16 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



[ Jauu;iry 1, ISi?. 



members Jo not seem inclined to do anything. Except the 

 " Standard of Excellence," which with all its faults is a useful 

 production, nothing has been done. 



I am inclined now to go in for poultry as an article for food. 

 I dare say you have seen Mr. Geyelin's circular, " Our SyRtcm 

 of Selling Poultry, and the Eernedy." He has, I think, the 

 right plan, but at present he fails in bringing it to boar. 



The National Poultry Company may answer as a place for 

 breeding and selhng good birds, but there is a want of vigour 

 there, iiud under the present system they will not produce any 

 change. 



You will think I am a general grumbler, but I am sure you 

 will agree with me in many things. I want to work certain 

 reforms, and I will do so, if possible, without angry feeling or 

 personal attacks. — Egojiet. 



SUNDRIES. 



In reply to " Cleeicus," before he accuses his " Black 

 Country " dealer of imposition in the matter of his Partridge 

 Cochin cock, he should be able tojmivc that some imposition h.ad 

 been practised. I do not think any person conversant with 

 the changes of plumage that fowls undergo in moulting, would 

 be satisfied with the simple statement offered by " Cleeicus." 

 Changes from black to white are well authenticated, and would 

 appear much more like '■ shameful dishonesty," than the case 

 mentioned, and yet Dame Nature may be alone to blame. 



In reference to " Poultry Show Neglects," and " Exhibitoe," 

 I can sympathise with him in the matter of catalogues and 

 prize lists, though not as relating to Newport. I have before 

 now in the pages of " our Journal," advocated certain cour- 

 tesies to exhibitors. A ticket of admission is one courtesy I 

 have advocated; it might induce the exhibitor to attend the 

 show, he might purchase, and thus aid the funds ; and in any 

 case I do know this, that it gives the exhibitor a more lively 

 interest in the welfare of the exhibition. As to catalogues, I feel 

 that exhibitors ought to be the fust persons considered. I have 

 gone myself to an exlnbition to find all the catalogues sold, 

 though I had ordered one. It does appear to me that ex- 

 hibitors are really the backbone of exhibitions. This may be 

 diseased imagination on my part, but I think that as the great 

 majority must be unsuccessful, it would be wonh the while of 

 managers to pat all on the backs, and show them some little 

 attention. Let it be a rule at every exhibition, to dispatch by 

 the first possible post a catalogue and prize list to every ex- 

 hibitor. Would the managers of a large show lose £5 by such 

 generosity? I should say, certainly not; but a very few ex- 

 hibitors declining to enter at a second show would cause a loss 

 of far more than £5 in entries. 



Railway charges, however, seem Hkely still to be the stumb- 

 ling block to increase of exhibitors. To myself quite recently, 

 obtaining prizes has not been sufficient to preserve me from 

 losing money by exhibiting. I have just paid 4s. Gd. for one 

 hamper of Polish fowls (therefore not heavy), travelling one 

 hundred miles on a single railway, and since that I have 

 sent to the Nevrport Show three pens for 5s. 2d. ; the return 

 jom-ney cost me 10s. 3d., the distance being under one hundred 

 miles. Mr. Cork is right, most probably, in his reply to 

 " ExHiBiTon." The railway should be blamed for detention. I 

 can only say my birds returned from New Shoreham in capital 

 condition. One cock has been exhibited three times successfully 

 since that Show, without being any the worse. This could not 

 be if he had sultered from neglect at Shoreham. The " Ex- 

 hibitoe " at New Shoreham might probably, with trouble, have 

 traced the packages, and found out where the fault was. Per- 

 haps he had better pocket the affront. My crusade against the 

 railways has ended, as I think, in all poultry parcels being 

 charged to me on our local railway 50 per cent, extra. I cannot 

 help fancying that orders have been given to all clerks to look 

 out for my name, and to lay it on heavily. — Y. B. A. Z. 



INCUBATORS. 



If "Edgwoeth" and " A Sr.ixisH Beeder " will put them- 

 selves in communication with me, I shall be most happy to 

 reply to their queries about my incubator. 



I have endeavoured to construct it to be as perfect as 

 possible in command over internal and external temperature — 

 I believe hitherto the weak point — and I will guarantee that if 

 one is fitted according to my instructions, it shall keep the 



requisite temperature, 102' to 103°, absolutely without vari- 

 ation ; further, that if the slight extra expense is incurred of 

 having my outer anti-radiation casings, many a mishap of the 

 gas or lamp going out will have no evil effect, for the incubator 

 shall keep its proper temperature for six hours without any 

 heating medium whatever. One thing, however, I cannot 

 guarantee when an incubator has gone out of my hands— that 

 is, another's attention thereto. 



Lastly, in reply to " H. Wilcocks." There must be some 

 error, for Mr. Massey assures me all correspondence is duly 

 answered. May I request ' ' H. W." to write once more ? — Feedk. 

