January 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
290 
chanced to be mentioned in The Cottage Gardener, are 
far from being secrets to the lovers of the Cochin China 
fowls. If is <iuite true that he has purchased from Mr. 
Sturgeon, but, like all who are desirous of forming a choice 
collection, he does not breed from one stock, but makes 
additions to his poultry-yard whenever choice specimens 
present themselves. 
Respecting the final dispersion of the superfluous fowls 
from the choice stocks in the kingdom, the prices which I 
/mow to have been not only marked on the pens, but given at 
Birmingham, is a proof that choice birds are soon scattered, 
thus continually multiplying stocks of these really valuable 
fowls, without, I think, a chance of at present sufficiently 
supplying the country. Axstei: Bonn. 
LAYERING THE HOLLY. 
Having occasion last spring to remove antagonist leaders 
from two Madeira hollies, instead of cutting them away at 
once, 1 bent them down, and secured them to the ground 
with strong hooked pegs, making layers of the young wood, 
which was spread out and fixed by laying heavy stones upon 
them, filling in about them with sandy soil. The layers 
were tongued as usual. The stems being strong (two inches 
in diameter), to enable me to bend them, I had to slice 
away fully three-fourths of the wood from the lower side 
for nearly two feet. This was done about the middle of 
last February; aiul on the 4th of November, I found the 
layers so strongly rooted, that I took off four dozen fine 
plants, which have done very well since. The tongued parts 
were scarcely callused, but clusters of roots were freely 
produced from the layers where covered with soil, especially 
when in contact with the stones. Thus there was effected 
in less than nine months what is generally considered to 
require a second year to accomplish. This X attribute to 
the severe cutting of the stems when bending them, as well 
as the use of stones for securing the layers, and intend to 
try the effect of the same method upon other plants which 
are found slow in rooting. C. K. C. 
THE DOMESTIC PIGEON. 
(Continued from p. 203). 
The Utility of Pigeons. —At the commencement of the 
present century there was in France a general proscription 
against pigeons, and every one, to disguise his real intention, 
exaggerated, as much as he could, the pretended destruction 
occasioned by these birds. The real end proposed, and the 
one on which the least was said, was to put out of sight the 
signs of a feudatory custom. The dove-houses were every¬ 
where pulled down with the same design that the vanes 
were removed which surmounted the pinnacled towers and 
the castles with drawbridges. It has, however, been dis¬ 
covered that pigeons do no injury to the roofs on which 
they alight, because they never scratch, and their weight 
is not more than six or eight ounces at most. Some 
bricklayers, on the contrary, say that a roof where pigeons 
assemble in great numbers is more easily kept in order than 
any other, because these animals throw down the dirt with 
which it is encumbered, and display the ravages made by 
time. 
In agricultural countries, where the productions of the 
dove-liouse form an interesting branch of the revenue, the 
cause of the pigeon has been pleaded with great advantage ; 
the injustice of the accusations made against them has been 
proved, as well as the injustice of the decree which has 
caused their banishment by condemning them as the greatest 
enemies of agriculture. Pigeons never scratch on the earth, 
and, consequently, cannot uncover the grain that is sown. 
Their timidity prevents their following the labourer while 
he is sowing, or even alighting in the field before the 
harrow has passed over it. If they come afterwards, 
instead of doing harm, they do good, by carrying off the 
grain that is not buried, and which, nevertheless, would 
vegetate sufficiently to injure the growth of the good plants, 
whilst it would never itself arrive at maturity. Moreover, 
wo have made researches sufficiently proving that the pigeon 
does not diminish the production of the harvest, for, on 
opening its crop, whether in seed-time or any other season, 
we never find in it anything hut the grain of weeds; or if it ! 
chance to contain any grain used by man, it is only in an 
eighth-part at most, and that generally of a had kind. 
The husbandmen weed their fields very carefully as soon 
as the obnoxious plants appear; the pigeon does better, for ; 
it destroys them by taking away the seed as it falls to the 
earth. We think we may safely say that one sparrow is | 
more destructive to the harvest than two pigeons. 
M. Beffroy, a member of the Agricultural Society at Paris, 
has read, at one of the meetings, a note on this subject, 
where the following passage is found:—The services the 
pigeon renders in this respect are such, that in the canton of 
Dlzy, in the department of Aisne, part of the Thierarche, 
where the most beautiful corn has always been harvested, ! 
they soon felt the loss of pigeons. The eartli was covered 
with weeds which smothered the harvest; the straw was 
thin and scarce, the grain small, and it was difficult to j 
clean it sufficiently, so as to render it to be so much 
sought after as seed-corn. The first cultivators have 
remarked it; and in taking the land from the lord of the 
manor, one of the conditions was that permission should he 
given to build a dove-house. This condition was fulfilled 
because it was necessary to insure the harvest, and, in 
many places, the dovecotes were raised at great expense, 
it has also been remarked, that the countries which 
abounded most in corn, such as Beance, were those in 
which the dovecotes were most numerous. It is certain 
that pigeons only eat the surplus of the crop, which would 
injure the abundance of the production; hut if any cul¬ 
tivators still fear the contrary, they may easily employ a 
means which would increase vegetation, and drive away the 
pigeons ; it consists in liming the seed, for these birds never 
touch corn which has been subjected to this operation. As 
soon as the seed is up the pigeon can no longer reach it. 
When the French Government suppressed the feudal 
privilege of dovecotes, it authorised every private person to 
rear pigeons, but on condition that they should be kept 
shut up during the time which should be determined every 
year by the corporation of the place; and they granted, 
which was very contradictory, the right to each individual 
to kill them at all times on his property. 
We will here give an extract from a note of M. Yitry, 
read at the Agricultural Society of the Seine, establishing in 
a very precise manner the economical utility that France 
annually derived from these birds. 
“ I will now point out, by a very simple and clear calcula¬ 
tion, the loss we have sustained l>y the destruction or 
depopulation of the dove-houses; and how much our in¬ 
terest, that of increasing subsistence, again reasons power¬ 
fully in favour of the dove-house pigeon, of which, in some 
districts, there is not a single one existing. 
“At the time the sentence was carried against the pigeon, 
there were forty-two thousand communes in France ; there 
were then forty-two thousand dove-houses. I am aware 
that in the towns there were none existing, and that few 
were seen on the rural commons surrounding Paris ; lmt. I 
also know that there were two or three, and sometimes more, 
in a great number of villages, and I think I shall bo far from 
exaggeration in reckoning one dove house to a commune. 
“ There were some dove-houses which contained three 
hundred pairs of pigeons, hut to avoid all objection I will 
only reckon one hundred pairs to each dove-house, and only 
two broods a-year, leaving the third to replace the vacancies i 
caused by accidents. 
“ Now, one hundred pairs per dove-house would produce I 
a total of 4,200,000 pairs, but each pair producing only four i 
pigeons a year, the result would be 16,800,000 young pigeons, j 
“ Each young pigeon, taken from the nest at eighteen or | 
twenty days, plucked and drawn, weighs four ounces. The i 
42,000 dove-houses then would furnish 64,800,000 ounces 
of wholesome food, and in general at a very low price ; we 
have seen a young pigeon currently sold for four-pence in I 
several districts. 
“Finally, by dividing 64,800,000 ounces by sixteen, to 
ascertain how many pounds of meat the sentence against 
pigeons has deprived us of, we shall find that at the time of 
their proscription the dove-houses were entered for 4,200,000 
pounds of good meat in the sustenance of France, and 
equally diminished the consummation of other animal 
substances. 
