404 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
We had proposed to give a sketch of a good fowl coop, but 
it is really unnecessary to do so, as a coop is an appendage 
so common and so simple. A few words here, however, on 
this subject may not be superfluous. A coop, four feet long 
and three feet high, standing on legs, and divided into three 
compartments, will be found sufficiently commodious for 
fowls. It is better, generally, not to have one story over 
another; for, in such case, drawers will be necessary under 
the rounded cross-bars on which the prisoners stand to re¬ 
ceive the excrements; and the accumulation of these will be 
offensive to the smell. By having an open space under the 
bars of a one-storied coop, the excrements fall to the ground, 
and can be at once removed. The bars, which are in fact 
perches, should be ranged parallel with the troughs, other¬ 
wise the fowls will not be in the proper position to feed 
without turning to the front, and scrambling for a hold 
on them perch, which, if at right angles to the trough, 
affords them no standing room. We have seen such coops. 
Single cells are undoubtedly desirable, except on the score 
of increased cost, because a bird can be taken out and ex¬ 
amined without disturbing the others; and combats, which 
so often occur when gangs are put together, arc prevented 
by the system of solitary confinement; but with two or three 
compartments it is always probable that the piisoners may 
be so assorted as to live in peace, and fatten comfortably. 
Some people have boarded floors for the fowl, and put straw 
on them, but straw is heating and generates fleas; and be¬ 
sides tins, the natural repose of fowls is only on a perch. 
The fowl houses should be white-washed in every corner 
and cranny to kill fleas. A good fumigation with peat smoke, 
if it can be done without danger of Are, will be useful to 
purify the houses from any remains of summer effluvia. 
In our last number, it was intimated that a bottle holding 
water, and placed in an inverted position over a pan nearly 
filled with liquid, is sufficient mechanism for supplying 
water to chickens. The diagram here presented will illus¬ 
trate our meaning. 
a is a bottle, b a shallow bowl with a centre piece, which 
is made to hold the neck of the bottle a little above the level 
of the pan, and having flood-gates to each compartment, as 
shown in the above plate. 
An earthen pan, with a bottle sus¬ 
pended by strings or tape, would 
answer the purpose equally well, and 
is exceedingly simple, as here re¬ 
presented. The bottle filled with 
water is closed with the thumb while 
being inverted over the pan, and sus¬ 
pended with its mouth a little below' 
the upper rim. On withdrawing the 
thumb, the water will rush out until 
it stands in the pan at the level of the 
mouth of the bottle. 
The third plate shows a description 
of an earthen pan made at the pottery 
of Inkpen (Berks) for the safety of 
little chicks, which could not possibly 
drown themselves in the circular 
troughs, which are too narrow to ad¬ 
mit their bodies—they may scramble 
across the partitions, but cannot fall 
into the spaces between them. 
[September 20. 
This plate needs no descriptive comment, except that the 
centre a is merely a handle for raising the pan, not a reservoir 
for water, as might be supposed. 
Turkeys and Ducks should be encouraged to search for 
oak and beech mast as fast as they fall from the trees; 
though not in itself a delicate fattening diet, it will be an 
excellent foundation on which a course of barley-meal and 
milk diet may be laid. 
Geese should be prepared for the Michaelmas market. 
Very fat and heavy ones are, perhaps, more in request at 
Christmas than at this festival; but if the birds are not par¬ 
ticularly young, they are much improved both in tenderness 
and flavour by a month’s confinement and fatting with oats. 
In many families the dripping from the roast goose is 
almost as valuable as the goose itself. The fatter the 
goose, the more economical a diet it constitutes. For the I 
sake of the feathers, the confined birds should be well sup¬ 
plied with clean straw. 
Put away nursing coops now, that are no longer wanted for 
this year, in their proper stowage places ; and on rainy days 
repair whatever things may require renovation. Take care 
of fowl stealers who may be prowling about your premises in 
the nights, which are becoming long and dark. 
STORING VEGETABLES. 
A great deal of the comfort of winter housekeeping de¬ 
pends on the way vegetables and fruit are kept. Many 
people who have an abundance of these things during the 
summer and autumn are obliged either to purchase or to go 
without in the winter, merely because they do not know the 
best method of preserving them. Few gardens are so small 
but that a surplus of vegetables and fruit are at some time 
or another grown, and therefore I do not imagine a few 
remarks on the subject would be out of place. So much has 
lately been said and written about potatoes that I dare say 
every one has made up their mind ere this as to the best 
way of keeping them. I have always found the old-fashioned 
plan of digging a hole in the earth about five feet deep the 
best. Strew this hole rather thickly with straw, and then 
throw the potatoes in; and when within a foot of the top, 
cover them over, and heap the earth up in the centre so as 
to form a “ grave.” These “pits” ought to be looked over 
every two months, and any potatoes that are at all diseased 
should be given to the pigs. This opening, however, should 
not take place when there is any frost, or the whole “ pit ” 
is very likely to suffer. 
Onions are, next to potatoes, the vegetables I like to see 
cultivated in a cottage garden ; no dish is palatable without 
one, and they are very sustaining and nourishing. The 
French have found this out long ago; and the labourer’s 
dinner in that country continually consists of a couple of raw 
onions, some black bread, and a little jug of broth smelling 
most potently of garlic! September is the proper month 
for taking up onions ; it should he done on a dry day, and 
then they should be laid separately on the ground in the 
“ eye of the sun.” Turn them twice a day until they are 
thoroughly dried, and then store them in some dry well-aired 
place. They may either be strung together and hung up to 
the ceiling, or laid on the floor, care being taken that they 
do not touch one another. The former plan is the best 
where room is of consequence. Should they begin to sprout, 
touch the roots with a hot iron, which will effectually pre I 
vent it, without injuring the onion. Carrots should be kept 
in sand, in a dry but not a warm place. If an old cask 
is at hand, you will find it very useful for the purpose— 
putting layers of sand and carrots alternately. This 
plan also answers well for parsnips ami beetroot. 
French beans may be kept till Christmas, at which time 
they will be considered great delicacies. For this purpose they i 
must be picked when quite young. Provide a jar or butter- | 
