390 



joubnaij of horticultuee and cottage gardener. 



[ November 19, 1868. 



Do you think exhibitors could feel satisfied ? I can assure 

 you they were not, and many were the complaints I heard, 

 and if I may judse from the conversation I had with some 

 parties, next year's show will prove a failure if such is again to 

 be the case. 



My own opinion is that a secretary has no right to show 

 anything whatever, and if he does bo it is doing an act of in- 

 justice to exhibitors generally. He is supposed to know to whom 

 the birds belong, and in fact to have a knowledge of every- 

 thing connected with the show. 



I should like to hear the opinion of some of the readers of 

 "our Journal" upon the subject. I think the majority of them 

 would object to support a show if they knew the secretary 

 would be the principal exhibitor, at any rate if such is to be 

 the case another year they will not receive the support of — A 

 Cheshibe Man. 



[We partake youflbelings and think such exhibiting should 

 not be allowed. It would destroy any show in the United 

 Kingdom if such things were permitted. — Eds.] 



BREEDING PILE OR PIED GAME FO"S^^LS. 



li' breeding Piles, or Pieds, the golden rule that " like will 

 best produce like," should be attended to, and the best and 

 quickest Piles are produced by breeding " good Piles with good 

 Piles " of different strains, and of first-rate blood, so as to 

 make a first-cross of the Pile colour. The brood hens should 

 be all sisters and of one strain, and the brood cock of a dif- 

 ferent strain and no relation to the hens in blood, but equally 

 good, and matching them in perfect shape and colour. If 

 "breeding in-and-in," put the best old cock to the best two- 

 year-old hens ; two, four, or six hens at most to one cock — two 

 hens do best — and the chicks should be hatched in the last ten 

 days in March, or in April or May. If crossing from different 

 strains breed from a two-year-old cock and hens, as then in 

 their prime. A two-year-old cock to the best old hens is also 

 good in breeding in-and-in, but the first plan is, perhaps, the 

 best. Red or bright red eyes are essential to obtain fine- 

 coloured Red Piles, as the red eye gives a rodder feather ; the 

 white-legged strains are hardest, keenest, and gameet, and do 

 not run so large or heavy in flesh as others. Piles to be hand- 

 some should be neither too light nor at all dark in colour, the 

 bright red-coloured birds being the best and handsomest. 



The Chestnut, Ginger, Orange, Lemon, Yellow, Gravel, and 

 Dark Piles possess less beauty than the bright red Blood Piles 

 do, though some admire Orange Piles. Dark Blood Piles are also 

 less beautiful than the bright Red Blood Piles. The old Black- 

 marked 'Worcestershire Piles are also inferior as to colour. 

 Yellow or daw-eyed Piles are inferior, but yellow-legged, red- 

 eyed Piles are good birds and the handsomest Piles of all, if 

 of a good red colour. Willow-legged Piles are handsome also, 

 if red-eyed, as they generally are. 



Piles were originally produced from the red-faced Red- 

 breasted Ginger Reds (not Ginger Brown Reds), and the Black- 

 breasted Reds ; also, of course, from Whites, and some came 

 from the Red Duns and Ginger Blues. 



Piles, or Pieds, as their name denotes, should be pied or 

 slightly pied nearly all over, and such as these are the quickest 

 Piles and most lively. 



The exhibition " whole-coloured " Piles are merely " White- 

 breasted Reds," and might be more correctly so termed than 

 called Piles, and such, though very handsome in colour, are 

 slower birds than the true Pieds. Piles, however, should not be 

 spangled, or spotted, or the markings approach the " spangles." 

 The usual way of making Piles is to put the White hens 

 with yellow legs to willow-legged Black-breasted Red cocks. 

 This keeps the Pile red colour from becoming too faint or too 

 pale, but it makes rather slow Piles. The White cock put to 

 Partridge hens makes more Piles than the above way, which 

 makes most Beds, and the White cock makes rather a quicker 

 Pile than the Black-breasted Red cock does. If Marble-breasted 

 Piles are wanted, I should prefer making them from the Eed- 

 breasted Ginger Reds (not Ginger Brown Reds), which make 

 quicker birds thau the Black-breasted Reds do, and also harder 

 and gamer. If good White-breasted Piles are wanted, I prefer 

 breeding them from good red-eyed Red Duns with white or 

 yellow legs, but never from the Smoky Red Duns, which would 

 spoil the clear colour, but from the clear-coloured Blood-red 

 Duns, and such Red Duns will, if really good, make a better 

 Pile in my opinion than our heavy willow-legged, exhibition, 

 Black-breasted Reds do. 



