November 10, 1363. 



JOUKNAL OF HOETICtJLTTJBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



381 



held ; but unless three pens compete in any class the cup 

 or first prize will not be given. Instead of the usual shed, 

 so unweatherproof as it has long proved, the entire collection 

 of feather will be arranged under the new covered market, 

 which, how much soever it may be condemned as blocking 

 up so fine an area for the healthy circidation of ail- in the 

 heart of the town of Darlington, is yet an admirable accom- 

 modation for the Northern Counties Poulti'y Society. 



SELLING POULTEY. 



Will yovi tell me what is the usual rule in selling poultry ? 

 I have often seen it urged in your Joiirnal that one should 

 not send fowls without being paid beforehand; but in several 

 cases when I have asked for a post-office order to be sent 

 before sending off my fowls it has seemed to give great 

 offence, and in some cases has stopped the sale altogether. 

 What ought I to do in dealing with strangers ? — L. S. D. 



[In dealing with strangers we invariably ask for a reference 

 or for prepayment ; and no one who admits the dictates of 

 common sense would object to give either the one or the 

 other. We always say in reply to an intending purchaser 

 if unknown to us, " You will not misunderstand us when we 

 say that we shall be obliged by a reference or, if you prefer 

 it, prepayment ; the money to be returned, deducting any 

 expense, if the fowls ai-e not satisfactory." Of course there 

 are purchasers of too-well-known chai'acter to require such a 

 precaution. — Eds. J. op H.] 



PENS AT THE BIEMINGHAM POULTEY SHOW. 



The very important article in your last Number, in re- 

 ference to the above subject, is a matter of too much im- 

 portance to pass unnoticed. 



Your con-espondent, "Old Cochin," asks if it is the 

 intention of the managers of the forthcoming Show to 

 enlarge the pens. The frequent complaints that have been 

 made through the medium of your Journal, and the silence 

 of the managers of the Show in reference to this very 

 important alteration, lead me to conclude that no alterations 

 will be made. 



It does indeed appear singularly strange to pooh-pooh at 

 the poultiy part of this great Exhibition. No expense is 

 spared in any improvements which can be suggested in the 

 cattle department; and if the trifling expense in eiilarging 

 the poultry pens is so economically considered, I would 

 suggest that a subscription be at once raised amongst the 

 exhibitors of poultry to defray the expenses, and that the 

 alterations be at once made. Your correspondent, " Old 

 Cochin " — and, being one of that breed myself, I can endorse 

 the truth of his complaints — states only the injury it is to 

 the birds. That is bad enough, it is tnie ; but a greater 

 evil than that exists — that is, the awarding of the prizes. 

 Some very great eiTors have been made of late years, and 

 particularly in the larger varieties of fowls. I for one most 

 willingly exonerate the Judges, for in some of the pens con- 

 taining three Cochins if the cock bird should be at the front 

 of the pen, no sight whatever could be gained of the hens, 

 and, doubtless, the Judges at the time have thought it a 

 Single Cock class, and awarded the prize according to his 

 merits only: hence the blunders that have been made in 

 some of the classes. I am quite sm-e enough has been said 

 upon ;this important subject ; and if exhibitors find upon 

 entering the Show this year that the same evil stiU exists, I 

 woidd advise those who possess the lai-ge breeds of bh-ds to 

 keep them from Bingley Hall in future, and send them to 

 any other Show in England, and they wiU find better accom- 

 modation for their birds. — ^A Big Cochin.* 



STATING THE AGE OF POULTEY EXHIBITED. 



