THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 1, 1860. 
77 
Truss’s Patent Klastic Pipe-joint (Arthur). —We have had no report 
upon its merits. 
Black Hamburgh Grapes—Davallia (William).—Black Hamburgh 
Grapes just broken in a greenhouse will ripen their wood quite sufficiently 
to bear next summer. If the fronds of your Davallia are deciduous, and 
the rhizomes are covered with tawny bronzy scales, it is Davallia bull at a. 
If the fronds are evergreen and persistent it is D. decora. 
Bretagne Cows (L. G. Lovell ).—All that we know personally of the 
Brittany breed is that we saw specimens exhibited at the lloyal Agricultural 
Society’s Show at Chelmsford in 1S56. They were not much larger than 
a full-grown Leicester sheep, and very symmetrical. Messrs. Baker, 
poulterers, Chelsea, would give you further information. 
Various (E. N. N .).—Our XVII. Volume begins with No. 419 and ends 
with No. 444. Vol. XVIII., Nos. 445—470. Vol. XIX., Nos. 471—490. 
Vol. XX., Nos. 497—522. Vol. XXI., No3. 523—548. Vol. XXII., Nos. 
549—574. Your plant eeems to be Arabia alpina nana, ov Dwarf Alpine 
Wall Cress. There will be no need to heat your vinery artificially after the 
first week in May, unless the weather is unusually cold. 
Price of The Cottage Gardener ( W. 11.). —No respectable bookseller 
would charge more than 3d. for an unstamped copy, nor more than id. for 
a stamped copy. 
Cyclamen Africanum (J. Turner ).—This, if it is true, will never flower 
in the spring with you ; but pot it now in good soil, and plunge the pot in 
the open ground, not in a cold pit, and put another pot or something over 
it to keep it from harm’s way, and it will bloom beautifully in the autumn ; 
but never if you once begin to coddle it, or keep it dry one moment longer 
than you can help. The whole of the Europasana Cyclamens should never 
be allowed to dry, nor hardly the Persicums ; but they do not suffer so 
much from drying. This Cyclamen Africanum of the nurseries is the kmd 
of Neapolitanum, which grows in Italy beyond Rome and Naples, and on 
to Sicily and Algiers. The smaller-leaved kind of the same species is a 
native of England and across through the centre of Italy. There is no 
Cyclamen called Robus'.a, but good cultivation will make them all robust ers ! 
They are so on our planted-out border covered with glass, and we had 
them earlier in the season quite as strong as your robusta, which, no doubt, 
is a very free kind of the new crosses from Persicum. What would you 
say to a Cyclamen giganteum some of these days ? 
Twelve Superior Chrysanthemums (W. II. B.). — Alfred Salter, rosy 
lilac; Annie Salter, fine bright yellow; Auguste Mic, carmine, tipped 
yellow ; Dupont de VEure, carmine and orange ; Uerniionc, immense blush 
flower ; Madame Poggi, chestnut brown ; Plutus, bright yellow ; Progne, 
the nearest to crimson ; Queen of England, light blush ; Themis, very 
large, rosy-lilac flower; Vesta, the best white, perhaps; and Fleur de 
Maria, the finest white Anemone-flowered, are the best dozen of all the 
large sorts. Any of the florists advertising in our columns will supply 
them. 
Market Gardening, &c. [An Idle Man).— It is quite impossible for us 
to advise you with certainty on the subject of growing garden produce for 
sale, so much depends upon yourself, and so much upon the neighbour¬ 
hood. It is, of course, useless to grow what you could not obtain a 
purchaser for ; therefore, the first point to ascertain is, who would pur¬ 
chase from you, and what would they purchase. Some greengrocers would, 
perhaps, contract to take Cabbages, Currants, Gooseberries, Pot Herbs, &c. 
Inquire of them, for they will be your best guides. With regard to breed¬ 
ing poultrv, we can add nothing to the series of papers we are publishing 
and have published on “ Profitable Poultry.” We can say, however, that 
your Muscovy Ducks will not remunerate you. Rouen or Aylesbury 
Ducks might. 
Names of Plants (A Subscriber).— No. 1 is Rhipsalis Cassutha. the 
naked Rhipsalis, formerly called Cactus pendultts. No. 2 is Maranta 
regain; and No. 3, the broad leaf with large white bands, is Aspidistra 
lurida, which is mentioned in every collection of variegated plants, and is 
grown in stoves along with orchids, but is just as hardy as our market 
Rhubarb. Out of doors, however, it soon loses the white in the leaves. 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
May 23d and 24th. Beverley and East Riding of Yorkshire. Sec., 
Mr. Fras. Calvert, Surgeon, &c. Entries close May 17th. 
June 6th, 7th, and 8th. Bath and West of England. At Dorchester. 
See., J. Kingsbury, Esq., Hammet Street, Taunton. Entries close May 7. 
June 12th. Essex (Saffron Walden). Sec., Mr. Robert Emson, Slough 
House, Halstead, Essex. Entries close June 1st. 
