This chapter will embrace the ordinary domestic animals, birds, &c., usually kept at a country-house.

Horse

Horse.—Choosing and Buying.—The weak points of a horse can be better discovered while standing than while moving. If sound, he will stand firmly and squarely in his limbs without moving any of them, the feet flat upon the ground, with legs plump and naturally poised; if a foot is lifted from the ground, or the weight taken from it, disease may be suspected, or at least tenderness, which is a precursor of disease. If the horse stands with his feet spread apart, or straddles with his hind legs, there is a weakness in the loins, and the kidneys are disordered. Heavy pulling bends the knees. Bluish, milky cast eyes in horses indicate moon blindness. A bad tempered horse keeps his ears thrown back. A kicking horse is apt to have scarred legs. A stumbling horse has blemished knees. When the skin is rough and harsh, and does not move easily to the touch, the horse is a heavy eater, and digestion is bad. Never buy a horse whose breathing organs are at all impaired. Place your ear at the side of the heart, and if a wheezing sound is heard it is an indication of trouble. (Rural Record.)

Examine the eyes in the stable, then in the light; if they are in any degree defective, reject. Examine the teeth to determine the age. Examine the poll or crown of the head, and the withers, or top of the shoulders, as the former is the seat of poll evil, and the latter that of fistula. Examine the front feet; and if the frog has fallen, or settled down between the heels of the shoes, and the heels are contracted, reject him, as, if not already lame, he is liable to become so at any moment. Observe the knees and ankles, and, if cocked, you may be sure that it is the result of the displacement of the internal organs of the foot, a consequence of neglect of the form of the foot, and injudicious shoeing. Examine for interfering, from the ankle to the knees, and if it proves that he cuts the knee, or the leg between the knee and the ankle, or the latter badly, reject. “Speedy cuts” of the knee and leg are most serious in their effects. Many trotting horses, which would be of great value were it not for this single defect, are by it rendered valueless. Carefully examine the hoofs for cracks, as jockeys have acquired great skill in concealing cracks in the hoofs. If cracks are observable in any degree, reject. Also both look and feel for ringbones, which are callosities on the bones of the pastern near the foot; if apparent, reject. Examine the hind feet for the same defects of the foot and ankle named in connection with the front feet. Then proceed to the hock, which is the seat of curb, and both bone and blood spavins. The former is a bony enlargement of the posterior and lower portion of the hock-joint; the second a bony excrescence on the lower, inner, and rather anterior portion of the hock; and the last is a soft enlargement of the synovial membrane on the inner and upper portion of the hock. Either is sufficient reason for rejecting. See that the horse stands with the front feet well under him, and observe both the heels of the feet and shoes to see if he “forges” or overreaches; and in case he does, and the toes of the front feet are low, the heels high, and the heels of the front shoes a good thickness, and the toes of the hind feet are of no proper length, reject him; for if he still overreaches with his feet in the condition described, he is incurable. If he props out both front feet, or points them alternately, reject. In testing the driving qualities, take the reins while on the ground, invite the owner to get in the vehicle first, then drive yourself. Avoid the display or the use of the whip; and if he has not sufficient spirit to exhibit his best speed without it, reject. Should he drive satisfactorily without, it will then be proper to test his amiability and the extent of his training in the use of the whip. Thoroughly test his walking qualities first, as that gait is more important in the horse of all work than great trotting speed. The value of a horse, safe for all purposes without blinds, is greatly enhanced thereby. Purchase of the breeder, if practicable.

The Field has often warned its readers against describing any horse they might have for sale as a “perfect” hunter, or “good” hunter. Describing a horse as a good hunter is giving a very comprehensive warranty of performance, and to a certain extent of soundness as well. No horse can be called a hunter unless he can jump, and his jumping powers may depend a great deal upon the man who rides him. If he jumps at all, he may either take the bit in his teeth and “commit” his rider to a fence 40 yd. off; or he may require a resolute man and a cutting whip to get him over anything like a ditch. No horse to whom either of these peculiarities attaches could be called a “good,” much less a “perfect,” hunter. It has never been expressly decided whether, under these assumed conditions, there would be a breach of warranty if the horse were so described, but the probabilities are against the seller. A horse that is in the very slightest degree touched in the wind is unsound, yet for practical purposes a whistler or a grunter is ten times more useful as a hunter than a horse with bad navicular, or a sprained sinew. But, so far as the law goes, the lame horse might be sold as a good hunter, while the whistler could not. Upon this ground, if a court were to decide that a horse described as a good or perfect hunter must be sound in wind and eyes, there would be every reason to expect that the same tribunal would hold that he must be sound on his feet and legs, or at any rate fit for immediate use. In the case of harness horses, however, it has been held that a warranty of soundness is not involved in one of quietness. Warranties of soundness are going out of fashion. But as the pedigree, or antecedents, of a horse often have a material influence on the price paid for him, a statement concerning one or both is often made by the seller as an integral part of the contract. Such assertions are just as much a warranty as if they referred to his quietness, age, or soundness, and, should they prove false, render the seller liable to an action for breach of warranty. It would be wise of the seller to say nothing, unless he himself received a written description with the horse, which statement he could show and explain to the person purchasing from him, when, should the contents be untrue, he will not be liable. When a horse is sent for sale to a commission stable, the commission agent is justified in repeating to a buyer the description given to him (the agent) by the owner of the horse, and the seller will be bound by that description. Of course the agent has no right to exceed his instructions and give a warranty on his own account. Should he do so, the seller will not be bound. But a warranty by an ordinary servant, or by a person directed by another to sell a horse, and put, for that purpose, in a position which to a stranger might seem to imply an authority to warrant, would bind the seller.

Keeping.—Horse keeping must always be costly. Grooms’ wages, rent of stabling, hay, oats, straw, beans, carrots, bran, linseed, taxes, coals and candles, gas or oil, shoeing, stable implements, and veterinary attendance cost money in every establishment. When the whole cost is taken into account it will be found that in the case of full-sized horses the expense of each varies, according to circumstances, from about 30s. to 36s. or more a week, even when there is no waste. The prime cost of horses, carriages, and harness will depend to a great extent upon the purpose for which they are required. It is well to be circumspect in buying a second-hand vehicle, as getting up worthless carriages for sale is a regular trade. With harness and saddlery the best goods are everywhere the best economy.

The first item is the stable. If one is attached to the house, no extra cost will be incurred. The average charge for renting will be about 5s. per horse per week, inclusive of rates and taxes, but exclusive of fire, lights, or straw. If stabling be rented by the year, the weekly average will be less, as also in places where there is not much demand, and where it is rather of makeshift.

The groom should be a thorough stableman, conversant with the proper mode of dressing horses, methodical in habit, and honest. From 25s. to 30s. per week should secure the services of a good man, and for this sum he would find himself in everything. If accommodation allows, he might sleep on the premises, but should he sleep and live in the house his wages will be much less. He should know how to clip, singe, foment, put on a bandage properly, and give a horse a ball; but it is well to allow no drugs or physic to be given without the directions of a veterinary surgeon. If the man is a hard worker, he will look after 3 saddle horses and clean his master’s breeches and boots, single-handed; but this is rather trying him, and is more than the majority of grooms would undertake; in most instances it would be necessary to have a second hand—a lad at about 14s. a week would do—to “muck out” the stables, help dress the horses, and do rough work. Similarly, 2 hunters, a harness horse, and vehicle, will be heavy work for one man.

Many persons have their horses foraged by contract, supplies being sent in at fixed periods. In London some contractors do it for about 1s. or 1s. 2d. a hand, i.e. a horse not exceeding 16 hands will be foraged for about 16s. per week, while a pony not exceeding 12 hands would only cost 12s. When living in the country, purchase of neighbouring farmers. Let all forage be of the best quality—it is cheapest in the end. Oats and hay must be old—that is to say, oats and hay harvested in 1884 should not be used in the stables till the July or August following at the earliest. Some people give the last cut oats after Christmas; but it should never be done. A horse requires feeding often; though 3 times a day is sufficient, 4 times is better. Horses should drink before they eat, because water does not remain in the stomach, but passes through it into a large intestine called the cÆcum. If a horse be fed first, the water passing through the stomach would be likely to carry with it particles of food, and thus bring about colic. Whatever a groom may say, let a horse drink just as much as he likes. If he be watered 4 times a day he will never take too much to be good for him. It will be cheaper to buy enough forage to last the season or more, than to be perpetually getting in small quantities. If a hunter—taking him as the typical horse, because he requires the best keep—be fed 4 times a day, he will have a quartern of oats at each feed, or a peck a day (4 quarterns = 1 peck), or 1 bush. of oats will last 4 days, and in 1 week he will eat 1¾ bush. With each feed a couple or three double handfuls of chaff should be given, as this will cause the food to be more thoroughly masticated. Hay is given in the rack morning and evening, about 6-8 lb. each time; though where horses are not limited as to oats they will not require so much. A truss of hay weighs 56 lb., so the weekly allowance to each horse may be set down at about 1½ truss. Some good judges recommend that hay should be in the rack between feeding times. Beans are more nutritive than oats, but are heating, and should not be given to a 4-year-old at all. A 5-year-old should not have them unless he works hard, and then not more than 1 lb. per diem; aged horses may have about 2 lb. per day divided into 3 feeds; but during a frost, or when only used for gentle work, such as hacking in the London season, beans should be dispensed with. Bran is chiefly used for mashes, and it is advisable to follow the time-honoured plan of giving one every Saturday night. Linseed gruel is, by some horses, preferred to that made from oatmeal; but the latter is refreshing and soothing if the horse will take it. A few carrots given every now and then will tend to keep the blood cool. Study the appetite of each horse.

