370 THE COTTAGE GAUDEN Eli AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, February 24,1857, 
autumn. The Cabbage seed is ample, provided the season 
and the ground be both favourable. 
In reference to the above it is generally better to sow too 
much than too little. Garden crops are more under the 
eye of the cultivator than field ones, and a little extra seed 
is not a serious affair; but thinning in time cannot be too 
strongly impressed on all.] 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Muriate ofTotasii ( Husticus Expect at us). —We have never heard 
of this salt being applied as a manure to Potatoes. It certainly could 
not supersede the application of organic manures. If we used it we 
should apply it mixed with soot. An answer to your query about Bees 
will be published next week. 
Manuals ( A Cambridge Subscriber). —Your agent’s agent in London 
must have neglected his duty. All the Manuals are on sale at our office. 
Any bookseller can get them for you, or if you send the requisite number 
of stamps to our office with your direction you will receive the numbers 
you require by return of post. 
Bromfton Stocks (A Lover of Bromptons). —You may apply liquid 
manure to these as soon as they begin to grow; but we should prefer 
opening the ground round the roots of the weak ones, and putting a little 
well-rotted manure to them. 
Cowslip Vinegar ( C.-B . C.).—We have referred your question to 
Mr. Ashpole, and he says he never heard of Cowslip Vinegar; but Elder- 
flov’er Vinegar, he says, is made by filling a quart bottle with the flowers 
of Elder, pouring cold vinegar over them, and letting them infuse for a 
fortnight; then strain it through a flannel bag, and put it into bottles. 
He presumes it is only to substitute Cowslip flowers for Elder, and pro¬ 
ceed in the same way to make Cowslip Vinegar. Perhaps some of our 
readers at Ledbury will favour us with some information on this subject. 
Flower-beds (Z). H .).— Plant the beds with bedding plants in sum¬ 
mer, and with evergreen and variegated shrubs for the winter. The 
centre one to be filled with Rhododendrons; 1, 2, and 3 to be planted 
with Roses, standards in the centres, and dwarfs round them ; the out¬ 
side and spare places to be planted with summer flowers, as Paeonies, 
Rockets, Lupines, (Enotheras, &c.; and No. 4 to be planted with 
Scarlet Geraniums in the centre, with yellow Calceolarias round them, 
and a circle of white Verbenas or Variegated Alyssum round the outside. 
Diseased Camellias, Azaleas, &c. ( J . W . IV.).— The leaf of the 
Myrtle had dropped out, but if at all similar, there can be no doubt of 
the reason of the poor appearance the leaves present. The Camellia leaf 
is rusted, the consequence, we suspect, of a cold temperature, followed 
by a dry and hot one, and too much wet at one time, and too much dry¬ 
ness at another. Besides this, the Camellia leaf, the Azalea leaf, and, we 
presume, the Myrtle leaf, have been infested with thrips, whether you 
have seen them or not. We would prune the Camellia and the Myrtle 
well in, and wash them thoroughly with soap and water, in which a little 
tobacco was dissolved, and then place them in a growing heat of about 
60° to 65°. The Azalea we would treat in a similar manner without cut¬ 
ting down, going over the plant several times. You may thus succeed 
in getting a clean and healthy fresh growth. The old leaves are past 
recovery ; but allow the leaves of the Azalea to drop as the others grow. 
Succession of Peas (IV. 31. W., Torphichen ).—If you were to sovv 
the whole five sorts you mention on the same day they would ripen in 
succession ; but you would have a better succession if you were to sow 
the Bishop's, Burbidge’s, and Hairs’ varieties a week after the first 
two you name, Daniel O’Rourke and Burbidge’s Eclipse. 
Snowdrops (A Constant Subscriber). — Your only niode of getting 
rid of them is by stating in an advertisement what you have to offer for 
sale, and the price. 
Cocoa-nut Fibre (J. K.). —Apply according to this direction— 
“ Patent Cocoa Fibre Company, Kingston-on-Thames, London, S.W.” 
Allendale Greengage. — A. wishes to know more about this Plum, 
mentioned in our No. 319 (Vol. XIII., p. 3), and whether plants or 
grafts of it can be obtained. 
Berberis Asiatica ( C. P. C.). —You will see what is replied to 
another inquirer. 
Birds’ Eggs. — A Northamptonshire Vicar states in reply to “ F. A. S.,” 
that “ the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge publishes a very 
beautiful book on the subject, with charming coloured illustrations.” It 
is not a child’s book. 
Names of Ferns (J. Jones). —1. Adiantum macrophyllum. 2. Asple- 
nium cicutarium or Ccenopteris cicutarium. 3. Adiantum pubescens. 
4. Darea or Asplenium flaccidum. 
THE POUI.tllY~CHBdWICLE. 
Mr. HEWITT AND HIS CALUMNIATORS. 
