no 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
No^'T:MnEB 18 . 
you to cliooso those that ave the best hveeclevs and the 
best layers;” and similar off-hand, half-contemptuous 
sentences might be quoted frojn other writers of tliat 
century, showing how little was tlic yalno placed upon 
this hind of stock, and that no attention was bestowed 
upon its improvement. 
The first work that wo know of shewing the dawn 
of better attention to tliis description of farming stock, 
is Mr. Bonington Mowbray’s Practical Treatise on 
Breeding, Rearing, and Fattening, all kinds of Domestic 
Poidtrg. Tliis first appeared in 18l(i. Between which 
date and the present, we believe it has passed through 
nine editions; at all events, the eighth, dated 1843, is 
now hefore us. Tlio author understood his subject, 
wrote from experience, and gives us this first evidence 
of care and system that wo have met with in relation 
to this branch of rural affairs. He says— 
“ T have, throughout my life, been a breeder and keeper, 
and also an amateur of domestic poultry, pigeons, and 
rabbits; at some peiiods, upon rather a considerable scale ; 
and have, for many years together, kept a register of the 
results. I have further done that which, T believe, no other 
man has taken the pains to do—kejit a regular stud book 
for those breeders, scarcely one of which was so poor as to 
bo without a name; and Regulus, Samson, Flea-cateber, 
Selima, Moreau, Isaac, and Tom I’aine, shino with jieculiar 
lustre on my poultry aud jiigoon list; whilst Corney Butter¬ 
cup, Adam, Beelzebub, Lucifer, t!ai’olina, Hecuba, make a 
figure equally splendid and equally useful, among the 
rabbits. I think Moiilaifiiic says somewhere, that if a man 
would sit aud describi' that which bo has known practically, 
upon almost any subject, he coidd scarcely fail of being 
useful. Just so far my ambition extends. Nor is the woi-ld 
entirely without need of advice, on this subject, notwith 
standing its antiquity, and the multitude of counsellors.” 
Every page of his volume testifies that he wrote down 
only the results of experience, and from these, as from 
other authors, we shall place bcfoi’e our readers a spe¬ 
cimen. In speaking of raising early broods, he says:— 
“The number of hens to ono cock, four to six, the latter 
being tho extreme number, witli a view of making the 
utmost advantage. Ten and even twelve hens have been 
formerly allowed to one cock, but tho jn-oduco of eggs and 
chickens under such an arrangement will seldom equal that 
to be obtained from the smaller number of hens. Every 
ono is aware that the spring is the host season to cominenoo 
breeding with poultiy, and, in truth, it scarcely matters how 
early, itresupposing the best food, .accommodation, and 
.attendance, under wlii(!b, hens may bo permitted to sit in 
January; but the attempt to rear winter chickens in this 
climate, even in a carpeted room and with a constant firo, 
would, in all probability, bo found abortive. I have re¬ 
peatedly jiiade, tho experimeBit with some scores, without 
being able to jire.serve an individual through the winter, and 
nearly the same has resulted with respect to pigs, on a 
danq) clayey or marshy soil. This f request should be 
understooil with some grains of allowance in respect to the 
soils on which my stock of both kinds was reared, in three 
counties. They were clayey, wet, and bonumbing, and my 
neighbours were in a similar predicament with myself. It 
is a mere statement of facts. I have referred in the seqBiel 
to those (h’y soils, better adajdcd to breeding of poultry, as 
they are also to breeding and keeping of sheep. I give 
merely my own actual ex])erience, without doubting that 
many breeders more fortunately situated have succeeded 
with winter stock, though, in the best situations, winter may 
I bring with it considerable risk. A record, however, of the 
I experimented fact may remain, as a caution to breeders 
upon unfavourable, soils. The following is a remarkable 
I instance of attention and success in winter breeding. 
