December 11. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 169 
keep them safe and sound, and when they do break they will 
be sturdy little chaps; and any time in February, or sooner, 
fetch them out for planting in frames, or raised beds, or for 
the common quarters when the ground will work well. This 
I have found to be the best plan with planting potatoes on 
heavy soils that I am acquainted with, as it gives an oppor¬ 
tunity of doing more to the ground than you otherwise 
could do, and the potatoes are going on ac the same time. 
About 1844, or 1845, there was a great deal of noise about 
autumn-planting of potatoes; I was then at Danbury Park, 
John Pounds, Esq., M.P., and having a south border 
eighteen feet wide, and of considerable length, on which I 
was intending to try peas against peas for earliness and 
fruitfulness, I determined on the same ground to try autumn- 
planting potatoes. Therefore, on the 26th of November I 
began at one end of the border with Cormack's Early May 
'yeas, and eight feet from that, one row of Early Warwick, 
and between these two rows of peas I planted three rows of 
Ash-leaved potatoes, doing the same until I had filled half 
the south border. On the 26th of December I sowed one 
row of Early Warwick, and eight feet from that, one row of 
Shilling’s Early Grotto pea, leaving the space between to be 
planted with Ash-leaved potatoes, which had been put in 
cinder-ashes on the 26th of November. These potatoes 
were planted between the rows of peas on the 14th of Feb¬ 
ruary, and they exceeded the others planted on the 26th of 
November by a fortnight. They were much more in quan¬ 
tity, and in quality much better. 
I think it very unwise of those who mean to plant pota¬ 
toes, and have no seed, to postpone buying it until planting 
time; it should be bought at the latest before September 
is out, for we cannot tell what process it may go through 
after that time. I think the storing away the seed quite 
half the battle in obtaining good and healthy crops of pota¬ 
toes. The potatoes I put in cinder-ashes this yeai', on the 
25th of November, were one bushel of Ash-leaved, and one 
bushel Sodon’s Oxonians, but I have tried Early Frame, 
Early Manly, and Fox’s Early, with some others. If you 
and I should live, and he well, I will tell you at what dates 
my potatoes were finally planted in the common quarters, 
and what was produced on a given space. I had about two 
acres of potatoes in a field in 1845 ; there were five sorts, 
and they puzzled me much. I asked all the wiseacres I 
knew, but not one of them could unriddle the mystery; 
however, fearing I may tire you, I will subscribe myself, a 
thinking gardener—J. A. 
[We shall he glad to have particulars concerning the crop 
which puzzled you, and to hear from you at any time, and 
on any subject. Practical information is always valuable.— 
Ed. C. G.] 
GUINEA FOWLS. 
A FEW remarks upon Guinea Fowls may perhaps he 
acceptable to some of your readers, from one who has kept 
them for seven years, and during that period devoted no 
little time and attention to them. We believe that these 
birds, if properly treated, are very valuable accessories to 
the poultry-yard, but they are generally passed over by those 
who have written books on poultry, either with silent con¬ 
tempt, or with a few hurried remarks, betraying the writers’ 
ignorance of their real qualities and propensities. I would 
advise those who wish to commence keeping them, to pro¬ 
cure a batch of eggs and set them under a quiet hen, and so 
rear the young Guinea Fowl upon the spot where they are to 
be kept. The old birds are very self-willed, and can only 
with difficulty be made to take up with a new abode, and 
! even if they are imprisoned a few days, the probability is 
j that, when they are released from confinement, they will 
j lead their keeper a pretty scamper through the parish, and 
] at last elude all pursuit upon the topmost branch of some 
j inviting tree. If old birds be procured, the only thing to be 
done is to cut the feathers of one wing and so render flight 
impossible. 
