March 10, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



193 



poultry exhibitions that will be held during the present year, 

 combined with a proportionably increased value of the prizes 

 offered. The all-important necessity, therefore, of enforcing in 

 fiture. as far as possible, a fair mode of competition among all 

 exhibitors is decidedly of far more vital and paramount im- 

 portance than it ever has been. As the present season of 

 poultry shows is pretty well over, a favourable opportunity now 

 presents itself to revise and amend some matters connected 

 wiih these popular meetings, and such considerations at once 

 lead me to my subject — trimming. 



It is pretty evident that the present system of " disqualifi- 

 cation" of any pen of birds discovered, and fully proved to 

 have been tampered with by their owners, has very little effect 

 in deterring others from attempting similar deceptions, for, 

 as a reference to the pages of the Journal will convince the 

 most sceptical of our readers, even the open publication from 

 time io time, as they occur, of the names of the offenders, 

 coupled with the artifices resorted to by them, appears quite 

 inoperative. My experience asenres me that "trimming" 

 exists to a far greater extent than most persons imagine, for 

 to my mind it is certain, that although there have been so 

 many cases of exposure, a by- far larger number have escaped 

 detection altogether. I can, from many years' experience, speak 

 with authority ; occasionally trimming crops up with ever- 

 changing devices, so much so, that under the hasty inspection 

 necessary from the brief time allowed the judges, often com- 

 bined with bad light, it is quite impossible to detect immedi- 

 ately every instance of this offence ; but it would certainly be 

 well if, among the many parties most interested, any suggestion 

 could be devised for its suppression. 



My own conviction is, if a punishment to the exhibitor, at 

 once certain and severe, could be insured on conviction in all 

 bad cases that may be brought to light ; and, again, if the 

 general body of exhibitors, together with the members of the 

 various local committees, would heartily support the judges 

 in the truly unpleasant task of enforcing whatever punish- 

 ment may in future be agreed upon — perhaps a goodly number 

 of the most flagrant attempts to thus unworthily obtain prizes 

 would be avoided, or, at least, rarely resorted to. 



I confess that I look upon the abstraction of a body- 

 feather or two — this being a practice which I am confide7i! can 

 never be repressed altogether — as a widely different grade of 

 criminality from that of putting the combs of living fowls 

 straight by the insertion of needles, or cutting and carving 

 their comb3 into shape, as is sometimes done; again, the 

 painting of legs, the dyeing of wings, the substitution of arti- 

 ficial feathers for natural ones ; or Game fowls laced tightly 

 together with sewing-silk in the wings and tails to give the 

 appearance of close feathers and such like. It is these latter 

 cases that cannot but be repudiated by every well-wisher of 

 poultry exhibitions, and which it is the united interest of all 

 who exhibit honourably to put down. It may be urged that 

 any line so vaguely drawn must necessarily be hazy and in- 

 definite to practically act upon ; but I fancy where judges are 

 willing to do their duty at once fearlessly and honestly, an 

 inexorable accuracy will not be insisted on, and if such arbi- 

 trators do err at all, it will be on the side of forbearance, 

 though in every really palpable case they will as certainly ba 

 found standing firm-handed in favour of the honest competitors. 



Recent events have brought these matters more prominently 

 before me than heretofore ; and in a chat with an intimate 

 friend on the subject, who is alike a member of the legal pro- 

 fession, and, I am glad to say into the bargain, is likely to 

 become an inveterate poultry fancier, I made a suggestion — 

 that if judges could, besides the premium in the class where 

 the trimming occurred, withhold also every other prize or prizes 

 gained by the offending exhibitor at that particular show, it 

 would make such parties hesitate and weigh well beforehand 

 the consequences of discovery, involving so much pecnniary 

 loss and disgrace, prior to irrevocably committing themselves. 

 This gentleman advises me that judges unsupported can exer- 

 cise no legal power to withhold any other prizes fairly won 

 because an imposition could be proved to exist in another in- 

 stance ; but that the same end might be as readily obtained by 

 a condition inserted in the printed regulations of the prize 

 schedule, to the effect that in any such extreme instance of 

 trimming as dyeing the plumage, &c, being proved, the exhi- 

 bitor shall forfeit all prizes he may have obtained at the show 

 to the funds of the Society. 



