76 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, May 5, 1857. 
cells at different stages of the growth of the larva? I ven¬ 
ture to throw out this hint that apiarians may hear it in 
mind in the approaching season. Even now any whose 
stocks have died on account of the late inclement weather 
may throw light on the subject by carefully examining the 
bottoms of old queens’ cells.—A Country Curate. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Name of Rose and Oleander (L . J.). —The Rose is some purple 
China, but no one could tell the name from two petals and a leaflet. 
There are about two-and-thirty Roses of this caste as like each other as 
sheep in a flock. Who could tell which was which from seeing the ears, 
or legs, or tails, or even fleeces ? Such Roses must be seen out of doors 
in bloom to determine the kind, and then many of them would puzzle 
their owners. The double Oleander is the more common kind, and any 
nurseryman in the kingdom can supply them if he likes to send for 
them to those who grow them largely. We saw a thousand of them the 
other day at Messrs. Henderson’s, Pine Apple Place. 
Flower-beds (Delve). —You ask no question, and why watch for an 
answer ? We received the plans of two flower-beds, but no opinion is 
even asked on the shapes. 
Catching Mice (A Young Beginner). —Every gardener knows the 
figure-of-four trap, and you are right in saying that a broad bean is the 
best bait for it. 
Circulation of Hot Water (Render). —If the flow-pipe proceeds 
from near the top of the boiler, and the return-pipe enters near the 
boiler’s bottom, hot water will circulate in the pipes although they are 
below the level of the boiler; but the circulation will be slower than if 
the pipes were on a level with the boiler, or above this level. 
Book on Out-door Gardening (S. Cooke).— Buy “The Garden 
Manual” just published at our office. There is no work of any 
authority on rabbit-keeping. 
Shetland Cows. — C, P. C. will be obliged by being informed 
where he can procure these, and at what price. 
Disbudding Peaches (Hampton Wick).— See what Mr. Errington 
says to-day. 
Plan for Flower Garden (X. Y. Z.).—We have repeatedly pub¬ 
lished our invariable refusal to furnish such plans. If you will expend 
fourpence on one of our Manuals, “ Flower Gardening for the Many,” 
you will there find six plans, and how to plant them. 
Various (A Subscriber from the Beginning). — Kitley's Goliah and 
Trollope's Victoria are large, insipid Strawberries. At the conclusion 
of our twentieth volume we shall probably publish an index of the 
whole. We have not lost sight of what you last name, but we have so 
much pressing upon us that selection is difficult. 
Dandelions (J. P.). —Root them out; they are not relished by cattle, 
nor are they so nourishing as grass, which they displace ; besides, their 
seeds are pests to all around you. 
Training Vines on Low Walls (A Beginner).— We do not re¬ 
member the queries. Write again. 
Iron Cement. — An Experimentalist will oblige Another Experi¬ 
mentalist by stating how it is made and used. 
Uses of a Three-light Frame (Ibid). —You do not tell us whether 
you wish your frame to gratify your eyes or to minister to your palate, 
nor yet the size of the brick frame itself, as three feet in height in front 
gives us no conception of its height behind, nor of its length and 
breadth. We will suppose it contains about fifty-four feet, and, in the 
first place, presume you want eatables. Suppose, then, that you make 
a slight hotbed of one light, and sow it with Radishes in November, a 
second in December, and a third with Radishes and Carrots in the be¬ 
ginning of January, with a few Lettuce and Cauliflower seed. By Fe¬ 
bruary your first light will be pretty well done. Turn up that afresh with a 
little fresh dung, and plant early frame Potatoes, with Radishes, Let¬ 
tuces, Cauliflowers, &c., sprinkled over the surface. The second light 
to follow ditto, and then you will have two lights of Potatoes and one 
of Carrots. By May your first light will be cleared ; let it be turned up 
again, and honoured with Cucumbers or Melons ; the second ditto, and 
by July your Carrots will be gone, and many a nice dish of Horns one 
light will supply, and those may follow suit, and keep you in good supply 
with Cucumbers or Melons until the end of autumn. Perhaps you 
do not like them ; then von may nave French Beans earlier by a month 
than out of doors, and then follow with Capsicums, &c. Suppose 
flowers are your object, then in such a pit you may keep all kinds of 
bedding plants in winter, especially Scarlet Geraniums, Calceolarias, 
Verbenas, &c., without artificial heat. You may turn most of them 
under protection by the side of a wall, &c., in April ; may grow in such 
a pit nice plants of Calceolarias, Cinerarias, and Pelargoniums on to 
Midsummer; or you may, by means of a little bottom heat, rear 
tender and half-hardy annuals after April, or strike all sorts of bed¬ 
ding plants for your flower borders, and after your pit is emptied of 
them in June you may use it for growing Fuchsias, Balsams, Cocks¬ 
combs, &c., and when tired of them by September you may strike in it 
Pelargoniums, Verbenas, Calceolarias, Pentstemons, and hosts of other 
things you want for flower-garden decoration next year. We have a good 
many lights for pits and frames of one sort or another, and it is rarely 
we can get two or three to give them a paint or repair, so constantly are 
they filled with something under them, summer and winter. The palmy, 
easy days of gardening, when all the lights in a frame ground were set 
to rest in winter, are gone never to return, as we all know to the cost of 
our legs and brains. If Ibid would combine floristry and eatables, then 
his pit would protect las Auriculas, Polyanthus, Heartsease, Carnations, 
Pinks^&c., in winter, and would grow his Cucumbers, & c ., in summer. 
