328 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER ANT) COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 30, 1859. 
to one stem, ire should prefer, under the circumstances, haring all the 
border inside, and planting the Vines against the back wall, and training 
clown the rafter instead of up. 5. We should prefer a moveable wooden 
trellised pathway to tiles ; not so much on account of air as the means of 
watering and adding surface dressing. 6. The site which has sunshine 
until two o’clock will do; hut if the sun were later in the afternoon it 
would he better. 7. All the common annuals mostly, and especially all 
the Californian ones, are earlier in bloom from being sown in autumn. 
They also generally bloom more freely than spring-sown ones; hut, of 
course, they do not bloom so long. <S. We have no practical knowledge of 
the use of sulphate of ammonia for Vines, hut should prefer applying to 
them super-phosphate of lime. We apply house-sewage to them with 
great advantage. 
Hogg’s Edging Tiles (M. A. Downes).— We do not know of any maker 
keeping a stock of these. It is quite impossible for us to tell the lowest 
cost at which your greenhouse could be heated with hot water, so much 
depends upon circumstances. Get two or three estimates from those 
accustomed to the work. 
Wellingtonia gigantea (J. W. Walrond). —We have noticed in more 
places than one that the young spray of this tree, on the lower part of its 
trunk, is apt to die. This induces the opinion that it i3 the habit of the 
tree to have a naked trunk ; and this opinion is strengthened by the know¬ 
ledge that all the parent trees in North America have the lower part of 
their trunks branchless. 
Vinegar [Constant Header)—The best mode of making vinegar by the 
aid of a Vinegar Plant we are told is as follows :—Boil one stalk of Rhubarb 
in five quarts of water. When cold dissolve in it 2 lbs. of loaf sugar ; put 
in the Vinegar Plant, and let it remain in a dark warm place until the 
acidity is completed. 
Tobacco [E. S .).—Cut the plant down close to the ground whilst in 
flower, dry it gradually, then put it into a tub or box, press it firmly, and 
keep in a dry place. There ought to be a box or tub full to induce a gentle 
fermentation. 
Insects on Vine Leaves. — [An Inquirer).— Your Vine leaves are badly 
attacked by tbe Vine thrips. Try the Gishurst Compound. 
Names of Plants {S. T. C .).—The red-leaved plant is the Atriplex 
hortensis , var. rubra , or red garden Oiaehe. The brown Calceolaria is 
commonly known as Harlequin, The Pyrethrum-like flower is generally 
called Matricaria grandijlora. (J V. S ., Guildford ).—It is one of the 
Hedychiums, and apparently II. Gardner ianum. 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
August 29th, 30th, 31st, and September 1st. Crystal Palace. Poultry, 
Pigeons, and Rabbits. Sec William Houghton. Entries close Saturday, 
July 30th. 
September 22nd. Bridgnorth. Sec., Richard Taylor, Bridgnorth. 
October 11th, 12th, and 13th. Worcestershire. Sec., Geo. Griffiths | 
7, St. Swithin Street, Worcester. 
November 28th, 29th, and 30th, and December 1st. Birmingham. Sec. 
Mr. J. Morgan, BingleyHall, Birmingham. 
N.B.— Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
KILLING POULTRY IN HOT WEATHER. 
The breakfast-table has only one cry, “ How hot it is !” One 
says the thermometer stood at 77° all night in the bedroom. 
Another could not sleep at all till it was time to get up. Blankets 
are forbidden by all. Tea must stand till it is cool. Children 
petition to be allowed all milk. Everyone is nice-hungry. Pater¬ 
familias has charge of out-door arrangements, and Mater of all 
the interior. The children are hot and rather peevish. Cook 
declares nothing will keep. The butcher (mind, this is in the 
country) has no meat hut that lulled the same day. After all 
sorts of internal cogitations, with cheerful determination, hut a 
little shade of worry and anxiety in her face, the good mother 
asks, “What shall we have for dinner?” Rather shrugs his 
shoulders, as much as to say, “No concern of mine.” The 
oldest boy fancies the time is come when he may speak. He 
declares his sister pulled his whiskers a short time since—there 
was something resisted, certainly, when she tried. He fancies 
that at school fellows learn a thing or two. “ Saddle of 
mutton,” he says, with no small importance. “ Nonsense, 
George,” says mother, “you know the mutton was so hard 
yesterday, no one could eat it.” “ Boil a ham,” says one. 
