Ootobcr 31, 1887. ] 



JODBNAIi OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



341 



" they shall get done easily." The mominR, however, briugs 

 with it the most abrupt evidence f f the delusiveness of such 

 foregone conclusions. X very early breakfast being hurriedly 

 partaken of, tbo arbitrators on their arrival at the exhibition 

 dnd, and that as the first intimation, " thut the committee 

 cannot possibly be ready for an hour and a half or two hours 

 to come." The grounds of delay, of course, are various — some- 

 times from the pens not arriving in time, or that workmen 

 failed in their duties ; and again, far more freijuently, because 

 the committee feel it incumbent on them to wait the arrival of 

 some imrticular individual's birds, that very probably " will 

 come " by a train arriving at the hour, perchance about midivay 

 between the time first named for commencing the arbitrations 

 and that of the opening to visitors, lly this last defect, not 

 very long since, I was myself, when single-handed, delayed live 

 and a halt hours during good daylight — taking short walks in 

 the immediate locality — and consequently had to avail myself 

 of the so-commcoily-called-in an " assistant " at such cases, 

 a policeman's bull's-eye lantern, for some four or live hours 

 after daylight was gone. 



In this particular case, as in a variety of others that could 

 be mentioned, in which I had colleagues however, the expected 

 fowls never came at all ; though, on the other hand, not unlre- 

 quently such anticipations of the committees have been even- 

 tually fulfilled. Hut can it reasonably be supposed, even if 

 want of daylight does not ensue from these changed arrange- 

 ments, that the awards can be made as coolly, or the general 

 examination of the birds be as perfect and satisfactory as would 

 have been the case had the deducted one, two, or even three 

 hours been made also available ? 



On this point I am well assured all your readers will arrive 

 at much the same opinions ; but my mind embraces from 

 practical experience another and quite as potent an objection — 

 viz., it cannot be logically argued ihat to wait at all for " late 

 comers" is doing justice to those who have at much incon- 

 venience obeyed rules. Again, through so common and mistaken 

 a piece of kindness by committees, the result of the present 

 deference to late arrivals has brought with it one unvarying 

 sequence — the " whippers-in " have only taken advantage of 

 this former indifference to regulations, and the next year have 

 put in their appearance even at a later hour than before. 



Another littie hint may not be without its usefulness. The 

 fast-coming short days, combined with "classes for chickens 

 of the present year only," add most materially to the attendant 

 diHiculties of such hurried arbitrations ; for it cannot be denied 

 that those exhibitors are not myths, who will, if they can, 

 introduce into their pens both cockerels and pullets of very 

 questionable age, and for judges during the last couple of 

 months of the year, to, at a first glance, determine the question 

 of age, in perfectly matured early chickens, is more than can 

 bo fairly expected. Experience, too, proves (as I have before 

 expressed myself in print), that the man, of all men the most 

 ready to solemnly protest to the age of his pen of chickens, 

 will usually bo found to be the individual who first sealed his 

 conscience by a false entry of their juvenility. In the case of 

 " disqualification " on this particular point, it must also be 

 borne in mind, the odds of advantage are always against the 

 judges, who, of course, can only speak as a matter of indi- 

 vidual opinion in respect to closely-disputed age; whilst a 

 home-diary, or a home domestic, if wanted, is but rarely 

 absent on behalf of the questioned birds. It comes, in fact, 

 oven at the present moment, within the scope of my know- 

 ledge, that several amateurs have chickens just hatched, and 

 eggs still to come. Some of them say, " The rearing of a few 

 chickens in the winter affords them occupation ; it is plea- 

 surable to them, and they would not, on any accouut, be with- 

 out them." How fearfully adverse are my own experiences aa 

 to this " pleasurable occupation ! " I have invariably found such 

 chickens prove far more troublesome than profitable, whilst my 

 domestics in years past, when rearing winter Sebrights, with 

 the view to keep them dwarfed, unanimously voted them " the 

 very worst of nil little plagues." 



My individual impression is soon told, if prizes for chicken- 

 classes were not offered during the last two months of the year, 

 the now general inducement to enter very ancient-looking, 

 winter-hatched cliickens, would not be nearly so extended ; 

 aad at the advanced period of the season I have named, such 

 chickens may usually be expected to hold good place against 

 all comers, as biids of nine or ten months old are generally 

 found to be in their very best trim for competition. 



