354: 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
April  22,  1897. 
them.  Of  course,  if  the  fattening  department  were  adopted  things 
might  be  different.  Then  a  proper  building  would  be  necessary, 
and  I  should  need  help  beyond  what  I  can  supply  myself,  and  the 
wages  of  a  boy  and  the  extra  food  preparation  would  make  a  great 
hole  into  my  profits.  The  idea  I  have  carried  out  is  to  produce 
plenty  of  eggs  with  a  minimum  of  labour,  fowls  to  keep  up  my 
breeding  hens,  and  a  few  couples  for  the  table.  Of  course,  one’s 
best  laid  plans  go  amiss  sometimes,  and  it  is  awfully  aggravating  to 
see  a  preponderance  of  young  cockerels  in  the  yard  in  place  of 
their  sisters.  However,  by  sending  these  alive  to  market  there  is 
no  need  to  take  a  bad  price  ;  they  can  always  be  brought  home, 
and  wait  for  the  next  week. 
Unless  an  incubator  is  very  good,  and  consequently  expensive, 
you  are  better  without  it,  and  to  speak  truly,  I  have  no  capital 
wherewith  to  buy  such  a  thing,  nor  place  to  keep  it  in  when  bought. 
Now  as  to  sitting  hens.  On  the  first  symptoms,  a  nice  nest  is 
prepared  on  the  ground  in  an  old  dog  kennel,  disused  rabbit 
hutches,  or  under  a  coop.  The  nest  is  made  of  a  grass  sod,  grass 
side  downwards,  the  earthy  part  hollowed  out  and  lined  with  a 
bit  of  hay. 
Madam  is  inducted  into  her  new  home  at  dusk,  and  suitable 
food  and  water  is  placed  within  reach.  When  coops  are  used 
chicken  feeders  are  put  in  front  so  as  to  allow  the  hen  a  bit  of 
exercise  ground,  and  I  take  care  she  shall  have  a  plentiful  supply 
of  dust  and  lime.  I  have  no  time  to  let  hens  out  exercising  every 
day — they  must  do  their  own  exercising.  I  like  to  vary  the  food 
of  a  sitting  hen  a  little,  and  often  introduce  a  piece  of  Mangold  or 
a  Swede  Turnip  to  their  notice.  If  the  weather  be  warm  the  eggs 
should  occasionally  be  sprinkled  with  tepid  water  ;  indeed,  towards 
the  end  of  the  three  weeks  ours  are  usually  washed. 
A  little  help  is  often  needed  when  the  egg  is  spretched.” 
Sometimes  a  chick  is  too  weak  to  get  itself  fairly  out  of  the  shell. 
Then,  too,  an  egg  may  be  very  much  crushed — care  and  a  little 
warm  water  will  work  wonders.  The  chicks  come  into  a  warm 
basket  by  the  fire  as  soon  as  they  are  hatched,  and  when  all  are 
off  and  on  their  legs  the  mother  is  put  down  at  once  on  the  bare 
ground.  Should  the  weather  be  very  bitter  a  little  chopped  straw 
will  make  things  more  comfortable,  or  peat  moss  litter  and  an  old 
sack  put  in  front.  For  the  first  day  the  chicks  require  little  or  no 
food.  Then  they  get  chopped-up  eggs,  bread  steeped  in  milk,  and 
small  rice.  Before  each  coop  is  a  chicken-feeder — a  three-sided 
frame  of  rough  wood  with  a  wire  top. 
For  the  first  few  days  I  let  the  hen  feed  with  the  chickens  for 
two  reasons — she  teaches  them  how  to  eat  and  gets  a  bit  of  good 
fresh  food  herself,  as  after  three  weeks  of  close  sitting  she  is  much 
out  of  condition.  After  that  time  the  chicks  are  fed  separately  in 
the  feeder,  and  coarse  grain  is  given  to  the  hen  in  the  coop.  On 
no  account  should  a  coop  have  a  bottom — it  is  simply  impossible  to 
keep  them  clean,  and  I  move  my  hens  daily.  I  am  certain  this  is  a 
great  point.  Nothing  can  thrive  among  smells,  and  a  coop  with  a 
hen  and  ten  or  a  dozen  chickens  soon  gets  very  nasty.  I  have 
never  had  a  swill  tub  all  my  life,  but  instead  keep  in  the  kitchen  a 
small  tin  can  in  which  are  put  all  the  morsels  from  the  platei.  In 
a  large  household  there  are  always  bits.  People  will  not  eat  up  bread 
crusts,  and  bread  puddings  are  so  nauseous.  The  trimmings  of  toast, 
bits  of  potato,  pudding,  vegetables,  sauces — all  these  I  turn  into 
chicken  food,  and  I  also  appropriate  all  the  old  milk  I  can  get. 
