JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 21, ie£9. 



side protection may remain until dancer to the blosaora and fruit be past, 

 then remove all. The plan of protecting the front wall and border will 

 answer well, only the protection must be removed whenever the air ia 

 not frosty, putting it on at ni^'lit and removing it in the morniDg. The 

 material if left on day and night is apt to make the growths tender; and 

 the fruit often falls when such opaque protecting niftterials are used and 

 kept constantly over the tree?. These likewise full a prey to insects, 

 and have not so healthy an appearance as those only having the protect- 

 ing material over them on frosty nights and days. 



Pear Grafted on the Whitethorn (J. Hoyle).— The Poar will 

 succeed and bear fruit when on the Whitothorn stock, but the latter 

 does not grow sufficipntly fast to keep pace with the scion, nor does it 

 supply a sufficiency of sap. 



Names of Fhcits (irj.— 1, Stnrmor Pippin; 2, Court of Wick; 3, Golden 

 Pippin. 



Names of Plants (G. WitUamx), — Arbutus andrachne ; out of season, 

 bat owing to the mildness of tho weather not specially remarkable. 

 [J. S. S.).— Proves to be Phymatodes pustulata. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the week ending January 12th. 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



TRIMMING. 



I Tiij, now really supposed my individual opinions of 

 trimming were quite sufficiently patent to every member 

 of the poultry world, but it now seems your correspondent 

 "Nemo's" case is still an exception. The .Jourmal of Horti- 

 CULCORE and the oriqinnl "Poultry Chronicle," now incor- 

 porated with the former, have, however, from time to time been 

 infallible witnesses of my warmest desire to suppress practices 

 now so long a usage, and calculated rather to injure than 

 improve the public taste for poultry exhibitions, whilst in the 

 latter periodical my article headed " Trimming," was, I know, 

 the first that ever appeared before the public from any writer on 

 the subject. 



It has often been said, " the man who purposely shuts his 

 eyes to matters around him is the blindest of us all ;" and 

 certainly " Nemo " has been either a very careless reader of 

 poultry lore, or is as equally forgetful of what has transpired, as 

 betokened in his somewhat haphazard assertions ; for in this 

 Journal of December 24th he writes thus on trimming— that 

 the example has been made of some outsider, some exhibitor 

 of no name or influence ; that he does not remember one case 

 where an influential exhibitor has been exposed, though he 

 has seen cases quite as bad, and equally evident. This is a 

 great mistake as to facts, and in distinct disproof I refer him 

 directly through the columns of " our Journal" to the follow- 

 ing well-known cases — vi2., the (lame Bantams at Beverley, so 

 artistically laced together in the tail feathers with black silk ; 

 the Buff Cochin cock at Wellington, Salop, with a tail compris- 

 ing almost as much of wirework as of natural tail feathers ; the 

 Black Bantam pens at DarUngton, in which the birds had to 

 fulfil a couple of days' public penance, with one leg washed 

 entirely white, whilst the corresponding leg of each bird was by 

 me permitted to remain with the artificial colour. Again, the 

 White Cochins at Wolverhampton, with extracted falcon hocks ; 

 the Black-breasted Ked Game cock at .^ccrington, with deeply- 

 dyed breast feathers to purposely conceal tbe ruddy natural 

 colour of this part of the plumage; the Silver-spangled Ham- 

 burgh pen at 'Wigton, where a needle had been cruelly embedded 

 in the fall length of the comb to keep it upright ; and the Black 

 Poland cock at Preston, whose tail was proved to be dyed with 

 indelible marking ink. 



The above in the present instance are, however, a quite 

 sufficient exposure of the real importance of "Nemo's" reflec- 

 tions cast upon myself by name as a poultry judge for the neglect 

 of exposure of trimming, though these cases might be easily 

 increased in numbers manifold were it requisite so to do. In 

 every instance these pens were "disqualified" by myself, and 

 where the committee permitted it, during the show a disqualified 

 card by my direction was affixed to each pen. I have at the 

 moment selected these few cases as proving in every instance 

 that the exposure of these fraudulent practices was among those 

 persons only who at the time in part constituted the front ranks 

 of our poultry exhibitors. I cannot of course, now again 

 directly allude to such owners by name, from a proper aud 

 innate disinclination on my part to rend open afresh wounds 



long since healed that at the time were so deep and profusely 

 bleeding, and brought with them so much bitterness and news- 

 paper controversy. It is worthy of remark that at the outset in 

 every instance, save the one first detailed, " trimming of any 

 kind" was blankly denied, and in most cases in not over- 

 courteous terms eitber. In the first case, however, the owner 

 as frankly admitted it, but expressed quite a " consolation " 

 from the fact " that both several judges as well as myself had 

 in this way been previously imposed upon, and so he could not 

 now complain of being at length bowled out." In the last- 

 named case, though at first obstinately disclaimed, the dye was 

 entirely removed by chemical appliances, and the exhibitor then 

 in a most indignant manner accused " his man," at the same 

 time protesting his own personal innocence, " equally with the 

 child unborn." 



" Ills man .'" Oh, Messrs. Editors, how surpassingly strange 

 is the conduct of those wicked servants, who, without personal 

 interest of any kind, thus spontaneously devote their time — 

 their most strenuous exertions of handicraft and of deception, 

 simply to promote the interests of their employers, whilst the 

 latter continue in the most happy ignorance of such appliances 

 altogether ! I have myself, however, no sympathy with such 

 men as real poultry-amateurs, and if " Nemo " will refer to the 

 pages of "our Journal" he will find them invariably exposed. 



I as truly regret as any one can do the disgust and mortification 

 that must inevitably ensue to those unfortunate purchasers of 

 such trimmed specimens, when in six or eight weeks afterwards 

 they find that their valued purchases, like some of Madame 

 Eachel's patrons, have not been "made beautiful for ever." 

 But if "Nemo" himself does see so clearly as to safely predi- 

 cate for tbe future of trimming, I confess I do not. My own 

 personal and ofttimes painful experience proves that, in the 

 present days, the judges of poultry have far too much than too 

 little labour apportioned to them, for when upwards of a thousand 

 pens of poultry (as is frequently tbe case) have to be looked 

 over during the awards on one of the short days of December or 

 January, there is very little time to spare for the detection of 

 trimming, except in extreme cases. The strain on judges in 

 so limited time is already far too great, and the additional 

 task to them of detecting all cases of trimming in the same 

 space of time amounts to a simple impossibility. Of this I am 

 quite assured, if "Nemo," and soma other half-dozen picked 

 associates were themselves to enter upon the thankless task 

 of revealing all cases of trimming, not only would this alone 

 occupy tenfold the time it now takes to award the prizes, but 

 also that even then, not one-half the cases existent would ever 

 be exposed ; the fact being simply this — the real adept at trim- 

 ming is most difficult to detect, but the bungler in this art by 

 the very want of adroitness in his various manipulations leads 

 to his own discomfiture. 



Again. I must ask " Nemo," where is the distinct line to be 

 drawn? for wherever trimming is undiscoverable, it necessarily 

 must be permissible, and at the same time, in cases really open 

 to question, surely the accused must have tbe benefit of tbe 

 doubt, whether an old offender or otherwise notwithstanding. 

 Why, then, cannot " Nemo " himself at once step into tbe 

 hornet's nest, as I so frequently have done, and give us a glimpse 

 of his own individual practice and imperturbability? and let 

 me candidly assure^bim, if he do succeed in efiecting a really 