We purposed publishing this week extracts from a correspond¬ 
ence relative to some of the most disgraceful attempts to 
injure a man of character that have ever been devised ; but, 
owing to the absence of one letter, we think it right to 
postpone the publication until our next number appears. 
GAME FOWLS. 
There are two classes of individuals now-a-days requiring 
good birds of this breed—one seeking the bird in its purity, 
the other an animal adapted merely for exhibition purposes. 
As the popular voice has enunciated its decided opinion that 
a good big one is far superior to a good little one, I must 
beg most emphatically to exclaim, vox et preterea nihil; for 
the good big one we are accustomed to see paraded before 
simple folk as the old English Game bird is a very coarse 
imitation, ( vide Cottage Gardener, January 29th, 1856,) 
and not usually a bird of visible or practical merit. He is 
not a bird of form, he is not a bird of feather, and he is not 
a bird essentially per se. He can bully, he can swagger, he 
can crow, but he cannot make any way even in a stand up 
for love. His great, gawky, overbearing carcass can ruffle 
out a frill as long as your shoe, and by the time he has 
jumped up and down some thrice in a minute, a real, 
thorough English bird has, by a rapid succession of blows, at 
last caught the ribs—for no higher can he go—of the 
monster, who, as if touched by an electric shock, then stands 
transfixed until suddenly attacked again, when off he darts 
with outstretched neck and lowered wings, skitting across 
the yard, the laughing-stock of every looker-on. We don’t 
want cock-fighting, we don’t want brutality, nor do we want 
a lot of men seated round a pit looking at birds killing each 
other; but we do want the birds carrying off prizes to be 
of the true make, quality, and composition of Game birds, 
and, if tested, able and often too willing to prove it. Game 
birds are to be essentially Spartans—“ death or victory.” 
If it be advanced that many a good bird is a big one, well 
and good. He may be so, but he is never foul'; and whilst 
we are on Game subjects let us allude to the old English 
bull-dog. Head, and skin, and tail are the chief points. 
Things are reversed now. Size stands first, then colour, 
and lastly, head and tail; and skin or delicate close feather¬ 
ing— nowhere. It is all stuff—perfeot nonsense and bosh. 
Men of no experience in these matters are called in to look 
first at a Dorking, and then at a Duckwing, or a Malay and 
a Derby Red—birds as opposite as light from darkness from 
each other. Experience in caged or penned birds has taught 
judges to see the difference in each breed as a relative class; 
but the individual excellencies are all lumped under the 
term size. 
The country is the place alone to view the Game bird. 
His actions of perfection do not consist in craning up his 
neck, sidliDg away, and pecking at the wood of his pen. 
Better, if you are no judge of his quality, to see him escort¬ 
ing his wives across the green sward, and no mean idea of 
his quality might be inferred from that of his aristocratic 
blood. Black Reds, Brown Reds, and Duckwings, when 
pure, have a peculiar bearing which indicates breeding, as, 
indeed, has everything else when purely and nicely bred. 
A word about Duckwings. I set it down as a fact that in 
no two remotely separate districts have these birds been 
judged by one standard of identity, although it is much 
easier to discover a cross in them than in any other variety. 
Observe the saddles—often red, often half red, arid seldom 
the proper colour. All the world knows a Malay from his 
hypocritical and warty eye, and therefore the mixture, inde¬ 
pendently of other traits, can be easily detected; but it is not 
so easy to discover a trace of a Red in a Duckwing except 
you are accustomed to breed, them. Half of the present race 
are decided mixtures. Where get ye the red saddles, the 
7-lb. birds, the long weak tails, the tall shank, big bone, 
heavy head, and flowing hackle? Take your license; 
“ mingle as you may ; ” get you size ; now a little black red 
for the breast; then a little brown red for a dark leg ; and 
if cleverly managed, and a white leg and size be wanted, a 
little in-and-in mixing with a gamey-looking Dorking “ is’nt 
so dusty.” What’s the odds ? We know there are no 7-lb. 
Duckwings, and so we must make ’em , in course. The hens, 
too, no odds ; let them match: if they have round, thick polls, 
spotted bodies, tall combs, small eyes—provided they are 
big, never mind. My boy would say, “ Chance it, sir; he 
ain’t no worse than Mr.-’s, who winned a fust wi’ the 
bird our little half-bantey used to wbollop so. I shure ’ee 
they don’t know no better; how shud ’em, when I s’pose 
they never zeed a spar in their lives, poor fules ? ” 
Let any person about to embark in Game fancying pur¬ 
chase a pen of any class (Game) and breed from them. 
How miserably is he disappointed to find no two chicks 
alike; probably the pullets with one coloured leg and the 
cocks with another. In the Black Reds there will be duns, 
reds, gingers, furnaces, ginger reds and blues, browns and 
nondescripts. In the Duckwings, most likely, reds, greys, 