 ScHEciDEE, Manager, National Poultry Company (Lindted). 



MANCHESTER POULTRY AND PIGEON SHOW. 



Most amateurs of experience anticipated a fii-st-rato Show this year at 

 the Belle Vue Gardens, Manchester, and their anticiimlion was correct, 

 for the Show of December 21st, 22uil, and 24th, has been by far the best 

 of any yet held under the management of the Messrs. .Jcunison. This 

 is not to be wondered at, for every successive year proves only the more 

 certainly that no better place exists for the accommoilatioc of a large 

 show, nor can there be any more praiseworthy individuals as regards 

 the general attention paid' to every portion of the valuable live stock 

 exhibited, in proof of what we have just stated, a large quantity of 

 homo-baked bread was expressly made on the premises, each loaf being 

 from 5 to G inches thick, and about the size of the large flagstones used 

 for paving our general thoroughfares. These immense loaves of bread, 

 each pretty well as much as a man could Uft, had been mads a few 

 days previously, and were consecpiently in excellent condition for the 

 purposes intended, being not in the least clammy, but, on the contrary, 

 sweet and good-flavoured. They were broken to small pieces, well 

 soaked in cold water, and then mixed with barley flour, and this con- 

 stituted the first food of the poultry after bein" tnken from their travel- 

 ling baskets. During the whole Show, once each day they were allowed 

 a similar meal, the remainder of theii- food being a mi'^ture of excellent 

 barley and Indian com. From this careful n.anagement doubts can- 

 not exist but that many pens of poulti-y will actually be returned in 

 far superior condition to that in which they were received at Manches- 

 ter. Nor war, the scrupulous care of the pioprietors of the Belle Vue 

 Zoological Gardens expended exclusively on the poultiy, as a very large 

 entiy of dogs had also been consigned to them. To meet the require- 

 ments of this host of animals, quite a string of living horses an-ived at 

 the Gardens a few days previous to the meeting, nor was a single one of 

 these animals slaughtered until it had undergone veterinary inspection 

 to ascertain if it was perfectly free from constitutional disease. The 

 quantity of this flesh when mixed with a duo proportion of barleymeal 

 would hive staggered the beUef of almost any one. The small toy 

 and pet dogs were provided also with other kinds of food more especi- 

 ally adapted to their respective wants. This careful management, 

 under so experienced a supenision, renders the Manchester Show so 

 popular and well supported. It is by experience proved that railway 

 companies are always among the last parties to avail themselves of 

 suggestions, however urgently directed ; but wo cannot forbear once 

 again drawing the attention of railway directors to the impolicy of 

 putting dogs and poultry to travel in the same van, for we are informed 

 several valuable pens of fowls were destroyed by their- canine fellow- 

 passengers during transit, to the no small annoyance of the owners of the 

 poultry, and as inevitably to the ultimate serious loss of the railway 

 companies themselves, wlio, as a matter of course, are legally liable for 

 such gi-oss neglect and mismanagement. 



The arrangement of the pens throughout the whole Show was ad- 

 mirably adapted for the inspection of the public, and it would, indeed, 

 be inviiUous to particularise the merits too closely of individual classes, 

 when we are fortunately enabled to say that scarcely an indifferent 

 class throughout the whole Show could be selected. The Grey Dorkinf/s 

 were most commendable, the young classes exhibited (of a cockerel and 

 pair of pidletsl proving exceedingly good and popular. A reference 

 to the printed prize list will show our readers that in this, as in almost 

 all other breeds throughout the Show, the premiums were very widely 

 sown. Perhaps besides being one of the most extensive, the best class 

 in the whole Show proved to be the young Black SjuuiisJi. Never had 

 the Judges awarded prizes to better specimens, nor could their con- 

 dition throughout the whole entry be sui-passed. The Cri're C/nirs 

 mustered strongly, and were good ; nor were the Polands less worthy of 

 our highest praise. The Game classes were remarkably well iilled, 

 but the condition of many of the birds from the late wet weather was 

 not equal to what it might otherwise have been. In Cochin.'^, both 

 the Bufl" and the Partridge-coloured ones, the Manchester Show held 

 a very high position : they were evidently the picked birds of the king- 

 dom, most of them having been specially reserved by theii- owners to 

 test their quality at Belle Vue. The young Buff Cochins, although 

 the first prize was £10, strange to say, undoubtedly proved by far the 

 least deserving of any of the Cochin classes. 



Geese, Tiirl-etis, and Diiel-x, were shown in great abundance : and 

 here, as nsnal, Mr. Charles Jennison exhibited a veiT- well-filled class 

 of a gi-eat variety of "fancy " water fowls, taken purposely from the 

 pools of the Gardens. Another scarcely less interesting feature of the 

 Show was a class composed of foreign Zfores, some varieties being so 