As I have received so many letters in time back assuring me 

 of the determination of the various writers, both individually 

 and collectively, to support judgeB in the suppression of trim- 



ming, which have in the sequel passed off more in smoke than 

 fire, I wait anxiously to see the result of again bringing the 

 matter publicly before the poultry world ; and if a really useful 

 suppressive measure should arise from any quarter, it will be 

 hailed by no one with a greater amount of satisfaction than by 

 — Edward Hewitt. 



GAME FOWLS. 



Mi having been a breeder of Game fowls on a large scale for 

 upwards of thirty years is my only, and, I trust, sufficient 

 excuse for making the following observations. I not only 

 endorse the pertinent remarks of " Charvbdis " and "New- 

 market," but I venture to assert that a very large per-centage 

 of prize-winners in the Game classes of our poultry shows are 

 crossbreds, and not Game, and their exhibition as such is even 

 more dishonest than the disreputable trimming, dying, and 

 making, so often and justly censured in these pages. As many 

 honest fanciers may be sceptical on this point, I will refer to a 

 few cases, out of many, that have come under my observation. 

 A gentleman, being a great fancier of Game fowl, got up a 

 poultry show in a large town in the west of England, and as he 

 spared neither his time, influence, nor purse, he succeeded in 

 getting a large and good entry, patronised by a vast number of 

 delighted visitors. At the close of the show he purchased the 

 first-prize Game cock at a very high price to breed from, and 

 after a few months he was disgusted to find it bad no more 

 Game blood than a Dorking. I believe the surplus, intended 

 for the benefit of the next show, was handed over to a charitable 

 institution, and although after some years another show was 

 held which has since been continued annually, I have never 

 known the above gentleman patronise, even by his presence, 

 what he terms a sham. Another case was that two gentlemen 

 noted for their crack breed of Game fowls, were on a visit to 

 one of the greatest prizetakers in the midland counties ; visiting 

 his birds on their walks, one of them was so struck with the 

 appearance of a brood cock, a cup winner, that he intimated a 

 wish to put one of his favourite hens with him, in order to 

 have a brood of chickens. Jndge of their surprise, on being 

 told by their host, in confidence, that although he was one 

 of the handsomest-feathered birds in EDgland, he was not 

 Game. At a recent show, one of the Committee exhibited some 

 Game fowls with which he had previously taken prizes, and 

 took first and second prizes with two handsome birds, in the 

 eyes of certain old ladies. Some of the beaten exhibitors 

 could not see it, and attributed their winning more to favour 

 than merit ; in consequence they were tried by a certain test, 

 which quickly proved them to be what they ought not to be, 

 and the strain can now be purchased ior a6 many shillings as 

 they formerly made pounds. 



But it is not in courage alone that exhibition birds are 

 inferior to trnre Game, they are equally deficient in health and 

 stamina. Pare Game fowls have been bred for centuries past 

 with such care as to health, that their breeders take various 

 means to ascertain whether their breed stock is in the fullest 

 health and vigour, and if found in the least defective, the birds 

 are at once discarded, however valuable they may otherwise be; 

 but with the majority of exhibition breeders, provided the birds 

 do not look decidedly unhealthy, their having the required 

 feather and points to please the eye of the judges is alone suffi- 

 cient recommendation to breed from them, regardless whether 

 they have good constitutions, or no constitution at all. We 

 also look in vain to exhibition Game for the acknowledged 

 delicacy and flavour of flesh and eggs of the pure Game, which 

 have always been bred " corky''— that is, having the greatest 

 possible strength and size, combined with the very lightest 

 weight to go to scale with, in consequence of which they are 

 free from all gross humours, their flesh being at once light and 

 easily digestible, and scarcely inferior in richness and flavoui 

 to game ; indeed, a celebrated physician has asserted, that 

 there is more nutriment in a good Game fowl than in the 

 largest fowl of any other variety to be found in the London 

 markets. The Malay, with its large bone, and hard and stringy 

 flesh, is certainly the very worst cross that could be thought of 

 for this breed ; and we fail to see at our exhibitions the elegant 

 and muscular conformation of our true Game. I have before 

 me upwards of twenty coloured prints, by Alkin, and others, 

 several fine engravings from paintings by Barenger, oil paint- 

 ing of winners of gold cups at the Cockpit Royal, and of the 

 most celebrated cocks of the past and present century, but fail 

 to discern any striking resemblance in any of these to the 

 present race of exhibition birds. 



