A pun, 25.1 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
61 
salt, &c.; 1 >ut bacon dried and sold at 7d per tl> will pay best of 
all, and will fetch equal at least to 1 d per lb on the whole more, 
if, as your correspondent says, trouble or labour is no object; 
Imt. to salt and dry it will pay for all the labour involved. 
While 1 am on this subject I would say that we have a cus¬ 
tom of measuring our live pigs to ascertain how they progress 
in feeding; the tape or string is passed under the belly close 
to the fore legs and brought up over the shoulders in a straight 
line; and the circumference thus ascertained is the guage— 
thus, a pig measuring 48 inches as above will weiglt 14 stones, 
of 14 Hi to the stone; and for every inch of increase in cir¬ 
cumference will increase a stone in weight—supposing the 
pigs to be in good condition and of moderate size ; but some 
very small breeds may not reach so much, while the very 
long breeds will sometimes weigh more by 2 lb to the 
stone. I had this winter a hog pig of a small sort; I bought 
it for a Berkshire ; he fed well, and was very fat when killed, 
and measured S8 in., and weighed 2-'l stone 10 lb, of 14 
pounds to the stone—this weight includes the inward fat. 
T must add, that above, by weight, in all cases, means the 
weight of flesh the dead pig will yield. And we reckon a 
good pig when feeding should gain an inch per week until he 
ceases to gain; but be may cease for a week and be making 
inward fat. I always measure, mine when they are eating 
with their heads down. Should you think the above would 
be useful to those who (like me) cannot weigh their live 
pigs, it is at your service.—J osei>h Butler. 
Small Bailed Bread Puddings (Very Light). — Pour 
boiling, cm three, ounces of bread crumbs and a morsel of 
butter, half-a-pint of new milk, cover them down with a 
plate, and let them remain until nearly cold; then add to 
them, by degrees, two large well whisked eggs, and an ounce 
and a half of sugar, with the slightest pinch of salt, and a 
flavouring of grated nutmeg, or of fresh lemon-rind. Beat 
the mixture up lightly, pom - it into well-buttered cups, and 
bake the puddings very gently for half-an-hour in an Ame¬ 
rican oven. Turn them out for table, and sift fine sugar 
over them. The proportions must be doubled when they are 
needed for a dinner of more than two or three persons.— 
E. Acton. 
Early Swarm of Bees. —It is so unusual for bees to 
swarm in April, that I cannot refrain from informing you of 
a swarm which left the parent hive yesterday (Sunday) the 
7th instant. The owner, a man named Hayes, a bee hive 
and bee-hive-cliair maker of Enfield, in the county of Mid¬ 
dlesex, although one of the most skilful men I have ever 
known in the management of bees, could scarcely believe it 
possible, when he was informed of the fact by a neighbour 
who had seen the swarm leave the hive, nor could he feel 
convinced of the reality until he had separated the group 
and taken up the queen. The whole swarm, which is a 
strong and healthy one, has been safely lodged in a new 
hive, where each bee seems to rejoice in its new and more 
roomy abode of industry. I observe you have directed atten¬ 
tion to the management of bees in your very instructive 
periodical, The Cottage Gardener. I have no doubt many 
of your readers may look with astonishment upon the above 
fact, in confirmation of the truth of which I subscribe my 
name— Seneca. 
Ants are very fond of travelling about peach-trees, and 
this alone creates a suspicion against them. And the fact 
is, that, though the ant does not eat the leaves of the peach, 
it encourages the aphis which does so. I have myself seen 
ants carrying the aphides to the young and tender leaf of 
the peach. The ant eats what exudes from the aphis, and 
this is the reason the former takes care of the latter. It is 
an old saving—“ Quod facit per alium facit per se ” (That 
which a man does through another lie does himself) ; and, 
therefore, the ant is injurious to the peach-tree. I know 
other people who have seen the ant employed in the way I 
have described.— Bev.C.A. A. Lloyd, Whittington , Oswestry. 
Bees, Weight of Honey for. —We northerns are some¬ 
times amused with the required weight of hives for keepers 
by your southern amateurs. Take an instance: In May, 
1848, 1 bought a first swarm, a very large 'One, in a larger 
hive than usual here (common straw). At the beginning of 
July it threw off a strong swarm, and at the usual interval 
another. Early in autumn, the parent swarm weighed not 
less than JO H>, according to the estimate of a neighbour¬ 
ing bee-keeper, from merely lifting it In. December, Urn 
same year, it had not an ounce of honey, and the bees bail 
forsaken it altogether. 1 had not observed any quarrels or 
robbery. The two swarms were both very weak, containing 
not more than 8 or 4 Hi a piece of honey. By hard feeding 
they wintered; and in 184!) each swarmed twice. But it 
was a bad honey year with us, and the four swarms were 
very poor—4 or o fb a-piece; the two parents probably 14 It* 
a-piece. By hard feeding they are yet alive and brisk. 