. ? A n ^®° F 4 F f RNS { f' ?* M ‘ A '-)— Y our Ferns are as follow 
1 , 3 and 4. Asplentum tnchomanes. 2 . Asplenium adiuntum-nigrum 
5. Polypodium vulgare, 6. Blechnum boreale . All 
tivating. 
are worth cul- 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
June 3 rd, 4 th, and 5th. Bath and West of England. Sec., Mr. 
John Kingsbury, 10, Hammet Street, Taunton. Entries close the 1st 
U1 iU <Xj • 
July 8 th, 9 th, and 10 th, 1857. Leamington. Sec., Thomas Grove. 
July 9 th. Prescot. Sec., J. F. Ollard. 
July 28th, 29 th, and 30th. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and 
North Derbyshire. Sec. William Henry Dawson, Fig Tree 
Lane, Sheffield. 
August 8 th, 10 th, 11 th, and 12tli. Crystal Palace. Sec., W. 
Houghton. 
August 19 . Bridlington. Sec. Mr. Thomas Cape. 
September 2nd. Dewsbury. Sec., Harrison Brooke, Esq, 
September 7 th. 8 th, 9 th, 10 th. Gloucester. Sec., Mr. H. Churchill, 
King’s Head Hotel. 
October 1st and 2 nd. Worcester. 
November 30th, and December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Birmingham. 
Sec. John Morgan. Entries close the 2nd of November. 
December 16 th and 17 th. Nottinghamshire. Entries close No¬ 
vember 18th. Hon.Sec., Mr. R. Hawksley, jun., Southwell. 
January 9th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1858. Crystal Palace. 
January 19 th, 20 th, 21 st, and 22nd, 1858. Nottingham Central. 
Sec., Mr. Etherington, jun., Notintone Place, Sneinton, near Notting¬ 
ham. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
APPROACHING POULTRY SHOWS. 
In worldly matters it must be said that man is a learning 
ancl improving animal. It would be strange if lie were not 
so, with the open hook of every-day experience before him. j 
It is, nevertheless, the province of certain of us to bring those 
tilings which belong to our pursuits prominently before 
others, who, though interested in them, are so much im¬ 
mersed in the cares of their callings that they lack the 
leisure to seek from a mass of information the particular 
parts or points that more immediately interest them. Every 
man in this busy world, while working for his own interests, 
is in reality and truth ministering to the pleasures or wants 
of others. We have to do with poultry, and will put ourselves 
in the position of those useful personages in “ Gulliver’s 
Travels” whose duty it was to call the attention of their 
masters from dreamy generalities to things of immediate 
moment. 
As it is a common thing to hear the spectators of a Poultry 
Show express their sorrow that they did not hear of it in 
time to make tlieir entries, we now call their attention to the 
liberal prize-lists of the Crystal Palace and the Worcester Ex¬ 
hibitions. We noticed the former in a recent number, and, 
as its entries will close before those of the latter, we again 
mention it. Both these Societies have made use of the 
experience we spoke of. It has been a general complaint at 
summer and autumn shows that the old birds are so out of 
feather and condition, from moulting and other natural ! 
causes, that many were unable to send their birds, and r 
others saw little beauty even in the successful among those 
that competed. These exhibitions are then confined to 
chickens of the year. 
We had occasion, when we published the report of the 
Winter Show at the Crystal Palace, to remark on the many 
advantages that place possessed over all others, and the 
luxurious accommodation it afforded to visitors. As the 
next Exhibition will he in the summer these will he increased 
in every way, and those who go may indeed expect a treat of 
no ordinary character. 
Our first duty in speaking of the Worcester Show will be 
to call the attention of exhibitors to the liberal prizes 
offered. Ten cups, all of the full value of X10; twelve of 
smaller amount, from X'5 to X;3; and numerous money prizes, 
form one of the most liberal bills of fare we have seen. It 
is for exhibitors to support such an Exhibition, as the Com¬ 
mittee state the Show will not take place unless 500 pens 
are entered. If such were the case, which we consider 
impossible, and which we should much regret, the entrance 
money will be returned in full. We admire this plan, and it 
is calculated to place these Shows on a very firm, honourable, 
and upright footing, and we think the Committee deserve 
not only the support, hut the thanks of all amateurs. 
We confess we are friendly to chicken shows in the sum¬ 
mer and autumn. When they are announced early, as these 
are, breeders have ample time to make their selection. Few 
