January 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
279 
it in another hrine made in the following proportions: 2 lbs. 
salt, 1 gall, of water, 4 lb. moist sugar, 2 oz. saltpetre, 2 oz. 
Ray salt; this to be boiled, and having taken the scum off, 
put it in the piekling-pan; there let it remain till quite 
cold, and then put the pork in; the thinner pieces will he 
ready for use in a few days, the thicker, such as are intended 
for hams or bacon, may remain a month. After the meat 
which is intended for the latter purpose has remained in 
this brine a sufficient time, take it out and thoroughly wash 
it with water, and then let the water drain off the meat, but 
do not let it dry, and roll it well in pollard or bran, and 
hang it up in some dry place ; when dry, but before the flies 
come , put it away, well buried in bran, pollard, or malt 
coombs, in hoses, and there your bacon will keep till wanted. 
By this means of curing ham and bacon, which we always 
follow, and I hope nobody may have worse bacon or ham 
than we do, all the trouble of smoking is avoided, and it 
will answer every purpose. A little experience, and one or 
two precautions, and a little care, is all that is necessary. 
When the pork is being salted, the place should be cool, 
hut always admit of a free circulation of air ; confined air, 
though cool, will taint sooner than the mid-day suu ac¬ 
companied by a breeze. Jn the next place you must be 
careful of the Hies, and get your bacon stored away in the 
boxes bei'ure they make their appearance. 
If you prefer the taste of smoked bacon, it must be hung 
in some chimney-corner where the smoke arises from a 
wood tire, and two precautions are necessary; first, to hang 
the Hitches where no rain comes down upon them; second, 
not to let them hang so near the lire as to melt. They 
should be hung there after they have been taken out of the 
last brine, and been well-dressed with pollard. As to the 
time required, it of course depends upon whether there is a 
constant fire beneath, or, whether the fire be large or small; 
a month may do if the fire be pretty constant. But over¬ 
smoking makes the bacon rust. The Hitch must not be 
dried to the hardness of a hoard, and yet it should he per¬ 
fectly dry. 
Another method, also, is as follows: a small hut is set apart 
for the purpose, and all apertures are closed except one at 
the top, the bacon is suspended from the ceiling, and the 
floor well-covered with oak sawdust (the sawdust of common 
deal imparts a flavour oi'a disagreeable character) which is 
lighted, and burns with a low smouldering glow, giving out 
more heat than if it were actually flaming. 
For those who have not either of these conveniences, and 
only a small quantity of bacon to dry, a sugar hogshead 
with the bottom out, and the sawdust put on the ground at 
the bottom, hut so as not to touch the sides of the barrel; 
the meat being suspended from the top, has been found to 
answer very well. 
But why all this trouble, when simply drying, as I have 
described above, will answer every purpose ? There are 
several other ways of pickling than those mentioned abov e, 
but this we have found the best. 
But at the time of killing your pig the lard must not he 
forgotten, and if nicely put down will last a long while for 
all the purposes for which it is wanted. The lard is the 
inside fat, and when taken out it must be cut in pieces, 
and then put in a saucepan, and gently melted very slowly 
with a little salt, and run through a sieve into a pan, or 
bladder, which has been carefully cleaned. 
Besides this there is the liver and the crow, which will 
make a capital dinner on pig-killing days. 
One word more about pigs and I have done. Keep a cor¬ 
rect account of all money you spend, and get for your pigs; 
this is the only way to he sure that they pay you, and to those 
' who keep pigs, I say, go on and prosper; to those who can¬ 
not make them profitable, lay the fault at your own door, 
| not the pig’s; look more attentively into the matter, observe 
| what has been said in this article, and read other books on 
, the subject; to those who do not keep them already, the 
j sooner you begin the better. But to all I say, treat your pig 
i kindly, for the better you treat him, the more service he will 
do you. ‘ W.H.W. 
-—---- 
COCHIN CHINA FOWLS, 
I Air exceedingly sorry that any person, who has flatter¬ 
ingly “ taken Anster Bonn for a guide,” should, whether 
from a vvtant of exactness in description on the part of the 
writer, or misapprehension on that of the reader, find him¬ 
self misled on the important subject of Cochin China fowls. 
