526 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
June  12,  1902. 
Minorcas,  who  only  managed  to  raise  34  eggs,  33  of  which 
were  laid  in  the  fourth  month.  Two  pens  of  Leghorns 
varied  a  good  deal.  One  pen  produced  no  eggs  at  all  the 
first  month,  against  the  other  producing  40.  We  don’t  know, 
but  we  should  fancy  the  non-layers  were  not  in  such  tiptop 
condition.  This  is  the  fifth  year  of  competition,  and  only 
once  have  the  prizewinners  beaten  this  year’s  record  (200), 
and  that  was  in  1899-1900,  silver  Wyandottes  laying  223. 
We  are  glad  to  see  buff  Leghorns,  that  we  think  well  of, 
came  seventh  in  the  list  mth  113  eggs. 
There  is  a  prevalent  idea  that  takes  arguing  against,  and 
that  is  the  practice  of  setting  the  biggest  eggs.  Now,  the 
biggest  eggs,  as  a  rule,  are  not  laid  by  the  most  prolific 
bird.  Her  eggs  are  smallish,  and  get  passed  over — go  into 
the  market  basket  instead  of  into  the  incubator  or  under 
the  broody  hen.  People  want  to  look  well  to  these  little 
points,  as  one  writer  observes  it  is  not  the  breed  so  much 
as  the  strain.  Get  a  good  laying  strain,  never  mind  the 
breed. 
We  have  often  said  before,  and  shall  again,  that  breeders 
defeat  their  own  ends  by  having  the  stock  layers  hatched 
too  soon.  The  pullets  don’t  want  to  be  moulting  in  October 
and  November.  They  are  wanted  then  for  the  execution 
of  their  duties.  The  very  early  chickens  are  those  that 
shovdd  be  got  off  early  for  cooking  purposes.  March  and 
April  hatched  birds  are  the  ones  for  the  dead  months. 
There  is  another  little  point — we  don’t  believe  in  late- 
hatched  chickens.  We  like  all  to  be  off  by  the  middle  of 
May,  that  is  if  we  mean  to  get  any  profit.  If  there  are 
broody  hens,  possibly  an  outlet  may  be  found  for  them  by 
communicating  with  the  nearest  gamekeeper.  We  are 
much  in  favour  of  getting  elderly  hens  out  of  hand  in  that 
way.  The  usual  price  is  2s.  6d.,  and  their  room  is  better 
than  their  company.  The  mistake  that  is  made  by  so  many 
poultry-keepers  is  overcrowding.  Better  have  a  few  birds 
that  you  can  do  well  by  than  more  than  the  pasture  can 
cai’ry.  We  saw  a  hen  and  her  brood  the  other  day  on  a 
piece  of  grass  near  a  kitchen  door.  Those  little  creatures 
visibly  swelled  before  our  eyes.  They  were  constantly 
being  fed — all  sorts  of  nice  fancy  bits.  They  had  the  range 
of  the  yard,  and  in  it  they  found  stores  of  natural  food. 
That  hand  food  and  that  natural  food  divided  between  two 
nr  three  more  lots  would  have  been  as  nothing,  because 
there  is  but  a  limited  supply  of  household  scraps,  and  that 
is  the  food  which  does  so  much  to  keep  chickens  in  health. 
There  is  variety  in  it,  and  it  is  all  more  or  less  nutritious. 
Now,  again  to  the  egg  question — not  the  production,  but 
the  preservation.  Eggs  are  a  daily  necessity.  Ask  a  cook, 
and  she  will  tell  you  how  fast  she  is  without  eggs.  She 
nwes  an  immense  debt  to  the  hen.  and  when  fresh  eggs 
are  dear  and  scarce  she  has  to  be  more  careful  than  she 
likes.  Every  noted  housekeeper  has  some  little  patent  way 
nf  her  own  by  which  she  secures  a  winter  store,  for  it  does 
seem  aggravating  to  sell  at  eighteen  or  nineteen  for  Is.,  as 
is  the  case  in  most  country  districts  in  the  spring.  The 
•eggshell  is  porous.  Keen  the  air  out,  and  the  egg  retains 
its  useful  properties.  The  favourite  preservative  is  lime 
and  salt  water,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it  is  a  success 
partial.  The  egg  is  good  and  useful  for  cooking,  but  is  not 
■suitable  to  boil.  'The  white  has  a  tendency  to  become 
watery,  and  sometimes,  alas  ! — and  we  can’t  tell  quite  how — 
the  yplk  becomes  as  hard  as  a  bullet.  Some  people  again 
bury  in  salt,  sawdust,  sand,  or  smear  with  grease,  which  is 
rather  a  dirty,  messy  way,  and  none  of  these  are  quite 
•effectual. 