For bedding there is nothing better than wheat straw. Oat straw is permissible, and cheaper. Barley straw must on no account be used. The quantity of straw required per week will vary with the care with which the groom separates the clean from the soiled in the morning, the wish of the owner as to the look of his stable, and the size of the box or stall. Speaking roughly, a careful groom can manage in an ordinary sized loose box with about 50-60 lb. per week, and with this allowance a horse can be well bedded and kept clean; this, of course, after the bed has been originally formed with about 2 trusses.

As to cost. Oats vary from 3s. to 4s. per bush.; best upland hay may be set down at 5l. a ton (40 trusses of 56 lb. in a ton); straw at 3l. 10s. a ton; and beans at a trifle more than 1d. a lb. Thus the cost of keeping a horse for a week will be:—

Something must be allowed for bran, linseed, and carrots; these may be set down at about 2s. per week.

Groom’s wages must be added. Suppose he receives 25s. per week, and only has one horse to look after, that one horse will cost the owner 39s. 3d. at the lowest estimate; if there be 2 horses, they will each stand at 26s. 9d., and so on. Shoeing may be set down roughly at 3l. per annum; the tax for a groom is 15s. per year; the veterinary surgeon may have to be called in occasionally; while coals and lights must not be left out of sight. From a money point of view, therefore, keeping horses in a private stable is, generally speaking, no cheaper than sending them to livery at 30s. per week; but the advantage is that they are generally better done at home. (Field.)

Horses need well-ventilated stables, free from draught and damp. The floor should be smooth and nearly level. It should be well drained and light, for sudden change from darkness to light is trying to the eyes, and a damp, offensive odour is injurious. Then, again, the bedding and litter should be carefully separated from that which is foul. They should be well shaken up and dried, and the stall should be thoroughly cleansed; and when the stable is empty, let in plenty of fresh air. A horse’s stall should be large enough to allow him to lie down comfortably in any position. A tired horse will be glad to lie down with his legs stretched out if he has room; but if you cannot give him a loose box, then a light halter block should be used, and care taken to arrange the halter so that it may travel freely to allow the head to come easily to the litter, for rest and sleep are as necessary as food and water. If a horse comes to the stable wet, he should be rubbed dry before the blanket is put on. If he is standing about in the cold, it should be put on. The legs should be rubbed, and the hoofs always examined for stones. When dressed and made comfortable, leave a bucket of chilled water in the box, which should be filled up with cold the last thing at night when closing the stables.

Cleaning.—One of the most important things in the management of farm horses is their cleaning, and yet nothing is more neglected. The horse should never be cleaned or harnessed while it is eating breakfast. Let horses eat their food in peace, for many, from sanguine temperament or greed, bolt their oats when handled during the time of feeding. Harness can be quickly enough put on after the feed is eaten, and time should then be taken to comb the mane and tail, and use a wisp of straw on the body and legs. When the horses come in at dinner-time, they should at once be unharnessed. The feed is then to be given, and before the harness is again put on, the horse should be thoroughly rubbed down with a wisp of straw or hay. If the horses are very warm on coming in, they should be rubbed down immediately after the removal of the harness.

The cleaning or grooming, which should be done at night, consists first in currying the horse with a currycomb to free him of the dirt adhering to the hair, and which being now dry, is easily removed. A wisping of straw removes the roughest of the dirt loosened by the currycomb. The legs ought to be thoroughly wisped, not only to make them clean, but to dry up any moisture that may have been left in the evening; and at this time the feet should be picked clean by the foot-picker—i.e. an iron instrument made for the purpose—of any dirt adhering between the shoe and the foot. The brush is then to be used to remove the remaining and finer portions of dust from the hair, which is cleared from the brush by a few rasps along the currycomb. This wisping and brushing, if done with some force and dexterity, with a combing of the tail and mane, should render the horse pretty clean. The skin of the farm horse should at all times be clean if not sleek, and a slap of the hand upon the horse will show if there is loose dust in the hair. The currycomb should not be used below the knees, as it is apt to cause injury. For cleaning the legs and feet, nothing is better than the water brush.

At morning stables, after the carriage horse is “mucked out,” the next step is to quarter him over and pick and wash his feet out. The first quartering may be done with an old water brush, and means roughly removing from the horse with water alone anything imparted to his side by manure. By the time the horse has done feeding the quartering will have nearly dried. If the animal is for morning exercise the above is sufficient. The dressing proper can be done when he comes home. If he is for hunting or hacking that day a good stableman will set to work at him as soon as the horse has finished his feed. If he is a grey, and has become stained with manure in the night, the groom should well rub in, with his hands only, plenty of common brown soap (not soft soap), and use plenty of tepid water in doing it. Then take a clean water brush, and let his shoulder go at his work until the stain is out. This is easily seen, because if the man finds no discoloration in the water in the bucket when he has sponged (with a perfectly clean sponge) all the soap off, no particle of stain will remain. If the water used in stable work is hard, a little soda dissolved in it will cause the soap to lather well. The horse should be tied up short while being washed, and after the sponging the wet places should be thoroughly dried with a rubber, which should be cleanliness itself. Worn-out table linen makes the best stable rubbers, the older the better. When the washed parts are quite dry, the horse should be well dressed with a clean horse-brush; one with any old dirt or grease in it will make fresh stains. After dressing with the horse brush, his coat should be again well rubbed the right way with another dry rubber fresh from the towel-horse and the saddle-room fire. Lazy stablemen are in the habit of using powdered charcoal to remove stains from grey horses. The practice is idle and dirty. In the case of clipped horses, stable stains can be removed in a very short time, and not much more is requisite with that of a well-done horse with his summer coat on. When the coat is shifting, a little more labour is requisite.

Driving.—Strict adherence to the rule of the road will not necessarily protect a driver from being liable for the result of a collision between another vehicle and his own. Sometimes he may be held to be negligent because he remained on the near side, and did not pull out of the way, even into the opposite gutter, if necessary. It is not possible to say what acts constitute negligent driving; the nearest rule that can be given is that drivers should act as reasonable men in the management of their vehicles. If they do anything that a reasonable man would not do, or omit to do anything that he would, then they are guilty of negligence; but acts that would amount to negligence in one case would not necessarily be so in another. Negligence on the part of a driver is not excused merely because the victim was also guilty of some degree of negligence, provided of course that it did not contribute to the immediate cause of the accident. If, however, the proximate cause of an accident be a driver’s unskilfulness, the injured driver may not recover, although the primary cause of the accident was the wrong-doing of some one else. If a man leave a horse and cart standing in the street without any one to look after them, and the horse, either by itself, or on being struck by a passer-by, backs into the window of a shop, and damages goods, the owner of the cart, having chosen to leave it in the street, must take the risk of any mischief. In cases where there is negligence on both sides, the rule to be deduced is, that a person injured by the negligent driving of another, cannot recover damages if but for own negligence, the accident would not have happened at all. Sometimes it may happen that a person who is driven into, or over, must bring his action, not against the driver of the vehicle inflicting the injury, but against a third party; as, for instance, if one carriage be so improperly driven as to compel a second carriage to take such a line as to make it collide with a third, the driver of the first carriage would be liable to the owner of the third. Lastly, in a pure accident, in which no one has been guilty of negligence, the injured party has no right of action at all. It is not because a man’s horse runs away, or becomes unmanageable, that the owner is to be responsible for any harm that may be sustained by a member of the public; a mutilated person is always entitled to sympathy, but not invariably to damages. (Field.)

Hiring.—Horses, carriages, or both, may be hired under 3 conditions: (a) Where the hired property remains on the owner’s premises; (b) Where, during the period of hire, it is transferred to the premises of the hirer; (c) Where it is hired from the owner for a particular journey, and returned to him as soon as this is performed. Under either of the 2 first conditions, the hiring may be for a period exceeding a year, or for any shorter time. All contracts not to be performed within one year from the time of making must be in writing and signed. An agreement made on the 1st of May, 1887, to hire horses for one year from that day, will terminate on 1st of May, 1888, and therefore be completed within the year, and so not require writing; but if the agreement (made on the 1st) be for a year’s hire, to commence on the 20th of May, the contract will not be completely performed until the 20th of May, or 20 days after the expiration of the year, consequently writing will be needed.

The chief inducement to hire instead of buying carriages and horses is, that by payment of an inclusive charge, the trouble and annoyance inseparable from keeping a private stable are avoided. The owner of a carriage let out to hire undertakes, in return for the sum paid, to do certain repairs, varying according to circumstances.

Most coachmakers now bind themselves to execute only such repairs as may be rendered necessary by fair wear and tear; accidents, however arising, being expressly exempted. The result is that, in the event of a “smash,” the hirer has to pay the owner for the damage; and, if the former or his servant is in fault, the loss falls on him; while, if the other vehicle be in the wrong, the hirer has to get his damages from its proprietor—the owner of the hired carriage being indemnified either way. If the carriage is bought out-and-out during the period for which it was originally hired, the seller is not bound to repair gratis after he has sold it.

Under ordinary circumstances the hirer of a horse is not responsible for any damage that may happen to it, so long as he has not been guilty either of negligence or of using the horse for a purpose other than that for which it was hired. But if he has broken the agreement made at the time of hiring, then he is liable for the loss resulting from his conduct. Where a horse is hired to take the hirer to a certain place, the usual and customary route should be taken, for should the hirer deviate unnecessarily from the most convenient road, he will be liable. In hiring horses for a special journey, care should be taken by the hirer to point out when he does and when he does not mean to go from place to place by the most direct or usual route. So long as he provides for a deviation he is answerable only for negligence or improper driving; but if he deviate materially, such deviation will amount to improper driving, although his coachmanship may be without reproach.

If a person hire a horse or carriage for a stated period, but return it before the expiration of the time, the owner must keep it on his premises till the time for hire has determined, if he wishes to recover the charge from the hirer. He cannot earn his money twice over; so, if he sells in the meantime, the hirer will not be liable for the price of the hiring.

