431 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
March 10. 
Mr. Paine says ;—“ I have great pleasure in answer¬ 
ing your questions, and am sure, should any of your 
readers try this means of keeping out frost, thy will 
find it succeed beyond e.xpectation. 
“ Mine, it is true, is on a very small scale, hut I have 
no doubt it is equally adapted for buildings of a larger 
size, provided the gas-burner is increased in propor¬ 
tion. 
“ The boiler is placed inside the house, so that all the 
heat from the gas and the boiler itself may be made 
useful. 
“ It is enclosed three-quarters up with slate and 
mortar, so as to allow the heat to ply all round it. I 
have had it in use since September. 
“ One-inch lead-pipes are used to attach the boiler to 
the iron-pipes, on account of being more easily fixed to 
the boiler than the three-inch iron ones. I should here 
observe, that I have proved the lead-pipes will not give 
the same amount of heat as the iron. I have twelve 
jets of gas in the ring beneath the boiler. The holes 
being pierced with the smallest drill. 
“ During all the severe weather in February, and 
without putting on mats, it maintained a temperature 
above 45° in a house ten feet long, and seven feet wide,” 
We have now before us the Poultry Prize-list of the 
Yorkshire Agricultural Society, to be held at Ijeeds in 
December of the present year. 
The judicious limitation for the exhibition of chickens 
in their own classes only, not suffei'iug them to appear 
in the pens devoted to their seniors, which originated 
with the Birmingham committee, has been wisely fol¬ 
lowed ; and every poultry - keeper of experience will 
rejoice at a decision which will give his birds of either 
class a fairer field of competition. 
In Shanghaes, or Cochin-Chinas, we find classes 24 
and 25 allotted to cinnamon and buff, and 20 and 27 
are to be filled with brown and partridge-feathered 
birds. So far, so good ; but then follow classes, “ ivhite, 
hlack, or any other colourT Now, we hesitate as to the 
correctness of bringing all these into competition with 
one another. The white Shanghaes have every claim 
on our notice as a. distinct variety, like producing like, 
and as such should have a class of their own, to which 
we must consider them fully as much entitled as the 
numerous families of Game fowls, which have here, as 
elsewhere, attained that distinction. 
At Birmingham, a class has been opened exclusively 
for black Shanghaes, and the ground, as we presume, 
on which they were admitted, was that of their title to 
be considered a distinct sub-variety, as evidenced by the 
test already referred to. If this is borne out by evidence, 
their claim should certainly be allowed; but the curious 
combination of colours, wdiite and buff, on the part of so 
many of the parents of the black cockerels and pullets 
of 1852, cannot but raise doubts as to their strict 
legitimacy. 
Now, so far as we know, the white have no charge of 
this kind brought against them—at any rate, none well 
substantiated ; and in their native country, as in 
England, they have given, on the other hand, many 
pi’oofs of the justice of their claim to be regarded as 
a pure race, free from the bar sinister. We would not, 
then, have coujiled them with blacks, which hitherto, at 
least, have not proved their case, nor with the other mis¬ 
cellanies among which they must appo.ar at Leeds. 
Game fowl, Hamburghs, and Polands, succeed each 
other in the usual courso, ambthe ])rizes are liberal; 
but our poor little friends, the Bantams, have verily been 
cut down to a ])eace establishment; since, all their glories 
of gold and silver laced, black, white, and sundries, are 
meiged in one, and but one scale of prizes awarded 
to the whole family. 
This could hardly proceed from more motives of 
economy on the part of the managers of a society that 
elsewhere holds forth such tempting prizes; we con¬ 
clude, therefore, that a desire to call forth farmer's 
poultry must have caused this deposition of our tiny 
friends. If this be the case, no one has a right to find 
fault; and a step is taken to assui'e the public how far 
“ utility ” is the principle on winch these societies are 
conducted; but we would have gone a step further 
when determined to carry out this same princi])le, and 
would have divided Geese and Turkeys, those essentially 
1 farmer’s stock, as fowls are divided into birds of the 
I year, and those beyond it. 
I We have specially alluded to the case of the black 
! and white Shangaes, as sufficient numhers of them will, 
i probably, be bred during the course of the present year, 
[ to give us more insight into their origin and parentage 
than is at present before the public. 
The Bath and Western Counties Agricultural Asso- 
I ciation have also published their list of poultry prizes 
