April 24.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
55 
able. I have never found fine seasonable chickens, that is, 
those which are hatched in April, May, or the early part of 
June, go oft’ in the manner H. L. K. describes, but I have 
found it the case with early and also with late broods. Any 
food liable to swell in the crop is injurious to young 
chickens; I think this is the fault with groats. On reading 
the letter of H. L. Iv., I walked out in search of a mill which 
could grind the barley as coarsely as described, and also en¬ 
quired at the com dealers’ if they could grind some in this 
manner, but after going to several shops, I could find nothing 
better suited to the purpose than a little hand coffee mill, a 
patent invention by the Hill Top Foundry Company, with 
an adjusting screw to make it grind fine or coarse. This I 
find grinds the corn too fine, but it is, nevertheless, much 
relished by the chickens and approved by the mother liens, 
whose opinions I always consider well worth consulting. If 
H. L. K. would kindly inform the readers of The Cottage 
Gardener, how the barley may be ground as she describes, 
to the size of a pin’s head, I am sure it would oblige many 
persons. 
After this little digression, we will proceed with feeding 
the chickens. At this age when it is advantageous to 
promote growth and strength, it is desirable to encourage 
them to eat; to increase their appetites, therefore, let their 
food be varied, for which reason I name several different 
things on which I have found them thrive: boiled corn, 
boiled rice, either with or without a little cold milk over it, 
bread thoroughly swelled, oatmeal and barley-meal porridge, 
sunflower seeds, potato cut small, and any similar food. 
Once a day they may have a bit of raw beef, or a little piece 
of cooked meat, or boiled bullock’s liver, cut quite small. 
When about a fortnight old, a little corn may be given to 
them in addition; oats are best to begin with, and these a 
good mother will skin for her young ones with great 
dexterity. 
The coops which I generally use are of wicker work, but 
not of the usual round form; they are a long square, 
measuring three feet long, two feet wide, and two feet high, 
with a door at one end. They may be made to order by any 
basket maker for about three shillings each. I fix the 
door back and place against it a box, or common dog’s 
house, large enough for the hen to retire into with her 
brood in case of a shower, and I have never met with one 
who fails to avail herself of the accommodation. Besides 
these, I have one round coop for the convenience of 
fixing the hen to any small space; in bad weather, when 
one is glad to take advantage of only a fine half hour to put 
out a brood, this often comes into use. 
Until the chickens are quite fledged, it is better to keep 
them under shelter entirely in wet weather, for a regular 
soaking seldom fails to interfere with their health. The 
sooner the hen can be turned in with the other fowls, the 
sooner she will commence laying again; but the period 
when this is done must depend on the strength of the 
chickens, and also on the disposition of the cock. Some 
cocks will make very kind fathers, even helping the hens to 
feed their young families, while others will lose no opportu¬ 
nity of ill treating or even killing the little ones. 
A temporary mother, under which the young chickens may 
nestle when taken away from the hen, may be thus made:— 
Prepare a ball of twine, and cut some very stout fleecy into 
six inch lengths- Stretch a piece of the twine between 
two nails, or in any other convenient situation; double a 
length of fleecy, put the loop over the twine, pass the two ends 
together through the loop and draw them quite tight; repeat 
this till you have a long piece of fringe. Then take a piece 
of coarse embroidery canvass, the shape of the top of the 
basket (in which you wish to place the chickens), sew the 
fringe on it in rows half an inch apart, until it is quite 
covered and resembles a bit of lamb’s skin with the wool on. 
The chickens will nestle into this and receive air through 
the canvass. 
When the hens have brought out their broods, before you 
allow the nests to be occupied in the same manner again, 
see that the nests and all the parts adjacent are well cleansed 
and lime washed; for if the sitters are infested with vermin, 
they will never do their duty steadily. 
