100 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, November 11, 1850. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Tulips ( Joshua Phelps),—We know of no descriptive catalogue of 
these flowers. 
W. B., about heating, and An Old Subscriber in Scotland, will 
be attended to next week. 
List op Fruits (R. 71/., Acre Lane). —We can give you none better 
than those in Mr. Adams’s advertisement last week. 
Work on Vine Culture {Leonora). —Sir. Sanders’s pamphlet on 
“The culture of the Vine,” and published by Messrs. Keevc and 
Benhara, would be your young gardener’s best guide. You are quite 
right as to Athyrium Jilix-fee mina being the Lady Fern, and you will 
find we so stated in our description of it in our 15th vol., page 157. At 
page 57 of our present volume we merely give a literal translation of 
the specific name thelypteris. 
Weight of Manure (A Market Gardener). —Any calculation of 
weight founded on a measurement of the heap must be uncertain, as it 
varies greatly with the solidity. A cubic yard of well-made and turned 
stable-manure weighs usually about 14cwt. Your heap, therefore, will 
weigh ut nine tons and three quarters. 
Obscurity (W. X. IV.).—What do you mean by something of a neat 
appearance, and also valuable? Is it flower-beds, or ltose-beds, or is it 
valuable for the table you mean ? Then would not raised banks of Straw¬ 
berries look very pretty, or small pyramidal trees of Pears, Apples, 
Cherries, &c., look very nice and neat ? Let us know what you chiefly 
want in the flower or fruit way, and repeat the space (for we shall forget 
all that), and you will have our best attention. You will tee next week 
what Mr, Fish says about your Cucumber-house. 
Various (Rev. E. H. Cole). —The Araucaria imbricata will move 
quite safe, and now is the time. Prune theBeec/i-tree considerably next 
February, fork up the soil as far as the roots go, and put a layer of 
some loose mulching over it; also, in dry, hot weather, water it abun¬ 
dantly, and it will soon recover. Common salt and other salts, and all 
such active stimulants, should only be applied when the crop is in active 
growth. Buy “Allotment Gardening for the Many;” it is only 3d., 
and gives monthly directions. We have often tried to obtain accurate 
information about Pig feeding, but have never succeeded. When so 
many queries come together we are compelled to be brief. 
Worm-casts on Lawns (A. Z.).—Frequent waterings with strong 
lime-water is the best remedy. Asphalt wulks, well made, are better 
than gravel, being drier, and never producing weeds. 
Name op Plant ( H. H. Darke). —It is the Veronica Andcrsonii, 
and is easily propagated by cuttings of the young shoots. 
Potatobs for Planting (James Date). —Neither the young Po¬ 
tatoes nor the old Potatoes producing them are desirable for seed. The 
plants produced from them must be weak. Toads are not venomous. 
They could not bite a child, even if its little finger was put into their 
mouth. Roots of Mangold, to produce seed, should be selected from 
those which are longest, heaviest, and least topped. 
Gooseberries (C. G. D.). — Any nurserymen at Manchester or 
Sheffield could supply the varieties you name. Any nurserymen adver¬ 
tising in our columns that he could supply all the best would find many 
customers. 
Cineraria Leaves Curling (A Subscriber). —The curling of the 
leaves of your Cinerarias may arise from various causes. You have had 
them all the summer in a low, cool house facing the sun. That situation 
must, through that season, have been very warm, and you must have 
kept them well supplied with water, and shifted them frequently, and 
that management has causedgross growth, and induced them to make such 
fine plants, with from ten to twenty flower-stems. In moving them into 
an airy greenhouse, though cool, the evaporation from the leaves in such 
a dry atmosphere would be sufficient to cause the edges of the leaves to 
turn up. The remedy will be to syringe the plants every evening foF,a 
fortnight, and keep them moderately watered. It is possible that the 
curling may have been caused by the green fly. If that is so, and the 
insects are yet on the plants, then the remedy will be filling the house 
with tobacco-smoke, not too strong, being careful not to allow the 
tobacco to break out into a flame, for that would cause the leaves to 
curl with a vengeance. Another cause may be, that the plants have ex¬ 
hausted all the nutriment in the soil. The remedy in that case will be 
that of watering them with weak liquid-manure every third time. 
Exercise your judgment, and, when you have determined the cause of 
the disease, apply the proper remedy. We should be glad to hear that 
it has succeeded. 
Wireworms (An Old Subscriber, Colyton). —They are not Wire- 
worms, but Snake Milipedes ( Julus terrestris). They feed on decayed 
vegetable matter. 
Laying-out Beds ( A Constant Reader). —We regret, that we cannot 
do as you ask. We have many times publicly declined either to give 
designs or to recommend plants for designs. No one justly can do so 
without first seeing the place. When a proposed arrangement is placed 
before us we do not object to criticise it. 
Heating with Hot Water (Nugent). —You cannot do better than 
consult Messrs. Weeks and Co., as you propose. They are accustomed 
to the extensive heating of such structures. 
Boyd’s Scythes (F. P.). —There is no doubt about their superiority. 
