174 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
Decemiser 2 . 
Elites, 1000 double and single Snowdrops, with as many florist’s bulbs as 
your own fancy tells you. We would not plant a quarter of vour space 
with bulbs. Your garden will look more like a nursery in Holland than 
anything else j too much of a good thing is as bad as too little, and yet 
the above will only make a scanty clothing for your space. 
Gladioli {Regular Subscriber).—'r\\c heights are relative, but what 
the proportions are on your soil we cannot say. The highest is 1 , Uun- 
danensis, orange-scarlet; 2, Uamnsus, white and red; the rest are 
about the same height, or, say on an average, a yard high, and the colour 
various shades of red and orange. Psittacinus, Oandauensis, and E7o?-i- 
bundus, may be planted any time between this and April. The right 
name of Floribimdus is Oppositiflorus; and if you have it true, it is all but 
white. The rest of them should be planted now. The time of flowering 
will be governed by your locality, and the time of planting ; for instance, 
if you plant Psittacinus now, it will come in flower next June; plant 
again in the beginning of February to bloom in July; plant in March 
for August bloom, and in April for September and October bloom. 
Tropceolum tuberosum. — Warcham says—“ I dug up my Tropceo- 
lum tuberosum a day or two ago, the result was—Twenty-one tubers, 
tei'i'cr than the original, for which I gave Is.; twenty-two about the 
same size ; twenty-four somewhat smaller; and something like sixty very 
smalt. I cooked a few, and they ivere very nice, resembling Asparagus 
somewhat in flavour. The small I have pickled. They are not amiss 
raw, as a salad. A paper in Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal mentions 
that they produce fifteen to eighteen tubers; if that is the average, I 
must consider mine as a good crop ; and I think I should have had more 
had I earthed it up, as there were many immature tubers outside the 
ground. It was manured with wood ashes and burnt sticks, half-charred. 
Though it cannot be expected to supply the place of the Potato, yet I 
see no reason why it should not be cultivated as an esculent. The tubers 
keep well, and, as an occasional dish, would, I think, be found useful. 
Can you suggest a way to make it flower well ? ” Your crop was very 
good, a little above the average on good land. Tastes differ so much in 
these things, that we do not like to say much either way. We have tasted 
them, and all the Oxalises that have been recommended, and we still 
prefer the worst potato to the best of them. 
Roses {Ibid). —They will do perfectly w'ell where you say, and they i 
require little or no sun in winter; same with Pinks and Carnations. I 
Name of Hardy Shrub {C. G.).—Yours is the Sea-Buckthorn, or i 
Sallowthorn {Hippophae rhamnoides) ; one of those few bushes that will ! 
grow well in sea-sand, to the edge of the tide. 
FucnsiA-BED (il/. Fermanagh). —Your compost is very good for a 
Fuchsia-bed; indeed, too good to be passed—One-part garden mould; 
one-part turf, ashes, and a little sand ; and two-parts turf. Fuchsias 
will grow away like willows in such a soil. Make it full two feet deep 
for them. But do not think of planting climbers in the centre of such 
a beautiful bed; nor a Corymbifiora Fuchsia either, which, instead of 
being “ too delicate,” is so ravenous, that it would eat up all the others 
before the end of the season. For a row in the centre, lliecartonii or 
Gracilis are the cheapest, and as good as any if you transplant them 
every other spring, so that they do' not encroach on the new sorts all 
round. Look at the list we gave last July, before you decide on what 
kinds to plant. Your Cleopatra Fuchsia will grow too strong for Ur. 
Jephson, so you must keep them well apart, with others between. 
Bees in Taylor’s Hive (4 Subscriber). —Our correspondent says :—• 
“ I have a stock of bees in Taylor’s Boxes, as described in his ‘ Bee- 
Keeper’s Manual,’ third edition, page 17 . The stock-box they have 
been in three years, the combs are getting very black, so that I should be 
very glad to change them into another, and I think there is now a chance 
of so doing, if I knew how to proceed ; they being very strong the 
summer before last, I put a cap on, fast, so that I cannot now take it off. 
