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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ May 16, 1867. 



the Birchen-Grey Malay cocks, crossed with the Cochin-China 

 or Shanghae hens. This cross gives the pea-comb ami takes 

 away the vulture hocks, and it is in this v.'ay they were first 

 bred in the United States, I have heard. 



There is no Dorking cross at all in Brahma Pootras. The 

 pure Brahma Bootras are only the Birchen Grey bretils of the 

 Shanghaes and Cochins, and have the straight or single combs. 



with vnlture hocks. They are to be found pure in India and 

 Burmah, The Malay cross gives the Malay expression to ths 

 head. 



Brahma Pootra hens are rather less prolific than the hens ol 

 the Shanghaes or Cochin-Chinas. If a Dorking cross exists it 

 has been made in England, of course. — Trevor, otherwiie 

 Newmarket. 



PORTABLE POULTRY- HOUSE. 



I INCLOSE a sketch of a 

 portable poultry-house I 

 built last summer, and 

 which has succesEfully an- 

 swered its purpose. It is 

 in five pieces, and can be 

 taken down and put up by 

 any carpenter in a quarter 

 of an hour. The back, 

 front, and sides are fixed to- 

 gether by eight bed-screws, 

 the top also being screwed 

 on. It is 8 feet high behind, 

 6 feet in front, the interior 

 consisting of two compart- 

 ments, 6 feet square, and 

 the cost about £G lOi. 



In the top compartment 

 I kept five Dorking hens 

 and a cock ; in the bottom, 

 eight Cochin hens and a 

 cock. They were placed in 

 the house last June, and, 

 notwithstanding the seve- 

 rity of the winter, are all 

 in good health, and have 

 laid an average number of e 

 and the poultry-house is in 



jgs. My garden is 33 feet wide, 

 the centre of a strip at the end 



6 feet deep. You will ob- 

 serve I am enabled to keep 

 two varieties distinct, the 

 Dorkings from the top com- 

 partment running about 14 

 feet one way, the Cochins 

 from the bottom a similar 

 distance the other. I had 

 it painted with Carson's 

 anti-corrosive paint, and 

 have never yet found water 

 make its way into the in- 

 terior. 



By using this house I 

 have found that with a li- 

 mited space I have been 

 enabled to keep some fif- 

 teen fowls in a healthy con- 

 dition, and have been con- 

 stantly supplied with new- 

 laid eggs through a most 

 trying season at a cost of 

 not more than three far- 

 things each, whilst the 

 price charged in my locality 

 — north of London — has 



never been less than Id, each, and they were not always to bs 



obtained when wanted. — S. F. A. 



POULTRY SHOWS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



• A PKOPOS 

 Honesty is the best policy in every sense. Give a certain 

 gentleman his due, for he is not so black as he is painted. So 

 much for proverbs. We all remember the proceedings of the 

 Woodbridge or Suffolk Poultry Society last year. To say tlie 

 least of it, they were suicidal. I had my kick at them because 

 they deserved it. Now I hold out my hand in friendship for 

 the same reason. 



They found themselves incapable of paying their debts, and 

 they either had not the moral courage to say so, or tliey rubbed 

 Peter to pay Paul, giving a preference to some prizttakers to 

 the exclusion of others. Moreover, they were not civil ; and 

 because letters were difficult to answer, they solved the difii- 

 culty by leaving them unanswered ; but Peter was iiue to his 

 name and firm as a rock. He meant to go share and share 

 alike with Paul, and he obtained — at least I did — all ho asked 

 for. 



" Well," says Common Sense, " then what more can you 

 have to say ?" I reply, A gieat deal. But the weather is hot, 

 and times are hard, and many engagements last year in weightier 

 matters than a poultry show were not punctually met. Pigeon 

 shows, by the way, were rather in fashion in the City; so we 

 will let bygones be bygones. Tlie fruit trees are in blossom, 

 the nightingale and cuckoo in full song, chickens are chirping. 

 Pigeons are chirre-ing, and we are all thinking abuut fiuwer 

 and poultry shows. We cannot help being good-tempered, aud 

 we have no reason to be otherwise with theWoodbriilge people; 

 for those who have been paid their prize money, as I have 

 been, have no reason to grumble, and those who have not been 

 paid have, without doubt, received the following notice, which 

 has been sent to me : — 



ove Society 



THE WOODBniDGE PonLTRY SHOW. 



without a notice. It is the declaration of an honest man. If 

 a poultry show should be held at Woodbridge this year — and I 

 hope one will be held there — the promoters need not now fear 

 but that they will be well supported. Having done wrong, 

 they must now do right. 



As to poultry shows generally, unless prize money is paid 

 punctually and within a short time, regardless of the receipts 

 and expenses — unless the whims, the fancies, and the interests 

 of local exhibitors are swamped in arrangements for the general 

 good — unless all is fair and aboveboard, and for the specific 

 object of encouraging and improving the breed of poultry — 

 such exhibitions, now rapidly increasing in number, will as 

 rapidly diminish. We have really very little to find fault with 

 in the management of poultry shows generally. They are a 

 labour of love, and could never pay the managers if they made 

 a charge tor the time expended. The judging is for the most 

 part fair, in spite of the grumbling of the unsuccessful. Exhi- 

 bitors are by no means immaculate, and in some cases do not 

 set either judges or committee men a good example. Let us 

 all try it we cannot this year be honest, forbearing, good-tem- 

 pered in defeat, and unselfish, so that a general good be ob- 

 tained ; and let us strive to promote a straightforward rivalry 

 in exhibition, v^here nothing but dame Nature, judicious breed- 

 ing, and feeding, shall put our birds in a foremost place, and 

 make our poultry shows no longer exhibitions of the fine arts 

 connected with scissors, files, tweezers, and thread. — Egojiei. 



UNPRODUCTIVE PURCHASED EGGS. 



, . „ , . , - ^ , i, I „ u .,,„.„ Seeing in The Journal of Hokhcultuke some eggs from 



hi :Z!Z:^:^^!?Z;^^ S^:' r:db%?r ti?:-].tS l WhUe-crested Elack PoUsh fowls advertised for sale in Hants 

 oi May last, arc rc„a.sted to send the parti.nilar. thereof fortliwith to I wrote for a sitting, which m due course I received, and for 

 Mr. John DallcngeV, Public Accountuut, Thorougbfave, Woodbridge, 1 which I paid 10s. Gd., exclusive of carriage.^ Ihe eggs were 

 in order that arrangements may be made for their full and effectual j placed under a hen sitting in a house with six others ; at the 

 discharge." end of the term there was not a sign of a chick in any one ol 



This is an announcement which ought not to be passed I the Polish eggs, but aU the other six hens sitting in the same 