Our gardener uses no other. 
Book on Stove Plants (Mr. Belgrave). —There is no good work 
on the separate culture either of stove or greenhouse plants or Orchids. 
Beetle Injuring the Scotch Fir ( J . C -, Thornwood Lodge). 
‘ It is the Scotch Pine Bark Beetle (Hylesinus piniperda). No remedy 
is known. We should cut off all affected shoots and burn them. 
Pillar Roses (A. R. C.). —We shall publish a paper on these before 
long. 
Annuals for Ribbons (A Beginner). —There is nothing among all 
our Annuals that will suit your scheme at all; the thing has been tried 
often and again, and as the truth is better than gold, it is best not to 
deceive, as those do who write about arrangements they neither practise 
nor understand. Such capital ideas cannot be carried out so cheaply. 
To your second question, Saponaria Calabrica will not “do” as an 
edging without spoiling it ; but Sanuitalia is much like it in growth and 
strength, and we have no more to suit either of them. It is useless to 
sow Hollyhock seed now. (Enothera ripuriu is the other name you 
inquire for. 
Names of Plants (Rusticns A. B.). —We think your Tomato is a 
variety of the Solatium cerasiforrne. (II. Peacock). —Your Ferns are 
mere seedlings. 1 and 5 are probably Lastrcea spinulosu; 2,3, and 4, 
probably LastrceaJilix-mas. (Thomas Joy). —Your Fern is Athyrium 
filix-feemina. ( R. /{.).— 1. Erica cinerea. 2. Erica vulgaris, now 
called Calluna vulgaris. 3. Erica tetralix. 4. The Fern is Asplenium 
udiuntum nigrum. 
©I 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
Birmingham. December 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Sec., J. Morgan, 
jun., Esq. Entries close November 1st. 
Crystal Palace. January 10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. Grand Ex¬ 
hibition of Poultry, Pigeons, and Rabbits. Secretary to the Poultry 
Exhibition, William Houghton. Esq., The Sands, Ruufold, near 
Farnham, Surrey. Entries close December 13th. 
Essex. At Colchester, 8th, 9th, and 10th of January, 1857. Secs., 
G. E. Attwood, and W. A. Warwick. 
Gloucestershire. Nov. 2fith and 27 th. Sec., E. Trinder, Esq., 
Cirencester. Entries close Nov. 1st. 
Nottinghamshire. At Southwell, December 17th and 18th, 1856. 
Sec., Richard Hawkslev, jun. Entries close November 19th. 
Nottingham Central Poultry Association. January 13, 14, and 
15. Hon. Sec. Frank Bottom. Secretary to the Canary Department, 
Jno. Hetherington, jun., Sneinton. 
Preston and North Lancashire. January 21st and 22nd, 1857- 
Sec., Ralph Leigh, Esq., 125, Church Street, Preston. Entries close 
December 13th. 
N.B.— Secretaries vtill oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
TO SECURE COLOUR AND VIGOUR. 
There has, from time to time, been much disappointment 
manifested by amateur poultry fanciers, as to their individual 
success in raising first-class chickens; and complaints have, 
at rapid intervals, been made to the writer of this article 
that it was “ impossible,” even after tlie most careful selection 
of the parent stock, to insure the production of a single 
chicken equal to their progenitors. With but comparatively 
little difficulty I have hitherto privately solved this enigma, 
and traced the progressive failure either to ill-advised 
selection at the onset or the even more fatal error of long 
inter-breeding. A few very brief remarks, therefore, may 
not, perchance, he deemed uninteresting, on the chief causes 
that produce failure as to perfection in the offspring. 
Of course an exceedingly prominent feature in all varieties 
of poultry, more especially those intended for public com¬ 
petition, is colour. It is equally important with any other 
trait of character ; and deficiency in this respect has often¬ 
times compelled the immediate rejection of a fowl by its 
owner, that, barring this imperfection, was not unfrequently 
one of the best, otherwise considered, in the whole yard. 
Many years’careful observation of the results of breeding, 
and comparisons from a regularly-kept diary from year to 
year, have convinced me, beyond all doubt, that the male 
bird has an infinitely greater infiuence on the colour of the 
offspring than has the female. I have tested this so fre¬ 
quently that I firmly believe, if there is any rule without 
an exception, this just alluded to is the one. In Cochins 
the proof was a somewhat intricate one; but the result of 
many seasons proves that a really deep orange-coloured 
cock, coupled with a perfectly clear-grounded hen, even if 
that hen is so far diverse as to be what is technically termed 
a “ silver cinnamon," will not unfrequently produce chickens 
identically similar for colour as the sire. If the hens mated 
to such a cock should themselves be clear buff, the rule is 
then all but universal, that the chickens partake of the like- 
coloured plumage, but, on the contrary, where the male 
bird is faulty in the colour of his featherings, even though 
the hens betray not the slightest infringement as to their 
individual purity, the “sporting" into almost every variety 
of colour, and markings to boot, manifest themselves with 
scarcely an exception. As a summary I have, in repeated 