Much  has  been  said  of  late  as  to  the  preserving  properties 
of  water  glass  (silicate  of  sod-i),  and  those  who  have  tried 
it  declare  that  at  last  they  have  hit  the  right  nail  on  the 
head.  The  boiled  egg  has  that  pleasant  milkiness  so 
characteristic  of  the  perfectly  fresh  laid  one,  and  this  after 
a  year’s  sojourn  in  the  preserving  tub.  There  appears  to 
be  some  little  difficulty  in  getting  w’ater  glass  in  the  small 
towns,  at  least,  so  we  found  ;  and  in  a  large  town  we  could 
only  get  the  solution,  not  the  crystals.  A  pound  of  water 
glass  to  a  gallon  of  water,  although  we  ourselves  are  using 
more  water.  The  great  thing,  we  believe,  is  to  put  the 
eggs  into  the  preparation  directly  they  are  laid,  and  they 
should  be  perfectly  clean.  We  also  should  prefer  ourselves 
to  have  eggs  that  were  unfertile,  so  that  there  might  be 
no  risk  of  a  germ  that  had  started  on  its  life  career.  If,  as 
is  said,  the  solution  may  be  repeatedly  used,  the  cost  is  veiy 
little.  In  any  case,  the  cost  is  not  of  material  importance  if 
the  preservative  proves  to  be  all  its  advocates  declare.  We 
are  looking  forward  to  the  result  of  our  experiment  with 
great  interest. 
It  is  said,  with  ti’uth,  that  the  stomach  is  man’s  greatest 
friend  or  foe,  and  we  think  the  same  may  be  said  as  to  the 
livers  of  fowds.  If  anyone  is  at  the  trouble  of  reading  the 
answers  to  inquirers  headed  “  Poultry  ”  in  any  of  the 
agricultural  papers,  it  is  astonishing  how  many  cases  of 
death  and  disease  arise  from  the  liver.  It  is  the  old  story 
— improper  food.  The  liver  has  more  to  do  than  it  possibly 
can,  and  in  the  end  succumbs.  Damp  also  is  a  fruitful 
cause  of  liver  mischief,  and  another  factor  is  the  scarcity 
of  grit.  Fowls  are  allowed  unlimited  grass  runs.  So  far  so 
good  ;  but  unless  you  supply  it,  Avhere  is  the  grit  to  come 
from?  There  is  very  little  of  a  natural  supply  to  be  found, 
and  that  is  soon  exhausted.  Grit  is  so  easily  made  that 
it  seems  a  shame  a  supply  should  be  lacking.  The  high 
price  of  maize  is  one  of  the  finest  things  that  could  have 
happened  for  the  well-being  of  poultry.  It  is  food  which,  to 
be  of  any  use,  must  be  given  in  the  strictest  moderation. 
We  talk  and  vadte  and  reiterate  the  old  advice,  and  people 
will  follow  their  own  sweet  wills,  and  wonder  how  it  is  so 
many  of  their  fine,  fat  fowls  seek  an  early  grave,  or,  if  they 
do  not  do  that,  live  an  idle,  useless,  eggless  life. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
We  have  rain  nearly  every  day,  but  not  j'et  too  much  in  our 
opinion.  Yesterday,  at  our  local  market,  a  few  farmers  were 
growling  about  it,  asking  for  more  sunshine  and  prophesying 
laid  Barleys.  These  are  the  same  men  who  have  been  short  of 
bay  and  straw  :  and  surely  they  are  too  exacting.  As  we  xirove 
to  market,  the  difference  in  the  appearance  of  the  crops  from 
that  of  the  previous  week  was  extraordinary.  Present  appear¬ 
ances  remind  us  much  of  the  season  of  1894,  when  we  had.  a 
record  crop  of  Barley.  May  performance  equal  promise!  Oats 
are  naturally  looking  grand.  One  field  belonging  to  a  neigh¬ 
bour  is  so  big  that  the  owner  is  talking  of  mowing  it  off,  or, 
rather,  taking  the  top  flag  off,  as  he  fears  that  otherwise  it  will 
not  stand.  We  should  chance  it. 