“The late Mrs. Adams, of Ditchford Farm, near Shipton- 
■ on-Stour, in Worcestershire, for many years devoted her 
time .and attention to tho breeding and rearing of winter j 
chickens and spring ducklings, with which she constantly 
attended Campden and Shipton markets, whore her poultry 
was sought by the neighbouring gentry with avidity, .and ‘ 
generally fetched good prices : the superiority of tliis good 
woman’s poultiy was proverbial; as a breeder and fancier ! 
she stood pre-eminent; her chickens were always re.aily for 
the table by New Year’s day, and her ducks were earlier in 
the market than those of any other person in that neigh¬ 
bourhood. This is given, not as a novelty, but as an 
example of merit and successful perseverance. In the 
vicinity of most cities and large towns, chicks and ducklings 
are reared in tho autumn for tho Christmas market. 'J’lie 
business is done by the aid of artificial heat, by stoving, 
aud with covered floors.” 
Next appeared, in 1815, Poultry; their hreeding, 
rearing, diseases, and general management, by Walter 
B. Dickson. This is far superior, ns a compilation, to 
any other work wo know on the subject. There are 
gathered together, and arranged in its pages, all the 
information that is scattered through our county Agri¬ 
cultural Surveys, the French works ofiM. M. Reaumur 
and Parmenticr, &c.; and he includes in his extracts 
many from Markham, and, indeed, .all his English 
predecessors who wroto of the same subject. Tho fol¬ 
lowing is a favourable sjiocimcn of his writing— 
“ The Colours of Fowls. —The varieties in the sizes, 
foms, and colours of fowls, are sufficiently striking to 
attract the notice of the. most indifferent observer; while, 
to those who can find subject of reflection in every iiroduc- 
tion of nature, they may be made an amjde source of in¬ 
teresting remark, as well as of .amusing experiment. ‘If 
people,’ says M. Reaumur, ‘aro afl’e.cted with the kind of 
jileasuro so transitory to the most enthusiastic florists, who 
procure it but for a few days by a world of care and toil 
continued through a whole ycai’—if they are affected by the 
variety and fine combination of colours in their favourite 
flowers, the poultry-yard, when well managed, may be made 
to offer them endless ple.asures of the same description.' 
“The greater number of cocks, even those of the com¬ 
monest breeds, when exposed to the pl.ay of the sun’s r.rys, 
exhibit tho brightest colours, in oxtraordinaiy bi'aiity, and 
v.aried mixtm'o; and even the liens, if the breeds have been 
select, are often no less worthy of admiration. Some, for 
instance, have spots distributed with great regularity, and so 
brightly white as to look silvery; others .are termed gtdden, 
because they aro spotted or speckled with a line golden 
or.ange colour; while the more common colours are varied 
in a manner almost endless; and, upon the whole, domestic 
fowls offer a multitude of colours, the several shades of 
which would bo found with difficulty, if they were sought 
for amongst the birds of the woods or the waters. 
“Another peculiarity in tho colour of fowls is, that, they 
frequently change in a very smprising manner, fi'orn the 
time when the chicks cast their down to tho annual moult 
of the full-grown fowls. It is, no doubt, the regular process, 
at least after the second and third moults, for tho colours to 
continue much the same. I liave, at present, a ben of the 
Spanish breed, which has been of a uniform black for two 
successive moults, but has now her neck, wings, and tail 
feathers tipped with pure, white. T have another which was 
all over of a silver grey, but has now' her lu'ad and neck 
coal black, with a ring of fine white at the base of the neck, 
w’hile the. I'est of the body is finely speckled w'itb black and 
snow white. It is remarkable also, tb.at this change took 
place in a few weeks, without any obvious mouH, so as to 
cause her to ajipear anywhere bare of fe.athers. 
“We are told by lil. Reaumur, tliat ono of bis bens 
wbicli his poultry-woman distinguished from the rest liy a 
crooki'd claw, when her coat began to be taken notice, of, had 
feathers of a ruddy colour mixed with the lirown so common 1 
among dunghill fowls. A year afterwards, this hen was 
observed to liecome almost black, with here and there some 
largo wliito spots. After the second moulting, black was the 
predominant coloiu' on every part of the body; but strange 
to tell, upon tho succeeding moult, white was tho pre- 