I have been following the side-box system, as described in the above 
work, page 29 , but have not succeeded very well, as they swarm most 
seasons, and scarcely ever fill the side-box; last summer they threw off a 
strong swarm in June, and were very full afterwards. I put aside-box 
too, they worked very well into it, but did not above half fill it, and by 
what I could see through the glass, I thought there was little or no honey 
in it, so 1 thought I would let it remain till the bees left it, and were in 
the stock-hive, and then take it away, and put the stock-hive in its 
place. I have tried several times, but always found a great many bees 
in it, so I thought I would let it remain till the weather became cold. 
Last night being very cold, the thermometer out down to thirty-two, 
with cold wind, and the Staffordshire hills covered with snow, but as 
soon as I stirred the box they were all on the move, as usual. I tilted 
the box up two inches on one side, hojiing they would go into the other 
at six o’clock ; I then let it remain till ten o’clock, but then found them 
all, as usual, in the side-box, and very irascible; in fact, one flew out and 
stung me, whilst lowering the box down on to the floor-board. This morn¬ 
ing I find them there as usual, and on examining the stock-box, found 
but three or four bees in it, but very heavy indeed with honey, full quite 
three-parts down. I have put it in its place again, but should be very 
glad if I could take it away, so that the bees may have the box with new 
combs ; but how will they succeed, the box being but half-full of combs ? 
There is plenty of honey in the stock-box, and I should be glad to know 
how to give it to them in the best way. I always feed at the top, with 
tins, as described in the above work, page 65 . Would it be better to put 
the honey in the comb in the tins, and feed them in that way ; and would 
they increase the combs at this season of the year ? or would it be better 
to put the box the bees are in, on the top of the stock-box, and let them 
help themselves ? but I fear in that way they would again take possession 
of the stock-box, with the old combs, which I do not want them to do.” 
You may safely take the stock-box away, but cut seven or eight pounds 
of honey-comb out of it, and place it under a cap or bell-glass, upon the 
top of the box the bees are in, and when they have emptied the combs of 
honey, give them another supply. 
SiiANGHAE OR CocHiN-CniNA FoWLS {Brixfon), —These are one and 
the same, and we have abided by our determination to call them Shan- 
ghae only. We cannot make our correspondents always do so. The 
variety is not known in Cochin, and they are found only about Shanghae, 
and other norf/iem districts of Chin.a. “China fowls,” as you suggest, 
would be a correct name, but we think Shanghae is accepted generally* 
’rhe following, from a correspondent in Gloucestershire, quite agrees with 
what we have ascertained from a traveller recently from China, and which 
we shall soon publish in another form. “ You would oblige by informing 
me, if you can, why the ‘ Poultry World,’ in speaking of China fowls, use 
indiscriminately, as they do, or, in fact, why they use at all, the prefix 
‘ Cochin,’and do not call them simjily ‘ China fowls?’ I have endea¬ 
voured, but in vain, to ascertain the origin of the name ‘ Cochin-China,’ 
as applied to fowls, and cannot learn that there is, but, on the contrary, 
I believe, from all 1 have learned, there is not, any breed peculiar to and 
to be found in that particular part of China, or bearing its name. I have 
kept China fowls for nearly four years, and possess birds bred from the 
largest sort, and some of the earliest (if not the first, except the Queen’s, 
presented to Her Majesty by the Emperor of China) introduced into 1 
Engiand; those birds, however, came from a far more northerly province, 1 
viz., that of Peang-nan, in China Proper, to which place, also, I know 
that the best birds in this country, that is, those that have taken prizes 
during the past and current year, are indebted in part, if not wholly, for 
their parentage. The synonyme of Shanghae, which has now become 
generally current, was given to the race to which mine belong merely 
Because they were shipped from the Port of that name, and as a distinc¬ 
tion from the smaller class of birds which at the earliest English Exhi¬ 
bitions w'ere described and acknowledged by the Judges as Cochin-Chinas 
between which and mine there is a great difference, as there is also 
between those originally and those now received as Cochins. In one of 
your recent numbers, an article appeared stating as a necessary charac¬ 
teristic of pure Cochin-China fowls that they must have no tail feathers, I 
should be glad to know upon what authority it is so stated. I maintain that 
pure bred China birds (cocks), of the finest sorts, come from what part 
of that country they may, have, or ought to have, perfect tail feathers, 
but of a dwarfish description; they should, I am told, be fourteen in 
number ; and if any of these are wanting, the attention of the judges at 
exhibitions should be directed to ascertain whether such feathers have 
been lost accidentally or plucked intentionally to meet the erroneous 
and absurd/nsZu'oii of the day, which appears to be ‘ that the best China 
fowls must be a buff colour and tail-less.’—2'. A.” We do not remember 
anywhere its being stated in these pages that Shanghae fowls should be 
without tails altogether, but we are quite sure that cocks of the pure 
breed have no sickle feathers in their tails. 
