March 21, 1867. ) 



JOUENAL OF EOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



»M 



feathered, and not vulture-hocked, as it was easy, he said, to 

 destroy the objectioaable feathers. Well ; so be it. A Game 

 cock is sent for exhibition undubbed. He is worthless. Dub 

 him, and he is the most perfect bird the world ever saw. Show 

 a Brahma cock with vulture hocks, but otherwise perfect. He 

 is perhaps commended. Bemove the faulty feathers, and, 

 without a dissentient voice, he wins the silver cup. In the 

 Game case all is fair and honest. In that of the Brahma the 

 reverse. In the name of common sense, why ? The initiated 

 in the mysteries of poultry can tell, but the outer world lies in 

 ntter darkness. In any way if we aUow heavy, high, shaky, 

 podgy combs to be overlooked, and vulture hocks to be utterly 

 condemned, however splendidly feathered the leg may be, the 

 result will be a very inferior-looking race of Brahmas. — F.u-con. 



PIN IN A FOWLS BREAST. 



A FEW weeks ago I purchased a pen of Black Spanish fowls, 

 and a day or two afterwards a neighbour, who has had much 

 experience in breeding poultry, called in to see my newly-ac- 

 quired stock. " Well," he said, " the hens are very good, but 

 as for the cock," and then my friend shrugged his shoulders, 

 and performed sundry other pantomimic movements, which 

 were eloquently condemnatory of the bird. "Yes," said I ap- 

 peaUngly, " but he has not recovered from the moult yet, the 

 gentleman to whom he belonged assured me that he was a 

 splendid bird, and that he would soon be aU right." To this 

 my friend quickly replied, " He will never be right again, look 

 at" his comb (it was pale and shrivelled), there is something 

 amiss with him depend upon it." I could only point to the 

 size of the bird, for he was very large, to his plump condition 

 (his appetite was enormous), his fine plumage ; but my friend 

 was inexorable, and would look only at his comb. " Well," I 

 said at last, " What shall I do with him ? " " Boil him," was 

 the quick rejoinder. Determined, however, to give the cock a 

 fair chance to recover, I tried what careful nursing, and good 

 living would do ; but toast and ale, and all the other good 

 things which poultry doctors prescribe, were of no avaUj; as the 

 tombstones have it, " Physicians was in vain." 



So the cock was killed, and in due time boiled. During the 

 operation of dissection which followed, the carving knife grated 

 against something which was evidently neither flesh nor bone, 

 and on examination we found a large pin, coated with rust, 

 embedded in the middle of the breast, and partly fixed in the 

 bone. Here was the explanation of the pale and shrivelled 

 comb. I have reason to beUeve that the poor bird had carried 

 the pin in its breast for more than twelve months, but how it 

 came there, whether it had entered the gullet and forced its 

 way through the crop, or whether it had pierced through the ex- 

 ternal skin, I am quite unable to say. — Wm. Stonewall, Wliitbij. 



previously to their manifesting a desire to incubate, much will 

 depend on whether the eggs are removed and a porcelain egg 

 allowed to remain, or whether to accumulate as day by day the 

 store may receive additional deposits. If the latter plan be 

 adopted, few Game hens, we imagine, would be found to lay 

 beyond what instinct would suggest as the proper complement 

 for their nest, and this we find from twelve t» fifteen. 



"As sitters. Game hens have no superiors. Quiet on thwr 

 eggs, regular in the hours of coming off and returning to their 

 charge, and confident from their fearless disposition, of repress- 

 ing the incursions of any intruders, they rarely fail to bring off 

 good broods. Hatching accomplished, their merits appear in a 

 still more conspicuous light. Ever on their guard, not even a 

 shadow of a bird overhead, or the approach of man or beast, but 

 finds them ready to do battle for their offspring ; and instances 

 are on record where rats and other vermin have thus fallen 

 before them. The greatest objection to the Game fowl is its 

 pugnacious propensities." — Cog d'Asgletebbe. 



INQUIRY. 



In justice to Mr. M. Brooksbank, 4, Back Eolleston Street, 

 Manchester, I beg to state that he purchased a pair of Spanish 

 hens of me (Rodbard's strain), on the 7th of April, 1866, for 

 which he sent me a post-office order with the order. The 

 letters I received with reference to the same were perfectly 

 straightforward, and in due course I heard from him approving 

 of the hens. 



