March 25. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
405 
proving the various varieties on which they bestow their 
attention, stand greatly in need of some fixed rules—some 
standard of excellence for each kind of fowl. The same 
person is seldom conversant with many different kinds of 
poultry; those, for instance, who are most intimately ac¬ 
quainted with the Cochin-China, may have little knowledge 
of the Malay. If different persons would furnish good 
descriptions of the fowls which they may best understand, 
subject to the approval of a committee, the trouble and 
probable expense which this arrangement might occasion, 
would, I believe, be amply repaid. Amateurs would no 
longer work in the dark, and the rules thus laid down, 
having undergone sufficient consideration, would become a 
standard of permanent utility. 
An exhibition of poultry in London is certainly much 
wanted. Birmingham, with its splendid show, lies at the 
end of a tiring and expensive journey from our part of the 
world; the meeting of the ltoyal Agricultural Society (to be 
held this year at Lewes), will occur at a time which is very 
likely to exclude the possibility, in many instances, of 
choosing the specimens well, for most hens are perversely 
bent on taking their own way, quite independent of agricul¬ 
tural meetings, and will sit late, or moult early, whatever 
their owners may wish to the contrary, with a bold indif¬ 
ference to fame, the honour of the country, or the admira¬ 
tion of the poultry world. 
1 believe the period when the Birmingham show takes 
place can scarcely be improved upon. It would be difficult 
to find any time earlier in the year which would not in¬ 
terfere with the important business of sitting and raising 
chickens, and the preservation of (in many instances valu¬ 
able) eggs, or else present the fowls under the unsightly 
circumstances of a ragged, worn-out wardrobe. 
Will it be considered out of place to remark, that, if we 
have a show in London, I do not think we could do better 
than appoint Mr. Baily one of the judges. If applied to, I 
believe he would not refuse to accept the office. He is on 
the spot; he is an excellent judge; he is one whose fair 
dealing, great experience, and good knowledge of poultry, 
are too -well known and appreciated to need a word from me. 
In giving this opinion, mine is, of course, only one voice 
among many. 
Fowls—creatures which not long ago were nothings and 
nobodies in the country, so insignificant, that they have 
even received no particular name to distinguish them from 
the other gallinaceous tribes—are, from the attention now 
bestowed upon them, gaining an agricultural and statis¬ 
tical, as well as a domestic importance among us. The 
quantity of food returned for the outlay where good sorts 
are well managed , renders this branch of economy well worth 
following out to a much higher degree of improvement 
than it lias at present reached. Now, the fancier only 
possesses the choicest and most productive kinds ; the fowls 
which we see running in farm-yards, fields, streets, and 
lanes, are generally as small, as poor, as scanty layers of 
poor eggs (I was going to add, as ugly, but I do not think 
any happy lien in good feather can be so called) as they 
were before the Spanish and Cochin-China kinds were intro¬ 
duced, and while the pretty Poland, Every-day-layer, and 
numerous other good sorts were little known. 
With poultry exhibitions frequently occurring, and pre¬ 
senting such opportunities of comparing notes, and of 
showing the progress which lias been made, the stock in the 
country must generally improve, and w r e shall soon no more 
hear owners of fowls complaining that their eggs cost them 
six-pence each. 
The advantages resulting from this improvement of 
! poultry in general, and cocks and hens in particular, scarcely 
yet receive due weight even among those who give their 
best attention to the subject; and far from the least of these 
{ advantages is, that it offers an interesting amusement and a 
useful pursuit for ladies. That it has done so in many in¬ 
stances, is evidenced by several insertions which grace the 
catalogues of the exhibitions at Birmingham, and elsewhere ; 
and other cases are known where the poultry have been the 
charge of the lady, although she may have preferred showing 
in the name of the head of the family. Anster Bonn. 
TRANSPORT OF HIVES. 
I am reminded, by the information occasionally sought j 
just now in your columns, that this is the season when most 
bee-keepers prefer to remove their hives, if desirable, from 
one place to another. Perhaps the following plan of packing 
and carriage of a couple of box hives, superintended by me 
last November, may not be unacceptable to your readers, i 
It is most suitable for trial at this season, when hives are ! 
getting light in weight. 
Each hive was placed on a separate bottom-board, fur- S 
nished with a square hole at bottom, closed by a perforated 
zinc slide. Several rings were secured to each board, with 
pieces of whipcord attached, and gathered together in a 
knot over the hive. Each hive (its entrance being of course 
well closed up) was then taken up and slipped into a square 
box (any old tea-chest will do very well), a few inches larger 
every way than the hive itself, and furnished with a square 
hole at its bottom, to correspond with the aperture in the 
fioor-board. A little hay was first put in for the hive-board 
to rest upon, taking care, however, to leave the holes free ; 
More hay was then thrust in between the sides of the boxes 
and over the hive before the top was screwed down. Both 
boxes were then corded in the usual way, and suspended to 
the under side of a luggage van, and so they travelled some 
50 miles or more. On examination at their journey’s end, 
not more than three or four bees were found dead in each 
hive, and no damage of any kind had been done. I would 
recommend a trial of the above plan, however, only when 
the whole contents of a hive fell short of 15 lbs. weight, for 
large and heavy combs might, and very probably would, 
become disengaged by an awkward jolt, to which luggage 
vans are of course frequently liable. If suspended to vans 
for carriage by rail, I should anticipate very little danger in 
the transport of hives of any weight. Whatever be the value 
of the above facts they are at the service of the public.—A 
Country Curate. 
SHORT NOTICES. 
The interesting article on “ Packing Fruit-Trees for Ex¬ 
portation,” in The Cottage Gardener of February 26, and 
written by your coadjutor, D. Beaton, reminded me of an 
account given in “ Darwin’s Zoological Ptesearches,” page 
297 (published by Murray), of the apple orchards in Cbiloe. 
“ The village of Valdivia is situated on the low banks of a 
stream, and is so completely buried in a wood of apple-trees 
that the streets are merely paths in an orchard. I have 
never seen any country where apple-trees appear to thrive 
so well as in the damp part of South America; on the 
borders of the roads there are many young trees evidently 
self-sown. In Cliiloe the inhabitants possess a marvellously 
short method of making an orchard : at the lower part of 
almost every branch, small, conical, brown, wrinkled points 
project; these are always ready to change into roots, as may 
sometimes be seen where any mud has been accidentally 
splashed against the tree. A branch as thick as a man’s 
thigh is chosen in the early spring, and is cut oft' just 
beneath a group of these points; all the smaller branches 
are lopped off, and it is then placed about two feet deep in 
the ground. During the ensuing summer the stump throws 
out long shoots, and sometimes even bears fruit; I was 
shown one which had produced as many as twenty-three 
apples, but this was thought very unusual. In the third 
season the stump is changed (as I have myself seen) into a 
well-wooded tree, loaded with fruit. An old man near Val¬ 
divia illustrated this motto, ‘ Necesidad es la madre del in- 
vencion,’ by giving an account of the several useful things he 
manufactured from his apples: after making cider, and 
likewise wine, he extracted from the refuse a white and 
finely-flavoured spirit; by another process he procured a 
sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey; his children and 
pigs seemed almost to live at this season of the year in his 
orchard.” Now this mode of raising apple-trees, though, 
perhaps, not new to some of our scientific horticulturists, 
is certainly not generally practised in England, and may 
suggest experiments being tried with other trees of analo¬ 
gous growth. If suitably selected and prepared branches | 
were packed in the manner described by your D. Beaton, 
might not the warmth of the tropics induce vegetation j 
