382 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 13, 1873. 



any modern work on poultry wbich does not at least set forth 

 as much as this in ternis plain enough for anyone with real 

 interest in the subject to master. If there be not that real in- 

 terest, all the instruction in the world is useless. There is not 

 a single important point in any one breed about which there is 

 any serious doubt among competent fanciers as to the correct 

 ideal; and if it be replied, But how are the ignorant to know 

 these points ? I reply that any good book studied, or any recog- 

 nised judge asked, will impart the needful information. Taking 

 the point itself mentioned — vulture hocks in Brahmas, there is 

 not one judge nor one book which does not clearly state that 

 they should not be hocked, and that such a feature is a grave 

 fault : and so of the rest. The exact weight to be allowed to any 

 fault in judging never can be fixed; but after spending several 

 years over the matter, I assert deliberately that the vast 

 majority of awards by our recognised judges can be harmonised. 

 "X. Y. Z." has illustrated this point well. 



It is perfectly easy for a gentleman or gentlemen to sit at a 

 table and agree on a scale of figures. The first plan was tried 

 in England, and the second was tdedin America. But any such 

 *' parlour" scale if tested at a row of pens will be found even 

 ludicrously incorrect, aud actual awards rigidly made by it will 

 be found monstrous in many cases. Only a few months ago the 

 judges at a large American show were handed blank forms for 

 every pen, in which their estimate of the j)oints according to 

 the American standard was to he fiUed-in, and the prizes given 

 to the highest totals. One of the forms was sent me previous 

 to the show as a proof of the improvements to be introduced ; 

 and it was announced beforehand that the birds "would be 

 judged according to the standard." Here, then, was every con- 

 dition now wished for: here was an agreed standard, which had 

 been settled by a convention and revised by another convention, 

 and the birds were to be judged by it. I had a letter from one 

 of the judges after, saying that it was the most foolish thing he 

 ever knew. They took two days of the hardest work possible ; 

 and I heard from indei^endeut sources that the awards were at 

 least no better than usual when completed. I also know, by a 

 letter from one of themselves, that the same judges being re- 

 quested to judge the greatest show of the season, just after, in 

 the same way, absolutely and point-blank declined to do so, 

 saying they had had quite enough of it, and would never do it 

 again : one trial of the plan was quite enou<:;h for them. 



The letter of "Deeds Show" is so courleous to myself per- 

 Bonally, that I am sori*y I cannot agree with him. I have already 

 said that every point desired in a bird is known; and if more 

 than this be meant, there is no one who has any right to estab- 

 lish a uniform standard. All the competent judges we have 

 refuse to be bound in any such way; and I am at a loss to see, 

 since they stand aloof, how incompetent judges are to first frame 

 and then force such a standard upon them. What value can a 

 standard framed in defiance of the best judges ever have or 

 pretend to ? I do not know whether 8.ny allusion is meant to 

 an attempt which it is understood is to be made to form a com- 

 mittee and agree upon a standard at the Crystal Palace. If it 

 be, I am sorry to say I cannot, as he suggests, lend any assist- 

 ance to it. I should certainly like to see a genuine club or 

 association for broad and beneficial objects, aud supported by 

 men known and respected in the poultry world. But I can 

 hope for little from a movement notoriously promoted by some 

 persons for their own private ends, to which so ridiculously 

 few names at all known in the fancy have been subscribed; 

 which makes its very first object the framing of a standard in 

 defiance of the opinion of the very best judges we have ; aud 

 which begins its work by deliberately insulting Mr. Hewitt, and 

 not only insulting but slandering men like Mr. Blakston. Such 

 S3'mptoms are sufficient for me. 



There is, however, a sad and serious cause underlying the 

 complaints which have been made, to which it pains me to 

 advert. For many months we have practically lost the seiwices 

 of Mr. Hewitt ; and Mr. Teebay, too, is not capable of the fatigues 

 he was. Such loss of services we have grown so accustomed to as 

 almost to forget they might be withdrawn, and could not be easily 

 replaced, and both the cause and its effects are enough to justify 

 the gravest anxiety. I can only say that the matter has caused 

 m.ost anxious thought to many of those best competent to con- 

 sider the subject, as well as to myself, long before mooted in 

 correspondence. We want no more "agreed" standards, but 

 we do sadly want more skilled judges ; aud I am not hopeless 

 that the want may before long be in some measure supplied. 

 If energy were expended in this direction which is wasted in 

 ideas long since proved fruitless, good might be done : at all 

 events, I can see no other means of mending the state of affairs. 



— L. WltlGHT. 



THE BIRMINGHAM POULTRY SHOW. 



The entries for the forthcoming Show terminated on the Ist 

 inst., with every prospect of a satisfactory result. The following 

 are the numbers : — Poultry aud Pigeons, 2325 ; total entries, 2913. 



