170 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 5. 
and to soak one in a small quantity of water for a few hours, 
when the liquid will be found to curdle milk most readily. 
After having been softened in the crop, and saturated 
with gastric juice in the fore stomach, the food passes into 
the gizzard, which may be regarded as a living mill, 
grinding up its contents with immense force; the thick, 
ilesby structure of the gizzard is familiar to all; the parts 
eaten are the two enormous muscles, which by their mutual 
action one against the other grind and crush the food between 
them, being aided in this action by the sharp angular stones 
so freely swallowed by the bird. The gizzard itself is 
protected from injury by an extremely thick, leathery 
lining which clothes the interior. 
Some persons, alike ignorant of physiology and destitute 
of common sense, state, that in order to fatten a fowl 
speedily it is requisite to prevent it supplying itself with 
stones during fattening. It is not necessary to reply to so 
senseless an observation. After having been thoroughly 
ground in the gizzard, the food passes along the intestines, 
during which passage the nutritive portions are absorbed, 
and are then mingled with the blood, which is thus enabled 
to support the vitality of every organ. 
Accessory to the digestive canal are the liver, pancreas, or 
sweetbread, and spleen, or milt. Of these, the liver is by 
far the largest; its office is to secrete, or form the bile, a 
liquid which is poured into the intestines being absolutely 
essential to the digestion of the food. In fowls the liver is 
not unfrequently the seat of disease ; sometimes it is con¬ 
verted into a substance closely resembling fat, increasing 
greatly in size, and becoming very pale in colour; it will 
scarcely be believed, but I can vouch for it as a well-known 
fact, that these diseased fatty livers realize a high price in 
the markets, being regarded as great dainties. Truly, the 
insanity of the palate is inexplicable. It is this fatty dis¬ 
eased state which is produced artficially in the geese livers 
which are the bases of the Strasburg celebrated patties. 
Scrofulous tubercles are not uncommon in fowls kept in 
unhealthy condition ; and they appear in young chicken in 
the glands through which the nourishment should pass on 
its road from the intestines to the blood, stopping the way 
and causing wasting and death; and in older fowls are 
often present in the liver, their existence not being suspected 
until they soften, causing internal bleeding and death. 
From the large size of the liver in birds, and from the 
fact that it receives a larger supply of blood than the same 
organ in quadrupeds, it may be readily imagined that its 
due action is very essential to health. I believe many of ; 
the mysterious ailments that affect fowls are owing to its 
being out of order; and I have found, in such cases, the 
administration of a grain of calomel has extraordinary effect 
in improving the general health. 
At the risk of having my article compared to a bad fable 
tliat does not carry its own moral, I will just draw the 
practical inferences from the above-mentioned facts, inas¬ 
much as they may be shortly stated. First, soak your grain 
over night; and secondly, avoid greaves and meat.—W. 13. 
Tegetmeiek, Wood Grove , Tottenham. 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
I 
GARDENING. 
1IOYA DELLA FLOWERS FALLING. 
“ I shall take it a great favour if you will, in your next 
number, give me the reason and remedy for my Hoya holla J 
flowers, when about a third grown, turning yellow and 
falling off. It is potted in the soil recommended in The 
Cottage Gardeners’ Dictionary, and has not been re¬ 
potted this year, only top-dressed with rough fibry peat. It 
is growing freely, and is syringed over head night and 
morning when the Vines are, and is fully in tho sun. My 
Cyrlocerus does much the same.— An Amateur.” 
[We cannot be sure of tho cause of this failure. Turn 
the plant out of the pot and see that the waterings moisten 
the ball of earth. Plants top-dressed when dry arc apt to 
let the water escape at the sides, and this will produce the 
evil complained about, even when the mere growth is not 
much influenced.] 
HOW TO SET A BOILER. 
“ In a recent number, I see a query, headed ‘ The shape 
of a boiler less important than the setting,’ in which I 
fully concur. Now, you would confer a great boon upon all j 
those who, like myself, live at a distance from skilled trades¬ 
men, if you would give a drawing of a saddle-boiler, and its \ 
setting, with full directions.— An Old Subscriber.” 
[We wish this could be well done by one of our hot-water 
tradesmen. If they do not, some one else will be induced ! 
to attempt it. Our only objection to answering the query j 
consists in the fact, that after all we could say, we should 
not give a better idea than any intelligent bricklayer or ' 
mason who could set a wash-house boiler properly. If all 
the surface of the boiler possible is exposed to the action of 
the fire, and a good draught secured, all is done that can be 
done for the purpose.] 
SOIL FOR GENTIANELLA. 
“ F. W. will he obliged if you will inform him what sort 
of soil you consider best to grow Gentiana acaulis. We 
have a double line in front of the Mansion House here, 
growing in a loose, black loam, and every year it dies out, 
more or less. Would a little clayey soil, mixed with the 
original, do any good ? ” 
[More depends on having a rather damp bottom, or a 
'great depth of good soil that does not easily get dry or 
powdery. We have seen it flourish in a damp clay soil, and 
we have known it to live and increase much for many years 
in a loose, black, sandy loam of great depth, fully exposed 
to the south, but only eighteen inches above the water of a 
river which passed behind the garden, where fruit has 
cankered with the wet bottom after a few years. 
There is a beautiful bed of the Gentianella now in bloom 
in just such a situation as the last-mentioned, in the garden 
of tho Warden of Winchester College, and liis gardener, Mr. 
Weaver, says—a great point in its culture is never to disturb 
its roots.] 
CUCUMBERS NOT FRUITING. 
“ You will oblige me by telling me the cause of my Cu- | 
cumbers not fruiting. They show one and two fruit at 
nearly every joint; the plants are clean, healthy, and very 
strong, yet the fruit, in many cases, goes off quite young. \ 
Some arrive to that state near blossoming, but they never ; 
open, then die away. The pit they are in, is heated by a 
flue and hollow chamber under the soil, with ventilators | 
to regulate the heat. I fancy it is for want of sun, as in ! 
the morning we do not get it very early, on account of some 
high trees a few yards distant, and we can always close them 
soon after two in the afternoon, let tho weather be ever so I 
line, on account of the trees shading them. You will have 
some idea when I tell you, on the 8th of May, at half-past 
nine in the morning, the sun just cleared the end of my 
glass, at the same time the shade had commenced on the 
other end, to the distance of a yard, over the first cold pit. j 
The distance from one end of my glass to the other is ' 
about fifty yards. I made up a small two-light frame about i 
three weeks ago in rather a better situation; at least, we 
have some three hours sun a-day more. I believe I shall i 
cut Cucumbers there before I do in the said pit—W. 
Turner." 
[The want of sun lias, doubtless, something to do with 
your failure; but Cucumbers will do with less sun than 
most oilier tropical and next-to-tropical plants, as there is I 
little occasion to perfect the fruit or seeds. Are you sure ' 
there was a sufficiency of moist heat given, and enough of 
air along with it ? A strong, continued moist heat, without 
air, will cause the Cucumber to go at the points, and so will 
moisture without sufficient heat. If heated below by a flue, 
plenty of moisture should be supplied to the chamber.] 
