398 THE COTTAGE GARDENER. February 20. 
pence in seventeen weeks, and paid forty-five eggs or pence, 
leaving a balance against them of fifty-seven pence. The 
Spanish costing 102 pence, and returning fifty pence, were 
a loss of fifty-two pence to their owner. 
This is not a fancy statement, but compiled from a book 
carefully kept the whole time of experiment. 
I am sure the Spanish are the most productive variety 
in summer, but then you can buy eggs twenty-four for a 
shilling, and at that price no great gain can accrue to the 
keeper of Spanish fowls ; while I have shown the fate he 
may look for in the winter season. 
I have found the Dorkings the worst egg-producers, and 
the most delicate of the three kinds. I am sure that a 
well-fatted Dorking is supreme on the table, and a few 
Dorking hens should always form part of the stock of any | 
one who rears poultry for the dead market; but as I have 
said, the amateur, with only his back-yard, caunot success¬ 
fully compete with the farmer merely for dead poultry. 
I have, moreover, noticed that the Dorking eggs are 
less productive of chicken, and the chicken more difficult to 
rear than either of the rival breeds. From fifteen Dorking 
eggs, last spring, I had only seven chicken, and reared four. 
From fifteen Spanish eggs, I had twelve chicken, and 
brought up ten. From fifteen Cochin eggs, I brought 
fifteen chicken to maturity ; but two pullets died after they 
began to lay, apparently from apoplexy. In each of these 
cases the eggs were taken from pens of birds kept and 
treated alike. Even for table use, I think the Cochins have 
been condemned more than they deserve. I acknowledge 
the well-fatted Dorking is more shapely, and has most white 
meat, but I am sure a well-fed Cochin of a good breed is 
not unsightly, especially the pullets, while the meat they 
have is rich, juicy, and tender, and I do not find that my 
friends show any great preference for one meat over the 
other when both are before them. 
In fine, I intend to keep my Cochins, and get rid of the 
other varieties. I am content to buy eggs in summer, when 
they are cheap, and to send to the poulterer for a special 
pair of fowls when I wish for an ornamental dish for a 
feast. I know my Cochins will provide a wholesome meal 
for common occasions, will furnish eggs below market price 
iu winter, and will pay their keep all the year round, if I 
do not suffer them to hatch a lot of chicken to eat their 
heads off on purchased food.—K. 
ANTS DESTROYERS OF BLOSSOMS. 
In reply to your enquiry, at p. 300, whether any of your 
readers have met with a similar instance to that detailed by 
your correspondent, of the destruction of blossoms of fruit- 
trees by ants, I may state, that last season, the greater 
portion of the blossoms of several young Plum-trees was 
destroyed here by these industrious little pests. An old 
authority says of them :—“Ants injure everything that they 
touch ; but they are particularly mischievous with regard to 
wall-trees; where they attack successively bud, blossom, 
leaf, fruit.”—So that the work is not new to them.—S. H. B. 
THE FRUIT AND KITCHEN-GARDEN PRO¬ 
DUCE AT THE LAST MEETING OF THE 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
My fingers often itch to scribble a few lines upon various 
topics discussed in The Cottage Gardener, but a market- 
gardener, what with being up very early to attend the 
market, and looking after his business at home, has very 
little time to write or to improve himself. However, I have 
managed these few lines, penned after visiting the Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s Rooms, for the first time, on the 0th instant, , 
where I went to see if there was any protecting material I 
exhibited and to get information as to exhibiting my own 
newly invented article. I believe that more hands than 
mine are at work to supply this great want,—a cheap, effective 
material, which, if nobody is before me, I mean to bring out. 
The first tiling which took my attention were the Pears. 
Mr. Tillyard’s were extraordinary, bearing the same com¬ 
parison to common Pears as the beasts at the Baker-street 
Cattle Show do to common cattle. The trees have had 
more feeding, thinning, and attention than market-gardeners 
give to them. We are getting tired of fruit-culture, it is so 
precarious. 
There were a few good Pines, but nothing extra. Of 
Grapes there were more, and some very good. One dish 
was marked New Grapes, and one near to it was marked 
Old Grapes, but if I am not much mistaken, there was very 
little difference between the age of them. They were both 
very plump, green in the stalk, and not at all shrivelled. 
Both, I think, must be called very good late Grapes.* Some 
Muscats, from Mr. Clark, were splendid, being the best, by 
far, that I have ever seen at this season. I cannot perceive 
the value of the Barbarossa Grape, as some people do. 
Some of the Hamburghs were as sound, quite as good in 
colour, and much better shaped bunches than the Bar¬ 
barossa, which are, in my eyes, coarse-looking, loose-hanging, 
and very straggling bunches. Iu my judgment, West’s 
Black St. Peters is the best late Grape. 
Then I came to the forced Vegetables ; and here I was 
sadly disappointed. Some of the Sea-kale I should have 
been ashamed to have sent, and could not have sold at the 
market. The best of it was badly forced. I could have 
beaten it hollow. If this is a specimen of Kale, as forced 
by our best gardeners, they have much to learn yet. The 
Asparagus, if forced from roots that had been removed, was 
very good, but if from roots that had not been disturbed, 
which I expect was the case, I think it might be easily 
beaten. Mushrooms were good, but there are better in the 
market; I mean heavier, aud more flesh on them. Of 
two dishes of French Beans, was one bad, but the other 
first-rate. There were two queer Cucumbers, some good 
Lettuces, and forced Rhubarb, but beaten in the market every 
day for size and colour. Also, some very good Tomatoes 
for the season. The Celery was sound, but small. I could 
have sent some that would have made half-a-dozen of them, 
and quite as sound and white. These things convinced me 
that we, in many things, can beat gentlemen’s gardeners by 
odds, and if I am well next winter, I will show them how.— 
A Market-Gardener. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
FORSYTHIA VIRIDISSIMA. 
“ Can you tell me what yellow-flowered shrub to grow as 
a good successor to Jasminum nudiflorum ? It must not be 
high-priced.—D. F.” 
[We know of none more likely to suit you than Forsythia 
viridissima. This peculiarly pale green plant, like the Jasmine, 
is a very showy, ornamental plant, for training upon the 
open wall, where it is an extremely free bloomer. It is as 
hardy as the common Peach. Its blossoms are of the 
deepest golden-yellow colour, and they are produced at the 
end of February and in March, when flowers are still scarce. 
It forms a pretty contrast for the Cydonia japonica and the 
Cy donia japonica alba. 
Like many other soft-wooded shrubs, it roots as freely as 
the common Honeysuckle, when the ripe shoots are cut into 
suitable lengths, and these lengths planted out in some cool 
border in November.] 
FIXING A SADDLE-BACKED BOILER. 
“ Can you tell me how to seta saddle-backed boiler ? I 
followed the plan as indicated in a section shown in the 
1 Book of the Garden,’ but I have been sadly disappointed. 
I have had the opinion of several gardeners ; they say the 
boiler ought to answer, but it does not. 
“ The boiler is tweDty-two inches long, fourteen inches 
wide, fourteen inches deep ; the furnace space of the boiler 
* Our correspondent will see, in Mr. Beaton’s report, that he is 
mistaken.—E d. C. G. 