It would be useless my repeating Mr. Wheeler's remarks, 

 but let us " Speak of a man as we find him." — Thoil^s Ace, 

 Ystalijfi-ra, near Swansea. 



[We readily insert this second testimonial, for we find that 

 Mr. Brooksbank is quite trustworthy, and we hope that the 

 insertion of the inquii-j- about Mr. Brooksbank, though it has 

 annoyed him, will be of benefit to him. He has written to US 

 on the subject, and explained that Eolleston Street, Manchester, 

 is not the place where he keeps his poultry. They are at 

 Blackley, four miles from Manchester. We need scarcely add 

 that neither the gentleman who wrote to us nor ourselves had 

 any object in view than the protection of purchasers of poultry, 

 and that we regret that any doubt should have been suggested 

 as to Mr. Brooksbank's respectability. We have had similarly 

 favourable testimonials from Jlr. Ellis, of Bracknell, Berks ; 

 and Mr. W. May, Lily HiU Farm, Bracknell, Berks.— Ens.j 



THE USURPING BRAHMA. 



" For usurped greatness vengeance is in store ; 

 Short is the ilate of all ill-gotten power."— (icinsrfoirnc) 



FcLLY do I coincide with " Oi.n Dobkixg Cock," and your 

 authority quoted in last week's .Journal. The fowl for the 

 farmyard ought to be a superior meat-producingbird, a superior 

 egg-producer, and a good forager. Now, the Brahma Pootra 

 is equal but not superior to many other varieties for supply- 

 ing the egg-basket, but it is inferior almost to all others 

 in the other two requisites. I am quite sure that Game, as 

 well as Dorking fowls, are to be preferred for the farmyard. 

 The flesh of the Game fowl is not so abundant as that of the 

 Dorking, but its flavour is superior. In a quaint poem now 

 before me, a dying Game cock dictates his will, and its very 

 first item is, 



" Imprimis — let this never be forgot — 

 My body I bequeath the kitchen pot. 

 Decently to be boiled "' 



I would have proceeded to descant more fuUy upon the fowl's 

 merits had I not met with the following from the pen of Mr. 

 C. N. Bement, an American authority : — 



" If any one should desire the ne plus ultra of excellence in a 

 fowl, let him eat and pronounce his opinion on the wing of a well- 

 fed Game pullet, and we wiU venture to have no fear of his 

 disagreeing with this expression of our judgment on the good 

 qualities of these birds for the table ; and Game hens as layers 

 are as good as any, as many as twenty-four eggs being con- 

 stantly laid by them before manifesting any desire to sit. Bat 

 with regard to the number of eggs laid by fowls of any breed, 



NEW INCUBATOR. 



I CRAVE a few lines of your space to support my principle of 

 scientific incubation by boiling water. 



Mr. Brindley admits his incubator varies from 95° to 106°. I 

 guarantee that one on the principle of boiling water shaU not 

 vary more than 3° in temperature, even though the external 

 air may range from 30' to 6.5°. Mr. Brindley admits his in- 

 cubator to require four minutes daily attention. A steam in- 

 cubator requires the water supply renewed once a-week, but 

 if the supply-cistern is large enough, it will require no atten- 

 tion at all. In warmer weather I shall have no difiiculty, as 

 my pipes go into the hot-air chamber through holes stuffed 

 with padding, and can be withdrawn any distance, thus leaving 

 less piping full of boiling water in the chamber. 



Mr. Brindley in saying that the eggs are far removed from 

 the heating source, is in error. In a boiler and pipes properly 

 constructed there is constant circulation, and the temperature 

 of the water in the pipes close to the eggs is the same as that 

 in the boiler — i. t'., 212°. 



Into the trade question of expense I cannot enter, but will 

 merely say that a tubular boiler can be kept at boihng point by 

 less gas than is required to keep a flat boiler like Mr. Brindley's, 

 at a temperature of 120~. — A. H. S. W. 



COMB OF BRAHMA POOTRAS. 



I MUST say a word in reply to those who state that the pea- 

 comb of the Brahma is variable, and I cannot do so better than 

 by stating my own experience as regards this important point 

 in about the best fowl we have ever bad. 



In 1.S52-3, I imported as many of the best Brahmas as came 

 to about £150. Of those I parted with enough to return a 

 portion of the outlay, reserving to myself the well-known iJnele 

 Sam and his family of half a dozen hens, a very fine hght cock, 