Potato-Onion {F. Withers).—Plant offsets in early spring, about 
the beginning of March, in rows eight inches apart, and the point of 
each offset just above the surface. The soil as for other onions. They 
have completed their growth by September, and may then be taken up 
to plant again at the end of October, cv to be kept until the following 
spring. 1)0 not earth them up, nor give any cultivation except an 
occasional earth-stirring. 
Parlour Aquarium. — Clericus would be glad to know where he 
can purchase one of these. He also requires some seed of Polygonum 
vaccinifolium. 
Exchange of Ducks, &c. {Vicar). —We have given notice that we 
cannot insert such notices in future. We are not merely liable to 
advertisement duty, but give offence to advertisers. 
Wheat Dierling Machine.—/. R. N. wishes to know which is 
the best for making the holes and delivering the seed at the same time. 
Bees (H. Edwards). —Leave the comb in the hive, tie a covering over 
the mouth, hang it in a dry place, and put a swarm into it next year. 
Diseased Grapes (.1 Subscriber, Guernsey).—'The berries of vour 
Muscats were affected with what is technically called “the spot.” The 
following is extracted from The Cottage Gardeners' Dictionary “ It is 
a gangrene, probably occasioned by an irregularity in the supply of mois¬ 
ture and vicissitudes of temperature, but especially if one of the extremes 
is much below the degree of heat most favourable to the healthy growth 
of the plant. Muscats are particularly liable to this disease.” Muscats 
require a higher temperature than most other grapes, and that of your 
greenhouse was probably much too low during our recent ungenial 
weather. The large Haricot Bean you enclosed, and which you state 
is commonly cultivated in the south of France, would be advantageously 
grown by our cottagers if hardy enough for our climate ; its green pods 
and dried seeds being equally excellent for boiling. It is probably the 
Lima variety, and if so, requires the plants to be forwarded in a hotbed. 
Worm-casts on Lawns (Henrica.s).—These cannot be entirely pre¬ 
vented. Frequent waterings with lime water keep the worms from 
coming near the surface. 
Shanghae Cockerel {A new Suhscriber).—Seni!i your address, and 
state what aged bird do you require. The other information you seek will 
appear in due time. 
Pumice Stone {Pteris, Dublin).—This wiil do very well for a small 
fernery. 
dROPQEOLUM TRicoLORUM (G. P. WUland). —We cannot give you the 
name of your plant by the two small leaves sent. The Tropaiolum tri- 
colorum that has put up four inches, and now died down again, we 
should say has been kept too wet, and most likely its roots have decayed 
too ; whether or not, stop watering until you see if it will put out again, 
whicli probably it will not do for several months. September is about 
the time this plant begins to shoot out, at which time it should be potted. 
Until growth reappears the pot and tuber may be placed upon a dry .shelf. 
Names of Plants {Troublesome).—The leaf you enclosed is of the 
Calla JEthiopica, mentioned at page 113 of our sixth volume. (.). R.). _ 
The crimson flower is Siphocampylos Surinamensis, var. rubra. The 
orchid bud was crushed. {Rev. M. E.). —Yours is Veronica speciosaj 
even in Ireland we think it v ill not do under a warm wall without pro¬ 
tection. {H. 25).—No. 1 . Rusctis racemosus, or Alexandrian Laurel. 
No. 2. Gazania uniflora, a greenhouse undershrub. No. 3 is a Phlox 
but we cannot determine which. ’ 
London; Printed by Harry Wooldridge, Winchester High-street, 
in the Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published by Willias; 
Somerville Ore, at the Oflice, No. 2, Amen Corner, in the Parish cf 
Christ Church, City of London.—December 2nd, 1862 . 
