312 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION, February 3, 1857. 
risk, for any shifting of position, however small, is attended 
with more or less loss of bees, unable to find the changed 
site on returning home. Even a few inches will sometimes 
puzzle them when in full work.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Early Potatoes (Lancashire Man). —Inducing Potatoes to sprout 
or 11 sprit,” as you term it, by exposing them on a room floor, promotes 
earliness, but you must be wary of not having the tops frosted. If 
you wish very early Peas, grow Songster’s No. 1 ; and for your main 
crops, your garden being small, Woodford’s Marrow, and Hair’s Dwarf- 
Green Mammoth. For Brocnli, grow none but the Walcheren. If true, 
and a little is sown once a fortnight from early in March until the end 
of July, you may have Brocoli fit for cutting all the year. 
Paths of Coal Tar (A Subscriber). —We never knew paths made 
of this and coal ashes. We have known it used with lime rubbish and 
gravel, and then enough of the tar is used to render the mixture of the 
consistency of stiff mortar. 
Legally removing Trees and SnRUBS (Western Suburban ).— 
Our reply to “ Zero ” last week answers your question. We shall be 
glad to see your plan. 
Stocking Flower Beds (W. H. S.). —It is not possible to advise 
under the circumstances. The bed is too large for flowers, even in a 
duke’s garden, except it were for a collection of Dahlias. At the lowest 
calculation it would cost you j£b to plant it with Tom Thumbs, at 20s. 
a hundred, or, if you take more stylish things, say ten guineas to plant 
one bed. Now, do you not see how impossible it is to say whether you 
ought to spend five, seven, eight, nine, or ten guineas on that bed, or 
merely ten or fifteen shillings in common Laurels and other shrubs, with 
a row of flowers all round. Fifteen shillings would do, but ten guineas 
would not at all be too much to make a gay bed of it. If the first row 
was of small Golden Chain plants, you would need 200 of them, at 9s. a 
dozen, or if you took a size larger, and only use 150 plants for the edging, 
they would cost 10s. or 12s. Five guineas is a small sum to edge your 
bed, let alone the body of it. And so with the second bed. But say 
what you can afford to lay out on these beds, and we shall tell you the 
best things for the money. 
Belladonna Lily (W. C. H.).— As all the Belladonnas in cul¬ 
tivation are now in the midst of their annual growth, we conclude you 
received yours direct from the Cape, which you ought to have stated. 
At all events, our advice is given on such presumption. Plant them at 
once, but a pot is the worst of all things to begin with them. However, 
use plain loam, that is, without leaf mould, or peat, or rotten dung. If 
the loam is strong add a little sand to it, and bury the bulbs down to the 
neck ; water, and keep the pots in the kitchen till you see the leaves just 
coming, that is, the bulbs are thus gently forced to make up for lost 
time. As soon as you see the leaves, remove the pots to the cool green¬ 
house, and allow them to stand near the front ventilators. The leaves 
will very likely be too weak to stand up by the time they are above half 
their usual length ; to guard against that, put two sticks in each pot 
close to the side, and opposite fasten a piece of matting or worsted to 
one of the sticks, four, five, or six inches above the pot, and double it 
round the other stick ; that is, take the two ends round and fasten them 
behind the second stick, and the leaves will be free between the tie and 
the sticks. That is the way to tie all bulb leaves. 
West’s Propagating Case (L. S. C .).—It is the “Waltonian 
Propagating Case,” made by Mr. West, Kingston-on-Rail. You will 
find a drawing and full description of it in our No. 389. A Ward’s 
case served as you suggest would be a mere toy, and useless. 
Draining (J. M.). —The slightest slope is sufficient to render the 
drains effective ; but we cannot advise how best to arrange the drains 
unless we saw the place. 
Name of Plant (J. Crossling). — Your’plant is Sericograpliis 
Ghiesbreghtiana, 
Wax Bean (M. -, Clonmel). — We do not know any plant so 
called. Can any of our readers inform us what it is ? 
Brewing. —A Constant Subscriber, and many of our readers, would 
be obliged by practical directions how to make good table beer, and 
stronger beer to keep twelvemonths—the quantities of malt and hops, 
&c. You can have Nos. 17 and 24 by sending ten postage stamps to 
our office with your direction. 
Plant among Geraniums (Harrie ).—The leaf appears to belong 
to some kind of Mallow, the seeds of the Mallow being in the mould in 
which you sowed the Geranium. Keep the plant for the present, as it is, 
and at the end of April plant it out of doors, at some distance from the 
rest of your flowers ; perhaps it will turn out a new plant. 
