230 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTTJRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ March 19, 1868. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS in the Suburbs of London for the week endin? March 17th. 



POULTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



GAME FOWLS' TAILS. 



Game hens and cock chickens after fighting and being beaten 

 always close and droop their tails, and carry their wings high 

 up, while those that have just beaten them carry their tails up 

 and fanned, and have their wings lowered and shielding their 

 thighs, which is their most spirited attitude. Game fowls that 

 habitually carry their tails low and folded, and their wings too 

 high, are generally of a quiet and tame disposition. 



My remarks on the whip and switch tails are in Nos. 300, 

 302, 324, and 328 of the Journal, and this, if "Exetek" had 

 perused them, he would have known as a matter of course. 



As to fighting qualifications the form of tail is, perhaps, of 

 the least importance of any one of the qualifications, and at ex- 

 hibitions great neatness seems to be chiefly aimed at in the 

 form of tails. I look chiefly at the fighting qualities, and care 

 little for exhibition birds in comparison, and still less for the 

 judges' awards, unless they are really well-known first-rate 

 Game judges. 



I may also here deny the statement made by " Exetee," 

 that I acknowledge Brown Red cocks with black-marked breasts, 

 and black-bodied Brown Red hens, to be the general favourites. 

 I never stated this at all, though at the last Birmingham Exhi- 

 bition I believe the black-bodied Brown Bed hens took all the 

 prizes in their class. I think, on the contrary, that the Brown 

 Red cocks with the brown-streaked red-brown breasts are the 

 favourites, and next, those with clear red-brown breasts ; and 

 that the pencilled dark Brown Red hens are in general the 

 favourites, striped-hackled of course. Black marks on a 

 Brown Red cock's breast show the Black-breasted cross in them, 

 and are, undoubtedly, a sign of impurity. The pencilled Dark 

 Brown Bed hens are also in my opiuion much more beautiful 

 if with the coppery-red dark haekles than any black-bodied 

 hens, and so many others think. The black-bodied Brown 

 Red hens with the yellow hackles are also inferior to dark-red- 

 hackled hens ; both are striped-hackled of course. The willow- 

 legged strains of the Brown Reds are also cross-bred mongrel 

 birds from the Black-breasted willow-legged breeds, and are 

 inferior in hardness and gameness to the blackish-legged 

 strains. The willow-legged Brown Reds appear to be coming 

 into fashion at exhibitions, and although too soft are often 

 fast birds, though none of them true-bred Brown Red Game. — 

 Newmabket. 



HENS LAYING IN WINTER. 



I BELIETE hens will usually lay in winter if well fed. Good 

 barley, tail wheat, and white peas, will assist them. In Sussex, 

 where chickens are raised all the year round, the farmers' and 

 cottagers' wives make their hens lay by liberal feeding. Even if 

 pullets lay, they do not care to sit their eggs. The hens need 

 not be very old, I have several laying now, and some sitting. 

 I do not keep mine so well, as I do not rear chickens for the 

 market. Mine have a gallon of barley in the morning, divided 

 among Ducks, Turkeys, and fowls, about fifty in number. I send 

 to the mill two bushels of oats, and one of barley, and have 

 them ground together ; this, mixed with bran or pollard, 

 makes a good meal for the afternoon. It is best given warm, 

 wetted with hot water, or water that has been used for cooking 

 purposes. — L. B. 



AccKiNGTON PoDLTKY Show. — We have received a prize 

 schedule of the Poultry Exhibition that will be held in the 



first week in April, and it proves to be a very liberal one. To 

 each class there are three prizes of 30s., 15s., and 5s., respec- 

 tively ; but to the class for Single Game cocks there are to be 

 awarded a silver cup of five guineas value, or the money, and 

 £2 and £1 as second and third prizes. To the Single Game 

 Bantam cock class will be awarded £5, £2, and .£1, and to the 

 best pen of Hamburgbs of any breed, a silver cup of the value 

 of three guineas. In the Pigeon classes the prizes will be lO.s-. 

 and 5.>-. to each variety. The rules state " all poultry and 

 Pigeons will be exhibited under cover, on the same elevation, 

 and in equal light; and all prizes will be paid within seven 

 days of the Show." Under such favourable provisions we may 

 anticipate the entries will be numerous, and the quality of the 

 birds superior. 



SOMERSET COUNTY POULTRY ASSOCIATION- 

 EXCESSIVE RAILWAY CHARGES. 



" Bn.^nMA " in an article in your Journal of the 12th inst., 

 denies the correctness of my statement of the .5th inst. I beg 

 again most distinctly, to state, that " BR.\nMA " was not charged 

 5s. Sd. by the Somerset County Poultry Association for the 

 conveyance of his fowls from the railway station to the show- 

 yard. 



I paid the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company £15 18s. Id. 

 for the carriage of fowls to the Exhibition, the said amount 

 being charged in 261 different items ; and from the accurate 

 mode in which their accounts were rendered, I find that each 

 item so charged had reference to the number on the respective 

 hampers, and some for further reference contain the name and 

 address of the reputed owners. I have before me the railway 

 company's receipt and in it I find the following entry, " Baskets 

 of poultry from Paddington to Weston-super-Mare (name of 

 owner which we will call " Beahiia "), 4s. lid., and for deUvering 

 and collecting id. — 5.«. Sd. 



I challenge "Brahma" or any other exhibitor of fowls at 

 our late Show, to prove that the smallest named fraction of a 

 penny has been charged them by us beyond what is charged 

 in the railway company's receipt. If there has been any ex- 

 cessive railway charge, the aggrieved parties have a redress by 

 making application to the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company. 

 I have offered various exhibitors to help them to get repaid, if 

 they will send me a receipt that the carriage was previously 

 paid by them, but not one has done so. " Brahma's " idea 

 that my not replying to Mr. Percivall's article confirms the 

 truthfulness of Mr. Percivall's statement is absurd, the charges 

 made upon Mr. Percivall and " Brahma " were under precisely 

 similar circumstances. — Benjamin Cox, Bnn. Secretary. 



[Here this controversy must cease from our columns. It is 

 now a mere personal matter. — Ens.] 



PRIZES FOR DUCKS. 



I NOTICE in your impression of February 13th, a complaint 

 respecting the preference shown by the Judges in awarding 

 prizes to the ornamental varieties of Ducks over the useful. 

 Poultry shows profess to be for the improvement of all kinds 

 of domestic poultry, and this is generally so stated in the 

 schedules. This being the case, are judges justified in giving 

 prizes to those fancy Ducks which are not domesticated, and 

 leaving out the domesticated and useful kinds, such as East 

 Indian, Grey and White Call, &c. ? 



At Manchester they have a class for Ornamental Water 

 Fowl, and if other shows would add such a class (either domes- 

 ticated or undomesticated), I think it would meet the require- 



