340 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 28, 1860. 
after dark to go with a candle and spread a white sheet beneath the Vine, 
and then to shake the tree. The Weevils fall upon the sheet and arc easily- 
caught. 
Hedgehog Cucumber (Plymothian ).—This “the size of a Bantam’s 
egg, prickly all over, and used for both preserving and pickling,” is not a 
Cucumber. It is the Gooseberry Gourd, and you will find it in Messrs. 
E. G. Henderson & Son’s long list of Gourds. 
Propagation of Mistletoe (A Subscriber ).—The best months for sowing 
it are February and March. Make two cuts in the shape of the letter V, 
on the under side of the branch of an Apple tree. Make the cuts quite 
down to the wood of the branch; raise the tongue of the bark made by 
the cuts, but not so as to break it, and put underneath one or two seeds 
freshly squeezed from the Mistletoe berry. Let the tongue back into its 
place, and the process is completed. If the seed is good, the seedlings, 
not unlike Cucumber plants, soon appear. They remain attached to the 
branch, and do not seem to injure the tree. Open the bark underneath the 
branch to receive the seed, because it is thus preserved from an accumu¬ 
lation of rain water, and is shaded from the sun. 
Pears for an Exposed Situation (John Turner ).—On your standards 
near Stockport, you had better graft Williams's Bon Chretien , Beurre 
Superfm, and 7 Vinter Nells, 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
February 29th, andMARcn 1st, 1860, Ulverstone. See., Mr. T. Hobson. 
Entries close February 11th. 
March 15th, 16th, and 17th. Cumberland and Westmoreland. Hon. 
Secs., Mr. J. J. Lonsdale, and Mr. W. D. Hastwcll. 
May 23d and 24th. Beverley and East Riding of Yorkshire, Sec., 
Mr. Fras. Calvert, Surgeon, &e. Entries close May 17th. 
July 18th and 19th. Merthyr Tydvil. Sec., Mr. W. H. Harris, 142, 
High Street, Merthyr. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
KEEPING POULTRY PROFITABLY. 
“ Observing that you intend to add another article to the one 
in your paper of last week on keeping poultry for a profit on a 
large scale, I take the opportunity of saying, before you conclude 
your observations on the subject, that it would doubtless be 
very acceptable to many of your readers, and to myself among 
the number, if you would favour us witli an article tipon the 
keeping and managing of poultry on a small scale—where there 
is, for instance, only one small farmyard, and yet where chickens 
are required for the table (about three or four dozen), and also 
eggs, about 1200 or 1400, in the course of the year for the house. 
Under these circumstances the difficulty lies in keeping the two 
best kinds, one for each of these uses, which I presume to be the 
Grey Dorking and the Black Spanish, on the same premises 
without the breeds becoming intermixed. AVould it answer for 
eggs, merely to keep the Spanish pullets without any other cock 
but the Dorking, the Dorkings being kept, cocks and hens ? or 
would it answer to enclose a portion of the yard entirely for the 
Spanish, leaving the Dorkings at liberty to run about ? or would 
it be best under these circumstances merely to have one breed of 
poultry for both chickens and eggs ? and if so which would be 
the best, Dorkings or Spanish, Hamburghs (either Silver or 
Gold-spangled), or Game? And what number of birds, dis¬ 
tinguishing cocks and hens, should be kept for the supply re¬ 
quired—about four dozen chickens for the table, and about 1400 
eggs for the kitchen, &c. ?”-^-Eco. 
[In the habits of fowls, as in everything else that Nature has 
done, all is perfect. Thus it is impossible, reasonably, to require 
that which cannot be found. Certain breeds lay only ; others arc 
more prized for their sitting and rearing properties than for any 
others. Some do as well in confinement as at liberty; while 
others roam all over the country; compensating, if any com¬ 
pensation be necessary, for their erratic habits by finding great 
portion of their food in their wanderings, and thus lessening the 
expense of keep, as compared with those sedentary birds that 
remain quietly at home, and eat if food is given to them. 