Like H. B., I read Mr. Payne’s account with interest; but, 
unlike him, I read without astonishment. Judging of Mr. 
Punchard’s stock by comparing them with my own, I can 
very well credit the account which is given, especially when 
we take into consideration two circumstances, which I think 
H. B. has rather overlooked: first, that the Cochin China 
hens need not of necessity be employed in the vulgar task 
of hatching and rearing all their own chickens, without 
assistance from common hens; and, in the second place, 
some of the 500 chickens would commence laying before j 
leaving the parent stock; for it is well known that these I 
fowls will (much to the annoyance of their owners) some- i 
times begin to lay as early as fourteen weeks old—an age j 
when their time and energy would be much better employed 
in realizing size and weight. A curious instauce of this was 
shewn in the description of one coop of chickens at the 
Birmingham show which is just past. Mr. Edward Simons, 
of Birmingham, exhibited six chickens, hatched in Septem¬ 
ber, the produce of a cockerel and pullet hatched about the 
12th of February. I have not kept any account of the eggs 
laid by my own liens, hut the supply has been most abun¬ 
dant; and I remember noticing that one hen, in the spring, 
laid three dozen eggs without missing a day. The number 
of chickens specified in Mr. Payne’s letter can hardly be 
reckoned two broods to each hen ; for a hen that did her 
duty so badly, and hatch only seven chickens and a half, 
would scarcely be indulged with the pleasure of rearing 
them herself without an additional number: two such 
broods might be placed together under the care of a fine 
Cochin China hen, thus leaving the second delinquent at 
liberty to recommence laying at the end of five weeks, which 
those so served will frequently do. I hope my corroboration 
of Mr. Payne’s account will not drive II. B. to utter despair 
of getting the true sort; if I could, through the courtesy of 
the editor of The Cottage Gardener, have the pleasure of 
communicating with him, I could mention many stocks as 
good as that of Mr. Punchard—so deserv edly celebrated. 
The vexed question of weight I approach with greater diffi¬ 
dence, as this must so much depend on good crossing, rearing, 
and feeding. One celebrated breeder, the present occupant 
of an old manor-house, has at command (I never counted 
how many) dozens of stock-houses, capable of being turned 
to excellent account in rearing poultry, when not otherwise 
occupied. His favourite hens have the run of an excellent 
kitchen-garden, an indulgence which most fowls would be 
scouted for even thinking of. When the chickens are a few 
weeks old, they and their mothers are removed to a stack¬ 
yard, the very sight of which is enough to delight the heart 
of any hen. When cast off by the mothers, the young ones 
are ,sent to another of his farms, where, I believe, they remain 
until the owner has occasion to select his perfect specimens 
with which to delight the spectator at the Birmingham show. 
With these most abundant appliances for raising fine birds 
(in which this gentleman is by no means singular), contrast 
the limited space, so cleverly turned to account, described in 
The Cottage Gardener, of Dec. 25th; and with the care, 
observance of cleanliness, and good feeding which the writer 
bestows upon his favourites, contrast again the irregular 
attention under which many fowls suffer; and with these 
contrasts before our eyes, it is not strange that they should 
greatly vary in size. That enormous sizes are attained, is 
quite incontestible; but those who have, perhaps, only kept 
these beautiful fowls for a year or two, should not be dis¬ 
couraged if they, at first, fail to reach the superiority in this 
particular, which is only to be gained by knowledge, experi¬ 
ence, judicious crossing, favourable locality, and high feed¬ 
ing. I do not myself consider mere size of great import¬ 
ance, and in this opinion I am borne out by the decisions of 
the judges at the Birmingham show. The chief prizes for 
Cochin China fowls were awarded to Mr. Sturgeon and Mr. 
Andrews. The cock in Mr. Sturgeon’s pen weighed 10jibs., 
that in Mr. Andrews’s 8|lbs.; and there was a similar dif¬ 
ference in the weight of the liens, yet the high breeding of 
both lots placed them on an equality. 
At the Birmingham show of 1850, Mr. Sturgeon, and T 
believe some others, shared the honours with Mr. Punchard. 
That gentleman’s poultry, although they have only lately 
