Feteuary 1, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



Ill 



their services to the judges to revise and overlook theu' awards ; 

 aud I beUeve then we should not have the egregious roistakes 

 wc now have, nor the caprices in judgment. Uniformity in 

 the awards woiUd be the rule and not the exception. Birds 

 that are one year considered the perfection of colour, style, 

 size, and everything else, are the next year totally discarded, 

 and the award given to directly opposite. What is more 

 puzzling and disheartening to an exhibitor aud — A Breedee ? 



AMATEURS AND DEALERS EXHIBITING IN 

 THE SAME CLASSES. 

 I HAD hoped that some abler pen than mine would have 

 backed up Mr. Ashworth's remarks a week or two since on the 

 above subject (page 4.55). I know of no other matter in con- 

 nection with poultry exliibitions more worthy of consideration 

 than this. The present arrangement of classing the amateur 

 aud dealer together is to my mind most uufah' and unsatis- 

 factory. The amateur keeps his few poultry or Pigeons as a 

 pastime or hobby, often to pass away a pleasant hour after 

 returning from his business ; in fact, he merely keeps them for 

 the love of them and not for profit. Still, he likes to exhibit 

 them oeoasioually to see whether his are as good as his neigh- 

 bom-'s over the wall. The dealer, on the other hand, bestows 

 most of his time and all his ingenuity on his bu-ds ; in fact, 

 it is his trade and his sole occupation, and it is but rarely that 

 his bu-ds return from an exhibition without bringing the hon's 

 share of the highest honours with them — not that they do not 

 deserve them ; but what chance has the amateur against a 

 man who makes exhibition his trade, often taking dozens 

 of prizes with the same birds, and putting them in the cata- 

 logue at a price prohibiting then- purchase except rarely ? My 

 impression is that the committees of the various societies 

 ought to place the dealers in a class by themselves. 



I cannot endorse Mr. Ashworth's opinion that the Selling 

 class would be the place for them, as in most instances the 

 jirice of the birds in this class is restricted to a mere nominal 

 figure, far below the value of a first-class bird. This would 

 not encourage the dealer to show his best birds. What I would 

 advise would be to jdace the dealers in a class by themselves 

 on the same footmg as the amateur, and let it be dealer against 

 dealer, amateur against amateur. I have no doubt but that 

 the class would pay any aud every committee that adopted the 

 plan, and would be fai' more satisfactory to all parties con- 

 cerned than the present system. — AiiATEnn. 



HOW SHOULD FOWLS BE FED AT SHOWS? 



I A5I veiy glad indeed to find this matter taken up by 

 " Winner of Four Cups." I have long been of opinion that 

 the great havoc made amongst birds every year after returning 

 from shows, has been caused by the absence of digesting 

 materials afforded them at those shows. I have had many 

 complaints from breeders m England this year that then- 

 bu-ds returned from exhibitions diseased. 



Now, I beheve there was no disease in the matter, for none 

 would think of sendiug diseased birds to such shows as the 

 Crystal Palace aud Birmingham. One gentleman told me it 

 was black roup that was the matter with my Crystal Palace cup 

 cock. I -will give you a description of how it affected my bird 

 and how I treated him, and let yom- readers judge whether it 

 was black roup or not — and breeders in England say then- birds 

 were exactly iu the same case. When my bird returned from 

 the Crj-stal Palace Exhibition I gave him bread soaked in ale, 

 but as he did not seem to reUsh it, I offered him his usual 

 food (oatmeal dough) ; of this he took a moderate meal. When 

 I took him out of the basket there was nothing whatever in 

 his crop, or first stomach. The above food, though not half 

 a meal, remained in his crop next day, and I gave him a dose 

 of castor oil but with no effect, followed by other three, and 

 one of salts, but all to the same purpose ; indigestion had 

 f:iirly set in, and the food refused to enter the second stomach. 

 The bh-d was iu this state for about eight days, and now his 

 comb was as black as if painted with black paint. As a last re- 

 source I gave an emetic, and took back the last particle of 

 the food. I by this time came to the conclusion that the 

 second stomach was glutted-ujj with leaven or some other 

 soft food, and, nothing to grind it, there it woidd lie. I then 

 took fresh butter and kneaded it with sand and small stones, 

 and put it down his throat, and as soou as this got into the 



second stomach, which was about twelve hours, the bird began 

 to look about him and gradually recovered ; iu two days 

 afterwards he could eat anything and everything. He re- 

 covered and became perfectly well again, but minus his beauti- 

 ful comb, and, of course, for ever useless for exhibition. 



