200 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
yards square. Many gentlemen, who are fond of fowls, 
would delight in keeping them, if they thought they could 
do so in a small space. This can he done even in your pig¬ 
sty, and they are more profitable than pigs. My pens are' 
about eight yards long and four wide, boarded on the top 
and sides to face the sun, wire latticed at the front, With a 
roosting place in the corner, made in a box fashion, with two 
perches, and a bag fixed at the front to keep them warm in 
the winter. Their droppings are taken from the house once 
a fortnight, as I have boards under the roost to catch them. 
The fioor of the pen ought to be the natural ground, and 
this, by being dug up once a month, is kept clean. Scatter 
some barley or oats deep in the soil, and when you dig next 
time allow the fowls to pick the sprouted corn. This they 
delight in. The reader can choose what stock lie likes best, 
mine are the Cochin-China and Spanish. Those birds can¬ 
not be excelled for docility, beauty, and fecundity. Some are 
complaining of having soft or wind eggs. To those parties 
I would say, do you keep your food on boards or bricks, so 
that they cannot supply themselves with grit ? Do you give 
them sloppy meat ? I never give such food in the spring 
when they are laying ; for then the most suitable food is the 
best heavy barley; with, now and then, a few oats and wheat, 
and once a week some offal meat, such as sheeps’ roaps 
(pluck?) well cleaned and cut into pieces of an inch long. 
Sheeps’ noses with the hair scalded off, or cut off with a 
pair of scissors, and likewise worms. You will find the fowls 
will express their gratitude for these things by returning you 
abundance of eggs. Do not forget to give them plenty of 
chiekweed early in spring, and now and then a cow-cabbage, 
stuck in the ground upright. 
My fowls never lay while they are moulting; if yours do 
let me know how you manage them. That is the most 
critical season, and then I supply them well with barley, 
oats, wheat, Indian corn, and soft meat of barley-meal with 
the best sharps, mixed rather stiff together, not exactly 
scalded, but made up with warm water. Fowls are fond of a 
variety of food and changed often, but for staple food, give 
them the best heavy barley. Put some lettuce seed into 
the ground early, and, as soon as fit, transplant in a 
warm place. Give your fowls plenty of these, as well as 
cabbage leaves. Nothing comes amiss to them in the 
shape of green meat. You will keep them healthy in this 
way. 
If any of your fowls betray symptoms of disease, give 
them a,jalap pill, and cram them a little with stiff barley- 
meal ; I find this to answer all purposes. 
Mind, when fowls are kept up as mine are, they must 
have their meat constantly by them, it will not do to feed 
them at stated times, for then they glut themselves, and 
do not lay so well. Whereas, if the food is by them, they 
take it regularly. This is very important. 
I have raised some scores of chickens this season, and 
have had very good success with them, only I have had 
hatched three male birds to one pullet. 
Great attention is required in rearing chickens, and those 
who are not fond of trouble, or fowls, I would advise them 
to have nothing to do with them. I have reared this season 
eighteen out of every twenty, and when I liavo lost any it 
has generally been by accident. The rules to attain success 
in rearing chickens are care , attention, and a change of food. 
Bread scalded in milk, grits, rice, barley, and for a change 
put some rice into the side oven with Avater ; do not scald 
it too much, make it so that it will separate, or granulate, 
easily; the same Avith barley; and as soon as the chickens 
will eat well, give them barley-meal. Do not forget to give 
them once a day some chopped meat, such as beef and mut¬ 
ton ; and of chopped green meat, such as lettuce, they will eat 
abundance. 
Get your chickens hatched early, say in April and May. 
After setting your hens, have them regularly off their nests, 
and see that they feed Avith barley and soaked bread. 
The strongest chickens come from the eggs of liens 
twelve months old, or the second season of their laying. 
One cock I alloiv to fivo hens. To have a strong healthy 
stock change your cock birds every two years; and never 
breed A\ith the codes from your own stock if you can avoid 
it. By this method you will keep up the quality of your 
birds. It is quite as easy to have good birds as mongrels. 
Mind you supply your fowls Avith plenty of broken mortar, 
.DEfTNBim 25. 
and good water constantly. I have some first rate early- 
hatched Spanish cocks to dispose of. 
