April 21, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



into disgrace by being exposed through the confession of the 

 very party who sold the birds. Such is the game played by un- 

 scrupulous exhibitors. 



How this is to be remedied is a vexed question. To reduce 

 the prize money to a nominal sum, and let exhibitors show for 

 honour more than money, would tend to prevent such evil 

 practices, and judges, instead of disqualifying marked pens by 

 passing them over, would give more satisfaction by awarding 

 them the prizes they were entitled to. It would be a dangerous 

 experiment to take the responsibility off the shoulders of the 

 judges, and the present seems to be the only system that could 

 possibly save a society from endless trouble and confusion. 

 It may be better for judges to pass a pen over when in doubt, 

 than the society should run the risk of a law suit by a com- 

 mittee publicly condemning an exhibitor for supposed fraudu- 

 lent practices. Many instances have come under my notice of 

 young birds of the season having been condemned as old birds, 

 when I know to the contrary. Had a committee taken up such 

 a case, and roughly handled the owner, what would be the conse- 

 quence if the owner could prove his entry was correct ? I will 

 leave it a question. I think it is better as it is ; judges to act to 

 the best of their ability, as I believe the majority of them do in 

 ill honour and integrity, but not to disqualify birds that may 

 be outwardly marked by a feather being cut, or by a thread, &c., 

 this having nothing to do with the merit of the specimen which 

 is sent to compete, but perhaps necessary for the owner to 

 distinguish his own birds in his own stock. What would a 

 defaulter care to be deprived from showing ? His son, or his 

 brother, his wife, or his mother could, and he would still derive 

 the benefit. — Deeds Show. 



BREEDING DUCKWING GAME FOWLS. 



Is breeding Duckwings for exhibition two separate yards, as 

 you state, are necessary. 



For Cocks. — A high-coloured, good, willow-legged, Yellow- 

 Duckwing cock, no relative to his hens ; hens of the yellow or 

 wheaten-coloured strain, willow legs. And for high colour in 

 the cocks a few yellow-legged wheaten-Duckwing hens are 

 useful, if close in feather and good in shape. Crossing back 

 to the Duckwing original, the Black-breasted Red is, on the 

 whole, bad. 



Foe Hess. — A good willow-legged Silver-Grey Duckwing 

 brood cock is best if obtainable. Hens silvery-blue-grey, 

 willow legs, but a few blue-legged or white-legged Silver-Grey 

 Duckwing hens are often useful in this cross, as giving a more 

 silvery colour and freo from brown or yellow wings and similar 

 markings. You can, as you state, seldom breed both cocks 

 and hens fit for exhibition from the same yard or strain. The 

 cock, here, should not be too near in blood to his hens, as in 

 breeding for cocks I would not use Black-breasted Reds at all, 

 as Duckwings are all too prone to breed back to their originals, 

 the Black-breasted Reds. 



At most exhibitions I have remarked that in general the 

 cocks' legs are of a yellower willow than the hens' legs, which 

 I attribute to the way in which they are often bred, in the 

 manner I have just described. The Black-breasted cross is 

 troublesome to " breed-out " again, and is not, on the whole, 

 cither advantageous or correct. — Nev.-aiaeket. 



MANGOLD WURZEL AS POULTRY FOOD. 



I ah astonished that two of your correspondents recommend 

 mangold wurzel as food for fowls, as I always find that if mine 

 can obtain plenty of it, and they cannot always be prevented 

 doing so in a farmyard, their combs turn black, and I lose more 

 or less of them'. Fowls are very fond of it, and perhaps it is only 

 when they eat it in excess that it does harm. My fowls are 

 never guilty of feather-eating, as they have what run they like. 

 I should like to know whether others have had the same expe- 

 rience.— A Farmer. 



We shall be obliged by information on this subject. We 

 know that the fat of bullocks fed on mangold wurzel is rendered 

 very yellow ; and a case occurred in which the fat of Turkeys 

 was similarly affected. — Eds.] 



estimated that not les3 than five millions of inchoate fowls are 

 sacrificed every year in the production of photographic por- 

 traits. — (Photographic News) 



Eggs Used in Photography. — The annual consumption of 

 eggs in photography is nearly a million in the United States 

 alone, while the number used on lis side the Atlantic is pro- 

 bably at least three or four times as great. Hence it may be 



DRAGOON PIGEONS. 