I do not Icnow what food is given at the Crystal Palace 

 Exhibition, but if the fowls are not well attended to with saud, 

 small stones, and lime (so used), especially the last two, it is 

 quite sufficient to account for all the disease that has been 

 amongst the birds returned from the Crystal Palace and 

 Birmingham Shows. If birds are confined for twenty-four 

 hours, even allowing them sand, then give them full liberty, 

 and the first thing they wUl do is to rush to the heap of lime- 

 rubbish and pick up good large balls of it. If they do this 

 after twenty-four hours of confinement, how much more after 

 eight days' confinement — four days going and returning per 

 rail, and four in exhibition. 



I believe the journey has very little to do -with the disease. 

 Strong-constitutioned birds ought to be able to endure the 

 fatigue of travelling without the slightest tear of fatal con- 

 sequences, for I have sent birds on approval to Brentwood 

 (more than six hundred miles), and other places in England, 

 and had them returned the same distance -with not the 

 sUghtest bad effect, because not long confined from their 

 uatural food. Yet when returned they refused to look at food 

 though offered, but went about picking up stones and lime. I 

 think green food, cabbages or Swedish turnip leaves (the latter 

 they prefer), should be cut smaU and given freely at shows. 

 The cockerel returned me from the Birmmgham Show was 

 very nearly as bad as that from the Crystal Palace, and wafS 

 so ill that I could not send him to Edinburgh, and he could not 

 make up condition in time for Aberdeen, and had to be content 

 with an inferior position. — James Clark. 



LOCAL JUDGES. 



In " our Journal " I have occasionally seen complaints against 

 the mismanagement of poidtry shows, and I consider the most 

 glarmg defect, and the one most likely to briug our shows into 

 disrepute, is the Judges engaged. 



There would, perhaps, be less cause for complaint if these 

 •Judges were men of enlarged experience ; but often I find they 

 ■have neither kept nor studied the fowls they pretend to judge ; 

 and whether the prizes happen to be correctly awarded or not, 

 still there is among exhibitors much dissatisfaction, and even 

 suspicion of unfair play. In a recent number of the Journal 

 the Committee of a show give the names of four Judges from 

 the town in which the show was held, besides several from the 

 neighbourhood. " Would you not be astonished to learn " that 

 there were at least other three local Judges for poultry whose 

 names the Committee prefen-ed to exclude from then- cata- 

 logue ? As an instance of the judging, I oiight to mention that 

 iu a class for Red Game, the second-prize pen contained a 

 cock with a twisted breast, and the legs of the pair were a 

 very bad match. The thhd-prize pen contained a cock almost 

 iu the last stage of disease ; and this was not the only diseased 

 bird that took a prize and was allowed to remain in the pen to 

 the end of the show. The Committee plead economy as their 

 excuse ; they may find next year that it was false economy. 

 — Paisley. 



WARNING TO EXHIBITORS AND RAILWAY 

 COMPANIES. 



To the late Barrhead Show I sent a pen of Duckwing Game 

 and a pen of Black Red Game ; both pens were awarded first 

 prizes. The Duckwings had taken a first piize, aud the Black 

 Reds twice a first prize, and timepieces in both cases as extra 

 prizes, only a few weeks pre-viously at shows in the same dis- 

 trict. The Barrhead Show happened to take place on a Satur- 

 day, and I asked the Secretary to favour me by returning my 

 birds on the same evening, not wishing them to remain over 

 Sunday ; this was accordingly done. I waited then- arrival at 

 Edinburgh, and whUe at the station opened the basket to see 

 that all was right before driving them home, and to my horror 

 found all the four birds nearly dead. One died m a few 

 minutes, the others soon afterwards — only three hours after 

 leaving Barrhead Show. I at once concluded they had been 

 poisoned, or had received foul play, and at once communicated 

 with the Secretary and others connected with the Show to try 

 to find out the cowardly rascal guilty of such an act : but aU 

 say the birds were in good health and spirits wMle at the 



