492 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. t Decemter 26, 1867. 



Goldfinch MnLE.-First and Second, W. Corbett. Hiphlv Commended, 



Highly Com- 



J. l-itzpatrick, Limerick. Commended, J. W. Heuston, Tipperarv 



Linnet Mui,E.-Krst, J. Storan, Limenck. Second and Highl. 

 mended, T. Fitzpatrick. "Jb"'. 



NlGniiNGALE.— Prize, W. Corbett. 



Oknamenmi V/ater FowL.-First. W. Corbett (Black Swans). Se. 

 SWeldducksf Commended, R. P. WilUams (Pintail Ducks, and Euddy 



Ornamentai. EinDS Not Previodsly MENTioNED.-First and Second, 

 v'tkjl n' tP""™?"; Cockatoos Foreign Birds, &c.) Commended, Miss 

 F. Marshall, Limcnck (Parrot) ; F. De Coarcy, Limerick (Macaw). 



Judge.— Mr. P. Jones, FuUiam, London. 



NORTH BRITISH COLUMBARIAN 

 SHOW. 



SOCIETY'S 



This was eminently snccessfn] in every department, comprising tlio 

 choicest specimens of each variety, and every class was well filled by 

 representatives from varions parts of the United Kingdom. In many 

 cases the competition was nnusiially close, and the task allotted to the 

 jndges was of no ordinary description, they having to select and place 

 five pens, and no more, in each class. From this circumstance many 

 very deserving birds necessarily had to be passed over, and it is not 

 too much to state that in several classes every noticed bird was worthy 

 of a first position. The arrangements of the Committee and the 

 courteous Hon. Secretary, Mr. Ruthven, were, as they always are at 

 Glasgow, complete and admirably carried out. The birds were shown 

 m the circular pens of the Society, than which none is better suited 

 Jl^" £,°"*°rt of the specimens. These were also well attended to. 

 The Pouter classes are the gi-eat feature of the Glasgow Show, the 

 yonnger birds being shown in paii-s, while the adults are exhibited 

 smgly according to their colours, and some idea of the extent and 

 variety of this department may be formed when we mention that two 

 hnndred and eighty-one pens, containing three hundred and thuty-one 

 Pouters, competed. In these classes, the Scotch fanciers— always 

 strong, and seldom worsted except by specimens which have passed 

 through their hands— as usual, held most of the leading positions. 



The Members' Challenge Cup, value £30, second year's competition, 

 won last year by J. Montgomery, Esq.. Belfast, was gained on the 

 present occasion by Mr. E. Fulton, of London, and the fortunate com- 

 petitor in 1868 will secure possession of this coveted trophy, according 

 to the greatest number of points in the three years' competition. ° 



■White, Black, and Blue Pouters fully maintain their positions, while 

 aie Reds exhibit no improvement in colour, hut a great advance has 

 been made in Yellows, which ai-e now little behind in size, shape, and 

 beauty. 



Mr. George Ure's first prize fine Bine Cock deservedly took the 

 sdver medal for excellence of colour and markings, and the youn" 

 White Cock belonging to the same exhibitor had a like honour for 

 excellence of form and carriage, the former bird competing very 

 closely for both distinctions. Mr. Huie took the medal for the best 

 Pouter Hen in the exhibition with a beautiful 'White. 



In the classes for young Corners, Blacks and Duns, both medals 

 were awarded to remarkably good pens, exhibited by Mr. G. C. Holt, 

 of Lawton, Cheshire. The Blacks were of unusual excellence, and 

 merit partieular notice. 



For the btst pair of Biirhs a life-sized oil Portrait, handsomely 

 framed, the estimated value about six guineas, was offered, and brought 

 together an excellent collection. Captain Heaton, of Manchester, 

 was the successful exhibitor, and he was also first in the class for 

 young birds, in each case with very fine Blacks. 



Almond and Short-faced Tumblers were good, hut not numerous. 

 Fautails were also good. Small, plain-headed birds won. In 

 JacobiHS, fine Reds obtained the medal ; Yellows were second, and 

 Blacks third. Trumpeters, Mottled and Black, were a strong class. Mr. 

 Montgomery's first prize pen, containing the survivor of°the famous 

 pair of Blacks miported by Mr. Baily, accompanied by a good hen, 

 had an easy victorj-, although the same exhibitor and Mr. Horner 

 ^ibited fine birds. The White Trumpeters were not so good. In 

 Turmts the smallest pair of Reds (point-crowned) we have seen for 

 some time took the medal ; and in foreign Ou-ts good "Whites won. 

 Of English Owls several pens were entered, which had no claim to 

 therr place, hut were all passed over, good Blues taking the lead, and 

 Powder Blues being second. Nuns, common Tumblers, Druyons, and 

 any other variety were good classes. Vie published the prize list last 

 week. 



FEEDING TURKEYS, GEESE, AND DUCKS 



FOR THE LONDON MARKET. 



