THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



large circle all over the country, and it is easy to 

 see how strong is the personal pressure in favour 

 of granting such advantages. But they are dis- 

 tinctly unjust to such as have to trust their 

 specimens to railway and show officials ; and 

 there are, moreover, occasionally distressing 

 cases of malicious injury to formidable exhibits 

 sent unprotected, which can hardly be due to 

 any other than some of the parties thus illegiti- 

 mately admitted. Things are not as they have 

 been painted by some for reasons of their own, 

 and supposed by others to account for their own 

 want of success ; but unbridled rivalry and the 

 business interests at stake in some quarters are 

 the greatest curses of the poultry fancy, and such 

 admissions and favours present too many oppor- 

 tunities of several kinds to just the class which 

 it is most undesirable should have them. 



The same rule should be applied to packing 

 birds when the show is over ; and for the same 

 reasons constant supervision over every alley or 

 promenade in the exhibition should be main- 

 tained. This ought to be a travelling or 

 peripatetic supervision, if only to see to the 

 prompt removal and breakage of eggs laid ; if 

 they are long left in the pen, breakage is sure to 

 occur there, and the bird may acquire the habit 

 of egg-eating. It is also necessary to prevent 

 unauthorised meddling with exhibits, which in 

 the exhibitor's absence have an absolute right to 

 be protected from all rival exhibitors, so far as 

 their private capacity extends. On the contrary, 

 we often see birds allowed to be taken out of 

 their pens by rival exhibitors, quite unchecked, 

 at even first-class exhibitions. This is simply 

 disgraceful, and must damage the plumage, if 

 nothing else, for which reason it is no doubt 

 often done. If any fraud is suspected, it is 

 right and necessary for the matter to be in- 

 vestigated ; but this should only be upon due 

 protest, with caution money,* and in the pres- 

 ence and with the sanction of ofiicers and 

 judges — at least one of each. We have actually 

 known an exhibitor, on his own mere motion 

 and responsibility, take out a buff bird belonging 

 to a rival in the same class, and apply what he 

 presumed to consider a "chemical test" to the 

 plumage, a test which was worthless as such, but 

 which dyed the plumage afterwards ! 



A point merely of good management, but 

 which is too often neglected, is the sending 

 notice of all sales of pens exhibited, at farthest 

 the same evening on which the show closes. 



* At the best English shows it is usual to require a guinea 

 with any protest on the ground of fraud, which is not returned if 

 the piotest be decided to be frivolous and unjustifiable, as some 

 are. The fee is of course returned, if either the protest be sus- 

 tained, or even if not sustained, if the authorities consider there 

 was fair, frimi facie, o: plausible ground for it. 



Neglect of this causes endless anxiety when 

 the sold pens fail to arrive along with the 

 others. Where a show lasts more than two 

 days, notice ought to be posted every evening 

 of sales made during the day. 



At Birmingham a list of sales is posted out- 

 side the office, and also the awards as handed in 

 by the judges from time to time. Whenever 

 the public are admitted during the 

 Notice of judging, or on the first day at any 



Sales and time, this prompt posting up of the 

 Awards. awards, from which exhibitors can 



mark their blank catalogues, and 

 the prompt posting of the cards upon the pens 

 themselves, is of the greatest importance, but 

 not always attended to as it should be ; at the 

 largest show of the year we have on some occa- 

 sions known many awards not to be obtainable 

 even at nightfall, though handed in long before. 

 The question concerning what is called 

 "open judging" will lead naturally to the ne.xt 

 section of this chapter. All exhibitions of poul- 

 try were at one time privately 

 Open judged; but the public judging of 



Judging. cattle and horses doubtless started 



the other idea, and Birmingham first 

 began the system, since carried out at most of 

 the larger and some even of the smaller British 

 shows, of admitting the public at an enhanced 

 fee "to witness the judging." The judges them- 

 selves at first much objected to the new method, 

 but experience has endorsed it, especially as a 

 check upon the unauthorised influence of large 

 and habitual exhibitors, as above alluded to. 

 When we say that we have ourselves seen, at the 

 chief show of the year, a large exhibitor acting 

 practically as " steward " (or manual assistant) 

 to one of the judges, and that this would not 

 have been seen except for the " open judging," 

 solid reasons for the system will appear. Of 

 course the class which is actually being judged 

 is always temporarily fenced off from the public, 

 who can only watch the proceedings from the 

 ends of the alley or from adjoining alleys, and 

 the judge is not impeded, though his proceedings 

 and method of work are under review. What 

 the public really care most about, however, is the 

 earlier knowledge thus possible of the principal 

 avtards, in advance of the published prize list, 

 and which to some of them may be of consider- 

 able importance. The higher fee for admission 

 also ensures a less crowded and more quiet exam- 

 ination ; and for all these various reasons " open 

 judging " is likely to remain an institution at 

 the large shows. Except under such equitable 

 conditions, open to all alike, exhibitors ought 

 to be most rigidly excluded previous to the 

 admission of the general public. 