Moist sugar boiled in ale was their food. According to 
your south country notions, it would have been deemed folly 
to try to keep them alive. I wish Mr. Payne would favour 
us with his opinion on the points here touched on.—A Cum¬ 
brian. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
*** Wc request that no one will write to the departmental writers of 
The Cottage Gardener. It gives them unjustifiable trouble and 
expense ; and we also request our coadjutors under no circumstances to 
reply to such private communications. 
Crocuses and other Bulbs ( H. E.). —You must not move these 
until their leaves turn yellow at the end of the summer, if you wish them 
to bloom well next year. 
Vines in Greenhouse { J . C - , Wakefield). — Pray refer to Mr. 
Errington’s two essays at pp. 33 and 153 of our second volume. You 
will there find every instruction—from planting the vine to ripening the 
fruit. 
Salvia Nemorosa ( A ., Worcestershire). —This species of the Sage 
family is also known as Suleia sylvestris, but your specimens are certainly 
not of it, but seemingly of Salem Grahamii. The Melilntus leucantlia 
is also known as the M. vulgaris and M. alba , or White-flowered Melilot. 
Binding our Present Volume {Ibid ).—There is no difficulty about 
this. Either cut off the page of advertisements, not at the back but at 
the inner black line, or tell the hinder to do so. Your other questions will 
be answered next week. 
Asparagus Beds (C. J. P .).—The insects you inclose are specimens 
of the Snake Millipede ( Julus pulchellus), for an account of which pray 
refer to page 139 of our second volume. You will there see a doubt as to 
whether this insect is injurious to plants j and we shall he much obliged 
by your examining the roots of your asparagus.plants, and informing us 
whether you find any of these Snake Millipedes attacking them. We 
should incorporate a thick covering of quicklime with the surface soil j 
and give a manuring with common salt once a fortnight. 
Hotbed {An Invalid Subscriber). —If your soil is dry it will not he 
liable to be chilled by excessive wet, and will, therefore, do quite as well, 
if not better, if formed in an excavation made in the soil. An answer to 
your other query next week. 
Ivy {F. JV.il/.).—Never mind the leaves having fallen off the branches 
of that planted last November. As the stems are green it will soon emit 
fresh foliage, hut we do not know how it will succeed in the middle of 
London. You may divide your Box plants if they have more than one 
stem ; if not, by cutting off a portion of the fibrous roots annually, you 
may keep them dwarf, so as not to require larger pots. The Chinese 
Arbor-vitce is the Thuja oricntalis ; it requires no particular management, 
being quite hardy. 
Curry Paste (M. D.). —Can any of our readers supply us with a 
recipe for making this '! Our correspondent does not require a recipe for 
curry powder. 
Charring Sawdust (T. Ellis). —The best mode of effecting this is 
by mixing it thoroughly with earth, in the proportion of about two barrow¬ 
loads of sawdust to one of earth, to pile the mixture over some brush¬ 
wood, to set light to this, and so cover up the fire that it shall only go on 
smouldering until the whole is charred. 
Melilot Seed {Rev. F. W. P .).—This sprouted very well. We are 
glad to hear that its flowers are such good bee pasturage. Many thanks 
for the Himalayah pumpkin seed. We have far more applicants for it 
than we can supply. 
Galvanic Plant Protectors ( Dianthus ).—These instruments for 
preserving plants from snails, slugs, &c., are circles of different diameters, 
from eight to twelve inches, made of zinc j two or three inches in depth 
at top is soldered on, all round, a piece or circle of copper. On a snail 
or slug being attracted by the plant within this circle (fora circle is put 
round each plant in a pot, or out of doors in a border), lie creeps up the 
zinc, but the instant he touches the copper rim he drops down—being 
completely galvanized. The vandyked zinc on the upper rim is merely 
for ornament. [The protector is only efficacious whilst the copper and 
; zinc are bright, or unoxidized. A much more endurable and quite as 
efficacious a protector is a similar circle of zinc, with a horse-hair rope 
fastened round near its upper rim. The hairs form a chevaux-de-frize, 
which neither slugs nor snails can surmount. It remains good for years ; 
and by nicking the rope longitudinally, a fresh palisading of hairs springs 
up.] 
Aylesbury 'Ducks. —A correspondent, in answer to the inquiry of 
E. J. //., states, that the finest breed of Aylesbury ducks can he pur¬ 
chased df W. Dean, of Bucktand, near Aston Clinton, Burks. He gets, 
at the pvrxent time, for young fat ones, about 12s per couple; but for 
stock— i.e. decks- he Teeouuae.ais suck .« ait not farad very 