In  winter  a  large  basket  hangs  from  a  bacon  hook  in  the  kitchen, 
and  receives  many  contributions  in  the  form  of  crusts  ;  being  in  so 
warm  a  place  there  is  no  chance  of  mould,  and  warm  water  or  milk 
will  soon  reduce  the  hardest  crust. 
Of  course  a  mistress  must  have  the  co-operation  of  her  cook, 
but  this  is  a  thing  I  have  never  found  difficult.  We  have  some 
thick  hedges  here,  and  our  hens  are  accustomed  to  lay  among  the 
roots. .  This  I  always  encourage,  and  I  get  some  of  my  best 
“  cletches  ”  out  of  the  Yew  hedge  in  the  garden.  Occasionally  I 
am  unkind  enough  to  substitute  the  egg  of  the  duck,  but  the  patient 
does  not  grumble. 
One  great  point  in  rearing  healthy  chickens  is  to  change  the 
feeding  and  rearing  ground  every  year.  Of  course  this  is  not 
always  possible,  but  even  if  the  distance  from  the  house  is  greater 
the  henwife  will  find  repayment  for  her  extra  trouble  in  a  clean 
bill  of  mortality. 
The  coops  and  the  feeders  can  be  easily  knocked  up  by  a  handy 
groom,  and  nothing  makes  a  better  refuge  for  J,Jie  bigger  chickens 
than  a  huge  heap  of  thorns — it  acts  both  as  a  shelter  from  wet  and 
sun.  It  is  desirable  to  set  two  hens  the  same  day,  so  that  if  by 
any  mischance  the  broods  are  small  the  chicks  can  be  amalgamated, 
and  only  one  coop  needed.  Never  let  young  chicks  out  in  the 
very  early  morning,  that  is  if  there  has  been  a  white  frost  or 
heavy  dew. 
I  only  rear  a  few  ducks  for  the  table  ;  these  are  penned  up  on 
grass  in  a  shady  situation.  Young  ducks,  if  they  have  the  least 
chance,  are  dreadful  gadabouts,  and  trail  off,  heedless  of  distance 
or  damp  grass.  Young  ones  cannot  stand  this.  Their  food  is  meal 
mixed  stiffly,  and  ducklings  must  have  a  good  supply  of  water. 
An  old  pancheon  sunk  in  the  ground  and  filled  with  stones,  to  act 
as  refuges,  makes  a  capital  watering  place. 
I  have  a  great  belief  in  broken  pottery  or  flint  for  fowls’ 
Their  teeth  are  in  the  stomach,  and  they  need  sharp  grit  of  some 
sort  to  aid  mastication.  Natural  grit  often  fails,  and  therefore  if 
much  poultry  be  kept  it  is  absolutely  essential  to  provide  sub¬ 
stitutes.  All  our  broken  crockery  ware  is  put  aside,  and  when 
there  is  a  spare  half  hour  is  converted  into  chips  by  the  aid  of  a 
flat  iron  on  a  defunct  iron  boiler.  Then  scattered  in  the  yard  it  is 
most  amusing  to  watch  with  what  avidity  the  sharp  morsels  are 
swallowed.  I  may  not  say  more.  A*  to  sale  of  eggs  the  local 
market  is  “  too  too,”  so  my  eggs  are  consigned  to  a  dealer  in  a  large 
manufacturing  town,  and  when  I  have  paid  his  commission  and 
railway  carriage  I  am  still  largely  into  pocket  over  our  market 
price. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
We  have  finished  drilling  spring  corn,  and  that  sown  early  is  well 
above  ground.  The  weather,  however,  is  so  frosty  that  much  damage 
may  be  done  to  the  young  blade.  We  hear  of  12°  of  frost  being  regis¬ 
tered,  and  ice  half  an  inch  thick.  The  forward  Wheats  are  showing  a 
yellow  tinge  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  fields,  the  natural  effect  of  su-}h 
weather  late  in  April.  We  have  had  a  little  rain,  but  the  temperafhlte 
does  not  rise. 
