470 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 15. 
about three or four grains daily to birds of two months’ age, 
and a larger proportion to those which are more mature; the 
most convenient mode of giving it being to mix in with a 
small quantity of meal. Although more expensive, I much 
prefer the citrate to the other preparations of iron in these 
cases, as it is milder in its action, and is destitute of the 
powerful (and, in this disease, injurious) astringent effect 
of the sulphate. The diet should be moderate in quantity, 
and nutritious, but not fattening; for it is certain that there 
is no more frequent cause of the disease than the forcing 
process which is constantly followed with valuable birds, 
which causes them to grow more rapidly than is consistent 
with a due development of muscular strength. 
W. B. Tegetmeiejr, Tottenham. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENERS PONY. 
(Continued from page 308.) 
Every other department of rural economy, connected 
with the humane and enlightened care of the ordinary 
domestic animals, may be made a source of interest and 
enjoyment of the most refined kind. But just step from 
the rabbit-hutch, the poultry-house, the cow-house, and 
dairy, and the greenhouse, into the stable, and what a dif¬ 
ferent moral atmosphere you begin to breathe! To be 
knowing about horses has always been considered an equi- | 
vocal sort of distinction: no wonder that all the best modern 
essays on the subject have been anonymous. It is to be 
hoped that better times are coming; even as it is now com¬ 
petent to any gentlemen to speak of his personal expe¬ 
riences in our Australian colonies without seeing every i 
breeches’ pocket at once buttoned-up, and an evident un- ! 
willingness in any gentleman or lady present to allude to ! 
convictions—of their minds, or transports—of the heart. 
The first question which stares you in the face when ! 
proposing to live in the country, is the expense, and annoy- j 
ance, and dread of having anything whatever to do with I 
horses, or carriages, or grooms, on the one hand; and on the 
other, the inconvenience of doing without something of the 
sort. In the course of my desultory scampers in your 
columns (remembering all the while that my Pegasus is not 
very lofty, although I believe he is long-winded enough) I 
have endeavoured to show that much of the charge of horse¬ 
keeping is unnecessary, self-imposed, and conventional; and 
the whole system too clever and artificial by half; being 
almost peculiar to our own happy but somewhat prejudiced 
and vain glorious land. 
In the old-fashioned countries where birth, rank, and 
station, claim an almost slavish deference, anything like our 
prevailing passion for ostentatious rivalry in equipage is not 
suffered to pervade the middle classes. Your kindness per¬ 
mitted me to take up no small portion of your pages, on a 
former occasion, with a critical inquiry into the “ carriage,” 
considered as a means of making a certain appearance, and 
maintaining a person’s station, in society; a thing that I have 
nothing particular to object to. If no better way can be 
iound out for advertising a man’s rank, this one is a very 
ancient and approved method, no doubt. But the status of 
a cottage gardener does not require to be set forth with much 
varnish and a profusion of lace and silver-plated furniture: 
he just wishes to pass on his way quietly and pleasantly; not 
vainly loitering on purpose to be stared at; having no ambi¬ 
tion to drive or cut his way into a more exalted sphere, he 
has no professed cook; neither has he a professed groom. 
Caleb Balderston and the pony, by their honest toil on the 
land during a portion of their time, contrive to replace no 
little of what they consume of the earth’s produce. Rely 
upon it, the ‘ dapes inemptaa ’ or good things which are of 
home production, are highly digestible both for man and 
beast. 
The change which has just been made in our assessed tax 
gives me an opportunity of referring to a former remission of 
duty, and its results, on men’s manners. 
A quarter of a century ago, a witness in a celebrated trial 
spoke of a noted gambler and scamp as a respectable man. 