The liability of a person sitting in a carriage to make good any damage occasioned to the property of others by the driver’s negligence, depends upon the relationship subsisting between the driver and the person driven. This relationship differs according to the ownership of the equipage, or its component parts. The owner of horses and a carriage, driven by a servant in his exclusive employ, has cast upon him the most extended liability for his servant’s negligence; while, on the other hand, the occupant of a hack fly is discharged from any thought of the horses or the driver. If horses and a carriage are jobbed in the manner already described, they are the hirer’s own, so far as the general public are concerned; and if driven by his own coachman, he will be as liable for the latter’s negligence as though he purchased them outright. Provided the hirer of horses use ordinary care in the selection of his coachman—not a job one—he will not be answerable to the owner of the horses for the casual negligence of the servant so engaged. If the driver be a servant of the jobmaster, he does not cease to be so by reason of the owner of the carriage preferring to be driven by that particular servant where there is a choice amongst more, any more than a hack postboy ceases to be the servant of an innkeeper, where a traveller has a particular preference for one over the rest, on account of his sobriety and carefulness. Even wearing the hirer’s livery does not affect the question.

No satisfactory line can be drawn, at which, as a matter of law, the general owner of a carriage, or rather the general employer of the driver, ceased to be responsible, and the temporary hirer became so. Each case of this class must depend upon its own circumstances; and the jury taking these circumstances into consideration, must decide whether, at the time of an accident, the driver is acting as the servant of the hirer, or as the servant of the owner. Generally it may be taken that when the hirer of horses also has the owner’s servant to drive, the servant still continues in the jobmaster’s employ, the ownership of the carriage being immaterial. The horses and man may be reckoned as one, as constituting the motive and guiding power.

A hirer of horses may by his own conduct render himself a co-trespasser with the driver, or even constitute the driver his own servant for the purpose of becoming liable for the result of an accident. If the hirer of a whole equipage direct the owner’s servant to drive at an increased pace in a crowded thoroughfare, or in some other way assume the control of the horses, he will draw on to his own shoulders that responsibility which would under ordinary circumstances rest with the jobmaster. Still more will this be the case if he drives himself. (Field.)

Care of Carriages.—(a) The coach-room should be large, dry, and well ventilated; the walls and ceiling lined and finished in oil or varnish; the windows large, but curtained with blue curtains, so as to admit a moderate amount of light; the floors and ceilings should be kept free from dust or dirt; if the floor is wet when sweeping, the carriage should not be put in until it is dry.

(b) If the stable is of brick or stone, the walls should be lined with a close board partition at least 3 in. from the wall, with openings at the top and bottom to allow a circulation of air between the wall and partition. Never allow a carriage to stand near a brick or stone wall, or any other that is damp, as the dampness affects the paint and trimmings.

(c) Ammonia destroys varnish and affects colours. Care should be taken, therefore, to locate the carriage-room in such a manner that it will not be exposed to the fumes of the stable or manure heap.

(d) A carriage should never be allowed to stand in the carriage-room without being protected from dust by a cotton or linen cover; but this cover should not be put on when the carriage is wet or dusty. Dust if allowed to remain on eats into varnish: the cover should be so arranged as not to touch the carriage.

(e) Carriages should be washed frequently, even when not in use. They should also be dusted every 2 or 3 days, and be exposed to the air in a shady place. In washing, use cold water and a sponge. Soften the mud by squeezing the water from the sponge on the panel or other part, and do not pass the sponge over the paint until the mud is soaked off. After sponging, dry with a “shammy,” but do not use the sponge and “shammy” in the same pail of water. Be careful to dry thoroughly, and protect the trimming from injury by water. Do not allow any part of the carriage that is washed to dry before wiping with the “shammy,” as it will stain the paint. Hot or even warm water or soap should not be used. Never allow mud to dry on a carriage, as it will produce spots or stains. Always wash in a shady place.

(f) Enamelled leather while new does not need much washing; it should be well dusted, and may be wiped with a moist “shammy”; if it becomes dimmed, make a suds of soft water and Castile or crown soap. Apply it with a sponge and dry with a “shammy” moistened in clean water; if the leather shows spots, rub them with cotton waste and linseed oil; if the leather becomes hard, wash it clean and oil with neatsfoot oil; when the oil has permeated the leather, wash the surface oil off with crown soap suds. Dash and other smooth leather should be treated in the same manner as the paint.

(g) The trimmings require a great deal of attention. All roll-up curtains, aprons, &c., should be unrolled and stretched out smooth. The joints should be “struck” so as to slack the leather, but not enough to allow the top to fall. Cloths, cushions, and other removable portions must be well beaten and brushed, and all immovable parts be well brushed; this, while preventing injury from dust, is also a protection from moths. Moroccos can be cleaned by rubbing them with a moist “shammy.”

(h) Mountings should be kept clean by repeated rubbing; all acids or powders injure the paint, leather or cloth, and it is impossible to clean metals with them without coming in contact with the trimmings. If the metal is tarnished, use a small piece of “shammy,” that has been prepared by having rottenstone, or other fine polishing powder, rubbed into it and afterwards whipped and brushed to remove all surplus powder, then rub with a dry rag. To clean lamps mix whiting with spirits of wine; apply to the reflector and other inside plating; when dry rub off with a rag, clean the glass with water and polish with paper.

(i) Oil the axles frequently, but use but little oil at one time. Support the axle by a jack, having a leather padded top; take off the nuts, and if much soiled, remove the grease with spirits of turpentine; remove the wheel and clean the axle arm and hub box thoroughly, then apply a few drops of castor oil, replace the washers, wheel, and nuts, seeing that each has a thin coating of oil. The fifth wheel and king bolt should also be oiled enough to prevent the metal surfaces from grinding.

(j) A carriage should be inspected carefully to see that there are no moths in the trimming, carpet, &c.; if discovered they can be expelled by beating and brushing; moth preventatives are valueless as against the moth grub, but they will prevent the fly depositing its eggs. Musk and other strong perfumes will keep the flies from depositing their eggs in the trimmings.

(k) If repairs are needed, it is best to send to the carriage shop; but the paint will become worn off of step pads and tires, which can be restored by a little black japan, which should be laid on thin.

(l) Carriages should be revarnished as often as once a year; but if the paint cracks badly, varnishing increases the deformity, and there is but one way to correct it—to burn off the paint and repaint from the wood. Repairing is as much of an art as building, therefore do not send a carriage for repairs to any but skilful mechanics.

(m) If a carriage is not in regular use it should be run out of the coach-house once or twice a week, and thoroughly ventilated, by removing cushions, carpets, &c., and opening the doors and windows. After being well aired, it should be thoroughly dusted, and washed before it is returned to the house.

(n) The person having charge of the carriage should examine it closely each day after it has been used, to see that there are no loose or broken nuts, bolts, tires, &c. If proper attention is given to this matter the carriage will always be ready for use.

Cow

Cow.—Choosing.—Form, general appearance, and the “touch” of the skin, are points to be attended to; with regard to these, an idea may be obtained from the following description of a good dairy cow:—Head small, long, and narrow towards the muzzle; horns small, clear, bent, and placed at considerable distance from each other; eyes not large, but brisk and lively; neck slender and long, tapering towards the head, with a little loose skin below; shoulders and fore-quarters light and thin; hind-quarters large and broad; back straight, and joints slack and open; carcass deep in the rib; tail small and long, reaching to the heels; legs small and short, with firm joints; udder square, but a little oblong, stretching forward, thin-skinned and capacious, but not low hung; teats or paps small, pointing outwards, and at a considerable distance from each other; milk-veins capacious and prominent; skin loose, thin, and soft like a glove; hair short, soft, and woolly; general figure, when in flesh, handsome and well-proportioned. The extent of the upturned hairs on the escutcheon indicate the properties of the 2 hind-quarters of the cow’s udder as to the quantity of yield of milk, but not as to the 2 fore-quarters. These latter should be separately investigated; judges generally look at the size of these and examine the size of “milk vein” which runs along the belly.

Breeds.—The Yorkshire yields very large quantities of milk when fed liberally; the Ayrshire is held in high estimation for cheese making; and the Alderney (Jersey) for butter and cream. The Suffolk is well fitted for districts where the pastures are poor; the yield of milk is good, and it is comparatively rich in butter. Weight for weight, shorthorns are about 50 per cent. heavier than Ayrshires, and require ? more food. At the same time, it is found that Ayrshires yield quite as much milk as shorthorns. The only difference claimed in favour of the shorthorn is, that it maintains more flesh than the Ayrshire, keeps its money value together better, and can be finished for the butcher with greater ease and more satisfactory results. The small Scotch race is found to be, when used for the production of milk for sale, of greater value than the ordinary dairy shorthorn, producing an equal amount of milk at much less cost, while a far smaller amount of capital is required in the formation of the herd. As a butter maker, the Holstein is nowhere with the Jersey; nor yet as a converter of ordinary farm produce into milk, because no value set upon the Dutch superiority in skim milk can bring them up to the Jersey standard for butter, when the difference in consumption is taken into account. The Jersey milk contains 26 per cent. more solids of all kinds than the Dutch; whilst of butter-fat the Jersey milk contains 80 per cent. more.

Keeping.—Amateur cowkeepers are advised not to think of breeding at all. Buy a cow, newly calved; do not let her be served; feed her very highly all through her time, and when the milk ceases to pay for the keep, sell her at once to the butcher and get another. This is the town dairymen’s system, and they would not so universally follow this plan if it were not the safest. Above all, sentiment must be shunned. The amateur must keep a close watch over each week’s expenditure and income, and sell the cow, however favourite a one, directly these approximate. Then the trouble of settling a newcomer will have to be faced over again. On the whole, it may be doubted if one amateur in a hundred will ever succeed in making a cow pay, even where there is a garden and small paddock, by reason of the costliness of good dairy servants. (Field.)