I THINK that you would be doing a service to exhibitors 

 of poultry if you would recommend in your pages that the 

 fi-amers of rules should require nothing respecting age, 

 except that chickens should be the produce of the current 

 year. To compel persons to state, a month before a show, 



• Wc have just received information that the pens for Cechin-Chlnas 

 aBd Doridnge will be increased in eize.— Eds. 1 



exactly the number of mouths which their birds have been 

 hatched is to ask men to do what they cannot do with 

 accuracy where a large number of birds ai-e reared. Every- 

 body is liable to accident ; and if when the schedides are 

 fiUed up you intend to exhibit cockerel No. 1 and state his 

 age as nearly as you can, it often happens that cockerel 

 No. 2 has to be sent in his place when the show really 

 comes, and this bird is probably of a different brood and a 

 different age to the former. Here is a fertUe source of 

 incorrect ages. All that is really necessary is to insure 

 that birds, exliibited in the chicken classes of 1863, have 

 been hatched in 1863, and whether they are seven, or nine, 

 or five months old is of small importance. Every fancier 

 knows, I think, his chickens from his old birds ; but, as the 

 season advances, we forget to which brood such and such 

 birds belonged, and, without intending fraud, make mis- 

 statements of the exact age of specimens. Besides, the 

 schedules are sent a month before the birds go to a show, 

 and between the times much may occm- not only to change 

 original intentions, but also to make us forget the age 

 actually given. We are not aU so careful as to keep a copy 

 of the entry. 



I trouble you with this letter, because inadvertently I 

 have just exhibited a pen in which the cockerel was at least 

 six weeks older than the pullets, and one age, I see by the 

 printed catalogue, is given for all. 



When the form was filled up and sent away, a very pro- 

 mising cockerel of the same brood as the pullets seemed to 

 be the most suitable partner for them. When the day came 

 to despatch the pen he was amiss, and another was sub- 

 stituted. I did not remember what age had been given, 

 and till I read the catalogue a week after the show, I did 

 not know any false statement had been made. Judges 

 know quite enough to make an exact statement of the age 

 unnecessary, and the public are misled and exhibitors em- 

 barassed by attempting too much. — A Blundeeee. 



FOECED SWAEMS AND ABOETIVE BEOOD. 



I FEAE Mr. Lowe must have thrown aside the remarks on 

 which he has afterwards commented, after " a mere cursory 

 glance " only, as he formerly threw aside the opinions of 

 various authors on bee diseases. Doubtless, every one has 

 a right to read or not, as he chooses ; but we may reason- 

 ably expect that the non-readers will not be our critics. 

 Among several other misquotations. Mi'. Lowe puts between 

 inverted commas, "there should be no failui-es" — speaking 

 of forced swarms. The nearest approach to this occurs in 

 my remai'ks at page 120, where I say, " There ought to be 

 no such failures," plainly refei-ring to a certain class of 

 failures named in the context. Omitting the word " such " 

 changes the meaning of the whole sentence. It would, 

 indeed, be absiu-d, under any system of management, to 

 say there should be no failures whatever. Are there not in 

 the land of the mountain and flood some failures of natural 

 swai-ms, irom vai-ious causes, at various ages ? "Be candid 

 for once." There are a few such in England occasionally, 

 perhaps as many in proportion as there are of forced swarms, 

 when the latter are judiciously made ; and who in the name 

 of common sense ever thinks of driving them, "ready, or 

 not ready?" When the honey season has fairly set in, when 

 the population is overflowing, and drones have been reared, 

 they are always rea-dy. A natural swarm is a beautiful and 

 a pleasing sight; but many bee-keepers cannot afford to 

 indulge in the "mystical," or "poetical," at the expense 

 of half their honey harvest, and of valuable time spent in 

 watching and waiting ; nor to share with their more affluent 

 compeers a contempt for "mere commonplace consider- 

 ations of profit and pelf." Is he who prefers natural swarms, 

 even when they lessen his profits, is he reaUy "the true 

 apiarian ? " 



Mr. Lowe charges us not to repeat that bees wiU carry out 

 of their hives chilled and abortive brood. Nevertheless, I 

 must and do repeat it. I wiU give an instance, not the 

 only one I could bring forward, but I select it because a 

 whole hive of chilled brood is an extreme case — one in which 

 foul brood ought to have resulted, if such a result was at all 

 usual. I had placed four forced swarms (made about the 

 middle of June this year) apart from my other bees, in a 