Various (A. G .).—We know of no better mode of obtaining a 
milch goat than by advertising, but you will require two and a buck, or 
your supply of milk will soon cease. Move your Raspberries and Roses 
as soon as open weather will permit. Your Cochin-China chickens will 
grow fast enough in the spring, if they live until then. Your pullets 
dropping her eggs is kept upon too stimulating food probably. Keep 
her upon boiled potatoes and rice for a week or two. 
Nurserymen’s Catalogue (A. F .).—It is quite impossible for us to 
recommend any particular one. It would be unjust if we did j for every 
nurseryman has a Catalogue, and the majority differ from each other by 
ipero shades of excellence, We noticed three that are really books, If 
you wish for one with the plants arranged according to the Natural 
System, procure that prepared by W. Thompson, of Ipswich. If you 
want a very copious'one of Flower^seods with descriptions, obtain 
X- J- Henderson and Sons', of Wellington Tloud , St. John's Wood, If 
you need on« of Vegetables and Flowers got, oho, 
j and Co,, Dumfries) or, of W, Cuihitsh and Son, 
I Mmrs. U<tss and Drown, Sudbury, Suffolk, 
hat of T, Kennedy 
or, of 
THE POULTRY CHRON16L£. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
Crewe. February 3rd and 4th, 1857. Secs. S. Sheppard and D. 
Margelts, Esqs. Entries close January 15th. 
Kendal. At Kendal, February 6th and 7th, 1857. Sec. Mr. T. 
Atkinson. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
PRESTON POULTRY EXHIBITION. 
For many months past this Exhibition lias been looked 
forward to by the amateurs of the United Kingdom as 
“the" coming event that would specifically determine the 
relative superiority of not a few of the first prize-taking 
pens of Poultry in the Empire. The excitement thus 
caused arose in almost entire consequence of the truly 
unprecedented number of Silver Cups, thb extreme libe¬ 
rality of the Preston and North Lancashire Poultry Cotn- 
mittee offered for their Society’s premiums. They ivefb 
considerably beyond fifty in number ! of beautiful design, 
each embossed in accordance to the class or variety for 
which it was specifically offered; and in common justice we 
must say, also, they were most undoubtedly of the intrinsic 
value assigned to them. No Committee could possibly 
deserve the high esteem and friendliness of all parties more 
than the Preston Committee ; nought that mind could sug¬ 
gest, or manual labour fulfil, was withheld for the further¬ 
ance of the ultimate success of their undertaking; and thus, 
most undoubtedly, they were fully and justly entitled to a 
very different course of usage than that they secretly 
received from parties holding high position in society, and 
from whom certainly, as gentlemen, and even men of com¬ 
mon integrity, we had undoubtedly reasons for hoping and 
for expecting a truly different line of conduct; we must add 
also, one far more calculated to support the true dignity and 
respectability of the Poultry world. All we will here add is, 
that so great and important a meeting as the Preston one 
cannot fail in Using to very great celebrity, if the Committee 
wisely continue conjoined for mutual and general interests, 
deteimine to act at once fearlessly, openly, and honestly, by 
their adversaries; for we fear not at all, “ rectitude of con¬ 
duct must eventually reap its own reward," and as certainly 
expose the malpractices of those who adopt measures for 
the furtherance of their individual interests, to which they 
scrupulously and sedulously withhold the identity of their 
own individuality. 
The pens were arranged within the colonnade of the 
quadrangular area of the Corn Exchange, and also longi¬ 
tudinally in the building. In all they numbered 897, showing 
an increase of 57 as compared with the previous Exhibition. 
In the great majority of cases each pen contained three 
fowls. Some idea may be formed of the extent of the 
Exhibition when we remark that 1,260 yards of netting were 
brought into requisition, or nearly three quarters of a mile 
in length. 
We have before observed that this Exhibition was very 
superior to its antecedent. The competition in every class 
was very excellent, excepting one. This observation needs 
no qualification whatever, and it is certainly much to say 
with regard to any Exhibition, and especially one of this 
magnitude, that throughout all the classes there was only 
one to which exception might be taken. 
The Dorking and Spanish classes had especial claims to 
favour, and we think it more than probable that better 
specimens of either variety have never been exhibited in 
these classes. The latter were in great abundance, and 
included some very beautiful birds. The apparently most 
excellent of this class (No. 887) were, however, disqualified 
on the ground that they had been perfected by extraneous 
and unnatural appliances, having undergone the process of 
what is vulgarly called “shaving,” which simply means 
“ trimming,” They were, notwithstanding, beautifully 
symmetrical birds, and, in the judgment of the uninitiated, 
would carry off the palm. The Judge, on ascertaining that 
this operation had been practised, was undoubtedly justified 
in withholding the award, and the fact of its being discovered 
(in coma instances by the aid of a microscope) is an un» 
mistakabla manifestation of the carefulness with which he 
