374 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE G-VEDENER. 



[ May 2, 1872. 



sand of coiu-se spoiling the appearance of his white face. Then, 

 agali.how the ?luma|e of aU the Light varieties ^b soJed and 

 <liBeo oured by it, particularly if they happen *« 1^«, ^^t ^^^^/^y 

 lased. Ve,7 fine sifted gi-avel (the 4=''-^, J"?"!' f^f '^^'^^ This 

 washed in water will not colour it , is the best of aU. Ihis 

 Jho^d be changed" very day, oU^ei-wise it will becoine very fo^L 

 Powls while at a show ought not tote fed too freely ' S^^ ^:^^ f ^^'f 

 quantity each time, but frequently, and ^very scrap shoiUd be 

 eaten up at the time of feeding I like to ^^e fowls on 11 e look- 

 ■out for f ood ; they show themselves off so much better than -sv hen 

 ?heir appetites aJe satisfied, and if .too ^"''^^ '^S^^'^'^ f *,°5^,,^?^^ 

 it is left, becomes mixed with their excrements, and instead of 

 doing the birds good it injures them, frequently lajing the 

 ^nnntlatiou of many diseases. ^ ,., ,, 



Now a few remarks about the pens. I must say I like the we 

 pens, no matter what may be said against them ; they give such 

 a clean, regular, and finished appearance at a show, especially 

 when one looks down immense rows of pens as seen at the 

 Crystal Palace. If a strip of caUco or baize is i-un along the 

 backs of them, they are, to my mind, far preferable to the wooden 

 ones which are coated with whitewash or colour-, which nibs oil 

 on the plumage. , . , ,, . , ., 



With respect to the treatment of the birds on their return, it 

 must be remembered that they have been kept in close confine- 

 ment, have been often irregularly fed with bad food, which m 

 some cases has become mixed and is eaten with their own excre- 

 ments, that they have had a long jom-ney to and fro— m short 

 have led quite a different Ufe to that to which they have been 

 accustomed, and this and the excitement must affect more or 

 less their constitution. It is, therefore, necessai-y that they 

 should be very carefuUy fed and attended to. On arriving at 

 home theii- first meal should consist of warm bread and milk. 

 This satisfies both then- thir-st and hunger, is easily digested, 

 and affords nomishment to the exhausted bird abnost as soon 

 as eaten. After a few hours a Uttle castor oil is very beneheiai 

 by cooHng the body and cleansing the stomach ; and for the lirst 

 two or th?ee days they should be fed on soft food. The more 

 exercise and pure air they have the better, not forgetting the 

 clnst bath, in which they wiU be sm-e to revel, and a grass run it 

 possible. I venture to say if they are treated m this way the 

 hlackened and fallen comb, the puffy and inactive bird, will soon 

 assume the original healthy appearance, and fewer deatirs would 

 occur amongst exhibition fowls. Ours are treated m this way, 

 and we have never lost a bird from exhibition. Still we do hna 

 shows are most injurious to fowls intended for breeding pur- 

 poses. This cannot be wondered at, as the treatment to which 

 the fowls are subjected is so entirely opposite to the course 

 pursued by nature. The male bh-d seems to suffer the most ; he 

 pays but little attention to the hens, and his reproductive powers 

 Ji-e weakened. The eggs from hens that have never been shown 

 wiU often be found to contain chickens which seem to have died 

 in the shell after the hen has been sitting on them frona ten to 

 fom-teen days, and even if a few chickens are hatched they Me 

 weak and sickly, and frequently die, or are very small. We 

 have had sitting after sitting, and not a single chick ; but tms 

 has always happened when we were attempting to breed from 

 the birds that were being sent from one show to another. We 

 have gi-own wiser now, and seldom send our breeding stock 

 away, and the result is we now meet with a fair amount ot 

 success in hatching. . ,, 



In reply to Mr. Wright's assertion that " it is simply nonsense 

 to suppose it possible for birds to be " starved to death " m re- 

 turning fi-om a show, I wUl only state one case out of severa 

 that I know. I take this in particular, as I beheve Mi-. Wright 

 saw the very bird a few days before its death, and he even went 

 so far as to offer a very large sum ot money for it when at the 

 last Bristol Show. This bud had been running withseveral hens, 

 up to the day before sending him away to the show, o-ver a 

 quarter of an acre of grass land ; he had not received the slightest 

 preparation of any kind, so that he could neither be " out of con- 

 dition " fi-om overfeeding nor even suffering from a touch of 

 " soft " plumage. When sent away from the show the secretary 

 stated he was in perfect health, but unfortunately for the owner, 

 after two days' travelling, he was retiu-ned dead, but hardly cold. 

 The bird was opened by a gentleman well qualified to give an 

 opinion, who stated all the organs were in a healthy state, and the 

 bird died from starvation. I could mention other cases, but I 

 think tliis so clearly proves that birds not " pampered " can be 

 starved to death that itwould be useless to give them. 



We both agi-ce in feeding with the very best kind of food, 

 •which must, as I stated, increase the size, especially if the birds 

 are shut up in a pen and supplied with such nuti-itious and fat- 

 tening food as Mr. Wright uses. They must put on flesh, and 

 every poulti-ymau and every successful exhibitor knows, if he 

 expects to win, he must have size as well as quality. No animal 

 is ever seen to perfection unless it has a fair quantity of fat, and 

 the same -with poultry. — ^W. J. Nichols. 



but in a batch of Partridge Cochins two weeks since, aU nearly 

 came out of the small end. I never saw this but once or twice 

 before, and these cases were exceptions ; but m the instance 1 

 now name the big end was the exception. Had these eggs been 

 kept large end down 1 If so this may account for it.— 1* . i. 

