542 
the unfavourable feafon, with the tmnt 
care and attendance both of the mothers 
and ourfelves, it is not probable we 
fhall fucceed with poultry, uvaffifted by 
the dam, in the moft favourable. I am 
not initigated to write thus by an enmity 
to novelty and improvement ; on the con- 
trary, no man is.actuated by a more en- 
thufiaftic defire for the enlargement of the 
bounds of {cience of every kind to their 
utmoft poffible extent. Far enough from 
wifhing to difcourage your Suffolk Cor- 
sefpondent, or any of your readers, I de- 
clare, I fully intend to make another eflay 
in artificial hatching the enfuing fummer. 
It isavery natural tranfition, Sir, from 
poultry to pigeons; on which you will 
pieale to permit me to fay a few words. 
Dove-houtes, in former days, ufed to be a 
fad and wafteful nuifance to the farmer 
in this country, although not in that very 
oppreflive degree in which it was expe- 
rienced in France. It has, in great 
meafure, ceafed with us in many parts. 
Both gentlemen and farmers, now-a-days, 
find it their intereft to attend to a more 
folid and more: profitable kind of ftock 
- than the feathered fpecies. Yet, where 
pigeons are ftill kept, they do confiderable 
mifchief to both the feed and ripe corn, 
not only by the quantities they devour, 
but by beating it down. It has always 
been fuppofed, that pigeons are immenfe 
devourers, of courfe not worth keeping 
but as marauders living upon free quar- 
ters with the neighbours. Having enter- 
tained fome doubts of this fact, I have 
made fome years’ trial with a few—under 
adozen pair; and I find, that, being fed 
regularly, much Jefs corn fuffices them 
than had been reprefented to me ; and that 
they are fo ftrongly attached to home and 
_ their domestic duties, that it even requires 
the frequent exériion of force to make 
them fly abroad fufficiently for their 
health’s fake. Hence I conclude, it 
would be much more fair for thofe who 
keep a dove-cote in the country, to feed 
and attend them at home; and I am con- 
vinced, that the greater number of young 
obtained by care and attendance on pi- 
gcons at home, would greatly overbalance 
‘the profit of their being fed in part gratis 
abroad. Their valuable dung,by this method" 
increafed, goes a great way towards the 
“payment of their keep. I think much 
the fame of rabbits, which, in their wild 
flate,-in a cultivated countsy, are a much 
worfe nuifance than the former; and this 
country would be benefited in various 
ways, were it fupplied only with tame rab- 
bits, which would be a moft profitable 
frock to. a fmayl farmers . To return 
On Hatching Poultry By. artificial Heat, &c. 
[May 1, 
being upon an experiment, I determined 
to do what few people would have taken 
the trouble of, to keep a ftud-book of’ pi- 
geons! to regifier their names; the dates 
of their laying, fetting, and hatching, 
with the. length of their: intervals, and the 
quantity and’ coft of the corn they con- 
fumed. The refuit is, age will more than 
pay their way in thefe dear times of corn, 
and that purchafed at worft hand, and the. 
dung given away. IT neverthelefs fpeak 
not of the fuperior but the middling kind 
of pigeons.. Mine breed throughout the 
winter feafon, but the fmallerand more de+ 
licate kind are reared with much difficulty, 
and many are loft. Et is not fo with thé 
larger and hardiér. As an example of a 
very fuccefsful pair, take the following :— 
I matched awhite Spsnifh runtwith a re- 
markably large dragon, and, in the’courfe 
of laft year, they produced me nine pair 
of young ones. A cat devoured one pair. 
The remaining eight pair, fold young, 
were worth a guinea. They are large, of 
a remarkably fine flavour, and mote juicy 
than pigeons generally are. ‘The year’s 
expence upon the old pair and their young . 
amounted to fomewhat under ten fhillings 
and fixpence. , 
Feb.18. Sir, your’s, &c. 
CoLo NUS. 
—=_ ae. ‘ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, Perth, April 8, 1802. 
AM a conftant reader of your ‘Maga- 
zine, which contains a variety, which 
will {uit different taftes ; and I approve 
much of the accounts given of the diffe- 
rent towns in the kingdom, which may 
help fome future geographer in more ac~ 
curately defcribing thefe places. 
I fhail, therefore, without further pre- 
face, give you a few particulars of the 
former and prefent {tate of this town. 
Perth is the county-town of the fhire 
of Perth, and ranks the fecond in the con- 
vention of the Royal Burghs in Scotland. 
It was endowed with great privileges and 
immunities by the Kings of Scotland, who 
often refided here, and who were very li- 
beral to the inhabitants, by giving them | 
at. different times many lands, and feme 
valuable falmon-fifhings in the river Tay, 
which they yet enjoy, and draw from 
thence a confiderable revenue. 
The Scoteh Parliaments were esribaitby 
held in this place, till the reign of James 
the Second of Scotland, when they were 
transferred to Pattee) where they were 
generally held afterwards ; but. on fome 
oecahons they were held in Perth. 
That Perth was a confilerable town 
at an early period, is evident from ‘a 
canal 
