264 



aOUKNAL OF HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



[ April 2, 1868. 



POXTLTRY, BEE, and HOUSEHOLD CHRONICLE. 



POULTRY EXHIBITIONS IN GENER.\.L. 



CLASSIFICATION OF GA.ME FOWLS. 



The best time for holding ponltry exhibitions in summer ia 

 in the last ten days of June and in the month of July, as being 

 just after the breeding season, which ends at midsummer, and 

 before the moulting season, which often begins in August, 

 though September and October are the regular moulting 

 months, and all healthy poultry should be in full feather by 

 November, or the first week in December. Summer exhibi- 

 tions are, however, often injurious to very young poultry, 

 which do not stand the removal or the penning at all well. 



For the winter exhibitions the best time is December or 

 November, but the week before Christmas is, perhaps, the very 

 best time, as being well after the moulting season, and just 

 before the breeding season, which should commence at Christ- 

 mas. Fowls are, however, often more or less out of feather 

 from July until December, a period of four months, and the 

 breeding season lasts, properly speaking, from Christmas until 

 midsummer, a period of six months, so that only July and 

 December are thus left as the most proper months for holding 

 exhibitions. 

 ^ As to week days, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and 

 Fridays are the best days, leaving Monday for receiving, and 

 Saturday for dispatching the birds again. 



No exhibition should [last for more than four days at the 

 longest. For the two-day exhibitions, Wednesdays and Thurs- 

 days are the best days, as being in the middle of the week. 



Exhibitions, however, cannot all take place at the same time, 

 of course, and in the choice of time more regard is paid to 

 local circumstances than to the reasons I have given, as, for 

 instance, agricultural exhibitions, floral shows, horse or cattle 

 fairs, market days, and similar gatherings, advantage of which 

 ia taken to hold a poultry show at the same time. August 

 haa always been the favourite month for summer exhibitions. 



At exhibitions held in September and October the birds are 

 displayed to great disadvantage, as in these two months adult 

 birds, at all events, are most out of feather and never look well. 

 August is the harvest month, and if this has anything to do 

 with exhibitions, the harvest is in most parts of England over 

 by September in ordinary years. 



Yorkshire and Lancashire have always been the two great 

 ponltry exhibition counties ; Yorkshire more especially so, as 

 being the largest agricultural county in England. There are 

 more poultry exhibitions in Yorkshire and Lancashire than in 

 all the rest of England together, and I have always thought 

 breeders in these two counties take more pride in exhibiting 

 their poultry. North Warwickshire, perhaps, contains more 

 Game fowls than any district in England, especially of the 

 willow-legged, red-eyed, Black-breasted Reds ; and Birmingham 

 contains more Game fowls, especially Brown Reds, than any 

 other town, though, I believe, the Manchester Brown Reds are 

 superior in quaUty and hardness to those of Birmingham in 

 general. 



Poultry pens are, of course, hired by the committees of ex- 

 hibitions, and some insist that the pens should be fitted with 

 moveable perches, while others say that pens are better without 

 perches. The pens should not be placed too close together, in 

 the Game classes at any rate, as if not fitted with projecting 

 side boards the Game cocks can reach out and get hold of 

 each other's heads, as mine did in 1858, at the Crystal Palace 

 Winter Show, much to their disfigurement. 



Judges should, of course, be permitted to take the birds out 

 of the pens for the purpose of handling them in judging, 

 which some committees, I have heard, have objected to, saying 

 it ruffles the feathers ; but this no good handler would ever do, 

 and the Game birds must necessarily be handled in judging. 

 The pens should be large and lofty enough to contain com- 

 fortably a cock and two hens of the largest sorts of poultry. 



THE BEST CLASSIFICATION OF GAME FOWLS FOE THE 



MIDDLE-SIZED EXHIBITIONS. 



Cuss 1. — 0RIGr\-AL-C0LOCEF,D AXD OTHER EeDS. 



1, Brown Reds ; 2, Black-breasted Reds. Both cup sorts and the 

 most nomerons sorts of all Game fowls. 



Cl,iss 2. — Dark-tailed Sorts, kot Original. 

 1, Dackwings and other LiRlit Greys and Bircheus ; 2, Dark Greys 

 and Dark Buxhens; 3, Blacks and Brassy-winged Blacks. 

 Class 3. — Sorts with the Light Tails. 