I say that the hen under which the eggs are set must be a 
tame and quiet one, because it is of great consequence to 
keep the young ones tractable; they are naturally a very 
timid bird, but if kindly treated when young, they become 
very docile and much attached to their master. I have some 
old ones which will not only take food from the hand, but 
when the windows are open in summer, attracted by the 
white cloth upon the table, will come and take up a position 
between my two dogs, and lay claim to an equal share with 
them. If very tame, they may be allowed to hatch their 
own eggs; but I advise no one to try this unless the old 
Guinea hen is very tractable indeed. They are so fierce 
when they have chickens, that they will attack the person 
who feeds them with great fury, scattering their chickens 
right and left, and trampling them under foot, at the immi¬ 
nent risk of life and limb. One of my hens has reared a 
batch for three successive years; this year I discovered her, 
on the 16th of August, sitting upon twenty-five eggs, under 
a heap of sticks; she brought off twenty-one chicks, only ten 
of which now survive; they will not hear cold, and the eggs 
ought never to be set after June. No amount of care will 
keep the little things alive in frosty weather; they become 
crippled in their feet, and apparently die of consumption; if 
hatched in May or June, and carefully tended, they are not 
at all difficult to rear. The best food is chopped egg and 
dry bread-crumbs, and once or twice a-day they should be 
fed with curd made by stirring a tea-spoonful of powdered 
alum in a quart of boiling milk. 
It is a great mistake to suppose that it is necessary to 
keep them in pairs. I one year kept seven hens and two 
cock birds, and scarcely an egg was bad; and this year I had 
four hens and one cock, and I have reared more than fifty 
young ones. 
It is a good plan, when no more eggs are wanted for 
setting, to kill the cocks, and rear young ones for the next 
year; the old birds being a perfect nuisance to the rest of 
the poultry-yard, especially at feeding-time, when they attack 
on all sides, not sparing their own relatives. My own fowls 
preferred losing their supper to braving the incivility of the 
old Guinea cock. If only one cock be kept the hens will all 
lay in the same nest; and it is peculiar, that if one leaves it 
for another, all follow her example. 
I have them of three different colours—the common sort, 
so well known that it need not be described; another kind 
of a light slate-colour, in which the eyes of the feathers are 
distinctly perceptible; and another, in which the whole 
plumage is of a snowy whiteness. I have heard of a breed 
nearly black in Lincolnshire, but have been unable to obtain 
them. 
They will not do to keep in any small, confined place; 
they must have room to roam about. Mine are well con¬ 
tented with the lawn and churchyard. When grown up they 
require much less food than common fowls, being incessant 
foragers for themselves; and as they are not expected to lay 
in winter, there is no need of high keep in cold weather; 
grains or any other refuse, with a little corn, will do quite 
well. They have a great objection to roost in a dry, covered 
place, and require to he driven in night after night, which 
is no easy thing to do unless they are very tractable; my 
house being in close proximity to the church, I am obliged 
to keep them prisoners until divine service is over, the noise 
arising from forty or fifty together being intolerable. I say 
to all who desire to keep them with pleasure and satisfaction, 
be sure to make and keep them tame. A Clergyman. 
SOLANUM MEXICANUM, AS A BEDDER. 
On reading Mr. Appleby’s interesting letter on the Solanym, 
I was amused by a few words he made use of:—“ But it is 
too common even for our friend Mr. Beaton to make a 
flower-bed of;” for this brought to my remembrance a 
Solanum that used to be grown, some few years ago, for the 
sake of its flowers, by an enthusiastic gentleman a few miles 
distant from here (Bury St. Edmund’s), which would make 
a very pretty thing for a white bed. It grows from twelve 
to fifteen inches high, flowers white, with golden anthers, 
and lasts from the middle of June until the frosts cut them 
off. It can be readily increased from cuttings or tubers, 
which, however, are produced very sparingly. Therefore 
cuttings are the best to depend upon. Strike them in a 
cucumber-bed, and as soon as they are rooted pot them oil 
into very small pots, using light sandy soil. As soon as 
they begin to fill their pots with roots, get them into a cool 