Pastures  have  now  become  very  bare  indeed,  and  store  stock  have 
had  a  serious  drop  in  price.  We  trust  it  will  only  be  a  temporary  one, 
and  that  warmer  weather  and  growing  grass  will  soon  put  more  confi¬ 
dence  into  the  mind  of  the  grazier. 
We  are  top-dressing  our  Wheat — at  least,  that  which  was  sown  after 
Potatoes.  Ninety  pounds  nitrate  of  soda,  2  cwt.  superphosphate,  and  a 
little  common  salt  per  acre  make  a  good  mixture;  but  the  mixing 
should  be  done  carefully,  as  the  ingredients  vary  so  very  widely  in 
character  and  strength. 
One  field  of  Wheat  we  are  sowing  with  small  seeds  for  one  year’s 
pasture.  We  are  sowing  the  manure  mixture  first,  then  the  seeds,  and 
harrowing  all  in  together.  The  Wheat  is  a  strong  good  plant,  and  will 
be  all  the  better  for  a  little  knocking  about  and  earthing-up  ;  it  is, 
indeed,  difficult  to  harrow  Wheat  too  much. 
This  field  is  an  example  of  what  can  be  done  to  a  very  foul  piece  of 
land  by  a  course  in  which  are  two  successive  green  crops.  It  is  a  very 
light  sandy  field,  and  two  years  ago  was  exceedingly  full  of  Twitch  (this 
was  chiefly  owing  to  a  very  wet  bad  fallowing  summer  for  the  previous 
Turnip  crop).  In  1895  Turnips  were  sown  ;  there  was  a  fair  crop,  and 
they  were  consumed  on  the  land.  Last  year  a  Potato  crop  was  taken, 
and  now  a  man  would  make  a  very  poor  wage  if  given  Is,  each  for 
every  plant  of  Twitch  he  could  fiad  amongst  the  growing  Wheat;  at 
any  rate,  we  have  searched,  and  failed  to  find  one  so  far.  This  course 
of  cropping  can  be  commended  with  confidence  to  the  attention  of  those 
who  are  farming  land  of  this  description. 
METEOROLOGUOAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Oamden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  51°  12'  40"  N. :  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.:  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
1897. 
|  Barometer 
|  at  32°, and 
|  Sea  Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Temp, 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot. 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
6 
*3 
05 
April. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Wind. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Sunday  „  11 
Inchs. 
30T90 
deg. 
41-8 
deg. 
39-7 
E. 
deg. 
43-2 
deg. 
53  0 
deg. 
27  8 
deg. 
92-9 
deg 
24-9 
Inchp. 
Monday  ..  12 
129-789 
43-8 
44-1 
S. 
44T 
52-5 
42-3 
66*6 
39T 
0-010 
Tuesday  , .  13 
29-744 
50-4 
47-1 
E. 
44-7 
60-8 
44-5 
88-9 
41-6 
0077 
Wednesday  14 
1 29-6 16 
50-4  t 
48-0 
W. 
46-3 
57-3 
47-2 
105-3 
43-2 
0-013 
Thursday..  15 
Friday  ..  16 
30-178 
46-9 
4JST 
W. 
45-4 
56-3 
35-4 
106-2 
308 
0  024 
30T43 
51-3 
46-2 
S.W. 
45-2 
53-7 
426 
79-1 
36-4 
0T87 
Saturday  . .  17 
29-949 
50-1 
49-6 
S.W. 
45-6 
66-3 
44-1 
84-7 
39  4 
0-114 
29-344 
1 
48-5 
45-2 
44  9 
55-7 
40-6 
89T 
36*5 
0-423 
11th.— Sunny  most  of  the  day  ;  cloudy  evening. 
12th— Overcast  all  day,  with  occasional  spots  of  rain  in  morning. 
13th.— Much  bright  sunshine,  but  overcast  at  times. 
14th. — Gale  and  rain  in  small  hours  and  web  till  9.30  A.M.;  gleams  of  sun  from 
10.30  A.M.,  and  bright  afternoon. 
15th. — Brilliant  early  ;  alternate  cloud  and  sun  during  the  day,  with  occasional  sprinkles 
of  rain. 
16th.— Sunny  early;  overcast  day,  with  drizzle  and  showers  at  intervals. 
17th. — Steady  rain  in  the  small  hours  and  overcast  and  showery  day,  with  occasional 
gleams  of  sun. 
A  week  of  typical  April  weather.  Temperature  as  a  whole  very  near  the  average, 
|  but  considerable  range,  and  a  sharp  frost  on  the  morning  of  the  11th.— G.  J.  Symons^ 