The eastern counties may be said to have pretty nearly a 

 monopoly of our English Turkey raising and feeding. Hen- 

 wives are generally "afraid to meddle with them" on the 

 score of delicacy ; but if the requisite food and attendance are 

 not found to be thrown away in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, &c., 

 why should they be elsewhere, except in an essentially damp 

 climate? They must be tenderly reared, and not "dragged 

 up," aa the saying is. 



The Norfolk Turkey is black, with a few white spots on its 

 ■wings ; and in no part of the county is the breed preserved in 

 higher purity than in Sir 'William Ffolke's. The Cambridge- 

 shire Turkey is of a bronze grey, and rather longer in the leg 

 and bigger in the bone. Very few white ones are to be seen, 

 as they are supposed, like a white long-horn cow, to be more 

 delicate. The adherents of the Norfolk blacks consider that 

 they lay on more flesh and that it is whiter and finer in testure 

 than that of the Cambridgeshire bronze ; but as a rule the 

 latter sortpredomiuatesin the East Anglian stubbles, and comes 

 to the greatest weight. A good April-hatched cock at Christmas 

 should average about 18 lbs. in his feathers, and the hen-bird 

 about 10 or 11 lbs. in November, with ordinary feeding ; but 

 if they have been " sent along " with Indian corn, barleymeal, 

 rice, and potatoes, they will make up to nearly '2 lbs. heavier. 

 The small Norfolk farmers generally keep a cock and three or 

 four hens, and consider fifteen an excellent brood. The beat 

 broods are always hatched in April, and the second brood, 

 which never comes to the same maturity, and is eaten at poult 

 estate, follows in June or July. A September hatch too often 

 realises the rustic prophecy, " They '11 never be fit, they wo'n't 

 live long enough." Cramp in the legs is very fatal to the 

 broods ; but it only kills them by lingering stages, and a disease 

 in the head very often affects " a highly successful elimina- 

 tion." "Wet is the young Turkey's greatest foe. They are not 

 let out of the coop tiU they have been hatched two or three 

 days, and they should then be carefully watched and driven in 

 from a shower. 



On the smaller farms they are seldom finished off for market, 

 and middlemen go round about the end of August and buy 

 them up at an average of £4 lOs. per score. They are then sold 

 at a small profit, of sometimes only ikl. per head, to the larger 

 farmers to " shack '' upon the barley or oat stubbles, while the 

 " swine well ringled " are put upon the wheat ones. By the 

 terms of some leases the Pigs and poultry are the only live 

 stock which may be depastured on the young grass seeds layer. 

 A turkey boy is placed in daily attendance on the flock, to drive 

 them home, if it is wet, and keep them away from the trees, 

 to which, true to their American forest origin, they are very 

 partial. Nice, bright plumage, and wattles like red sealing wax, 

 are capital symptoms, and if the cocks gobble, they are said 

 to " talk healthy." Fighting is also a true sign of vigour, 

 and so is fly-catching, when they are young. Besides what 

 they get on the stubbles, they have abundance of in-door 

 relief. The system of cramming them at night with forced 

 balls is very much abandoned, and they are generally well 

 kept on potatoes, barley-tailings, and light wheat, ground and 

 mixed with milk. Common white turnips, which they eat 

 greedily without slicing, tend to make their flesh white, and 

 "cool their coppers ;" brick-dust to scour their maw is never 

 neglected. 



They are killed simply by breaking their necks, and the 

 breast bone is also broken before they are sent off to the poultry 

 salesman, in order to give the breast a plumper appearance. 

 The cocks, if sold out of their feathers to the neighbouring 

 gentry, will fetch \s. id. per lb., and the hens Is., or sometimes 

 only 'del., when a very plentiful season has knocked down prices, 

 or they are not fed up to the mark. The bigger they are, the 

 higher their value per lb., on the same principle that salmon 

 of 20 lbs. and upwards fetch (irf. more in the spring and early 

 summer mouths for the large "West-end dinner parties. The 

 great bulk of them go in their feathers to the London sales- 

 men : but the wives of the small farmers take them picked 

 to Norwich and sell them in the market, where very large 

 ones, trussed and ready for the spit, have made Is. Gd. at 

 Christmas. Hen-birds, which get fat sooner, and are generally 

 killed off before the end of November, are thought to be a 

 daintier morsel than the " gobblers." Some two-year-old cocks 

 (beyond which age they are very seldom kept) have been killed 

 at 30 lbs., when a heavy weight is wanted for an audit dinner ; 

 but with very high feeding, in one or two rare instances, prize 

 birds have turned the scale at 40 lbs. 



It is to Norfolk and Suffolk that we look for Goose manage- 

 ment on the largest and most economical scale. The Goose 

 trade of the great Norfolk dealers resolves itself into two 

 branches — the green Geese, and the Michaelmas. In March 

 and April they begin to get in their gosling supplies from 

 farmers or cottagers near the commons in both those coimties. 

 Most of these goslings are about five weeks old, and many of 

 them in very poor plight ; but six or seven weeks of feeding 

 under stages, on barleymeal, maize, wheat-tailings, and brewers' 

 grains mixed make them all ripe for the green Goose market. 