June 29th and 30th, July 2nd and 3rd. Sheffield. Chairman, Mr. Wil¬ 
son Ovcrend, Sheffield. Entries close June 14th. 
July 18th and 19th. Merthyr Tydvil. Sec., Mr. W. II. Harris, 142, 
High Street, Merthvr. 
September 25th. Bridgnorth. Sec., Mr. Richard Taylor, Bridgnorth. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
PROFITABLE POULTRY. 
Wb have not yet done with our advice to those who are seeking 
profitable poultry, and have almost been disposed to class it with 
the philosopher’s stone, the elixir vitm, and the four-leaved 
clover. You are wrong, good friends ; it is capable of a profit. 
We must necessarily have a sort of recapitulation as we approach 
the end of our subject, because it is, as we belioye, only by follow¬ 
ing our rules, a profit may be realised. 
The fowls must be neither pampered nor over-fed. Food must 
not be allowed to lie about to be ready for them when they are 
hungry, because they would not eat at the regular time. Nor must 
expensive novelties in the way of food be placed before them, be¬ 
cause they do not seem to eat enough. Fowls should always come 
to their food as the school children do to their annual treat of beef 
and pudding, tea and plum cake. Granted for illustration’s sake, 
that you have followed our instructions, that your fowls are in 
first-rate condition ; that they have bred numerous chickens ; 
that your difficulty is now, that you do not wish for the trouble 
of fatting, and that you know of no market within easy distance 
to which you can send them. You need not to fatten them if 
they are well fed while running about. They will be fleshy, 
sweet-eating and juicy chickens. Let them be fasted and killed, 
then picked clean, and sent to market. They will sell. If you 
have no market at hand, seud them to London, to Leadenliall. 
We are quite prepared to hear from many, that they have done 
so, and the result has been only disappointment. Probably three 
or four little chickens have been sent up, and these not well 
killed, or in very hot weather, and the price has not been satis¬ 
factory. If you have any desire to succeed, we tell you to per¬ 
severe until you understand properly how to send, and your 
salesman has discovered that you will be a regular sender. It will 
answer your purpose to learn to send advantageously, and it will 
be worth the salesman’s while to give you satisfaction. Poultry 
in London is, at the present time, making unusually high prices, 
and England, Ireland, and Scotland are being ransaeleed for 
chickens and fowls. Two only qualifications are requisite—they 
must be fleshy and young. Their value depends on the latter 
quality, and the younger they are the more they arc worth. 
We have lately seen in one package fourteen hundred pounds 
weight of chickens from Ireland, and there arrive weekly many 
tons of such. Sending to a market is like undertaking any other 
novel pursuit. The proper way of doing it has to be learned, 
and tyros must not expect to reap the same reward as the ex¬ 
perienced. The prices will be good enough to afford encourage-^ 
ment. It is not less true than remarkable, that the supply of 
poultry is smaller now than it was before so much interest was 
taken in the subject. The fact is, every one breeds for exhibition, 
and the most useful man an amateur can have, the liigler, gets 
tired of calling when he is told that the brood of chickens he has 
been watching and speculating upon so long are not to be sold 
because some will he wanted for exhibition. The best should 
be chosen for this purpose. But let us see what loss is caused 
by thus refusing to sell. The liigler calls during a time of 
scarcity like the present. There are twenty-seven chickens, 
six will be wanted for exhibition. Take your time, use all your 
judgment, and pick the twelve best. You will have fifteen for 
sale° and the end of April or beginning of May, they will make 
from 3.?. to 4 s. each according to quality. If sold, they will 
make at 3s., 45s.; while, if they are kept till June or July, when 
poultry is become plentiful, they will have cost at least two 
months’ more food, and will make Is. per head less. In any part 
of the country, however remote it may be, there will he iound 
persons to collect poultry, if it is to be had young ; and in this, 
ns in everything else, as soon as one lives by the trade another 
will start in opposition to him. 
From that time there will be no difficulty in selling surplus 
poultry. It will be in demand, and at a fair market price. In 
the spring—that is, from 1st April to middle of June, it will sell 
at high prices, afterwards it will sell for less, hut it will always 
sell. Every poultry-keeper or amateur who wishes to make his 
hobby at least harmless, may then do so by taking pains and 
moderate trouble, either by exhibition and prize-taking, with the 
consequent sale of birds and eggs, or by the sale of poultry as an 
article of food. 
Many do not wish or need to do this. The amount would not 
be an object to them. We therefore conclude with one remark 
to those who are less favoured with this world’s goods : Your 
success will be just in proportion to your painstaking. The 
supply of poultry as an article of food during the spring months 
is the most profitable, and the most neglected branch of modern 
poultry keeping. 
SHOOTING FOWLS. 
A few weeks ago I sent a very valuable Black Red Game 
Bantam hen to a friend to go with one of his cocks to breed from. 
She being fond of rambling, got into a neighbour’s garden, who 
told my friend that he would shoot her if he caught her in again. 
No notice was taken of the threat: the bird was so small it was 
thought she could do no harm j but yesterday morning the gen- 
