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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ March 14, 1867. 



above ns ? And now I must let you into a little family history 

 of which we have all along been rather ashamed, and so have 

 kept it close. The truth is, these Brahmas are related to us, 

 but not in a respectable way. A .sister of my great-great-great- 

 graudmother, a giddy young thing of strange tastes. Ml in love 

 with a youuii Cochin cockerel. Whatever she could see in his 

 coarse jellowlegs we could not understand. The fellow had 

 not even a tail, our pride and glory, and besides he had never 

 learnt to crow properly ; we thought he was asthmatic from 

 sleeping in a damp roost. Well, to hush up the affair, it was 

 so disgraceful, we sent off the couple to America, when judge 

 our surprise, the impudent hussy sent her brats to England, 

 and pretended they were a new and distinct race of fowls, and 

 she actually took in a number of good-natured, or rather, weak 

 people, and we laughed at the boasted discernment of man. 



Now, to thiok of these illegitimate children setting them- 

 selves, aye being set up, above us, is too bad. Even a great 

 advocate of Brahmas in your last week's issue (February 28th) 

 — we always read the .Journal — said, " As table fowls they are 

 not equal to Dorkings." As to their eggs — well, if you 'dip a 

 silver spoon in a Brahma's egg, and another in an egg of one 

 of my dear daughters, you will find nest morning the spoon 

 placed in the egg of the former is far more discoloured than 

 the one placed in the egg of the latter, the reason being that 

 the coarseness derived from the Cochin is inherited to a 

 degree by the Brahma, and there being much more sulphur in 

 the egg the spoon is more discoloured. This I was told by a 

 scientific gentleman. 



But, sir, we fowls do not come into the world merely to lay 

 eggs, we supply food to man. Look at our beautiful broad, deep 

 breasts as they lie bare and white on dinner-tables, and look 

 at our short legs. 



But, Sir, this setting up Brahmas above Dorkings won't do. 

 I can thrash Mr. B. alive, and beat him when dead, man being 

 the judge. My wife will lay her eggs against Mrs. B.'s for 

 quality, and show her bust and legs against her before any 

 jm-y of housekeepers in England. Then, as to the much- 

 vaunted laying of Miss B., there is a pretty little cousin of ours, 

 of the good old English breed, who used to be called " Ever- 

 lasting Layers," now absurdly called Hamburghs. Well, Miss 

 Hamburgh, I know, lays more eggs even in winter than Miss 

 Brahma, and a great deal better ones, too ; and then, is not Miss 

 Hamburgh a pretty dear ? Yours, with all respect— Old J)oek- 

 ING Cock, Dorking Castle, Stmey. 



[Every one will sympathise with our old English bird, and 

 when they read il all the tenants of the Surrev poultry-yards 

 willflap their wings npplausively of his letter. " 

 We quite agree with Cowley, that 



" "lis greater to restore, than to usurp a crown." 

 So we will do our best to replace the diadem of poultrydom on 

 old Dorkiug's head. With that intent we pubhsh the following 

 from the pen of a good authority : — 



" Brahma Pootras are admittedly good winter-layers (it 

 pullets of the previous year, as no old hens of any breed ever 

 lay early), and that, of course, is when eggs are most valuable ; 

 nor does cold weather stop their laying, unless extraordinarily 

 severe; that, too, is a very good fcatuie. The eggs, also, are 

 without a doubt, very excellent in quality, and from being 

 hard and thick-shelled, they keep good longer by far than most 

 eggs— such as Spanish, for instance. 



".^gainsc these merits it must be noted, Brahma Pootras are 

 unquestionably 'very great eaters,' and the eggs, for the size 

 of the fowls, are unusually small. The flesh of the very young 

 Brahmas is good, but if kept to be above half grown, they are 

 very coarse-fleshed, and Cochin-like, with yellow " hides "' (for 

 you can hardly call it skin), not suitable at all for boiling. 



"Whatever may be stated to the contrary, Brahmas are 

 'leggy' — that is, the thighs are mostly coarse and large, a 

 Dorking for the table being quite a different sort of dish. A 

 cross between Game and Dorking (only a first cross), is one of 

 the most hardy and best table fowls I know."! 



INQUIRY. 



I PEG to inform your inquirer that I have had dealings with 

 Mr. Brooksbank, No. -1, Back Bollestou Street, Manchester. 

 and believe him to be an honest, though probal)ly a poor man. 