Marble-breasted Piles are harder in breast and feather and 

 gamer than White-breasted Piles are, and are faster Piles, and 

 truer Piles. A breed of Red-breasted Ginger Reds, yellow legs 

 and red eyes, makes the best Marble-breasted Piles I know of, 

 crossed with white-legged red-eyed Pile or White hens. Good 

 Red Duns also breed excellent Piles, and I heard that at the 

 last Ashford Exhibition, in Kent, a Captain Lambert showed 

 some excellent " Dun Piles." In breeding Piles with Piles, 

 you preserve that quickness for which Piles have always been 

 celebrated, and which the Black-breasted Red or Duckwing- 

 cross does not always maintain. Slow Piles are poor Game 

 fowls. The only fear in breeding Piles with Piles is, that the red 

 colour should become too pale or faint, and the white colour 

 gain too much. Most of our exhibition Piles have, I think, 

 been bred from the old white-legged Pile hens, put to willow- 

 legged Black-breasted Red cocks, which will give white, yellow, 

 and willow legs. 



Many Piles have been bred from Brown 'Reds and Ginger 

 Brown Reds. These are generally " Gravel " Piles and browner 

 in colour, and not very handsome-coloured, being often too 

 dark in face, with dark nails, and a dark-stained white leg, but 

 are game birds. Red feathers in the tail, I think, show good- 

 ness in Piles. Piles are remarkably prolific, but the hens want 

 to sit more frequently than raoat Game hens, and both hen 

 and cock chickens are more quarrelsome than in most Game 

 breeds, Brown Reds being in general the next most quarrel- 

 some. Pile hens generally lay better than either Brown Bed 

 or Duckwing hens. Piles, Ginger Reds, Gingers, and Whites 

 are the liveliest and quickest colours of Game fowls, as are 

 some Red Duns, Blue Duns, Birchen Duns, and Birchen Reds, 

 and these colours never incline to " run to fleth" so much as 

 Black-breasted Reds, Duckwings, and Blacks often do, these 

 three sorts gathering more flesh in general than other colours, 

 especially when inclined to be large. 



Ten or eleven, or even nine, eggs are quite sufficient for 

 most Pile hens to sit on, for they are rather scant in feather. 



Piles seem to have been first brought much into notice in 

 Chester and its neighbourhood, and were then mostly white- 

 legged birds. I have heard the Lemon Piles were bred from 

 Y'ellow Duckwings ^nd the Derby Reds, also from Yellow 

 Bircheus, Ginger Blues, and Blue Duns (yellow necks). The 

 true Lemon Pile has yellow legs and yellow or daw eyes. 



No two colours cross or mix better than clear Red Duns and 

 Piles do, and no cross is less trouble in making, or leas liable 

 to fail in colour than this cross, which makes both Piles and 

 Red Duus good quick birds. 



I am aware that my taste in making and breeding Piles may 

 appear rather singular to our modern exhibition breeders, to 

 such more especially as will always make their Piles from 

 Black-breasted Reds, which is the more common method. I 

 always look chiefly to great liveliness in really good Piles. I 

 also look for a light hard flesh, activity, and a very scant 

 feather in first-rate Piles, which should never be heavy, fleshy, 

 large birds, and to obtain such I like to breed a little out of 

 the ordinary method. 



In crossing Piles with Red Duns, the Dun cross will take out 

 all tendency to a brown tinge in the feather or to red feather in 

 the Piles. The dun colour will also in crossing with Piles 

 if too dark, cloud a little the breasts of the Piles so made. The 

 Orange Dun Piles are, by some breeders, thought to be the 

 handsomest Piles of all. 



Piles do not fatten at all well for table, nor will they pen 

 well at all, either for fattening or for exhibition, as they 

 "fret" in the pen too much, and shed their feathers when 

 penned more thau almost any other Game fowls. 



Our exhibition Red Piles with yellow legs and red eyes, are 

 our handsomest Piles, and all must allow these to be as beauti- 

 ful Piles as can well be produced, though the white-legged are 

 harder and gamer. Breeders wishing both to exhibit and to 

 have good layers, cannot do better than breed Piles and Black- 

 breasted Reds, as birds of these colours will prove better egg-pro- 

 ducers than either Brown Reds or Duckwings. Piles and the 

 Black-breasted Reds should, however, be bred separately, or 

 the Piles will give the Reds too much white, which will show 

 itself in the wings and tails of the Black-breasted Reds, and 

 spoil them for exhibition birds. 



In remarking on the laying qualities of Duckwings and 

 Brown Reds, I should state that Yellow Duckwings lay very 

 well, but not so the Grey Duckwings in general, and that some 

 of the strains of the Brown Reds also lay very well. Piles, 

 however, lay better than either of them. 



I omitted to state in my last paper on breeding Dnckwing 