What  a  splendid  time  it  is  for  young  Clover!  There  will  be 
a  grand  plant  this  year  if  the  grain  crops  do  not  smother  it. 
There  is  a  possibility  that  this  year  grain  crops  may  prove  more 
severe  tests  to  self-binders,  and  there  is  probably  a  connection 
between  the  binder  question  and  the  desire  of  some  farmers  for 
less  forcing  weather.  It  has  been  too  wet  to  proceed  with  root 
sowing,  but  a  good  breadth  is  growing,  and  growing  very  fast. 
We  yesterday  heard  a  whisixer  about  the  appearance  of  fly,  but 
must  decline  to  believe  that  these  could  be  true  under  recent 
conditions. 
Very  little  horse  work  has  been  possible  during  the  week. 
Horse-hoeing  Potatoes  and  odd  jobs  have  been  the  only  employ¬ 
ments,  except  one  day’s  Wheat  delivery.  The  price  of  corn  per 
quarter  is  higher,  but  per  stack  it  makes  less  money  than  in 
October.  The  gain  in  price  is  more  than  met  by  loss  of  weight 
and  waste.  With  the  same  number  of  loads  from  the  same  field 
there  should  have  been  no  difference  except  from  the  above 
cau.ses. 
There  is  a  decided  rise  in  the  price  of  be.st  Potatoes.  Very 
few  Up-to-Dates  are  left,  and  as  the  best  customers  will  have 
no  other  kind,  the  value  of  this  soi’t  has  touched  £3  per  ton  at 
the  pie.  Others  are  very  little  better  than  they  were.  Some 
of  the  new  kinds  are  cooking  vei'y'  black,  and  are  almost  worth¬ 
less  for  eating  purposes. 
Pastures — even  the  poorly-set  Clovers — have  improved  out  of 
knowledge,  and  naturally  farmers  are  holding  their  stock  back. 
The  warm  weather  is  against  beef,  and  we  expect  to  see  the 
markets  take  a  strong  turn  in  favour  of  mutton  and  a  big 
boom  in  sheep. 
Potatoes  are  growing  quickly,  and  will  want  skerrying  quite 
as  soon  as  we  shall  find  convenient.  There  is  too  much  live  sod 
in  the  ridges ;  the  ridge  harrows  pulled  the  greater  part  into  the 
furrows,  where  the  rains  revived  it,  and  it  must  soon  have 
another  stirring  up. 
Ordinary  Turnip  skerries  are  of  little  use  amongst  Potatoes. 
A  Potato  horse  hoe  must  be  more  of  the  nature  of  a  grubber ;  it 
should  have  strong  chisel  teeth,  such  as  will  break  up  the  furrows 
well,  and  we  must  not  be  afraid  of  using  it.  The  Potato  loves 
loose,  fre.shly  worked  soil,  and  we  must  have  plenty  of  this  to 
earth  the  crop  up  with. 
“The  Country.’* 
The  June  number  of  the  “Country”  is  very  interesting,  and 
provides  a  varied  fare  of  litei’ary  articles  illustrated.  Dogs, 
birds,  insects,  bees,  eels,  and  congers;  ploughing,  its  systems  in 
various  counties  of  England  and  in  other  countries,  together 
with  much  that  is  useful  and  delightful  to  read  about  in  regard 
to  Roses,  Pseonies,  and  Strawberries,  are  among  the  chief 
features  of  the  issue.  Messrs.  Dent  and  Co.  are  the  publishers; 
price  6d. 