The great art of feeding is in selecting the foods most suitable for the purpose in view, without entailing waste, or an undue strain on the digestive system. Every cow should have no less than 650 cub. ft. of breathing space; the cold air should be admitted near the floor line, with ample ridge ventilation, for the escape of the vitiated air; the building itself should be kept clean and free from fermenting or decaying animal odours or vegetable matter (underground drainage, however skilfully executed, is an utter abomination in a cowshed); all the inside walls should be limewashed at least twice a year, and the beds, floors, and passages well washed and scrubbed once a week. Whatever tends to increase the health and comfort of the animal economises food, as well as increases its effective results; every source of irritation, whether in the field or the stall, entails an undue waste of food, whilst for the time it reduces the flow and deteriorates the quality of the milk. The quality of the drinking water has a great influence on the yield of milk. Soft water is preferable to hard; hence the water from running streams or ponds is preferable to well water, which is generally at a low temperature. The action of the atmosphere on ponds or reservoirs has a softening influence on the water, a favourable condition for milk cows; impure or tainted water should be excluded. Unlike the food, a portion of the water taken in by the cows passes direct to the third stomach, and enters at once into the circulation. The influence of the food on the yield of milk is well known. Chemical investigation proves that the milk solids are only slightly affected by the food, the casein and sugar being nearly stationary, whilst the quantity of butter fat varies considerably; the greatest variation is in that of the watery constituents.

Decorticated cotton cake exclusively used as an auxiliary in conjunction with large quantities of roots and hay is not an economical food for dairy cows, owing to the large percentage of flesh formers it contains, whilst practically cotton cake, though admirably adapted for rearing and fattening purposes, when given to milking cows in quantities of 4-6 lb. a day produces a leathery cream, and certainly not a superfine quality of butter. A mixture of pea and palm-nut meals will produce a rich milk, though not of the finest quality. A mixture of rice and linseed meals will produce a large yield of butter of a somewhat oily character. If quality is, as it should be, the chief desideratum, nothing can equal the home-grown cereals—beans, peas, wheat, barley, and oats; under ordinary circumstances these will produce a quality of milk, cream, and butter that cannot be surpassed.

The cowhouse must be kept as near as possible at a uniform temperature of 60° F.; the cows may be turned into the fold-yard daily for ½ hour, about noon. Large quantities of cold water taken into the system are positively injurious, lowering the temperature of the body, which is maintained in a normal state at the expense of the food. For cows in full milk, cooked food is much preferable to raw, entailing less labour on the organs of digestion and assimilation. The mixture of chop, meal, roots, and grain may either be boiled in the ordinary cast-iron boiler or steamed. To obtain the most effective results, the food should be given to the animals in a sloppy state, and at a temperature of 55° to 60° F. Regularity of feeding and milking must be strictly observed. The morning meal should be given before milking commences, and the dung removed from the beds and grip. As milkers, females are preferable, the hands being soft and pliable compared with the horny hand of man. The quantity of food necessary to supply the wants of individual animals is governed by its weight. A cow in full profit consumes daily 3 per cent. of her live weight. During April, a cow in full milk should have, in addition to boiled or steamed roots and hay or straw chaff, 2 lb. bean or pea meal, 2 lb. wheat meal, 2 lb. ground oats, and 2 lb. bran. If these cannot be grown on the farm or purchased at moderate cost, 2 lb. linseed, barley, or Indian corn meal may be substituted for the wheat meal. If the aim is quality, it is essential that bean, pea, or oat meals be used. Care must be exercised in regulating the quantity of food to meet the wants of the different animals, and not, as is too often the practice, of serving a uniform quantity to each. In every case the mangers should be cleanly swept out before feeding. By far the best kind of hay for milking cows is well-saved clover or mixed seeds cut just before coming into flower. Dusty or highly heated hay injures the health and deteriorates the quality of the produce. The chief part of the hay and straw should be cut and mixed with the meal and boiled roots. Only a small quantity of long hay should be given twice a day in order to excite rumination. Raw roots are only admissible when given as a mid-day meal. As in the case of the steam boiler a quantity of fuel is wasted in raising the temperature of the water from the freezing to the boiling point, so it is in the animal system; the fat producers which, under favourable conditions, would increase the quality of the milk, are expended in bringing a large quantity of water to the heat of the body. Brewers’ grains are highly charged with water, and consequently open to a similar objection. Pastures, if saved during the spring months, will be ready for stocking from the first to the middle of May. With the first bite of spring grass the food must be changed; the boiled roots should be gradually discontinued; the same quantity of meals cooked and mixed with chopped hay as before, fed in a less soppy state, in order to counteract the opening tendency of the young succulent grasses. This rÉgime may be continued to the middle of June, when the quantity of meal may be reduced one half, or, if the pastures are good, discontinued till the autumn. So long as the artificial feeding is continued, cows must be fed in the stalls twice a day. By the beginning or middle of September, the early cabbage should be ready for use; this will increase the flow of milk at the expense of the quality. To maintain the standard, the use of meals and chop must again be continued, commencing with 2 lb. a day, with a gradual increase, arriving at the standard allowance by the 1st of November, which will be maintained throughout the winter and following months.

The estimated cost of keeping a dairy cow in full profit during the winter months, including labour of milking and attendance, is not less than 1s. a day, charging the home-grown produce at market price. Green hay is greatly to be preferred for milking cows, tending to enhance the value of the produce. Grasses should not be allowed to stand till over-ripe, causing the soluble matters to become converted into indigestible woody fibre; and sufficient labour should be employed; the hay should be constantly stirred from the time it is cut until it is placed in the stack, unless meantime showery weather should intervene; hay barns, too, are indispensable to the dairy farmer. (Gilbert Murray.)

Turnips give a disagreeable flavour to butter, when used in feeding, in autumn and winter. No mode which will prevent the taste of turnips being imparted to the milk is better than the practice of giving the turnips to the cow after she has been milked, instead of before.

When at pasture, cows are often tethered with chains or ropes of 12 ft. and upwards in length, having swivels to prevent twisting. At one end there is a ring, through which the chain is passed to form a loop that is passed over and tightened round the base of the horns, or secured to a head stall. The lower half from the swivel is sometimes made of rope, and at this end the tether is attached to an eye in a pointed iron peg of 9 in. or so long and about 1¼ in. in diameter at the head, which is flattened like the head of a nail. This peg is driven into the ground. The cows are shifted according to the weather and the grass they have eaten, averaging perhaps 6 times a day, the swivel referred to usually preventing the chain from fouling; and they are left out at night in warm weather only. The amount of grass economised by the tethering system is considerable.

Pig

Pig.—To make it pay, any kind of stock must be well treated. This is even true of the pig, and no animal pays better when well housed and fed. Much depends upon the system adopted—whether sows are kept for breeding, or whether the pigs are fattened. Some persons do best with breeding sows, and cannot make any profit out of the fatting process; others declare that fatting is very lucrative. In keeping pigs for profit, several points are to be considered.

Styes.—The styes must be practicable, dry, warm, and easily cleaned, not facing the north, nor with a moist or damp earth bottom. Farmers generally fill the bottoms 1 ft. deep with chalk; but although this is better than nothing, it is a poor substitute for a proper floor, which should be of concrete, with a nice dry raised wooden bench at one end for sleeping. Wherever earth is found in a stye, there will be mud very soon—and very filthy, unhealthy mud too. The stye must be warm, and the straw clean—wheat barley straw is not so healthy, and encourages vermin as well as dirt. If it is true that a pig, put up to fatten, should be either sleeping or eating, then the bed must be as sweet as the food, and even at 35s. a load in the country straw will be paid for; but in a bad stye twice as much will be used as is necessary.

Breed.—Choice small breeds are too small for the market; they have not quick growth, and that is what is wanted in breeding for sale at 8-10 weeks; again, choice breeds, from men who exhibit, are sometimes wanting in vitality, sometimes diseased, and never produce so many or such vigorous litters as hardy breeds of another type. The best breed to select is, perhaps, the larger or middle York, which has quickness of growth, and makes a big strapping youngster in a few weeks. A cross with a strain of the same type, but of entirely different blood, is quite necessary for vigour, and to obtain large, strong, and frequent litters.

Breeding.—It is an old practice to advise that the pig should never be used for breeding until at least 15 months old. There is soundness in the advice, if a man desires to obtain the finest animals for stock or exhibition: but not when the object is to obtain as much money out of your stock as you can. Some make a practice of obtaining first litters from yelts under a year old. A September litter is divided into boars and sows; the former are cut and fattened; the latter are well fed, and allowed to run out to increase their vigour until the following September, when they have a litter, having been put to the boar about the end of May. They thus grow fast during the best months of the year, and approach maturity just as they litter. The young do not show any symptoms of deficiency in stamina, but grow well, and are sold off in 8-9 weeks at 20s.-22s. each, and the mother is soon prepared for mating to the boar again, bringing the litter about the beginning of April.

A breeding sow costs very little when she is without pigs; but she is naturally an expensive animal when she has a litter. It has been said by many that a sow should be always in pig or with pigs, and this is very near the truth. When her pigs are taken from her, she should be dried and fed up for taking the boar as quickly as possible. Thus, as she goes 16 weeks with young, she will, if they are taken from her at 8 weeks produce 2 litters a year, if she has no accident, and if she is rightly managed, for she will at each time have just a fortnight for taking the boar. Of course, the thing will not always be managed so exact and so regular as could be wished; at the same time it is a good guide, and if 2 litters can be managed in the year, so much the better. Taking the pigs at 10l. at 8 weeks, this gives a return of 20l. and the value of the manure. Against this you may place 8l. as the cost of keeping the sow, where everything has to be bought, but much less where there is plenty of house wash, milk, roots, and refuse from gardens, &c.