Fowls which have been well housed and properly managed, 
and which have not yet shown inclination to sit, will by this 
time have been laying -without intermission for many months; 
it must not be forgotten that in this period they have had to 
furnish a great number of shells as well as eggs, conse¬ 
quently they are much in want of lime. As easy a plan of 
giving it to them as any, is to break up a few oyster shells 
with a hammer or billhook; the fowls will peck up the bits 
which are small enough to swallow with great eagerness. 
These hens will also require abundant feeding, and if they 
are thin, may have barley-meal or middlings twice in the 
day, in addition to their other food. 
WORK TO BE DONE DAILY. 
Feed all the stock. 
Attend to sitting hens. 
Place out the young broods, the hens under good roomy 
coops, and feed them very often. 
Give extra feeding to such fowls as seem to require it. 
Anstee Bonn. 
THE PAST WINTER AND THE PROSPECTS OF 
THE FRUIT GROWER. 
Notwithstanding the almost universal expression of “ what 
a mild winter we have had,” the first of April found vegeta¬ 
tion no further advanced than in the majority of seasons. 
Now to account for that circumstance doubtless many 
reasons may be advanced; yet if vegetation had been ten 
days or a fortnight in advance of what it now is, I doubt not 
but equally cogent reasons could, also, have been found to 
account for that. Without, therefore, suggesting any other 
reasons for the backwardness of the season, than justnoticing 
the unusual absence of sunshine during the whole of March, 
I will at once set myself to attempt to describe what the 
season really has been in the part of the country I write 
from (Kent), and will venture an opinion of what its in¬ 
fluences may be hereafter. 
Commencing with the autumn, it is only necessary to 
observe that it was much drier than that period of the year 
usually is, and what frosts we had were so late, that tender 
flowering plants might be said to be more blanched to death 
by the cold fogs and damp than chilled by the frost, so that 
many beds of flowering plants were dug up while the herbage 
was as fresh as in September, but the damp had perished 
the flowers. One of the best plants to stand this baneful in¬ 
fluence is the Cuphea striyulosa, and it is on that account one 
deserving especial notice where very late out-door flowers are 
wanted. As we generally calculate on having severe weather 
sometime diu’ing the winter, beds of Petunia, Verbena, Gera¬ 
nium, &c., are always unceremoniously digged up. I, however, 
last year, left some beds of Calceolarias, three of which are 
the old yellow Inteyrifolia, and, though they have never had 
the least protection, they are as fresh and green as they were 
in September; and, what is equally of importance, uniform in 
growth. One bed, in a more conspicuous place, I sometimes 
threw mats over on nights threatening to be very frosty, but 
that does not look so well as those wholly unprotected. The 
darker kinds, partaking more of a herbaceous nature, have 
not stood so well, and I fear will be gappy. Verbenas I find 
suffer as much from damp as from frost; for while most of 
the single plants in mixed borders have stood tolerably well, 
those in beds have mostly all perished. One bed, in a very 
dry and exposed place, is, however, in very good order, and 
I hope will be ready to flower pretty early this season. The 
stems of the small-leaved Salvia (coccinea I think it is 
called) have endured the winter, and are breaking out all the 
way up; so, also, are all the Fuschias, scarcely even a morsel 
at the tips is hurt. The large-leaved or Rose-tinted 
Geranium has also stood pretty well, and up to the first of 
March afforded sprigs and green leaves for bouquets, since 
then it lias suffered much, but I do not think any scarlets 
have survived. But now to the weather, which, as your 
worthy correspondents do not seem to notice it much, must 
have been more severe with them than it has been here, 
and when we hear of ice-houses being filled there need be 
no further proof of its having been partial in its visitation. 
As I have before said, the autumn was mild. The ther¬ 
mometer only once fell as low as 28° in October, in November 
(the last day) it fell to 24°, and on the 21st of December it 
was at 22°, the previous night having been 28°, after which 
dull mild weather set in, which continued nearly up to the 
end of January, the thermometer only once falling to 25°, 
while many nights it stood above 40. February set in with 