Of course, no breach of agreement as to the time of opening, 

 can be tolerated by an impatient pnhllc; (or in sach case, a 



perfect storm of lond knockings at the doors challenges instant 

 admission ; and should it then happen that the prize-cards are 

 not in their places, or the catalogues, with the awards, are at 

 the moment not forthcoming, complaints, couched in not the 

 most pleasing language, are, as the rule, far more abundant 

 than welcome. 



It is also very easy to conceive, that when the awards are 

 made at tbo rate of a hundred pens an hour, it is a sufficiently 

 heavy strain, both on the brain and body of the judges, during 

 a couple or three consecutive hours, without any unnecessary 

 impediments being placed before them ; nor can it be doubted, 

 that an amateur, who, at his own leisure (say, of even the 

 whole afternoon, if he pleases to so devote the time), can most 

 probably see some little defect or other, that possibly may 

 have escaped the hastier glance of the most experienced 

 orbitrator. 



15etore I conclude, I may just mention the indisputable fact 

 that though a judge may carry on pretty comfortably at the rate 

 named fur some three hundred pens or so, if the entries should 

 prove double that amount, he is not at all in the same posi- 

 tion for the fulfilment of the afterpart of his duties as he 

 was at the beginning of those classes adjudicated upon. To 

 limit, therefore, the originally defined time for the arbitrators, 

 becomes at once suicidal to the best interests of the exhibition; 

 exposes the judges to complaints that would not otherwise 

 arise, and as undoubtedly causes many an unnecessory con- 

 tention among even the competitors themselves. 



For each society to carry out rigidly the rules as to the time 

 the poultry is to be received at the show, irrespective alto- 

 gether of the social position of the various competitors, ia 

 ecjually a duty of the managing committee as on their part to 

 be also quite pr"pared with the exhibition-coops for the recep- 

 tion of the poultry on their due arrival. The time agreed upon 

 in the first instance as to be fully allowed should be puncti- 

 liously observed when the judges are officiating ; and this really 

 done, if the allotment of the premiums should prove unsatis- 

 factory, then by all means in future years exchange your arbi- 

 trators as being inefficient ; but do not, on the contrary, expect 

 from the parties thus judging the evidently impossible task of 

 carefully making their decisions that under the original cove- 

 nant were to have occupied half a dozen hours, just as accu- 

 rately as they would have hoped to have done had not the 

 altered arrangement so unceremoniously curtailed the time to 

 not half that period. In short, I do maintain that the judges 

 of a poultry show are as perfectly entitled to the whole time 

 appointed for the sufficient discharge of their onerous duties 

 as are the competitors themselves to the prizes when awarded 

 to them, or the committee to the admission money received 

 at the entrances to the show. — Edward Hewitt, Sparkbrooh, 

 near VArmingham. 



[The complaint thus uttered by Mr. Hewitt will be snstainep 

 by every one interested in poultry exhibitions ; and the com- 

 mittees will not merely act wisely but justly if they avoid the 

 evils and injustice he points out, and which the committees do 

 not sufficiently appreciate. A judge would be quite justified in 

 refusing to make awards unless he had the full time originally 

 specified. — Eds.] 



BEST TIMES FOR LEAKING CHICKENS. 



I WROTE to yon in July last about rearing chickens, giving an 

 account of the benefit they derived from a change of food and 

 water. With all my attention, however, I was not very suc- 

 cessful during warm weather, and I find I can rear chickens 

 with less attention and more success in March and April, and 

 again in October, than I can any time from May day to 

 Michaelmas. I am so convinced of this fact, that I shall in 

 future try to have all my chickens hatched before the 1st o£ 

 May.— A. E. L. 



[We agree with you fully, and we have always so far as we 

 could followed the plan. We hatch all we can in March and 

 April, but we cannot hatch all, and we run into May. Wo 

 suffer little by so doing, but we never do well in June. We 

 believe that the great heot of the sun is not good for th^. 

 The earth also is dry and parched, yielding neither food nor 

 refreshment. Old henwives attribute the constant failure of 

 success in June to the haymaking, a sort of hay-fever. It has 

 passed into verse thus — 



" Chirks that be hatchcil wben there's making of h«jr. 

 Will never do we'd, but will lado aw.-iy."] 