In breeding little pigs for sale, there is not the same element of chance that exists when pigs are fatted. The little ones vary but a shilling or two if they have not done so well as usual, whereas with a fat pig the process is longer, much more expensive, and may not turn out so profitable after all. When a large quantity of skim milk or refuse has to be consumed, fatting may be necessary, and, valuing the food at much less than meal and corn would cost, it may pay very well; but as there are plenty of men who buy young pigs for the express purpose of fatting, and who have no milk, no refuse, and, indeed, no stubble for them to clear up at all, but have to purchase everything, there must be some return.

Fatting.—When fatting will invariably pay for purchased food, is when porkers come in just right for the London market, nice in size and quality, and realise about 5s. 9d. per stone. A 16-stone pig would at this rate realise 4l. 12s.; and there is no reason in the world why it should not be attained in 16-20 weeks, instead of which it would, as a store, be worth at this age some 2l. Breed, attention, and feeding will help to bring this about. The youngsters must be continually pushing ahead; if they get a check, so much profit goes, and so much time is lost. To this end, too, it is of no use to go in for a small breed—the York or the York and Lincoln will do very well.

Feeding.—With regard to feeding there are many opinions; but barley meal is perhaps better than anything, only it must be good, and feeders should always grind their own. Mills are now generally made, and by no means expensive. Boiled barley is, again, first-rate food, and may be given with capital effect. Peas are useful for finishing off little pigs, and they make the flesh of fat hogs firm and sweet; but cannot be compared with barley when cheap, and do not yield the same return. Maize is a good food when cheap; but it is better boiled than raw or ground. Feeding upon potatoes, although very cheap, is not the way to sell a second lot; a buyer of potato-fed pork is not very often anxious for a second consignment. (Field.)

Fowls

Fowls.—House.—Where eggs alone are required, a few pullets may be kept in a moderate-sized run, and, when they cease to be prolific, may be changed for fresh birds, whose stamina has not been injured by confinement over ground saturated with their own excretions; but for rearing chickens satisfactorily, a good run is absolutely necessary. No particular dwelling is essential; any unused cart-shed, coach or tool house, stable, or similar building may be modified to suit the requirements of the inmates. It is exceedingly desirable that the perches should be of one uniform height; otherwise the contest for the highest leads to quarrelling and fighting. Nor should the perches be high, as in that case the confined space in a house renders it necessary that the birds should fly down perpendicularly, to the great injury of the feet, and frequent fracture of the keel of the breast bone. The house must be kept clean, which is best accomplished by movable boards under the perches, from which the droppings can be removed daily. The house must be ventilated, and so constructed that the fowls can be out at daybreak. The nest places, if intended for hatching, should be on the ground; eggs, to hatch well, must be placed in natural conditions, i.e. on the comparatively cold ground, so that they are cooler below than above, and exposed to the moisture arising from the soil.

Breeds.—In selecting a breed, the first question is the principal requirement of the household. If eggs are the main object, it would be absurd to select Dorking or game. Nothing can exceed the prolificacy of fowls of the Mediterranean type, which includes Spanish, Andalusian, Leghorn, Minorca, Ancona, and other less known varieties. Of these, as regards hardihood and size, Minorcas are in the front rank, and can be strongly recommended as splendid egg producers—not show birds with combs 4 in. high, such as some breeders aim at producing, but the ordinary bird common in the south-western counties of England. Leghorn is good, but smaller in size of egg; Andalusian very good, but not so much in demand as Minorca. All these birds are non-incubators, and their production of eggs is consequently not interfered with by weeks of broodiness, which renders Cochins, Brahmas, and other birds of the Asiatic type so unprofitable where eggs alone are required; though nothing can surpass the pullets as winter layers, as they produce eggs quite irrespective of temperature. Hamburghs, particularly the black and the spangled breeds, are admirable egg-producers, but the eggs are small as compared with those of the Minorca. The recently introduced Plymouth Rocks are very good layers, but they are sitters, and therefore not as prolific as the Mediterranean type. The same may be said of Houdans and some others. If eggs alone are required, the choice lies between the Minorcas and the Hamburghs. The latter may possibly excel in numbers; but, if weight and size of eggs be taken into consideration, the Minorcas will certainly carry off the palm. The birds of the Mediterranean type may be described as somewhat leggy, of small or moderate size, with largely-developed single combs, which are erect in the cocks and flaccid in the hens. They are not remarkable for abundance of breast meat, plumpness of body when killed, or any great tendency to fatten. The plumpest are the brown Leghorns; but these have been produced by crossing the white Leghorns with black and red game, and what they have gained as table fowl they have lost in egg-producing properties.

If there be no free and extended range, such as a farmyard, or grass run in orchard or paddock, the attempt to rear fowls for the table should be altogether abandoned; the profitable raising of chickens on ground saturated with the excrement of old birds is not to be thought of. But given a good grass run, the question arises as to the variety of fowls to be kept. If large household fowls are desired, the pullets of which will lay well in the winter, the Asiatic breeds may be selected, such as the Cochins, Brahmas, and Plymouth Rock. As table fowl the last is certainly preferable of the three, as, in consequence of its being bred from a cross with the old American farmyard fowl, the Dominique, it has more flesh on the breast, and, being free from the useless incumbrance of feathers on the legs, it is a better forager and scratcher on its own account. But as table fowl these breeds are far surpassed by a variety which has long been most highly esteemed in the West of England, where it is known as Indian Game. For plumpness and quantity of meat on the breast, these birds are unequalled by any large breed. The fighting Indian Game, known as Aseels, equal them in plumpness, but not in size. In both these breeds there is an absence of offal and waste parts that is remarkable. The bones are small, there is no large comb or superfluous feather, and the size of the pectoral muscles, which constitute the flesh on the breast, is very great. As market fowls, the fact that their legs are not white may in some cases be an objection, as there is in the minds of some cooks a stupid prejudice against any but white shanks.

The Dorking is of great excellence, but has its drawbacks. Dorkings are harder to rear than many other varieties; the chickens are delicate; and the deformity of the extra toe is most objectionable, leading to extra deaths among the chickens, which are trampled in the mire by the splay-footed hens; and the plumpness on the breast is not equal to that of the Game or Indian Game. Where fowls are bred for home use, no better large birds can be raised than will result from a cross between the Dorking and a large game, either the ordinary English breed or the so-called Indian Game, which, out of Cornwall and Devon, is frequently termed the Pheasant Malay. (W. B. Tegetmeier.)

The French breeds good for table purposes are La FlÈche, CrÈvecoeur, and Houdan. The two latter have topknots, which are a disadvantage. La FlÈche is most prized, as it grows to an enormous size, and is a prolific layer. They are usually prepared for market by penning them separately, fattening them with freshly-ground barley and buckwheat meal, mixed to about the consistency of gruel with milk; they will then require no water. They are crammed for the last few days. Another mode is to force the food down their throats, giving them as much as they can take without overtaxing the digestive organs. The usual time is about 3 weeks, but in France it is carried on sometimes for 3-4 months.

Formation of Eggs.—The chief egg-producing organ is the ovary, which is situated under the backbone at the end of the ribs, and protected by the pelvis. A young chicken has an ovary on both sides of the vertebrÆ, but only the one on the left side developes. The ova consists of different-sized granules, which, as the bird grows, become larger in size. They are attached to the ovary by a slight pedicle; when ready to enter the oviduct the ova breaks from this membrane, and sometimes, when eggs are formed too rapidly, this becomes ruptured, and a drop of blood will go down with the yolk—eggs in which this occurs should not be kept for breeding purposes. The oviduct is a funnel-mouthed canal into which the yolk enters; at its upper end it is very thin, but thickens as it nears the intestinal canal—the oviduct of a laying fowl is about 2 ft. long, and is folded backwards and forwards in the body of the bird. The yolk or ovum passes down the oviduct in a spiral manner, and becomes covered with layers of albumen, which are secreted by the oviduct. At one place the ovum is covered with a thicker stratum, and here the albumen becomes twisted at either end of the yolk into two cords which fasten the egg to the shell in such a manner, that the yolk, with the germ uppermost, is always near the upper side of the shell, though not touching it; if the egg is kept too long, and in one position, the albumen glues the germ to the shell when its vitality is destroyed. The ovum, covered with several layers of albumen, and the 2 cords (chalazÆ), then goes down the oviduct, and becomes covered with 2 skins or membranes, which separate at the larger end to let the air into the germ; finally the egg is covered with its shell, which is formed with great resisting powers, its arch is much like a tunnel arch, and between the particles, or bricks, air passes into the egg. This shell, which is very strong at first, with the heat of the hen’s body disintegrates, and the particles separate, so that, when the chicken is ready to hatch, it is so brittle that the slight pecks of the horny cap on the mandible of the chicken is enough to break it to pieces. If the bird is fed on over-stimulating food, eggs are often produced too quickly. When such is the case monstrosities—such as two yolks in one shell, or two eggs one inside another—are produced, and very often they are laid without a shell.

Laying.—Several circumstances bear on the question of the supply of winter eggs; the most important are—(a) the food of the fowls; (b) their breed; (c) their age; and (d) their locality and lodging.

