Decembeu 30. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
319 
Tlie blaok I’olamls belonging to IMr. Fox are still vei-y 
juvenile, but already display undeniable evidence of a pure 
origin. The white crest, sliglitly stained with a few black 
feathers in front; the wing and tail of the cockerel tinged 
with white; the comb small and spiked, are the principal 
marks according to which excellence is now awarded; but 
ill every colour of this race one thing is essential, a full, 
compact, globular tuft in the liens, while in tlio male birds 
it must fall backwai’ds on the neck; for any irregularity in 
the crest is fatal to the pretensions of either sex. 
A black holish chicken, when first hatched, would invoke 
the symjiathy of the most inveterate antagonist of poultry. 
Glossy black, with a full development of tuft—they seem to 
anticipate, in their earliest movements, the ever restless 
activity that distinguishes their subsequent career. 
Mr. Fox has long kept a good strain of both gold and 
silver laced bantams, whose merits lie has been careful to 
iiiaintaiii by frequent selection from other fanciers. The 
present s'easoii appears to have given him an undue pro¬ 
portion of cockerels to pullets, so far’ as the silver laced are 
concerned. The clear ground colour iiencilled with black at 
the extremity of the feathers—the tail and flight feathers 
tipped with a dark line of the same—short clean legs of 
purplish-grey—a comb “rose ” in colour as in form, atl’ord 
us all the points we wish in this Lilliputian family. The 
gold and silver differ only in the ground colour, the mark¬ 
ings of good birds being exactly alike. Many persons 
imagine that no gallinaceous bird of any kind is safely to be 
admitted within the precincts of the garden, but Mr. Cuthill, 
the great marlcet gardener at Camberwell, confirms the 
advantage of the practice that Mr. Fox has long been ac¬ 
customed to, in giving Bantams the run of his garden—the 
number of insects, of the most destructive kinds, that they 
devour, more than compensates any occasional disturbance 
of the newly raked border. 
IMr. Fox’s dovecote is at some little distance from his 
poultry houses, which adjoin those of Mr. Bowman, and 
were built on the same plan. It occupies an admirable 
position for such a piupose, being sheltered from our jire- 
vailiug north-westerly winds, and having a clear running 
stream for the bathings that pigeons so freely indulge in. 
We have, carriers here, both pied and black; the fleshy 
excrescence around the e.ye, and extending to the bill, whose 
length, with the fine head and powerful wing, with its endur¬ 
ing powers of flight, will commend them to admirers of the 
species. Each quarter of the world numbers among its 
inhabitants many by whom the peculiar characteristics of 
the carrier-pigeon have been trained to excellence, and 
made available for the manifold puiiioses of stratagem, 
inti’igue, or commerce. From the shores of the Nile to the 
Ganges was the carrier in active operation, long before his 
seiwiccs were employed in European countries. But now 
his “ occupation’s gone,’’ and wherever “ immediate ” is in¬ 
scribed, we should now as soon have recourse to the lum¬ 
bering and slumbering stage-waggon of former days, as 
desert tlie railway and electric telegraph for this or any 
other aerial messenger. The amusing author of the Doi:e- 
cote and Aviamj tells US, in a letter from Mr. J. Galloway to 
the Marichesler Guardian, “ that the merchants and manu¬ 
facturers of Belgium have done more to test the capabilities 
of pigeons than any other people. Their annual pigeon 
matches produce an excitement almost equal to our horse¬ 
races. In 181-1 one of the greatest races took place, from 
San Seliastian, in Spain, to Vervier. The distance would be 
about (iOO miles. ’KK) trained pigeons of the best breed in 
the world were sent to San Sebastian, and only 70 returned.” 
The same authority assures us, that “ Carrier pigeons do 
not fly at night, they settle down if they cannot reach their 
home by the dusk of evening, and renew their flight at 
daylight the next morning; the velocity of a pigeon’s flight 
seems to be greatly overrated, and no doubt your readers 
will be surprised to learn that a locomotive railway engine 
can beat a carrier pigeon in a distance of 300 miles.” 