The aggregate is somewhat larger than that of last year. On 

 a comparison of the figures it wiU be seen that the principal 



changes have occurred in roots and corn ; the increase under 

 the former head being 96 ; while under the latter there is a 

 decline of 25. This fluctuation may doubtless be ascribed to 

 the fact that the past season was unpropitious for cereals, but 

 favourable to the growth of roots. In 1S72 the numbers were : 

 Poultry and Pigeons, 2363 ; total entries, 2889. 



SOUTHERN SHOWS AND THEIR CLASHING. 



We southrons have comparatively speaking very few poultry 

 shows, it is therefore the more galling when these clash ; yet 

 the Wilts County aud the Portsmouth Show are advt^rtised for 

 the same date, aud they must necessarily injure each other if the 

 dates are persisted in. I understand the judges, pens, &c., for 

 the Wilts County Show are engaged, and the schedules in print ; 

 I trust, therefore, that if the Portsmouth Committee are not as 

 far advanced they will see the wisdom of altering their date. I 

 have been accustomed for years to exhibit at both, and, like 

 many other small exhibitors, regreb this unfortunate contretemps. 

 I, therefore, appeal to Portsmouth, and hope if the arrange- 

 lients are not as complete the Committee will try to alter them. 

 — Joseph Hixton, Wartninstei'. 



BANTAMS AT BRISTOL SHOW. 



In reply to Mr. Wright's inquiry last week on the above sub- 

 ject, I would say it is no oversight of the Committee that there 

 is no class for Any other variety. In consequence of our heavy 

 losses in connection with our Show, we have from time to time 

 cut out those classes which fill so badly as to numbers. In our 

 November Show, 1SG7, we h id a class for White and Any other 

 variety. The entries were ten Whites, one Japanese, and one 

 Pekiu. The latter took the first prize and cup for all varieties of 

 Bautams, the Japanese second, aud the White the third prize. The 

 White exhibitors were so annoyed at the two pens of mongrels, 

 as they were called, taking first and second prizes, that we thought 

 it best to make two separate classes in our next Show, January, 

 1SG9. The result was nine entries in the White class aud four 

 in the Any other variety. The next Show we struck out the 

 latter class and have not since included it. — E. Cambridge. 



WHERE DO THE INJURIES TO EXHIBITED 

 BIRDS OCCUR? 



I THANK, in the name of all our Committee, Mr. Hinton for 

 his kind expressions about our Show. I want to tell him, 

 through the pages of this Journal, that his Malay cock's tail was 

 perfect when it left our Show. I penned his birds myself. I 

 was most careful in putting them into the hamper, and I took 

 them to the station last with my owu hands. The cock had his 

 tail perfect then, and perfect did the bird go away from us. I 

 am most sorry it should have happened, but I believe these tail- 

 pullings take place at the stations and places where the birds 

 have to wait for trains. I will narrate a little anecdote. I was 

 travelling to a poultry show; at one of the junctions some 

 curious person insisted on knowing the contents of a big basket. 

 He first peeped in through the lid, and only saw enough to 

 make him want to see more. He took hold of the lid, and tried 

 to make the gap larger between the lid and the basket ; the 

 string was fine; the lid suddenly opened, and a Black Red 

 Game cock flew out of the basket and over the line into a field. 

 The bird was at last caught, but the train had gone. That bird 

 was " too late," if nothing worse happened to him. Again, at 

 one of our principal stations in the middle of England I went 

 into the parcels' ofilce, aud I found the porters had opened a 

 basket to look at the bird inside, and had let it out on the floor 

 for the others to look at. The bird (a Spanish cock) was wild, 

 and it flew through a window and cut its head. 



These two examples show us what is done at stations. The 

 secretary and the committee of a show often have blame to hear 

 for tails being palled out, when it has been done before the birds 

 ever got to the show at all. 



Now I am writing, I want to say a word or two about these 

 "men" everyone is talking of and writing of just now. I go 

 about to a gi'eat many shows, in fact most of them — I do not 

 suppose any amateur attends more than I do — aud I have the 

 pleasure (for it is a great pleasure, in fact I think it an honour) 

 to know most of the " fancy." I know the managers ("poultry- 

 men" some style them) of nearly every known exhibitor. I 

 have been into the show before opening with them ; I have seen 

 them under every possible circumstance, and never — not even 

 once — have I seen any oue thing which could not have been 

 doue before the whole mass of exhibitors. To pull a bird's tail 

 out, to shake up a bird, they would about as much think of 

 doing, I most firmly believe, as you, Messrs. Editors ! 



Whether it is advisable or no to let exhibitors in before the 

 judging I will not speak of, thouj^h personally I cannot see the 

 harm ; but of all the dreadful things which are supposed to take 

 place when the " men " are let in I do not believe one word; and 