(a) The Food of the Fowls.—It cannot be too strongly impressed upon all poultry keepers that fowls do not create eggs: they only form them out of the materials existing in their food. This food also serves other purposes—namely, to keep up the warmth of the body, and to support the vital actions. If only sufficient food is given to supply these demands, it is evident that there can be none left for the production of eggs. The obvious inference from this is that it is necessary to feed your fowls very well if eggs are wanted in winter; and as the supply of nitrogenous food in the form of worms and insects is diminished, a little cooked refuse meat may be advantageously added during the very hard weather. A proportion of Indian corn, either whole or in the form of scalded meal, is a good addition to the winter food. It contains a larger amount of warmth-giving fat or oil than any other grain, and, by so keeping up the temperature of the animal, sets free the other foods to be employed in the secretion of the substances that compose the eggs.

(b) The Breed of the Fowls.—Small birds offer a much greater amount of surface to the action of the cold in proportion to their bulk than such as are larger. These latter especially, when thickly clothed with fluffy feathers, as are the Cochins and Brahmas, are hardly amenable to frost; hence, all other circumstances being equal, they will be found the best layers in winter.

(c) The age of the hens is a matter of great importance. Early hatched pullets that have passed completely through the moult and acquired their adult feathers some weeks since, can be readily induced to lay by good feeding; whereas old hens that moult later and later each succeeding season only produce eggs at this season very sparsely, if at all.

(d) Much depends on the locality and lodging. To produce eggs in winter, the fowls must be in comfortable circumstances; they must have dry and well sheltered runs; they should not be confined to a small place, as they are apt to lose that high condition necessary to robust health, and then the production of eggs immediately ceases. Their roosting place should be well sheltered, and free from draughts of cold air or the access of moisture. Some suggest the use of a stove; but such an appliance is rather injurious than useful. The fowls are exposed to the cold during the day, and this alternating with the stuffy, close atmosphere produced by heating a fowl-house must be injurious. (W. B. Tegetmeier.)

Setting Eggs.—The favourite egg for setting appears to be as nearly oval as possible. The best breeders reject every pointed or irregular egg or a very large one. It is customary to pick out the eggs very carefully in breeding fine stock. Generally 80 per cent. are rejected as liable to produce inferior chickens. In the ordinary practice little attention is paid to the shape of the egg; 13 eggs are picked out “just as they come,” and put under the hen. Farmers generally have as an argument that the hen that “steals her nest” always brings out good chickens, even though the eggs are of all shapes and sizes. But few farmers can tell how really good these “stolen” chickens are. They appear to be vigorous when young, but running about as they do with other hens, any comparison as to egg production is mere guesswork. The ordinary farm poultry could be greatly improved by a more careful selection of eggs for setting. Eggs with soft shells, with a ring or crust on the shells, or with an uneven or rough surface, should be rejected. Very large eggs containing a double yolk are frequently set in hope of producing a very large chicken, two chickens, or a curious monstrosity. Such eggs very rarely hatch.

Testing Eggs.—All eggs should be tested on the tenth day of incubation. The best and easiest way is to cut a hole in a stiff piece of cardboard, a little smaller than the egg, hold the egg on its side close into the hole and put a strong light behind the cardboard, when the state of the eggs will be quite distinct. If the egg is fertile by the seventh day the body of the egg will be quite dark and a sharply cut air space will be quite distinct at the large end. If it is a sterile egg, the whole of the egg will have much the appearance of melted wax and the air space will not be very distinct. If the egg is sterile it is much better to take it away, as it is still fresh enough to be used for cooking, some people even using them for eating; they would at any rate be good for feeding young chickens, whilst if they were left in the nest they would decay, probably be broken, and dirty the whole nest. If the nests are dirtied by a broken egg, the straw should all be taken away, and fresh put in its place, and the eggs washed in warm water, care being taken to prevent the eggs being shaken more than possible. If an addled egg is left in the nest, the germ, having been killed either by inherent weakness or by chilling, would decay, and sulphuretted gas would be generated, which would burst the shell, if it were moved about, and taint the atmosphere, and in that way hurt the chances of the others hatching.

Sitting.—The best method, if practicable, is to let the hen choose her own nest, leaving the eggs that she lays in the nest, and when she has laid her clutch of eggs she will sit and probably bring out a chick from each egg. A hen in a state of nature would only sit at a seasonable time of year; she would scoop out a shallow hole under the shade of a bush so that the moisture rising from the ground should not all evaporate. If a hen cannot sit in the place she has laid her eggs in, the best method is to put her into a coop with the earth as a floor, scooping it out slightly, then putting in a thin layer of straw or leaves, and sitting the hen at night on a few dummy eggs for the first 24-36 hours. When she has fed and returned quietly to the nest by herself, she may be given the good eggs, and, unless disturbed by animals or vermin, which latter can be kept away by allowing the hen a heap of ashes about the nest to dust herself in, she will bring out her brood at the proper time. A very good nest for a sitting hen can be made from a flour barrel turned on its side with ½ barrow load of mould put in, or a half sieve basket nearly filled with earth. Care must be taken that the hen has not to jump from any height on to her eggs, or she is likely to break them. Reynolds’s terra coop is a good one, as the wire flooring having mould put into it allows the moisture to rise from the earth to the under side of the egg. The sitting hen should not be disturbed by other fowls coming to lay in the same nest.

Incubators.—Taking into consideration the number of conditions absolutely necessary, a home-made, roughly constructed incubator is not likely to be successful. A machine which automatically regulates the temperature of the eggs, irrespective of that of the external atmosphere, is essential. Regulators are attached to all incubators in use at the present time. Tomlinson’s works by the expansion of air; Christy’s by the flexing of a compound metallic bar; and Hearson’s by the volatilisation of fluid in a metallic capsule, which, by its sudden expansion at any desired temperature, cuts off the source of heat, and prevents the degree to which the machine is regulated being ever exceeded. In addition to the exact regulation of the temperature, an incubator, to be successful, must be so arranged that the eggs are heated from above, and that there must be a constant supply of fresh, moist air (not saturated with watery vapour). The advantages of incubators from a practical point of view as regards market and table poultry are due to their supplying hens with full clutches of chickens. In France, chickens are hatched in large numbers for sale to small proprietors, and reared by them under ordinary fowls, or in larger numbers under turkey hens. In our own country numbers of fancy poultry for the early shows are reared under artificial foster-mothers heated by paraffin lamps; but the results of endeavouring to rear chickens, except upon fresh runs where they can obtain natural food, are not sufficiently encouraging to render it likely that foster-mothers will supersede the employment of hens in rearing fowls for the purposes of utility.

Chickens.—Chickens require no food for 24 hours, as just before they are hatched the yolk is absorbed, and they live upon this till it is finished. When the chickens are all out and dry, the hen would naturally come off and take them to where she could find them suitable food, such as eggs of ants, gentles, and small germinating seeds. The best food that can be given young chickens for the first week is custard, made of equal proportions of egg and milk, beaten up together, and just set by the fire. They should always be allowed from the very first plenty of green food, lettuces running to seed, dandelions, or onion tops chopped very fine. Rice boiled in milk, and with a little freshly-ground meal, is very good. Dari, millet, and canary seed are all good; grits and coarse oatmeal should only be given quite freshly ground, as they soon become pungent and rancid, and put the digestive organs out of order. Gentles, or flesh maggots, can easily be got in the summer for the young chickens by hanging a piece of meat or a dead fowl on a branch of a tree, or suspending it in some way out of doors, cutting a few slashes in the skin, and leaving it for a few days, when it will become thoroughly fly-blown; then bury it a few inches under the earth in a place that the fowls can get at; in a very short while the ova of the fly will hatch, and the maggots come to the surface of the earth; the hens will soon find them, and bring their chickens to them, and they will eat the maggots greedily. Milk is very good for the young chickens, but great care must be taken to prevent its turning sour. The chickens should also have fine-crushed quartz or gravel, such as is swept down the roadsides by heavy rain, to help their digestion. It is much better to let the hen free with her chickens, but if she must be cooped, the best method is to put a coop with an open front to it, and the back against the wall of some building, and then tether the hen. A good tether is made with a strip of leather, one end being turned down about 1½ in., and a small slit being made through the 2 thicknesses of the leather, put the leg of the hen between these, and then pull the other end through the 2 holes, through the turned-down end first; in this way it cannot be tightened or hurt the leg of the fowl; then fasten a long piece of string to the end of the leather so that the hen can have a good run, as in a state of nature the hen would move to fresh ground day after day.

Fatting for Table.—However young a cockerel may be, if he has been running with hens, and if on killing he appears blue, there is considerable risk of its eating hard, though only 7 months old. A pullet which has only laid one or two of her first eggs is anything but first-class, and after laying out, and getting once broody, is no better than a hen 5 years old. A first-class table bird is a young, “straight,” thick-breasted cockerel which has had nothing to do with hens, or a pullet a month before laying her first eggs.

In France, fowls to be fattened do not exceed 6-7 mouths old; pullets, put up before they have laid, are in good condition and well fed, from their birth up to the day on which they are cooped. Cramming is regarded as the most economical and effectual mode of proceeding. The fowls to be fattened are placed in coops in which each has its own compartment. The coop is a long narrow wooden box, standing on short legs; the outer walls and partitions are close boarded, and the bottom is made with rounded spars 1½ in. in diameter, running lengthways of the coop; on these spars the fowls perch. The top consists of a sliding door, by which the chickens are taken out and replaced. The partitions are 8 in. apart, so that the fowls cannot turn round. The length of each box is regulated by the number of divisions required, the cocks and pullets, and the lean and fat lots, not being mixed up indiscriminately, because their rations differ, and the new-comers would disturb the old settlers by their noise. The floor below the boxes is covered with ashes or dry earth, which is removed every 2 days with a scraper. The food is chiefly buckwheat meal, bolted quite fine. This is kneaded up with sweet milk till it acquires the consistency of baker’s dough; it is then cut up into rations each about the size of 2 eggs, which are made up into rolls about the thickness of a woman’s finger, but varying with the sizes of the fowls; these are subdivided by a sloping cut into pellets about 2½ in. long. A board is used for mixing the flour with the milk, which in winter should be lukewarm. This is poured into a hole made in the heap of flour, and mixed up little by little with a wooden spoon as long as it is taken up; the dough is then needed by the hands till it no longer adheres to them. Oatmeal, or after that barley-meal, is the best substitute for buckwheat-meal. Indian corn-meal makes a short crumbly paste, and produces yellow oily fat.

