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JOURNAL OP HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



[ AprU 16, 1868. 



goods, should be studied by every one interested in the 

 subject. 



We must take it for granted the birds are young and well 

 fattened ; then the killing and packing come in order. The 

 necks of poultry should be broken, the birds picked while warm, 

 and the body being placed in a proper position, thighs brought 

 back, and legs doubled down, it should be allowed to stiffen in 

 that form. As the poultry sent from Ireland to Leadenhall has 

 to compete with that which is killed in the home counties, and 

 as freshness is a great desideratum, advantage must be taken 

 of everything that is favourable to it. It is, therefore, neces- 

 sary that the bird should be thoroughly fasted before it is 

 killed. It should be kept totally without food or water for the 

 previous twelve hours. It will then keep well to reach London. 



Dead fowls should be packed in wicker or osier baskets ; 

 they should be laid in rows on stiff wheatcn straw ; they 

 should be covered with the same, so that it may form a layer 

 between them and the next row. Next, they must be sent at the 

 time when they make the best return — that is, in the spring of 

 the year, from March to June. 



Dorking fowls fattened, killed, and sent to London young 

 and fresh, packed as we have described, and sent in the spring, 

 will be " profitable poultry." 



PACKING EGGS— HATCHING— SWINDLING. 



SEErKG a week ago a communication from " L. B." regard- 

 ing the evil effects of packing eggs in bran, I have thought it 

 well to say a few words on the subject, as this substance is of 

 all others in the most general use. I quite agree with your 

 correspondent that of all materials perhaps the very best is 

 soft dry moss, but few of us are able to obtain it. Like "L. B.," 

 also, I have from time to time had eggs broken which came to 

 me in bran, and hence for some time I gave it up ; but the 

 cleanliness, handiness, and other qualities of bran make it so 

 much more convenient for most persons, that I was led to look 

 into the causes of non-success, and now pack eggs in it with 

 hardly a failure. 



I have found that if bedded loosely in bran, the eggs will 

 always rise towards the top, but very seldom do so if the pack- 

 ing be rammed in tightly, and the box will be found to contain 

 very much more than could be expected if so rammed down. 

 The safest way, however, is to put in first a layer, which when 

 pressed down will be about an inch deep, and cover this with a 

 ■ piece of stout paper the size of the box ; on this more bran 

 should be placed in which the eggs are bedded, another sheet 

 of paper put on, and above the paper a third layer of an inch 

 deep. The use of the paper is obvious — the eggs cannot be 

 forced above or below the sheets by any means, and since I 

 adopted this plan I have seen no need of a better. The top and 

 bottom layer may consist instead of bran, of hay, chaff, or bran 

 and chaff mixed, which latter indeed forms a"better material 

 ior the whole ; but bran alone answers perfectly thus guarded, 

 and is the most portable and cleanly material which can be 

 kept about, besides forming part of the regular poultry stores 

 in most establishments^ It is, however, very important to 

 pack tightly, and the plan I adopt is to cut "sheets of stout 

 paper to the width of the several sides of the box, and place 

 them up the sides, projecting some inches upwards. The bran 

 or chaff can then be piled on an inch or two above the top of 

 the box, and pressed down, the paper keeping it from running 

 over, and at length the overlap can be folded neatly over, and 

 will keep all within bounds, without spilling a morsel. 



Another way of keeping eggs from rising is to screw them 

 up in paper in such a way that every egg has a little " screw " 

 an inch long both at the top and bottom. This will act as a 

 spring, and keep the egg in place, but is not so certain as the 

 other. 



With regard to hatching eggs, failure is frequently attri- 

 butable to other causes than either packing or dishouesty. 

 My own hens' eggs till quite lately have not often given more 

 than four out of ten (it will be seen I am not seeking to puff 

 them), and I should Lave attributed this to packing, but that 

 my own success has been about the same. The fact is, that 

 with large cocks of large breeds, such as Brahmas or Cochins, 

 early eggs are very seldom so fertile as eggs laid later in the 

 season ; while from a smaller bird I am using, on account of 

 his beautiful points, nearly all have hatched. Matters are 

 coming right now ; but the rule holds good generally, and it is 

 practically the price you have to pay for getting size and early 

 chickens. 



I have also, this year, found an unusual number of chicks 

 which have died in the shell at apparently about a week old. 