 He has purchased Spanish fowls from me, and of the " crack 

 strains " of Bake, Rodbard, and Teebay, and he has paid me 

 honourably, sending the post-oflice order with the order for 



the birds. I feel in justice to Mr. Brooksbank bound to send 



this communication for insertion in your next issue, as such 

 an inquiry is calculated to do a man, especially a poor man, 

 much haim. I have frequently seen his name in the prize lists 

 of TuE Cottage Gaiide-ner, which one would have naturally 

 thought would have been sufficient to have kept such an in- 

 quiry from being made public. Further, I have seen upon re- 

 ferring to Mr. Brooksbank's advertisement, in the Journal of 

 February 28th, that he gives the names of the shows where he 

 has taken prizes and commendations, and think it would have 

 been more prudent for your correspondent to have referred to 

 those shows previous to maligning the character of such a 

 one. — William H. Wheeleb, The Cottiuje, Carlton, near Not- 

 ihillham. 



BREEDING DARK BRAHMA POOTRAS. 



[Concluded from po{fe ISG.) 



I DAVE shown in two former papers that it is no easy matter 

 to obtain these fowls of a high type, even as regards the more 

 general points of foim, size, and comb ; but there yet remains 

 the greatest difficulty of all, that of breeding them true to 

 colour. That it is a difficulty many a beginner knows only 

 too well ; iind. in fact, I know of no breed in which so much 

 careful sti i_, n requisite to success. 



The difficulty is, that whilst none of the poultry books re- 

 cognise more than one colour in Dark Brahmas, described as 

 " dull white, nearly covered with minute pencilling of a black 

 or dark grey colour," there are many different strains as dis- 

 tinct in their prevailing tints as can possibly be, and some also 

 varying in the character of the pencilling itself. This is no 

 new fact to old breeders, but it has never been noticed in any 

 work on poultry, and should be clearly explained for the help 

 of beginners. Let any such examine at a large show a pen of 

 Mr. Boyle's birds, and then compare with them any pair of 

 hens shown by Mr. Lacy, and he will not fail to notice the dis- 

 tinction I am speaking of. The two pens will be types of two 

 as distinct " schools " of colour as can well be imagined. I 

 will not here go into minute differences in the firm of the pen- 

 cilling, but will only remark, that whilst the aim of Mr. Boyle 

 is evidently to obtain as clear a ground colour as he possibly 

 can, in which he has to a great extent succeeded, many of his 

 birds being quite free from any shade of brown, Mr. Lacy, as 

 is well known, considers brown the correct ground colour of a 

 Brahma, and avowedly seeks to produce it, with the salmon- 

 coloured breasts for which his pens are distinguished. 



I have taken these two strains simply as being the two 

 widest apart that I know of, nnd abstain most carefully from 

 giving any judgment as to which is the correct standard. I 

 have my own decided notions on this head, but such matters 

 belong strictly to private opinion, and my object just now is 

 only to point out the difference. Such differences and pecu- 

 liarities in other well-known strains, etpially characteiistic, but, 

 perhaps, less striking to a mere casual eye, will at once occur 

 to the experienced reader : but I will only mark one, that whilst 

 some strains are noted (Mr. Hinton's, for example), for the 

 distinctness of the pencilling, every feather being marked with 

 bars of black as sharply defined as in a Pencilled Hamburgh ; 

 in others the feather is so heavily covered with the black 

 marking, that until closely observed the efi'ect of the whole is 

 like a uniform dark ground colour. These are not accidental 

 diff'erences ; each character and colour of pencilling has its ad- 

 mirers, has been produced and perpetuated by caieful breed- 

 ing, and is in most cases a marked and known characteristic of 

 the strain to which it belongs. 



Now, the point I «ish to call attention to is this, that whilst 

 the hens thus vary, there is no apparent difference in the cocks, 

 at least in most cases, and except to a very jnactised eye ; and 

 if in purchasing stock the beginner simply buys the best cock 

 he can procure, and mates him with the hens which most strike 

 his fancy, the chances are that the produce will greatly disap- 

 point him. I do not mean to say that if both bo really good birds 

 there will not in the worst case be some good chickens ; but I 

 mean that there will be no certainty whatever what colour the 

 chickens may be. For instance, to take the two strains just 

 noted, I knew a case where a splendid cockerel of Mr. Boyle's 

 was mated with two very good hens of Mr. Lacy's strain. The 

 result was just what I should have expected, both colours were 

 spoilt except in a very few cases, and the pullets were for the 

 most part of the clear grey colour derived from one strain dis- 

 figured by brown patches imported from the other. 



It will be understood again that I am making no invidioua 