Brahma Pootras, Cochins, and Spanish, are the birds that will 
do in confinement. Any corner of the yard may be parted off, 
and will afford either breed all it requires ; and if no corner can 
be spared, then an odd pigstye will answer the purpose, all the 
necessary preparation being to put up a perch, to clean and gravel 
the ground, and to put a net over the open part. This is not 
imaginary ; the writer has often done it, still docs it, and has bred 
many a good brood of chickens in a pigstye. But Spanish 
have one serious drawback—they are not sitters, and are, con¬ 
sequently, useless to perpetuate a breed. This must be remedied 
by the adoption of good mothers for the other breed. Take 
Dorkings, or if you have either Brahmas or Cochins for your 
layers, they will supply mothers at any time. We should allow 
twenty hens to lay 1400 eggs, and trusting to them to be the 
mothers and nurses of those required for table, wo should want 
only two hens to lay the necessary eggs to provide the four dozen 
eating fowls. We presume you wish to keep two breeds. If 
you do not, you can easily manage by procuring eggs of the breed 
necessary for your table fowls, and they will be Dorkings, and by 
putting them under your Brahmas, secure yourself what you 
require without having two breeds on the premises. The Dorking 
would be the best general breed to keep; but it is not so much 
in repute for winter laying as the other. They are, nevertheless, 
good layers, and if they were preferred as the more numerous 
breed, then, instead of Spanish, let either Cochins or Brahma 
pullets be kept, let them run with the Dorkings, but have only 
Dorking cocks; theeggs will always be distinguished by their colour. 
At the risk of being accused of repetition, we remind you liens 
will not lay in the winter; for that purpose you must have pullets. 
Try fifteen Brahma or Cochin pullets, with one cock and five 
‘pullets, Dorkings. Let them all run together, and we think you 
will easily attain what you propose. Your must feed as we have 
lately advised, or you will not find profit. If you will attend 
to it yourself, you may have cheap eggs and cheap poultry. 
First: We take it for granted that fowls of the Cochin and 
Brahma breeds lay at twenty weeks old, also that they lay thirty 
eggs before they are broody. You require six eggs daily from the 
1st of November till the 1st of March. You will require seven 
pullets hatched in April, seven hatched in May, and seven 
hatched in June. The pullets that laid the first eggs will lay the 
last. We purposely put the numbers low to allow for some sitting 
in each month. Poultry in the spring must be eaten like early 
vegetables—as a treat, or that dish which marks the difference 
between the ordinary meal and that which is prepared for a few 
friends. Chickens are of slow growth in the winter, and of tardy 
maturity. If of any other breed than Cochins or Brahmas, the 
chickens hatched in September will supply you till March: you 
must, therefore, hatch two small broods in each succeeding 
month, and that will supply you with all you require. There is 
no difficulty in this where there are birds of all ages, and we find 
we are never without a broody lien or two. That which we have 
endeavoured to describe is done by those who in Surrey, Kent, 
Sussex, and parts of Hampshire and Berkshire, take shares of the 
hundreds of thousands of pounds that are sent there for poultry 
for London.] _ 
•CONSTANT SUPPLY of EGGS and CHICKENS. 
After the many remarks about eggs, &c., that have appeared 
in your paper, I think if you would sketch out apian for securing 
a succession of eggs and chickens it would interest many of your 
readers. Putting together the hints which I have gathered from 
many books and from the numbers of your journal, the following 
seems to me to combine the objects which poultry breeders have 
usually before them :—Hatch some Spanish and Cochin pullets 
in March or April, and some Dorkings in July. 
The early pullets will begin laying in October or November, 
and continue through the winter. The Spanish eggs will produce 
early chickens for the next spring, and the Cochin pullets will be 
willing to sit all through the winter. The July pullets will be 
active layers in the following spring, beginning about March. 
This plan seems to combine the requirements of constant 
supply of eggs, constant supply of sitting hens, and early birds 
for the table in the following spring. Of course there will be no 
difficulty iu getting either eggs or chickens of any breed when 
winter is gone. This is the plan I am setting before myself this 
season, and 1 shall be obliged by your corrections and suggestions. 
— C. R.—[See what is said above.— Eds. C. G.] 
POULTRY SWINDLERS. 
We again have to warn our readers, however specious may be 
a strange applicant’s statements, never to part with their birds until 
they have been prepaid for them. The gang who exercise their 
ingenuity to defraud the owners of valuable fowls write in a style 
betokening education, employ paper stamped with a coat-of- 
arms, or headed as from a mercantile firm, ask for information, 
decline to prepay “ on principle!!! ” because on former occasions 
the poultry and pigs so purchased were not satisfactory, and 
negotiate with all the candour and perseverance usually charac¬ 
teristic of honesty. We have before us a correspondence thus 