 I have many complaints from correspondents that they have 

 found it a very bad hatching season, and not very long since 

 had a letter from our most successful exhibitor of Partridge 

 Cochins stating that he had not hatched a single chick from 

 his first ten hens ! I should hope few of your readers are quite 

 so badly off as this, but it will be interesting if some of them 

 will let us know how matters stand. The fact is, that in cold 

 weather eggs are very much more easily chilled than many 

 people believe, and that what would be called a fairly steady 

 sitter will in early spring fail if the weather be cold. In such 

 weather even half an hour's absence from the nest is too long, 

 and I am quite certain often proves fatal, though double that 

 time will not kill the chicks in the eggs in May. 



Now for " J. L. L." and his boiled eggs. We have all heard 

 of these things before, and we shall hear of them again until 

 some one has the manliness to enforce the penalty. " J. L. L." 

 has recovered his money, and therefore the knave will " keep 

 the pot boiling " with impunity. I venture to ask. Has 

 " J. L. L." done his duty ? Having clearly ascertained that 

 there is a scoundrel who can boil twelve eggs, and then sell 

 them for l'2s., he publishes it in "our Journal" — but why? 

 Was it to recover his 12s. ? or have not we, its other readers, a 

 moral right to the rascal's name, that he may be metaphorically 

 kicked for the dirty deed, and others cleared from unjust 

 suspicion ? — Nemo. 



.JUDGING GAJIE FOWLS. 



Is awarding the cups at exhibitions, judges are too prone to 

 give them to stags, or cockerels, and to pullets, instead of to 

 full-grown birds, and at the last two Birmingham Exhibitions 

 cups were given to stags at the last Show, and to pullets at the 

 last Show but one, when there were full-grown birds of equal 

 merit there exhibited ; and in the opinion of the best judges 

 the full-grown birds are more entitled to cups than any birds 

 not full-grown. 



In Brown Beds, prizes now go too much to the willow-legged 

 cross-bred birds with red combs and faces, which are bred 

 from Black-breasted Beds and Duckwings, instead of to the 

 pure-bred, blackish-legged, gipsy-combed, true Brown Beds. 

 Prizes also go too much to the black-bodied Brown Red hens, 

 which is excluding the original type — the Dark Brown hens 

 with the streaked and pencilled bodies, backs, breasts, and 

 wings, and dark red necks, instead of yellow necks, which are 

 certainly the most beautiful specimens of the Brown Red hens, 

 if with gip?y combs and faces. Some judges fancy that only 

 the black-bodied hens are true-bred, and that the pencilled, 

 streaked birds are crossed from the Partridge hens, which 

 some are ; but this cross is easily discovered by the lighter or 

 willow-tinged leg, the lighter eye, lighter beak, and lighter 

 neck-hackle, and redder comb and face ; whereas, the true 

 Brown Red hens show none of these signs. Brown Reds 

 should be essentially the Dark Brown Reds in both cock and 

 hen, as their name clearly denotes. The black-bodied Brown 

 Red hens, if with black breasts, not streaked, which some have, 

 are crossed with the old breed called the " Black Reds " (not the 

 true Black-breasted Reds), and such hens when black -breasted 

 will throw black-breasted cocks, at times very dark in colour, 

 almost black, with blackish wings and breasts, which the true 

 Dark Brown hens will not do. The true-bred, streaked-breasted, 

 pencilled Dark Brown Red hens will throw cocks with both 

 clear red-brown brick breasts, and also with the brown-streaked 

 breasts, but such hens as throw black-streaked-breasted cocks, 

 are from the Black-breasted cross invariably. Black-bodied 

 Brown Red hens have been produced from the original type 

 by continued domestication, as the wheaten and fawn-breasted 

 Dark Brown hens have originated in like manner from the true 

 original Partridge hen in the Black-breasted Red breed. The 

 pencilled or streaked Dark Brown Red hens, very dark though 

 never black, with streaked breasts, are the original and primi- 

 tive strain, and will throw both to the Giuger Brown Reds 

 and also to the black-bodied hens, thus throwing both ways as 

 the strain may incline. The willow-legged Brown Reds, though 

 often fast birds, are only cross-bred, and being bred from softer 

 birds, can never be so hard, or so gome, or so good, as the 

 true-bred, blackish-legged. Brown Reds are, as the willow leg 

 is well-known to show softness, while the true dark or black 

 leg is equally well known to be a sign of hardness. Nor doea 

 the true Brown Red plumage show itself so much in the yellow- 