In cramming, the attendant has the buckwheat pellets at hand with a bowl of clear water; she takes the first fowl from its cage gently and carefully, not by the wings or the legs, but with both hands under the breast; she then seats herself with the fowl upon her knees, putting its tail under her left arm, by which she supports it; the left hand then opens its mouth (a little practice makes it very easy), and the right hand takes up a pellet, dips it in the water, shakes it on its way to the open mouth, puts it straight down and carefully crams it with the forefinger well into the gullet; when it is so far settled down that the fowl cannot eject it, she presses it down with the thumb and forefinger into the crop, taking care not to fracture the pellet. Other pellets follow the first, till the feeding is finished in less time than one would imagine. It sometimes happens in cramming that the windpipe is pressed together with the gullet; this causes the fowl to cough, but it is not of any serious consequence, and with a little care is easily avoided. The fowl when fed is again held with both hands under its breast, and replaced in its cage without fluttering; and so on with each fowl. The chickens have 2 meals in 24 hours, 12 hours apart, provided with the utmost punctuality. If they have to wait, they become uneasy; if fed too soon, they suffer from indigestion, and in either case lose weight. On the first day of cramming only a few pellets are given; the allowance being gradually increased till it reaches 12-15 pellets. The crop may be filled, but before the next meal the last must have passed out of the crop, which is easily ascertained by gentle handling. If there be any food in it, digestion has not gone on properly; the fowl must then miss a meal, have a little water or milk given it, and a smaller allowance next time; if too much food be forced upon the animal at first, it will get out of health and have to be set at liberty.

The fattening process ought to be complete in 2-3 weeks, but for extra fat poultry 25-26 days are required; with good management you may go on for 30 days; after this the creature may become choked with accumulated fat, waste away and die.

The fowls are killed instantaneously by piercing the brain with a sharp knife thrust through the back of the roof of the mouth.

After plucking and trussing, the chicken is bandaged, until cold, to mould its form; and if the weather is warm it is plunged for a short time into very cold water. A fowl takes usually rather more than a peck of buckwheat to fatten it. The fat of fowls so managed is of a dull white colour, and their flesh is covered with a transparent, delicate skin. Plucking should be done instantly the fowl is dead, as the feathers then come off with the greatest ease, and the skin is not liable to be torn. (W. B. Tegetmeier.)

Packing Eggs.—Packing in newspaper is found to be the best for the inside protection, and a wooden box better than anything for holding the eggs. Baskets and hampers are of no use at all; they are sure to get pressed in travelling, and cardboard boxes would be crushed directly. A wooden box, not necessarily of thick wood, resists all pressure, and the eggs are not likely to suffer from anything short of an actual fall if properly packed. Newspaper is best, and the Times best of all for packing them, the paper itself being so much stiffer than other newspapers. Tear the paper into pieces about 8-10 in. square; slightly crumple it in the hand in wrapping a piece round each egg, so as to show a rough surface; on no account rub it or make it soft, as it is the stiffness which gives support, and prevents the eggs getting too close together; they must neither be very near each other, nor to the sides or bottom of the box. Put a good layer of the crumpled paper at the bottom, then the eggs one at a time, each in its own crumpled wrapper; they must be so arranged as to fit closely and firmly together, the paper giving enough pressure to keep them firm; there must be no spaces; every corner must be filled with the crumpled paper, of which there must also be a good covering before closing the box.

Ducks

Ducks.—With regard to the variety that should be kept, two circumstances have to be considered. If large size, early maturity, and white appearance for the market are required, the Aylesbury will be found pre-eminent. If, on the other hand, small size with a strongly pronounced suspicion of wild duck is required, then choose a smaller variety, as the small black, called with equal inaccuracy East Indian, Buenos Ayres, and Labrador, or, still better, the tame-bred wild, or a cross between the two; but for family use Aylesburies must be relied on.

The great error in the usual management of ducks is not bringing them to rapid maturity. A duck should be so fed as to be large enough to kill under 10 weeks old. If it is allowed to live longer, it begins to moult, and consequently is not so good in flavour, and the nourishment given to it goes to form feathers, and not to increase its weight. It is obvious that if one duck can be made ready for the market in 2 months, it must yield a larger profit than another that is not fit for use till it is 4 or 6.

Ducks should be always shut up during the night, as they generally lay at that time, and, if allowed to be at large, drop their eggs in the water, where they sink and are lost. As early as possible in the season they should be set under large hens. A good-sized Cochin, Brahma, or Dorking will cover 12 or 13. The hens should not be set in the crowded, vermin-infested nest places that are usually seen in fowl-houses, but on the ground or in a circular basket or American cheese box, nearly filled with moist earth, and covered with a very little bruised straw, not hay; this earth should be kept moist during the whole time of setting, so as to imitate the conditions of the nest in a state of nature.

The young should be hatched on the twenty-eighth day, that is, the same day of the week one month after they are placed under the hen.

When the young are hatched they should be left with the hen till well nestled, well dried, and strong enough to stand. Many scores of ducklings are lost by inexperienced persons through their impatience to remove them from the nest. The little duckling is at first clad with soft yellow down, which gradually disappears as the feathers grow. After a few days, 3 or 4 broods are put together with one hen, who is quite able to take care of them all. For market purposes the treatment of the ducklings is as follows: They are not allowed to go into any water, but are kept in hovels, or the rooms of cottages, each lot of 30 or 40 separated by low boards; it is no uncommon thing at Aylesbury to see 2000-3000 all in one establishment. They are kept very clean and dry on barley straw. Their food consists of hard-boiled eggs chopped fine, and mixed with boiled rice and bullock’s liver cut up small. This is given to them several times in the day for about a fortnight or more. When they are capable of consuming more, they are fed on barley meal and tallow greaves mixed, together with the water in which the greaves have previously been boiled; some also use horseflesh to mix with their other food. This constitutes all that is necessary to produce early ducklings for the table.

They are killed at 10-12 weeks old, just before the adult feathers come; as the energy up to that time has been spent in the growth of flesh, but is then directed to the feathers, and a duck at 5-6 months when plucked often does not weigh so much as one of 3 months. The hens should be set in December and not later than March, for then the demand for ducklings is greater than the supply.

As to the treatment of such as are intended for breeding and exhibition. To produce birds of great frame and weight, the same food is given during the earliest stage; but, after about 3 weeks, they are allowed to go to the water, and their food is varied as soon as possible, by giving them maize (or better, oats) and barley alternately, when they can eat the same. They should be fed 3 times a day, and always have a trough of water by them, or the grain be thrown into the water; and it is an advantage to have some gravel or sand at the bottom, so that when drinking they also get hold of some grit, which helps digestion, and tends to keep the bill in proper colour. Maize is apt to render the birds too fat, and increase the tendency to accumulate internal abnormal fat, and to go “down behind,” in which condition they are perfectly useless as stock birds.

Geese

Geese.—Geese can only be profitably kept where there is abundance of grazing ground, as they derive the greater part of their nourishment from grass. Under suitable conditions no birds can be more profitable, but under other circumstances they cannot be recommended.

Of the three varieties, namely, the pure white or Emden, the grey or Toulouse, and the common saddle-back, the first name is to be preferred, as the birds pluck much better and clearer than the grey, and are much larger than the common parti-coloured breed.

The management of these birds in suitable localities is attended with very little trouble. In the early part of the year the old geese should be well fed with oats thrown into water, so as to stimulate them to early laying in February, if possible. When she has laid from eight to thirteen eggs, the goose remains on the nest, and her eggs may then be given to her.

The nest should be on the ground, without any intervening boards; and, if in a dry situation, should be watered, so as to keep the mould moist. The hatching goose should be well fed with oats thrown into a pan of water when she leaves the nest, and she should be allowed to go on to the pond or river.

When hatched, the goslings require grass, meal slaked with water, or porridge made with oatmeal. After a few days, oats, in water, may be given, and with the food they find by grazing, the young will do well until fattening time, when they should be fed on oats, in water. In many parts the geese are partially plucked two or three times a year for the sake of the feathers. Nothing can be more injurious than the practice; the small sum obtained for the plumage is much less than the deterioration in the value of the bird.

In rearing geese for the market, every endeavour should be made to attain early maturity. Young birds should never cease growing from the time they are hatched until they are ready to kill. If they are so fed as to be kept without growing, not only is all the food they eat during the time wasted, but they are deteriorating in quality and in tenderness of flesh.

Turkeys

Turkeys.—Turkeys dislike all that is necessary for their well-doing. They like to roam far and wide like peafowl, and will roost, if allowed to, in the open air, whereas they should sleep under cover, have an elevated roost, and a well-ventilated sleeping room. A turkey hen sits on her eggs for 32 days; she is a very gentle constant sitter, but a very careless mother, for she will, unless carefully watched or cooped, lead her chicks out in the damp grass or into a bed of stinging nettles, both of which proceedings are fatal to the brood, for wet kills them, and so does nettles; but boiled nettles are good for their health, and should be given chopped small mixed with barley meal.

The young birds should be left to effect their exit, if possible, unassisted, and allowed to remain for 12 hours afterwards under the mother’s wings. After that time they must be continually attended to and fed on curds, hard-boiled eggs, and crumbs, having a good boarded coop. Meal and grits must be given after the lapse of about 10 days; and when they are 5 weeks old, boiled potatoes, turnips, nettles, and lettuces may be chopped and mixed with their food.