But we must now pass on ; a very beautiful pair of faivn- 
coloured Jacuhins (first prize at the I'enzance Show) are 
side by side with a Nun. The Capuchins, by which name 
the former are also known, are so termed from a frill of 
inverted feathers extending downwards on each side from 
the back of the neck; in proportion to the size and regu¬ 
larity of this ruff is their v.alue. Their colour.s vary, but 
the head must always be clear white. Nuns are of smaller 
size, possessing only a hood ; the distribution of their 
colours is very striking :—black head, the rest of their body 
being white, save only the flight feathers, and the extremi¬ 
ties of the tail, which are tipped with black. Some white 
Trumpeters hooded and moustached with densely feathered 
feet; liarbs, with the scarlet ring around the eye; Tum¬ 
blers, Baldpatcs, Almonds, and other shades, with a pair of 
Silver Owls, comprise a collection not often met with in 
provincial towns. One must wonder, indeed, that, for want 
of purchasers, oven at most moderate prices, Mr. Fox is at 
times oldiged, by increasing numbers, to sacrifice many for 
the purposes of his kitchen. 
We have already stated, that Mr. l'’ox fears no injury, but , 
rather the contrary, to his garden from his Bantams, which j 
are at largo; tlie same good deeds, though perhaps to a j 
greater extent, are wrought, as regards slugs and such like 
nuisances, by his Aylesbury ducks, imported birds from 
Euckinghamshire during the last year, 'flip same stream 
of water that affords a bath to the pigeons is happily just 
that depth which those curious in sucli matters say is best 
suited for those ilucks who hepeafter will appear upon our 
tables. Ifemember, then, this grand injunction, “ never let a 
duck swim, it reiiders the legs inordinately hard.” So say 
the le.arned ones, and we believe them to be right.—W. 
(To he continued.) 
FUCHSIAS. 
The plants T wish to bloom in June and July are struck 
in .\ugust the jirevious year, potted in three-inch pots, and 
shifted from thence, in October, into six-inch pots, and kept 
near the glass, in a temperature of 50° or 55° ; they are 
gently syringed over head occasionally, and carefully 
w'atered with tepid water until the middle of .lanuary, 
when they will bo good strong plants. 
'They are then shifted at once into twelve-inch pots, with 
a compost of three-parts good tibry loam, one-jmrt peat, and 
one-part rotten dung, with a good sprinkling of silver sand, 
all well-mixed together, but not sifted. The plants are then 
accommodated with a gentle bottom-heat, with abundance 
of air, maintaining the temperature mentioned above, and 
5° or 111° higher, with sunshine, as the season advances. 
'Ihe branches are stopped at the fourth joint, and when 
they have broken and made four joints more, these are also 
stopped at the fourth joint, and again the third time in like 
manner, when they have advanced far enough. Then they 
are allowed to bloom. 
Thus, by giving abundance of air, maintaining a moist 
atmosphere, syringing morning and evening, and after the 
plants are well established, supplying them with weak 
manure-water at eveiiy watering, they will break in all 
directions, and will be one mass of bloom, and have beau¬ 
tiful shining foliage from the pot to the very summit of the 
plants. 1 have had them so treated attain to a height of 
nearly five feet through at the base, forming a splendid 
pyramid of bloom and foliage. One plant especially, when 
on the exhibition-table, was compared by one gentleman to 
“ a mountain of bloom.” 
Blants to bloom in August and September are struck in 
January, potted and grown the same way until Juno, when 
they are set out-of-doors on slates, in a sheltered situation, 
and well attended to with weak manure-water. How J 
prepare this is as I'ollow's :—T put a bushel of sheep or cow'- 
dung, about. half-a-i)eck of lime, and a spadefull or two of 
soot into a hogshead, fill it up with soft water, well stir it 
several times, and when it has settled down, I put about a 
quart to a bucket of water, which will make this about the 
colour of brandy. 
If bloom-buds appear before I want them I pick them 
otf. 'The ])lants aro never shaded, except when in bloom. 
Often stopping, and high feeding, combined with abundance 
of air at all times, are the grand secrets of getting a mass of 
bloom and foliage. Generally, Fuschsias aro driven into 
bloom too soon, and that is the cause why they cut sucli a 
sorry figure mostly. If a man would excel in the cul¬ 
tivation of the Fuchsia, there must be no lagging; no 
trusting the thing to another; but, the welfare of each 