“ What do you mean by a respectable man,” thundered the 
majesty of the law. “ He kept a gig, my lord,” was the con¬ 
clusive answer. A gig of that day was no light affair. It 
weighed five hundred weight; cost fifty guineas; paid a 
heavy tax ; required a sound, clever, valuable horse to draw 
it; and was maintained at a total charge of A70 to X‘120 a 
year. It only carried two passengers after all, and afforded 
no protection from the rain beyond a leather apron and a gig 
umbrella. But then, it made a bagman, or a blackleg, respect¬ 
able. But when Lord Althorp took the duty off bi-rot.als* under 
j£20 value, thinking, good easy man, to benefit,here and there, 
a few butchers and parish doctors, small farmers and such 
like people; it was discovered by the coach-builder, that he 
could, at twenty pounds, turn out a far lighter, and more 
commodious vehicle, carrying four people. 
Immediately after the introduction of Wliitecllapels,market- 
carts, and drags, respectability took refuge in a four-wheeled 
phaeton ; with much weight and polish about the same; mov¬ 
ing slowly, from place to place, as if half-conscious of the duty 
imposed upon it. Now that this duty is reduced from £h to £2, 
I fear the phaeton will be not quite so grand a thing as before, 
though it may possibly become rather more generally useful. 
Our transcendental finance minister, in reducing the car¬ 
riage duties, characterised the old restriction scale as a 
sumptuary law. No doubt about the matter. Its operation 
was the same as the wine duty of one shilling per bottle 
still is. This amounts to an actual prohibition on any but 
the superior descriptions of wine; and on all but the more 
opulent class of imbibers. Thus, one of the choicest gifts of 
a bountiful Providence, “ to comfort the heart of man,” in 
England only “comforts the heart” of those who are least 
in want of consolation; and its use is, by our laws, decreed 
to form a sort of standard of social position and liberal 
means and luxurious living. Thus, the better kinds of wine 
only are drunk, and that by the better classes. So it used 
to be in the case immediately before us. People said,—as 
this heavy duty must be paid, we may as well pay it on a fine 
carriage as on a plain one. At one time, very poor, plain, 
cheap conveyances, were built, excejff for the post-masters; 
and it is curious enough that postmasters, by curtailing 
much that was unnecessary; by aiming at nothing beyond a 
certain neatness; and especially by attending to the light¬ 
ness of the build of their vehicles; have always been able to 
pay a duty of three-halfpence per mile, and yet post you 
cheaper than you could travel by your own carriage. 
A posting conveyance is built at about three-quarters the 
expense of one of a similar description built for private use; 
and the lightness of build of the latter is usually altogether 
made secondary to appearance; while, in the former, ap¬ 
pearance is made secondary to lightness of draught. 
In the following calculations, the compendium of horse- 
Ueslr supposed to be kept, is such an animal as it is not 
uncommon to find at a country inn, or belonging to a country 
butcher, or cattle-dealer. These sort of people will usually 
put you into the way of procuring, at from AT8 to A'25, exactly 
the beast you require — about 14$ hands high; not very 
fascinating in appearance at first, but capable of wonderful 
improvement in the course of one or two years. Where a 
full-sized, handsome, clever horse is kept, whether for more 
extended farm operations, or to draw a large family carriage, 
he will cost Is. a-week more in hay, and Is. Cd. in corn. The 
man’s time, and other variable expenses, will be greatly 
more or greatly less, as business or pleasure is the main 
object. A smaller pony may, of course, be kept at, say one- 
quarter less; but then liis services on the garden-farm must 
be wholly inconsiderable as a set-off. 
A stout pony may be made to cover the whole of his ex¬ 
penses by confining him altogether to farm-work, except 
when he takes you to church or market. I certainly think 
he should ease the man of so much of the laborious part of 
cultivating and manuring a few acres of farm-garden, as 
will be a complete set-off against the charge of grooming; 
but I have no sort of confidence that the whole of my 
system will be always carried out. Therefore. I have put 
down grooming at A‘10 13s. per annum. (We should grow 
our own oats, but we don’t). But, where an elderly gentle¬ 
man or lady requires driving out every fine day, this wages 
must be at least doubled, and five guineas added for livery. 
The cost of a carriage, also, of one description, is about four 
times that of another. Thus— 
1. A two-wheel conveyance, whether market-cart, While- 
* Two-wheeled vehicles.— Printer’s Devil. 
