of society in Great Britain, may be very justly denominated 
the STAFF OF I,IFF. I See, in a recent number of your x'ub- 
lication, a very pious letter on the histoiy and culture 
of the Potato in tins country, but ascribing its disease to 
the introduction of guano. It will be well remembered by 
many in different parts of England, including Ireland and 
Scotland, that long before guano was introduced, or even 
known or thought about, a disease infected the Potato, but 
more particularly at the plantmg season, or just after plant¬ 
ing, among the sets, which disease was then commonly known 
as tlie dry rot. It was no uncommon or isolated thing to see 
only xiarts of a field or furrows come up. Upon examining 
the sets that did not vegetate, most of them had entirely 
decayed, and only the outer sliin was left. Various 
reasons were advanced, and plans suggested, to cure this 
disease, or prevent a recurrence, such as planting as soon 
as cut, or substituting a whole potato for a set in lieu of a 
cut one, in order to prevent the lymph, or wedr.r, escaping— i 
a system which is now very much followed. You will ! 
excuse my simple language, as I wish to make clear what | 
I write to the simplest capacity. I trust to be enabled to 
show that the disease I write of, dated some eighteen years 
back, when we had no guano, bears an analogy to the 
present murrain. Even prior to the above period, I have 
j known the potato slightly diseased at taking-uj) time 
I thrown aside as not being good and no further notice taken 
of it. 
It seems something singular that the whole science of 
Europe, practice and theory, philosophy and chemistry, 
have not yet discovered the cause of this plague, even with 
the assistance of Moore’s and other almanacks to help 
them. It appears this year, in this island (Thanet), to be 
nearly as had as in 1HI5. Seven years’ experience, with 
the whole of the knowledge of the “Eoyal Agricultural 
Society,’’ and prize essays to boot, and no eft'ectual cure or 
i remedy; nay, not even the cause discovered! Eminent 
practical gardeners and amateurs, down to the veriest clown, 
all baffled. Surely this is a wonderful mystery; but so it is. 
Doctors differ, and so do diseases ; yet doctors, to cure this, 
have not been wanting by thousands, with innumerable 
remedies : but all have failed. If the blind lead the blind, both 
must fall into the ditch; so must all prescribed nostrums, 
j unless the cause of the disease is first discovered; it appears 
* to be making a beginning where it ought to end. You wiU 
I excuse my using the plain word jiotato instead of tuber. 
Honest John Hodge’s conceptions are sometimes curious, 
! and his ideas not exactly clear upon all things; he might 
I take it for a new-fashioned drain tile, or, mayhap, he may 
I think it is to grow long Kidnies in, hke them gardener chaps 
do cucumbers, to exhibit at the flower shows. I am rather 
surprised to see, in No. 21:}, Oct. 28, that you are content 
to let time correct the eril of this plague. You say, “ No 
doubt but that the Potato will one clay he restored to them 
in its original purity, however long the ordeal through 
which it has to pass : a cure is out of the question.” IViili 
this I beg to differ; it looks so like despair. I would have 
shown the original cause of the disease long ago, and 
without which time has proved there if no care, but those 
to whom I wrote about it gave me no encouragement; it 
was left to that ordeal througli which it has already passed, 
and which is yet in store for it. Nevertheless, I will write 
you another letter (if this finds room in your little publica¬ 
tion), and showing the analogy to which I have adverted.— 
A Casual Reader. 
[Mr. Errington was quite right when he said “ a cure is 
out of the question; ” for when the disease attacks a tuber, 
who will undertake to restore that tuber to health ? Preven¬ 
tion is what we must strive for. We shall be very glad to 
receive our correspondent’s promised letter.—E d. C. G.] 
NORMANDY. 
I TAKE up my pen—as housemaid’s say when they write to 
their sweetliearts—for the pm’pose of sending you a few me¬ 
moranda on the poultry of this ancient province ; but so 
little new or interesting in that hue have I seen during a 
complete jorn-ney through it from east to west, that, 
althougli the said pen is a magnificent Canada goose quill 
from Hudson’s Bay, worthy to write an epic in twenty-four | 
books, I shall have to lay it down again before we get to the 
bottom of the column, unless you permit me to introduce a 
few other matters which have reference to country life. 
As in the Calaisis, all the fowls are a medley of breeds, 
with hero and there some one race x)redominating in its own 
locality. In the Pays de Caux, the district extending along 
the sea on the north of the Seine, the Spanish type has 
the mastery, though nothing like a well-bred Spanish fowl is 
to be seen. Around Caen, on the other side of the estuary, 
the Polish are in the majority'. There is a veiy large expor¬ 
tation of poultry from the department of Calvados rid Havre - 
de-Grace (as I hke to see it written) ; and an inspection of 
the fowl-baskets, as they are landed from the numerous 
little steamers, which arrive from Honfleur, from Trouville, 
from Dives, from Caen, and from Isigny, wiU treat you to 
the sight of a great variety of Polish fowls, some with better 
top-knots than I have seen exhibited at Poultry Shows. 
You will find bearded, beardless, whiskered, and muffed 
specimens, black, white, brown, and speckled ; so that those 
origin.al virtuosi whose passions are excited about the beards 
of Polisli fowls, may each select his own particular idol, and 
fall down and worship it. The yioultry of Normandy is 
famous for its excellence on the table, and after having 
partaken of an admirable pullet, with watercresses, a philo- 
soirher will not spoil his digestion by insisting too positively 
that she -would have been infinitely better with, or without 
her beard, as the case may be, and as his choice may lie. 
The Tnrlieys are still the pure black Norfolk breed, which 
is so generally cultivated, and varies so little that the race 
acquires from the circumstance an additional importance in j 
natural history. Was it the domestic variety originally im¬ 
ported into Eiu’ope ? In one respect we perceive the in¬ 
fluence of climate; the poults are earher for the table than 
in England. Fine birds may be had in August at a mode¬ 
rate rate, and in September they are abundant. 
The Piyeons also are very large, mostly of a Runtish cha¬ 
racter, with a dash of the Trumpeter. They are also nume¬ 
rous, and exceedingly domesticated. Blue Rocks and 
Dovecote Pigeons are less common, and, indeed, are seldom 
seen. The Cotentin, the rich luxuriant peninsula which 
extends from Carentan to Gax) de la Hague, produces more 
Geese than I had before observed in tlie north of France, 
and also makes the most of them; for many of the poor 
things wandered about half-naked, having lost their featliers 
by a less easy process than that of moulting. 
The most imlikely spot in which I ever saw poultry located, 
was the Digue, or Breakwater at Cherbmirg, a gigantic 
work, of which that at Plymouth is only a reduced copy, so 
to speak; the one being 4111, and the other 17(10 yards in 
