462 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 13. 
I said, in my first paper, tlint Cochins are best suited to 
furnish small establishments with winter eggs. But the 
speculative housekeeper must be told, that different families 
of Cochins vary very much in their egg-producing powers. 
When ho is intent on getting his stock, let him make par¬ 
ticular enquiries on this head. Colour and form do not 
ooncem him. Indeed, I think the bright-coloured birds, 
lemon, or white, are, if anything, less prolific than their 
dingier sisters. He who looks mainly to the egg-basket, 
had better pick up from the amateur who breeds for the 
shows, half-a-dozen of the undersized or discoloured pullets 
of the March and April broods. Tho price of such should 
not exceed 15s., or a guinea for the set. 
Mr. Stevens has sold, in bis auction room, this year, dozens 
of pure-bred pullets at from 5s. to 7s. fid. a couple. Indeed, 
I do not know that any one who purposes to give my plan a 
trial could do better than send to Stevens for his birds. 
The birds should be got home about the middle of Sep¬ 
tember, when eggs begin to grow dear. A game-cock would 
be a capital companion, but is not necessary. The fowls 
should bo kept clean and warm, and fed twice a day, thus : 
In the morning, as much good barley as they will eat; in 
the evening, a mixture made with lmt-water in which meat 
has been boiled or dishes washed, of barley-meal and 
pollard, barley-meal and boiled turnips, potatoes or mangel 
wurtzel, or meal and fresh grains, will be the best of suppers. 
Meal is too expensive to be given alone, but mixed with 
cheaper food to give bulk it is most excellent. 
I do not think that animal food—although a very little 
occasionally improves their condition—is necessary, espe¬ 
cially if the mixture is given hot, and if all kitchen refuse 
is added to it. Green food and lime rubbish are necessary, 
but need not add to the expense. Fed in this way, the six 
birds, or the seven (provided tho cock be not a young Cochin), 
may very well be fed for Is. a week. From September 15th 
to February 1st will be twenty weeks. The fowls will cost 
for food a sovereign in that time. If they lay in proportion 
that my three did, as reported in your paper of the 20th, 
they will produce not less than 350 eggs. They ought to 
lay a greater number than mine, if all the six are spring 
pullets; for two of mine were old hens, and one was 
allowed to sit. The economical feeder should shut up each 
pullet when she is broody, and if young, she will lay again 
in fourteen days. But taking 350 as a produce which may 
fairly be expected, it will amply repay the sovereign ex¬ 
pended in food. The pullets themselves should be killed in 
February and will be worth prime cost. Several bushels of 
the best of all manures for the garden will be no contemp¬ 
tible profit.—K. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
GARDENING. 
CHARCOAL FOR POTTING.—SOWING CALCEO¬ 
LARIA SEED. 
“ I see Mr. Fish makes use of charcoal for growing his 
Fuchsias in, with other good soil. Could you inform me 
whether tho charcoal ought to be in pieces, or in powder? 
I have some Calceolaria seed, and forgot to sow it in the 
autumn. Shall I have to wait till next autumn before I can 
sow it ?—J. H.” 
[The charcoal should be in little lumps, somewhat pro¬ 
portionate to the size of the pot and the size of the shift. 
Pieces of the size of peas in a four-inch pot; of a bean in 
a six or eight-inch pot; and of a walnut in a twelve-inch pot. 
The powder will be extremely useful for mixing with sand 
for propagating purposes. We use it freely; at least, when 
we can get it for that purpose. 
Sow part of your Calceolaria seed now, and you will have 
to keep your plants in a cool, shady place during summer, 
or plant them out. The large, herbaceous kinds do not like 
our summer in pots; tho roots get too hot. When tho 
seed is sown in tho autumn, we got the flowering over 
before our warmest days. All this has been fully explained.] 
CAMELLIAS POT-BOUND. 
“I have some large Camellias, but they are pot bound, 
which they appear to have been for many years; they 
are in full bloom now. I wish to ask, whether I ought to 
shift them into large pots as soon as they have done flower¬ 
ing, or wait until they have made their new wood?— 
M. H. F.” 
[Wait until they have done blooming, and when they 
begin to grow, shift thorn carefully, picking out the earth 
from the roots carefully, and place them in pots a size 
larger. Then keep them close and warm until they begin 
to sot their buds; then give air and light, and harden them 
off; housing them again in good time.] 
BOILER FOR HEATING PURPOSES. 
FIRE-BARS. 
A. Fire-place. Twelve inches from the bars to the boiler bottom. 
B. Boiler two feet long, and four inches deep. Eighteen inches wide. 
c. c. Two four-inch pipes connecting b with D . 
n. Boiler two feet long, and four inches deep. Eighteen inches wide. 
e. Flow-pipe four inches diameter. 
f. Return four-inch pipe. 
“ I send you a side section of a boiler that is coming 
into general use in the North. Many saddle-boilers have 
been taken out, and this sort put in. They are very easy to 
manage, and take very little fuel. 
“ With regard to heat, I have a small forcing place ten 
feet wide, twenty-seven feet long, five feet high in front, and 
eleven feet high at the back. It is a lean-to house. I have 
two rows of four-inch pipes at the back, but they go through 
to a Vinery forty feet long, and return. I can get my 
forcing-house to any useful heat. I can get it to 100°, and 
to 110°, if I wanted it. 
“I can make up my fire at six o’clock at night, and I need 
not go to it again until six o’clock in the morning. The 
heat will range from 55° to 70°. The boiler is so exposed 
to the fire that there is no heat from the fire lost. On the 
top of the boiler there is a T pipe, as I have to heat both 
ways. There is a carriage-house to heat as well as tho 
forcing-house and Vinery. I have about one hundred yards 
of pipe to heat.—J. O., Gardener to E. C.” 
[We see, by your plan, that the lower boiler, four inches 
deep, is twelve inches from tho bars. On this lowor boiler, 
another similar in size is placed four inches above it, and 
connected together, near each end, by two four-inch pipes. 
The boiler is two feet long, and four inches deep, and 
eighteen inches wide. We have no doubt the plan answers 
well. Thus the firo strikes against the bottom of the 
boiler from the bars, then passes through the space that 
separates the top of the first boiler from the bottom of the 
second, and then turns back again over tho top of tho 
second boiler. Wo certainly wish to know more about this 
boiler that prevents any heat escaping over the top of tho 
boiler ; for we never yet met with a boiler that absorbed all 
the heat of the fire, and wo would travel some distance to see 
one.] 
HEATING WATER BY GAS. 
“ Having only just seen your number of the 27th ult., I 