 HASS.UiD, Curragh. 



PEIZES FOB BANTAMS— BROWN BED GAME, 

 BLACKS, AND WHITES. 



CoNSiDEEiNG the many advocates in our .lom-nal for separate 

 classes of the above, I am sm-prised at the smaU number of real 

 helpers when there is a chance of bringing their neglected pets 

 to the front; but I hope by the help of " our Jom-nal we may 

 yet make up the required amount to offer separate prizes at the 

 next Ipswich Show. . .,, , i. a t 



For the abovenamed three classes, it will be remembeied, I 

 offered £1 second prize and 10s. for a third for each class if the 

 fanciers would subscribe enough to give a £3 3s cup foLtlfe first 

 prize in each class. For the Brown Beds Mr. J. W. WiU offers 

 ±•1, a very good start towards the three giuneas, and it is hoped 

 the other Brown-Bed fanciers wiE at once respond. For Blacks 

 the same gentleman also offers £1, Mr. W. A Taylor, Ite. M, 

 R H. Ashton, F. Tearle, and H. M. Maynard, 5s. each. .Whitf s, 

 though last, and at present the least noticed, are so beautiful that 

 I cannot think they are to be left in the cold. As yet the only 

 promises I have in their class are 5s. each from Messrs. AshtOTi 

 and Tearle. I would add that, should the subscription be suffi- 

 cient, a fom-th prize will be given and the others increased. 



It has been suggested a cock and hen should constitute a pen, 

 with which I fully concur-, and sincerely hope the old systeni of 

 showmg a cock and two hens (as I am sorry to say is stall the 

 system at Birmingham) wUl soon be numbered with mistakes ot 

 the past.— W. B. Jeffeies, SenUij Bond, Ipswich. 



Chickens' Exit at the Small End of the Eggs. — I noticed c 

 remark on this in last week's Joiu'ual, and it is very singular 



CRYSTAL P.VLACE GAME BIRD AND BANTAM 

 SHOW. 

 The strongest defender of the good old days must acknowledge 

 that they had one mark upon them which these present days 

 have but in a much less degree. That mark was cruelty. Laws 

 were cruel, sports were cruel. Crimmals were hanged foiaU 

 sorts of crimes, and an attempt to reform them was not known. 

 MendeUghted in seeing ammals suffer pain witness bull-bait- 

 ing, badger-drawing, cock-fighting, and the like. Now, all these 

 arl forbidden by law. Om- fathers associated the Game cock 

 with blood, vice, death ; we associate the same bird with exquisite 

 beauty and a pleasant ramble round a poultry show It is the 

 bird's beauty we deUght in, not his fighting. Surely this is a 

 gieat improvement. Then we have a Society for Preventing 

 Cruelty to Animals ; we have " The Animal World," a periodical 

 which pleads for kindness to poor brutes who cannot plead for 

 themselves. But there is another step to be made-to associate 

 Game birds with beauty as well as with oui- stomachs Our 

 Wolfs our Harrison Weirs have done much in this respect , 

 thev have portiayed the beautiful bh-ds as they deserved to be, 

 and made L see how beautiful they are. But a fui-ther step has 

 been made by this Ciystal Palace Show Game bii-ds were 

 shown for the first time on their legs, and not hangmg by their 

 Ipcrs The eye was won by their beauty— beauty mthout a gun- 

 shot woimd, or even a ruffled feather- not the stomachs w_on by 

 thoughts of their savom-iness. True some f'fU-y"^"-^ '''^^ •',^,^-. 

 nosed old gentieman, who takes a walk m order to make a bettei 

 dinner and cheers his gluttonous mmd by thoughts of the 

 TmSc' feast, might only see in the Pheasant and the Grouse, 

 and the Ptarmigan the birds minus their feathers, and twhng 

 on a spit ; but I am sure the far greater majority would not only 

 forget the birds' eatableness, but even the sport they have 

 ImowTi on a 12th of August or a 1st of September The eye 



charmed by beauty of form and feathei-ing, and the gun and 



the stomach foigotten. I thank you, Mr Harrison Weii;, and all 

 others who produced, more fi-om their hearts than then- heads, 

 the nleasine idea of a Uve Game bu-d bho-n'. 



tLsTow must be regarded simply as a beginning, andb^^^^^^^ 

 nnd cantankerous must that man be who would take dehght to 

 mark any shortcomings in a first attempt. The point is to start 

 a good thing; mistakes may easily be corrected another time. 

 The time of "j^ar was not over-suitable, but the Show could not 

 this year be arranged to take place at any other time. The Show 

 was for this reason a small one, but more birds are promised 

 next veai- We cannot have salmon in November, and we shall 

 not hive another Game bird show in the l^^^^S fason May 

 we have it, however, as a regular thing m the Ciystal Palace at 

 The proper time of the year. There is another view of such a 

 Show— it tends to educate the mind in practical natm-al histovj. 

 Notv for the Show itself. It was arranged at the end m the 

 portion of the nave of the Palace near the tropical department. 

 K-e were but thirtv-five pens of Game birds, and just over a 

 hunh-ed pens ot Bantams,*^ First let me notice, that m e.ach 

 pen (Billett's excellent metal ones) was a fresh grass sod, Ijing 



