even in the day-time in wet weather, for one thorough wetting will keep them back a fortnight. If they get wet in winter they do not get dry for a long time, and this it is that spoils and kills many of our fowls.

The French take great pains in feeding laying-hens in the winter: they give them very stimulating food, and let them out very little; and they, consequently, obtain a great many eggs, which, in winter, are very valuable.

A cottager who keeps poultry must use the best place he can command for his little hen-house; if possible, it should be a gentle slope, that the damp may run off. The hen-house should be kept very clean, as the vermin that poultry breed are their greatest annoyance; they should have heaps of dry sand, or sifted ashes, to roll themselves in, as this cleanses their feathers, and preserves their health: their roosting-place should be quite dry and warm, and clean; the hen-house should often be swept out, and sand or fresh earth thrown on the floor. For nests, boxes or flat baskets, such as the market gardeners call sieves, should be nailed against the wall; short and soft straw is best for making nests.

It is also good to fumigate the hen-house frequently, by burning dry herbs, or brimstone; for nothing requires so much cleanliness, if you wish for fine fowls and plenty of eggs; and if kept clean, the numerous ailments they are subject to would seldom occur. The number of eggs for sitting may be from nine to fifteen, according to the size of the hen; they should be marked, and when the hen quits her nest it should be examined, and any additional eggs she may have laid should be removed. Corn and water should be placed near a sitting-hen, and removed as soon as she is satisfied. Some hens will almost starve themselves rather than go in search of food; while others, if food is always near, will leave their nests too frequently. When the period of hatching arrives, the chickens first hatched should be removed, lest the hen, in her anxiety to feed them, should leave her task unfinished. They will require no food, though kept from the hen for several hours; they should be put in a basket of hay or wool, and kept moderately warm near the fire. The first food should be split grits and eggs boiled hard, or curd chopped small, afterwards tail-wheat. All watery food, as soaked bread or potatoes, are bad. Their pans of water should be clean, and often changed. They should be kept under a coop three or four days, and then

may be let out to range after the dew is off the grass, care being taken to guard them from sudden changes of weather. Those fowls are best who can range about near barns and stables, as they like liberty; they should, however, be regularly fed twice a-day.

Barley-meal, mixed with skim milk, fresh and fresh, will fatten poultry quickly, either in a coop or running about. Boiled carrots and Swedish turnips will help, and is a change of food. Barley and wheat are the chief dependence for chickens. Buck-wheat, parsley, leeks, and white cabbages, chopped very fine, may be given. Hempseed, and the seed of nettles, or dried nettles, housed and boiled in the winter, to mix with their food, is usually given to laying-hens in France.

Professor Gregory has said, "that if you mix with their food a sufficient quantity of egg-shells, or chalk, hens will lay twice or thrice as many eggs as before." A well-fed fowl is disposed to lay a vast number of eggs, but cannot do so without the material for the shells, however nourishing in other respects her food may be. This is the reason that poultry are often seen eating old mortar from off walls.

GEESE

can be kept to advantage only when there are green commons; they are then very hardy, long-lived, and profitable to their owners. If well kept, a goose will lay one hundred eggs in the year. When she is seen carrying straw about in her bill, her nest should be prepared. An equal quantity of rye-meal and peas, mixed with skim milk, forms excellent food for geese or ducks. When geese are to be fatted, give them some sort of corn, Swedish turnips boiled or raw, carrots, white cabbage, or lettuce. In the breeding season, give them boiled barley, malt, fresh grains, and fine pollard mixed with beer.

BEES.

Dr. Mavor, in his account of bees, states that a poor cottager cleared in one season 271. by his bees. Such success is seldom met with; however, it is moderately calculated that a poor family, living in the country, and having a small garden to their cottage, might, with care and management, almost depend on gaining by their

bees, what will pay their rent, and perhaps buy shoes into the bargain. Bees collect more honey from buck-wheat than from anything else; but all garden-flowers are valuable to bees.

The writer of " Cottage Comforts" advises that all beekeepers should read a small tract, called "A Short and Simple Letter to Cottagers, from a Conservative Bee-keeper:" it is published by a bookseller of the name of Parker, in London, and costs only twopence; and will teach you how to increase the profit of keeping bees, without destroying the bee in taking the honey.

THE GARDEN

of a poor man should be well attended to, and every inch of ground should be cultivated or made useful: even if small, it will furnish the family with some vegetables and herbs, flowers for bees, and employment for children.