JoliN AMPirr.ET, Walsall. 
BRITISH EATABLE FUNGI. 
I w r .\s vei’y glad to perceive in your last number for No¬ 
vember, that you had at last taken up the subject of edible 
fungi; a subject that you treated rather coldly in answer to 
a communication I made to you in January; ltt50. T was 
not surprised at the doubts you expressed in regard to the 
wisdom of trying experiments with fungi; for the subject 
was, at least in this country, a new one, and most of the 
persons Avith whom I conversed made similar remarks to 
yours, but I Avas not deterred from pursuing the inquiry, 
1 laving none of those fears Avith which you and others were 
influenced, and I am now quite convinced, that if persons 
Avill only use the same caution in selecting other fungi that 
they do in gathering the common mushroom, there is little 
or no danger. We hear of persons being poisoned by 
eating mushrooms (the common Agaricus campcslris ); but 
Iioav do Ave knoAV the circumstances attending the treatment 
of their dish ? They may have been dried up into a tough 
leather, and so made indigestible, or the epidermis, or outer 
skin, which A\ r e know is deleterious, may not have been 
taken off; in fact, many of our most wholesome dishes may 
be—and, indeed, have been—rendered umvholesome by bad 
management; and it seems a pity that a large mass of 
delicious and nourishing food should be condemned on 
account of the mismanagement of a feAv ignorant persons— 
food that in some countries is called the “manna of the 
poor,” and in others used for long periods in times of 
scarcity. All fungi are very rapid in their growth, and 
equally so in their decay, and in their latter stage are not 
considered Avholesomfi; so that, to have them in perfection, 
they should be gathered, if possible, before decay com¬ 
mences, and used on the same day they are gathered. 
There are, no doubt, many of the fungi that are deleterious 
and unfit for human food, but these are much feAver in 
number than is generally imagined, and a very little instruc¬ 
tion and observation Avould enable any one to distinguish 
them. It is a good sign Avlieie a fungus is devoured by 
animals; or even by slugs and insects; and as far as my 
experience goes, those w hich have a pleasant smell vrill be 
found to have a pleasant taste, and to be perfectly harmless ; 
but I Avould advise no one to venture upon one that smells 
offensively ; and I believe this to be a distinguishing mark 
given by God to enable us to make a safe choice. The 
annual instinct is often a safer guide to folloAV than even 
reason, which is many times led astray by numerous con- 
iiicting arguments. But in these last remarks I speak of 
fungi whose properties have not hitherto been investigated, 
and of persons who are not Avell acquainted Avith the subject, 
but there are many as Avell known as the common mushroom ; 
for instance, the Champignon, as it is called, which grows in 
fairy rings, of Avhicli quantities are gathered for catsup; and 
Truffles and Morclls, and a fungus which in the north is 
called Jews'-ears, from which excellent catsup is made. 
Noav there are many others, not so well knoAvn, that are 
equally delicious and safe, and have striking and peculiar 
characteristics that might very soon be as easily distinguished 
as the mushroom ; and those persons Avho lraA'C not hitherto 
considered the subject, I advise to begin very cautiously, 
and advance only step by step, as they acquire a perfect 
knowledge of the plant. I have tried many, some that I 
did knoAV, and some that I did not know, but using the caution 
I have mentioned above, I never found any harm in any of 
them, and most of them Avere exceedingly agreeable. It 
would be impossible in a letter like this to give a list of the 
various sorts: your readers must get the books that are 
written upon the subject, particularly Dr. Badham’s, Avhere 
there are several coloured engravings ; but Ave Avant a book 
far more comprehensive than his. I Avill, hoWeA r er, mention 
two that your readers may begin with, Avhich are perfectly 
safe, and which cannot be mistaken. There is the Agaricus 
procerus, with a long stalk like the stick of an umbrella, and 
marked \rith stripes like those of a snake, the pileus, or top, 
like an open umbrella, four, five, or six inches across, a ring 
on the stalk moveable, like that on the stick of an umbrella, 
and the epidermis, or outer skin, broken into warts or scabs ; 