“Too hot for salted meat,” says father. “ Eggs and bacon,” 
says one of the young ones. “Little goose,” says father, “ is 
not that salt ?” “ Let us have a pudding,” says the youngest of 
all, but mother shakes her head. “ My clear,” turning to Pater, 
“can you not manage to let us have some poultry?” “You 
know,” is the answer, “ those I killed for you last week were 
spoiled the next morning, and when I had two killed to supply 
the place of them, they were as hard and stringy as the mutton.” 
“ Well, hut," asks mother, “how do London poulterers manage? 
Their fowls are always sweet and tender.” “ Don’t know,” 
was the answer, “ write to The Poultry Chronicle.” 
When the weather is hot, it is plain to everyone some pre¬ 
caution is necessary to keep any sort of provision, spite of 
atmosphere, which threatens immediate spoiling. 
The first care will be to choose fowls that are quite emptied 
of food or water; and as this cannot be the case if they are 
caught up out of the yard, they should be confined the night 
before they are to be killed, in some place where they can get 
neither. They will then he empty, and will keep well till the 
next day, spite of any weather. 
If you were ever at law, you will recollect at the end of 
seventeen skins of parchment the words, “ Provided always.” 
Well, then, “provided always ” the fowls are picked as soon as 
they are killed. The reasons for this are twofold. First, by doing 
it you allow the bird to get cold, which it will do, put into a cold 
larder, in less than two hours ; hut if the feathers are allowed 
to remain on, it will not only prevent the fowl, in such weather 
as this, from getting cold at all, but it will certainly spoil it. 
Another thing is, when the fowl is just killed the feathers 
will rub off; but when it is cold, half of the skin is brought 
away with them. 
To please the palate you must begin by pleasing the eye, 
and it costs no more to send two or three fowls nicely to table 
than it does to serve them in such style that you must taste 
before you are sure to what class of creation they belong. A 
good manager will know when two fowls are likely to he wanted, 
and will always have them properly fasted. Let them be 
killed towards evening, that they may have the advantage of 
any cool breeze there may he. If, however, some tiresome 
London friend drops in with a small barrel of oysters, and a 
four days' visit, and you must kill those two cocks that were 
doomed last week, do not defer the operation till the day of 
eating, but do so at once; and when they are picked have them 
drawn and put in the larder. It is not the fowl that becomes 
tainted, hut the food and water that it_ contains. For this 
reason, decomposition always begins at the crop, and in the 
covering of the bowels. The food is there. 
If anything causes the party to be deferred, roast them off. 
What can be so good as a cold fowl and a fresh lettuce in hot 
weather? Sydney Smith forgot the first when he sang the 
merits of the last. Try it, and 
“ Then tho’ Turtle’s dear, and Venison’s tough, 
And Ham and Turkey are not done enough, 
Serenely full, the epicure may say, 
* Fate cannot harm me,—I have dined to-day.’ ” 
WHITBY POULTRY EXHIBITION. 
August. 23rd and 24th. 
The Committee of the YY r hitby Poultry Show have just reasons 
to congratulate themselves on the successful issue of their labours, 
for it is only rarely we have witnessed so excellent a collection of 
poultry at any local exhibition. YVhen the fact is taken into 
consideration that three other Poultry Exhibitions took place 
during the same week, it is only the more extraordinary that the 
entries exceed 300 pens, and that there was scarcely an indifferent 
one throughout the whole. The arrangements were very good, 
the Committee being most energetic, and working well together. 
The pens used on this occasion were those of Turner, of Shef¬ 
field, than which none can be found more suitable for the pur¬ 
poses intended. The poultry being well looked after by the 
Committee personally, the quietude and comfort of the speci¬ 
mens were remarkable features of the Exhibition throughout, 
strongly contrasting with the negligence frequently betrayed 
where the supervision is left exclusively (or nearly so) to sub¬ 
ordinates. As a watering-place Whitby stands very high ; and, 
the season of the year chosen for the Show being that when the 
visitors were most numerous, it is almost needless to say {lie 
attendance was very good. Trips, both by 7 sea and land, brought 
hourly accessions of sight-seers ; consequently it was found im¬ 
possible by those desiring to remain the night through to obtain 
beds on any terms—every hotel and lodging-house being com¬ 
pletely tilled. Nevertheless, the coast-scenes, which are most 
attractive, a brass-hand contest (which took place the same day— 
an amusement, by-t.he-by, now becoming very popular in the 
North), and various other attractions, caused not a few to linger 
until too late for then' return ; yet even among these latter the 
greatest good humour and jocularity prevailed. It was not to 
be anticipated by those well known in poultry matters, that the 
adult specimens would, at this particular season of the year, be 
in first-rate plumage, it being their natural moulting time; yet 