The Sun-flower. The value of this plant is scarcely known in most parts of the kingdom. The seed forms a most excellent and convenient food for poultry: it is only necessary to cut off the heads of the plants when the seed is ripe, tie them in bunches, and hang them in a dry situation, to be used as wanted. They not only fatten every kind of poultry, but greatly increase the quantity of eggs they lay. When the flower is in bloom it is most attractive to bees.

To kill Slugs.-Take a quantity of cabbage-leaves, and either put them into a warm oven, or hold them before a fire, till quite soft; then wet them with unsalted butter, or fresh dripping, and lay them in the places infested with slugs. In a few hours the leaves will be covered with snails and slugs, which the gardener may thus collect and destroy.

A Trap for Snails. - Spread a little bran on the ground; snails are particularly fond of it; cover it over with a few cabbage-leaves or tiles, and they will congregate under them in great quantities, so that, by examining the traps every morning, their numbers may soon be decreased.

To destroy Ants.—Take half a pound of flour of brimstone and four ounces of potash, dissolve and mix them in an iron or earthen pan over the fire, afterwards beat the mixture to

L

a powder; infuse a little of it in water, and wherever you sprinkle it the ants will die, or fly the place. Ants sometimes infest old houses, and crawl into cupboards, particu→ larly where sugar or sweetmeats are kept.

Fly-Water.

MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES.

- Dissolve two drachms of the extract of quassia in half a pint of boiling water, add a little sugar or syrup, pour the mixture into plates, and it will entice and destroy flies when they become troublesome in a kitchen.

To render Shoes waterproof.- Mix a pint of drying oil, two ounces of yellow wax, two ounces of turpentine, and half an ounce of Burgundy pitch, carefully over a slow fire. Lay the mixture, whilst hot, on the boots or shoes, with a sponge or soft brush; and when they are dry, lay it on again and again, until the leather becomes quite saturated, that is to say, will hold no more. Let them be put away, and not be worn until they are perfectly dry and elastic; they will afterwards be found not only impenetrable to wet, but soft and pliable, and of much greater durability.

Beech-tree Leaves, collected in the autumn, in dry weather, form an admirable article for filling beds for the poor. The smell is grateful and wholesome; they do not harbour vermin, are very elastic, and may be replenished every year without cost.

A cheap Blanket. -Two sheets of double imperial cap brown paper, pasted at the edge to form one, if laid over a bed with one blanket under, will produce more warmth than three ordinary blankets; or over a single coverlet, will be warmer than one blanket only; and, with a little care, will last the whole winter.

A light warm Coverlet may be made by quilting cotton wadding between two pieces of calico.

Cheap Fuel.-Take one bushel of small coal or sawdust, two bushels of sand, and one bushel and a half of clay; mix them with water, and shape them into balls or into the form of bricks; pile them in a dry place, and when they are hard they may be used. A fire cannot be lighted with them, but if put behind the fire they will keep it up stronger than any common fuel.

To Whitewash a Cottage.-Put half a peck of lime into a tub, pour in some water by degrees, and stir it well with a stick that is broad at one end. When the lime and water are well mixed and the thickness of mud, strain it through a sieve into another vessel, when it will settle to the bottom; skim off the little water that remains at the top, and, when you are going to use it, mix it up with cold water to the thickness of thin paint. The house will quite dry, and also may be scoured, in two hours.

To clean Water Casks.-Scour the inside well with water and sand; afterwards apply a quantity of charcoal dust. A still better method is to rinse the casks with a pretty strong mixture of oil of vitriol and water, which will deprive them

of their foulness.

To purify Water.-Take a piece of alum, of the size of a nutmeg, dissolve it in a little hot water, and pour it into a pail of the impure water; in a few hours the filth will sink to the bottom, and the water at the top will be perfectly pure and free from all taste arising from the alum.

This

Frozen Water-pipes.-In winter, water-pipes should have straw or flannel bound round them. Set the handle of your pump, also, as high as possible before you go to bed. will prevent the handle from freezing, except in very severe weather, when you must throw a rug or horse-blanket over the pump. A frozen pump is a comfortless preparation for a winter's breakfast.

A "Life-Preserver" for Thrashers.-Tear a piece of fine sponge, enough to cover the mouth and nostrils; shape and hollow it; soak it in soft water; sew a tape to it, and when about to thrash, winnow, pick hemp, or do other dusty work, tie it on.

The person who recommends this plan says he "has thrashed four years with a machine, and always suffered in the lungs from the dust; but last year tried the sponge, and found it truly a life-preserver: he could breathe almost as freely through it as without it."

Perhaps girls who have to work in cotton factories may benefit by this simple contrivance. Many, also, of our school-girls have fathers and brothers to whom they can explain, and for whose benefit they may prepare, this easilyinade "life-preserver."

Various.