Norfolk turkeys are considered the best breed to keep. When turkeys are put up to fatten, barley meal, bran, and potatoes well mashed and mixed, are the best food for them. Half-a-crown’s worth of meal and potatoes, with other garden produce, is about the cost of feeding each bird for one month, when it is considered fat enough for the table; but the birds will generally be in pretty good case when put up, if they have been allowed the run of the fields and the woods, for turkey chicks are only delicate in their first stages of growth. Some poultry-keepers cram their birds, but such turkeys are never so delicately flavoured as those fed in the natural way. (Helen Watney.)

Turkey hens are such admirable mothers, that they are largely employed in France to hatch and rear ordinary chickens. When young turkeys are hatched, they should be left undisturbed until they come out from under the mother, about 20-30 hours, and fed at first with equal parts of egg and milk beaten up together and set by heat. Fresh-ground oatmeal and milk should be given, and lettuces running to seed, full of bitter milky juice; this old and young will eat in large quantity and thrive exceedingly on it. Turkeys are much larger green vegetable eaters than fowls. In dry situations and seasons they are not delicate if properly fed and cared for. (W. B. Tegetmeier.)

Pigeons

Pigeons.—First and foremost comes the selection of the birds. The old-fashioned English so-called carrier is perfectly useless as a messenger or homing pigeon. The only breeds of any real value are Belgians. Of these, several somewhat distinct types exist, which are known as Liege, Antwerp birds, &c. In these birds the homing faculty has been developed by training for many generations, until at last an acquired instinct of indomitable perseverance in seeking their distant home has been developed, and this has become hereditary. Hence the necessity of breeding from good birds, and those which have been accustomed to fly long distances. To breed from birds without pedigrees is useless. So high a value is placed on the performance of the parents, that amateurs will spare no pains or expense in getting good, well-trained birds. Good birds, however, can be bought for moderate sums, when amateurs in Belgium are selling off the superfluous birds after the racing season is over; 1l. 10s. to 2l. a pair will often procure birds that have done good work.

A flight of birds may be established in two modes. First, by obtaining pairs of old birds, shutting them up as prisoners, breeding from them, and turning out the young as soon as they can feed themselves and fly. The second is by buying young birds as they leave the nest, and letting them fly after they have been confined a few days in their new home.

As old birds would not remain in a new locality, they have necessarily to be confined as prisoners. For this purpose never select a close room or loft. A dry shed, not exposed to the north or east, if wired on the open side, is always filled with pure air. Shelves or open lockers, in which the birds will build their nests and rear their young, should be attached to the walls. A long, straight inclosure, covered at the top and sides with wire work, should communicate with the shed. In this the birds can take exercise, flying from the perch or landing-place at one end to that at the other. This open flight place should be, if possible, some 10 yd. long, and, being open-wired above, the birds enjoy the three great luxuries of fresh air, bright sunshine, and, above all, exposure to the rain.

For food, wheat, small round maize, sound beans, dark peas, and tares may all be given, and also millet, if it be accessible; some old mortar rubbish mixed with salt should be provided for the pigeons to pick at, this being most essential to their health; and, above all, a supply of clean water to drink, placed in vessels in which it cannot be defiled, is indispensable; also water for bathing, which may be put in a milk pan or shallow trough in the open flight place. Thus treated, the old birds do not suffer in health. (W. B. Tegetmeier.)

Homing pigeons are protected from birds of prey in China by means of a whistling machine made of about 10 small bamboo tubes, which is secured to the bird’s tail in such a manner that the rush of air across the tubes produces a shrill sound.

Bees

Bees.—The modern system of bee-keeping is entirely opposed to the older method, in which honey was obtained by the destruction of the bees, and almost equally to the more recent plan of removing the surplus honey in large supers. By the present system the hives and bees are under perfect control. The sizes of the former can be increased or diminished at the will of the owner to any required extent. The combs are in movable frames, which can be transferred at will from one hive to another without the slightest difficulty. The formation of new colonies can be accomplished as desired, or prevented altogether, and the whole energy of the bees devoted to honey gathering. The waste of honey in the secretion of wax can be in great part obviated—a most important matter, as each lb. of wax requires the consumption of 15-20 lb. of honey for its formation; and the pure honey, uncontaminated with brood or pollen, can be stored in small boxes, each containing 1-2 lb., capable of being conveyed by rail without injury, and possessing a marketable value at least 3 times as great as that of ordinary run honey. But in order to accomplish these desirable ends, bee-keeping must be followed with some amount of intelligence and interest, and a certain amount of capital must be invested in the pursuit. The knowledge of the modern system of bee-keeping has been very greatly extended by the labour of the British Bee-keepers’ Association, which has published an admirable series of tracts, with a sixpenny handbook for cottagers, has organised annual shows and expositions in many parts of the kingdom, and has raised bee-keeping in England to its present standard of excellence. Through its exertions a fixed size for frames has been determined, so that in a well-arranged apiary any frame of honey or brood comb can be transferred from one hive to any other with the greatest facility. The honey harvest is now gathered in great part in convenient sectional supers of a most marketable and attractive character, obtained without the destruction of a single bee; whereas it formerly consisted merely of run honey, acquired by the suffocation of the bees and the crushing of the comb, when honey, the fluid contents of the bodies of the larvÆ, pollen, propolis, and wax, were all mixed indiscriminately together—the market value of this mess obtained by the destruction of the colony being less than one-third of the value of pure honey in virgin comb, as is obtained by the modern system.

Improved hives such as are now employed by all intelligent bee-keepers are made, as before stated, on one uniform standard, and, thanks to the energy of the association, may be procured of a number of makers in various parts of the country. In the modern system the old-fashioned bell-shaped straw skep is discarded, and bees are kept in wooden hives, the best of which have double sides, with an interval between, so as to equalise the temperature. The combs are in frames, each of which is movable, so that the hive can be enlarged or diminished at any time, movable partitions, termed dummy boards, being used to shut off the empty space.

As an example of a practically useful modern hive may be taken one made by Baldwin, of Bromley, Kent. A flat platform or floor supported on 4 stout legs, and having a large oblique alighting board projecting to the front, supports the body of the hive. This has double sides, with air spaces, which may be filled with any non-conducting material, as powdered cork. On the front is a grooved penthouse, to prevent rain entering into the hive. The interior contains 9 movable frames, each of which is fitted with a thin sheet of pure wax foundation, which the beep utilise, to the great saving of honey, labour, and time. There are 2 dummy boards, so as to adjust the size of the interior to the number of frames in use. One section frame is made broader than the rest, so as to contain 6 sectional boxes, each fitted with a triangular piece of wax comb foundation. These in the season are rapidly filled with honey in virgin comb, and can when filled be removed and utilised separately. This frame is filled with sections, each with a triangular piece of wax foundation.

In order to prevent the queen bees laying eggs in any of these sections, a piece of perforated zinc is placed when required between the section frame and the front of the hive. The perforations are sufficiently small to prevent the queen passing through, but the workers pass readily.

The section frame is of use when the quantity of honey collected is comparatively small. In general the surplus stores, those that are available by the bee-keeper, are stored above the frames in a sectional super. This holds 21 sections, each perfectly distinct from the others, and all are furnished with triangular slips of foundation comb. As fast as these supers are filled they can be removed and marketed. The costlessness of these supers is one of their most remarkable qualities. Each is made of a slip of wood partially divided and stamped, so as to form the four sides of the super when folded, the ends being tongued so as to interlock when pressed together. The demand for these sectional supers may be inferred from the fact that they are made in thousands by means of machinery, and are so cheaply produced that their cost varies from ?d. to less than ½d. each.

Such time as the supers are not in use the frames are covered over with warm quilting, which gives access to the frames and interior of the hive at any time, as it is easily removed. Apertures are cut through the quilts, so as to permit of feeding when requisite. The top of the hive is covered by a deep capacious roof, which protects the interior, sheltering the supers when being filled, or the feeding bottle when in use, and keeping the quilts dry and snug during winter.

The demand for improved hives of the construction recommended is so great that machinery is brought into play in their construction, and the consequence is extreme cheapness. The hive described can be sold at somewhat about 20s., and cheaper hives, of the same kind, not quite so elaborately fitted, are made from 10s. to 15s., and can be obtained of Baldwin, Bromley; Neighbour, London; Abbott, Southall; Walton, Newark, and many other makers. (W. B. Tegetmeier.)

Supplementary Literature.

Sir F. Fitz-Wygram, Bart.: ‘Horses and Stables.’ London, 1886. 5s.

M. Horace Hayes: ‘Riding on the Flat and across Country: a Guide to Practical Horsemanship.’ London. 10s. 6d.

Mrs. Power O’Donoghue: ‘Ladies on Horseback: Learning, Park-riding, and Hunting, with Hints upon Costumes, and numerous anecdotes.’ London. 1882. 5s.

James Long: ‘The Book of the Pig: its Selection, Breeding, Feeding, and Management.’ London, 1885. 15s.

Modern Bee-keeping. London. 6d.

T. W. Cowan: ‘British Bee-keeper’s Guide Book.’ London, 1885. 1s. 6d.

F. R. Cheshire: ‘Bees and Bee-keeping.’ London, 1886. 7s. 6d.

L. Wright: ‘The Practical Poultry-keeper: a Complete and Standard Guide to the Management of Poultry, whether for domestic use, the markets, or exhibition.’ London. Latest Edition. 3s. 6d.

J. Coleman: ‘The Sheep and Pigs of Great Britain; being a series of articles on the various breeds of sheep and pigs of the United Kingdom, their history, management, &c.’ London. 18s.

I. E. B. C.: ‘The Farm.’ London. 5s.

I. E. B. C.: ‘The Stable.’ London, 5s.

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