I find by a letter in yonr last week's impression that " Youa Co-- 

 respondent,'' who was so fast at picking to pieces the Dragoons I 

 exhibited at Wolverhampton Show, will not accept my challenge. 

 He appears to be under the impression that Blue Dragoons are far in 

 advance in points of any other colour ; this is evidently another mis- 

 take into which " Your Correspondent " has fallen, the first-prize 

 pak of Silvers exhibited by Mr. Percivall at the last Birmingham 

 Show being, in the estimation of many excellent Judges, equal, if not 

 superior, to any there shown irrespective of colour. Again, " Yoce 

 Correspondent " offers another opinion equally fallacious when he 

 tells us that a Dragoon should have a thin beak, which is not con- 

 sidered correct by those who really are judges of the beautiful birds in 

 question. He says he has bred Dragoons for several years ; he may 

 have done so and still be a novice. — Frank Graham, B 



[Here this controversy must cease. — Eds.] 



NEW BOOK. 



The Handy Book of Bees. By A. Pettigeew. Blackwood and 

 Sons, Edinburgh and London. 



Another bee book added to the multitude already before the 

 public lies before us in a neat-looking volume by Mr. Pettigrew, 

 a name long well and favourably known in the annals of apicul- 

 ture. But why this new bee book ? we ask as we open its pages. 

 Solomon says, " There is nothing new under the sun :" so we 

 open it in a critical temper of mind, but a:e disarmed at once 

 by the avowal in the preface that the author is " a working 

 man ; " for who does not gladly welcome everything from the 

 pens of working men of pure spirit, as we hope to find in their 

 deliverances something fresh — fresh in the way of putting 

 things, if not absolutely fresh in matter ? And we are not dis- 

 appointed as we skim the pages of this new book on bees, for it 

 abounds in fresh and vigorous writing ; and we see in every 

 page abundant tokens that the author is not only one of those 

 "qui se passionent pour les abeilles," but that in all that re- 

 lates to tln-ir practical management he is thoroughly well in- 

 formed. Working men will do well to follow him here as a 

 safe guide. 



Nevertheless there are some grave faults in this book, and, 

 as might be expected, just where the author has travelled out 

 of the beaten track of his own expeiience. In his chapter on 

 the natural history of bees there are errors of fact ; as, for 

 instance, where he says that if young queens " are not mated 

 before they are ten or twelve days old they are worthless for 

 bleeding purposes." Again, the egg-laying of young queens 

 really begins almost always on the second day after the success- 

 ful wedding flight, although Mr. Pettigrew tells us it does not 

 commence till after "six or ten days" from impregnation. 

 Once more, at page 8, he states as a credible fact that working 

 bees "help the queen to distribute and deposit the eggs in 

 their cells." We have seen bees eat the eggs when laid by a 

 queen bee along the edges of cells at a time when honey super- 

 abounded, and there were no empty cells suitable for her pur- 

 pose, but never saw them carry them off and distribute them, 

 and we require something more than assumption ere we admit 

 so remarkable a statement as fact. To " the sexes of eggs," 

 which, by the way, is a very curious and interesting subject, 

 Sir. Pettigrew devotes about fifteen pages, in which he favours 

 us with a correspondence that passed last autumn between 

 himself and our Euglish Huber, Mr. Woodbury, on the subject. 

 The sum of it is, that while Mr. Woodbury negatives the idea 

 promulgated by Mr. Pettigrew (not now for the first time), that 

 bees' eggs are all of one gender when deposited in the cells, 

 and proves his negation by an appeal to facts, our author 

 reiterates his assertion, but without proof, beyond what may 

 be implied in the vague formula, " I was informed," or in the 

 still more unsatisfactory suggestion of possible experiments. 

 It is, moreover, not a little singular that these very experiments 

 have been anticipated and fully carried out by his supposed 

 ally, Mr. Quinby, who records the fact that they have resulted 

 in the complete refutation of the ideas promulgated by Mr. 

 Pettigrew. It is true he backs up his opinion by quotations 

 from the book of Mr. Quinby, an American authorof some repute; 

 but whatever may have been Mr. Quinby's opinions some years 

 back, he has certainly changed or modified them Bince, because 

 his last edition, published in 18G6, altogether omits a good 