 1, Piles or Pieds; 2, Whites; 3, Red Duns; 4, Blue Duns. The 



Dun sorts should be classed with the Piles and Whites, and not with 

 the Duckwings as is generally done. 



Class 4. — Full-grown Cocks of each Colour. 

 Best full-grown cocks of each colour. This is a popular class. 

 A STILL BETTER CLASSIFICATION, PERHAPS. 

 Class 1. — Sorts with the Dark Hens. 

 1, Brown Reds (cup birds); 2, Dark Greys and Dark Birchens; 

 3, Blacks and Brassy-winged Blacks. This separates the Brown Reds 

 and the Black-breasted Reds. 



Class 2. — Sorts w^TH the Fawn-breasted Hens. 

 1. Black-breasted Reds (cup birds). Most numerous sort of all. 

 2, Duckwings. Very popular and numerous. 



Class 3. — Sorts with the Light Tails. 

 As in the above list. The Piles very popular and plentiful. 



Class 4. — Single Cocks. 

 As in the above Ust. — Newmarket. 



(To be contmned.) 



BKAHMA POOTRAS AND DORKINGS. 



I JUST write a line to correct the misapprehension that may 

 arise in your readers' minds, through the heading which you 

 have attached at page 246 to the communication made by me 

 with reference to the extraordinary laying of one of my Brahma 

 pullets, &c. The mixed brood I refer to as having been hatched 

 on the 10th of March last were not cross-bred, as the heading 

 would imply, but by mixed I simply meant that I made up a 

 sitting of part pure Dorkings' and part pure Brahmas' eggs, 

 and of the chickens hatched from those eggs the Dorking 

 pullets began to lay precisely at five months old, and the 

 Brahma pullets not until two or three weeks later — a rule that 

 I find generally observed with my birds, although in the 

 answer you gave to your correspondent's question last week, 

 you stated that the reverse is the case. 



The pullet has laid every day since the 23rd ult. (one egg, 

 however, being soft), and appears likely to continue doing 60 

 uutU fui'ther notice. — E. W. Beachey. 



MANAGEMENT OF GEESE. 



One of my Embden Geese laid an egg weighing 11 ozs. I 

 should advise " T. M. L." to leave the eggs in the nest, and 

 let the Goose amuse herself just as she pleases; mine are so 

 proud of their eggs, and go on the nest every day, even when 

 they do not lay. The eggs are kept warmer than when they 

 are removed. As the time of incubation draws near, the Geese 

 cover the eggs very carefully with feathers and down, and they 

 look snug and promising. 



I like them to sit in an outhouse, and not out of doora. This 

 is easily managed by shutting them in for a few nights previous 

 to laying ; and let the nests be in a secluded place. — L. B. 



[The above reminds us of what was recently published in the 

 Norfulk Chroniclf. 



"Norfolk has long enjoyed a most extensive and unrivalled 

 celebrity for her poultry, and especially for her Turkeys and 

 Geese. The number of these delicious birds sent from the 

 county throughout the year, and particularly at Christmas 

 time, is incredible. Besides those reared in our farmyards we 

 have Geese produced by wholesale just beyond Magdalen Gates, 

 by Mr. Bagshaw, who has a complete monopoly of the trade, 

 not having any known competitor in the country ; and some 

 statistics respecting the rearing of these birds, and of their 

 disposal, will probably not be uninteresting. 



"Formerly Mr. Bagshaw reared a large number of Turkeys, 

 but the demand for Geese so increased that he confined his 

 Christmas business to the latter birds, still, however, continu- 

 ing a general trade throughout the year. In the course of 

 twelve months he produces from GO, 000 to 70,000 fowls, of 

 which about 30,000 are Ducks, principally of the Norfolk breed. 

 About the last week in October the " buying-up " is the first 

 preparation for the Christmas sale, more than one-half of the 

 number required being obtained from Holland, and the re- 

 mainder from various parts of this country. The fatting 

 commences about the middle of November, and the largest 

 number fatted at one time is 12,000 — the number fatted this 

 winter. As we have said, this business is carried on just beyond 

 Magdalen Gates. 



" The food on which the fowls are fatted is barleymeal end 

 brewers' grains, the former being ground by Mr. Bagshaw him- 

 self, so that he may not bo exposed to the adulteration whicli 



