480 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 22. 
although I have seen very useful crops of Turnips, Rape, 
&c., grown amongst Beans, yet it requires great nicety 
of culture, and is attended with expenses which are not 
repaid. The rotations best suited to this crop are, 1st, 
Fallow, or Turnips; 2nd, Oats, or Barley; 3rd, Clover 
Grass; 4th, Wheat; 5th, Beans; 0th, Wheat; or Beans 
may he put fourth in the rotation, followed by Wheat. 
Land intended for Beans should always be ploughed at 
| least a month before drilling, but for dibbling, a fresh 
furrow is preferable. The best time for sowing the 
winter Beans is from the second to the last week in 
October. 
Farm-yard manure can be applied with much advan¬ 
tage to this crop; but, if the land is out of conditiou, 
and sufficient yard-dung cannot be obtained, artificial 
manures may be sown upon the bare furrow, and 
harrowed in previous to drilling; the combination of 
bones and guano, or the Buenos Ayres, or dried llesh- 
manure, with a little superphosphate of lime, is a suit¬ 
able admixture. The spring management, and inter¬ 
culture, is a very important point in the cultivation, 
not only as regards the benefit to be derived by the 
Beans, but also by the following process which is going 
on during the working of the soil between the rows. 
The first thing to be done, as soon as the small weeds 
begin to vegetate in early spring, is to liorse-hoe the 
intervals rather shallow ; and a day or two afterwards, 
when the weather is dry, use the harrows freely across 
the rows of Beans, which will not only destroy the small 
weeds, but will break the shell or crust of the land 
around the plauts, and greatly facilitate their growth. 
The operation of horse-hoeing should be repeated as 
often as the small weeds vegetate, each time hoeing a 
little deeper, and so continuing until the plants meet 
across the intervals. Joseph Blundell. 
periments with different substances; the results of which 
1 will briefly state :— 
Mercurial preparations, such as white precipitate and a 
very dilute solution of corrosive sublimate, are effectual; 
but there are two insuperable objections to their use—they 
are very expensive when required in quantity, and are so 
exceedingly poisonous, that when applied to such an ex¬ 
tensive surface as the whole body of the bird they produce 
serious results. 
Vegetable poisons, as tobacco-water, snuff, stavesacre, 
&c., are open to the same objection. 
Lime, in fine powder, dusted into the feathers, is only 
partially effectual; and the same remark applies to plaster 
of Paris. 
The last substance I tried was flowers of sulphur. I took 
a Cochin pullet, just received as an in patient, into my 
sanatarium, which was literally alive with lice, and dusted 
the powdered sulphur among the roots of the feathers over 
the whole body, so that every part of the skin was covered. 
On examination, next morning, I was most agreeably sur¬ 
prised to find that the whole of the vermin had emigrated; 
and it was only after very patient research that 1 succeeded 
in discovering a single specimen, which was by no means in 
a lively condition. The eggs, of course, were not destroyed; 
and it was necessary, therefore, to continue the application 
for a few days, to destroy the lice afterwards hatched. 
Flowers of sulphur, or, as it is termed by the druggists, 
sublimed sulphur, will, 1 am convinced, become the remedy 
for this annoyance. It is perfectly harmless to the fowl, 
does not disfigure the plumage, is easily applied, and per¬ 
fectly effectual. Moreover, it is exceedingly cheap; many 
pounds should be sold for a shilling; and, although 1 
have not tried the experiment, I should think it would be 
equally efficacious if a quantity were added to the dusting- 
box of ashes, <fcc., that is usually kept for the use of the 
fowls. 
I havo the vanity to look upon this result with con¬ 
siderable complacency; feeling confident, that the remedy 
will be found most valuable. I have, unfortunately, a heavy 
counterpoise to any overweening confidence in my own 
researches, in the great loss that 1 have experienced in 
pursuing some investigations into the nature and cure of 
roup. This, however, must form the matter of another 
communication. I will only state, that I have ascertained, 
by the most carefully-conducted experiments, that roup is 
contagious in the highest possible degree. 
W. 13. Tegetheier, Tottenham. 
DISEASES OF POULTRY. 
LICE. 
These troublesome pests, which, by the constant irrita¬ 
tion they maintain, tend very greatly to prevent a healthy 
condition in poultry, arc more frequent among Cochins than j 
any other variety. My own birds are remarkably free from ! 
them;' but I know, that in the yards of several of the most | 
successful exhibitors they abound, in spite of every care as i 
to cleanliness, and abundance of lime rubbish. In the ; 
cases of invalids which are sent to me, I often find them 
present in thousands, and I am inclined to attribute their 
presence in such numbers to an unhealthy condition of the 
system; but, whatever be the cause of their abundance, I 
am quite sure that they very much injure the health of the 
birds, and prevent their recovery when ill. 
In bad cases, they may be found on looking at the base 
of the feathers on any part of the body; hut they are always 
present in the largest number below the vent, and among 
the quill feathers of the wings. The eggs, also, may be 
observed clustered round the base of the feathers, so as to 
iorm a sort of sheath to the lower part of each one; and, 
though small, yet their number and bright crystalline 
appearance renders them very conspicuous. These clusters 
may be seen around the base of the feathers on the head, 
and other parts where the bird is unable to preen itself with 
its beak. 
Feeling the importance of being able to destroy these 
vermin, in a manner which should be at once economical, 
effectual, and harmless to the fowl, I made a series of ex- 
CULTURE OF BRITISH ORCHISES. 
I now fulfil my promise to give your readers some 
account of tire British Orchises, and 1 think, perhaps, the 
best way will he to pass the different sorts in review, with 
a few words of comment upon each. There are fourteen 
plants which 1 include in the general term “ Orchises,” and 
these do not include Orchis laxijlora , which is, I believe, 
only found in Jersey. The earliest of them is 
1. Orchis mascula, the “Field Orchis,” as it is generally 
termed. The ilower of this varies from pale lilac to dark 
purple; the stem is ordinarily thirteen, but sometimes 
seventeen or eighteen, inches, in height; the leaves are 
sometimes thickly spotted with dark purple, and sometimes 
perfectly green and glossy. Indeed, I think it very possible, 
that when botanists turn their attention more to these 
plants, Orchis mascula may he split up into two or three 
different varieties, one of which will be, I think, Orchis 
mascula, var. alba, a pure white ilower, with plain leaves, 
which it grows more erect than mascula generally does. I 
have not seen enough of this variety to give a more lengthy 
description of it. Orchis mascula will grow anywhere. It 
does not require chalk, and, perhaps, a dry, elevated posi¬ 
tion, in a light soil, will suit it best. This year it bloomed 
about the second week in May. 
2. Orchis Morio. —A pretty, little, purple dwarf Orchis, 
which grows “ in moist meadows," as Sir J. Smith says; 
though where I have seen it growing finest was on a dry, 
grassy slope in the sun. This Orchis appears about a fort¬ 
night after O. mascula, and a very pretty, flesh-coloured 
variety of it may be found in most places. 
