212 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTURB AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



[ March 6, 1873. 



And now the station is reached and we are bundled down 

 from the waggon on to the platform, hiirried along to the 

 weighing machine, and thrown on it with all possible violence. 



** lbs. weight, paid through to Exhibition," and again 



with a violeut jerk enough to smash all our bones we are 

 thrown on the platform, and finally flung with great force in- 

 to a dark luggage van which is being piled up ■with similar 

 baskets. I hear one or two cocks crowing away heartily, one a 

 Game ; he seems not to have had such rough treatment as we 

 were subjected to, or else he can bear the knocking-about better. 

 The other seems to be a Hamburgh by his shrill crow, and the 

 strut and chat that he makes. However, they soon become 

 silent, for the heat is stifling. We were placed at bottom, being 

 heavy, yet the top birds must have suffered fearfully ; but I hear 

 the whistle, and find we are to stop at some station. .Our door 

 is opened, a nice fresh breeze comes in and qiiite revives us, more 

 hampers are now piled on, the van quite tilled up. I hear the 

 kind guard give orders to open the ventilator to give the fowls a 

 little air, but the surly fellow says with an oath there's plenty 

 of air for them things, and so we are left in the dark and 

 suffocating van, while two or three stations are passed ; we 

 find it dillicult to breathe, our throats distended, our bodies 

 all in sweat — it seems a matter of life or death for us. 



The whistle sounds again, and again the train stops, and this 

 time the door of our dungeon is opened, and we are all as quickly 

 and as roughly as possible thrown out on the platform to wait for 

 the train that is to take us to our destination ; here for twenty 

 minutes we are kept exposed to a horrid north-east wind that 

 rushes through the station and threatens to blow us away, 

 baskets and all together. Our position was XJretty good, there 

 were several baskets to windward of us, and one (I think it con- 

 tained the Hamburghs, although the crow and chuckla were 

 hoth gone) on the top, so I said to my wife, " Our place is bad 

 enough, but the poor fellows outside must suffer most awfuUy 

 after the heat of the prison van in which we were brought," 

 but she poor thing was quite down in her luck and had nothing 

 to say, and truly we were in a sorry plight, totally different 

 from our prim apiJearauce in the morning, all the brushing 

 and touching and pluming disarranged, and many feathers 

 broken ; the cold wind made us shiver, and we were (to use a 

 slang phrase) quite used up. But the train arrives on the other 

 side of the station, and we are all pitched from one porter to 

 another across the line; we were all terribly shaken and bruised, 

 but the poor Hamburghs suffered most, for one fellow missed his 

 catch of them, and down they went rolling end over end. I'm 

 sure I wonder they were not killed outright. We have a little 

 better van in this train, there are two windows, and the guard 

 opens one for air. We all feel grateful to him for it, and my 

 Game friend actually crows out his thanks. I try to shout out 

 my cock-a-leary-do, but failed ; I'm so shaken and bruised that 

 I really can't. 



Away we go again, and station after station, some five or six, 

 are passed, and at the next we are again removed, I must say 

 with much more care (and the reason is they say it is a small line 

 and the servants are better looked after). I'm beginning to hope 

 our troubles are over, there is much less shaking and no pitch- 

 ing. We are placed on a trollie and taken round to a large 

 waggon in waiting, kindly sent for our special use by the secre- 

 tary of the show, and piled on it until I get afraid that some 

 accident of a fearful character will happen. We are soon moved 

 away from the station, and along a rough street ; the baskets 

 creak, the wind howls, and it seems sometimes as though we 

 should topple over, and we should but for the ropes by which 

 we are bound. 



However, we reach the show-room in safety, and soon are 

 placed in the pens to await the decision of the judges. We have 

 plenty of light here, and I and my old lady set to work to re- 

 pair the damage to our plumage on the journey ; she straightened 

 out the feathers of my tail and helped me to adjust the whole of 

 my plumage, and I did the same for her, so that we greatly im- 

 proved our appearance. In the morning the judges come round 

 and take at first a cursory glance at each pen, and I could see 

 that we were favourably considered. Again and again they 

 come, not able to determine our merits as compared with some 

 other pen. At last a man with hammer and nails comes and 

 fixes a card on the top ledge of our pen. " I knew it would be 

 so " said he, " they are the best pen in the show." First and 

 cup is heard from each person on passing after. My wife looks up 

 highly pleased to be sure, and as to myself I declare I spread 

 out as large as I possibly could, and looked as grand as my Lord 

 Mayor on the banquet day. I felt very proud too, I assure you, 

 to be so successful on my first exhibit. Our poor friends the 

 Hamburghs were put in pen No. (J37, exactly opposite ours, and 

 lie poor fellow looked queer indeed, his beautiful tail on which 

 lie prided himself was all a smash, and all his fine feathering 

 ■wretchedly bedragled, not even commended. " All the fault 

 o'them railway chaps" said our friend of the hammer and nails, 

 "they be good birds, but smashed to pieces by the rough hand- 

 ling on the journey." " Bight you are," said I. 

 But our troubles ai-e not yet over, for although we do not 



object to a real fancier turning us round to inspect the qualifica- 

 tion we are supposed to have, we do feel hurt and annoyed at 

 every booby and donkey stirring us round with his walking stick 

 "Without any object but "mischievous interference with what he 

 knows nothing about. Well, we had plenty of poldng the first 

 day, my poor hocks and sides were made quite sore, but the 

 second day was dreadful indeed. I was grateful to hear oui' 

 friend of the hammer and nails often calling out, " Now keep out 

 that stick, I'm sure the birds don't want you stirring 'em up so," 

 and two or three times he saved us from some severe poking. 

 My wife was so gratified by the care he took of us, that she said 

 she would lay him an egg for breakfast, and she duly deposited 

 one in the corner of our pen, nor did she stop shouting until he 

 came and took it away. I intended, being a representative bird, 

 to have called a meeling of all the birds, but that being im- 

 practicable I communicated my wish to each, and have got them 

 each and every one to enter a solemn protest, first against the 

 railway officials for the careless and reckless manner with which 

 they treat us in transit, and secondly, against the public for the 

 like treatment of us when in the show pen. — C. China. 



HANLEY POULTRY SHOW. 



Pekmit me to explain away a misapprehension that appears iu 

 last week's Journal. On January the 9th last, I received a letter 

 from the Secretai'y of the Hanley Show requesting me to act as 

 one of the Judges of poultry. I was, however, compelled to de- 

 cline this invitation, as unfortunately I have been in more than 

 a score similar cases since my accident. On January the 21st, 

 I again heard from the Secretary, stating, " The Committee 

 were extremely sorry at not being able to secure my ser"vioes 

 this year, but trusted they should be more fortunate another 

 season." These two letters are the only communications of a.uy 

 kind I have had from Hanley, consequently I did not " receive 

 notice three days before the Show that my services would not 

 be required." I will simply add, I am not cognisant of any 

 correspondence with Mr. Teebay, nor am I aware who were the 

 Judges eventually appointed for the Hanley Show. — Edwaed 

 Hewitt. 



A coERESPONDENT informed you that Messrs. Hewitt and 

 Teebay were engaged as Judges, and were written to a few days 

 before the Show saying their services were not required. I have 

 asked Mr. Hewitt to kindly reply for himself ; and on om- behalf, 

 with respect to the engaging of Mr. Teebay, I wrote to him 

 asking his terms, and this Committee, thinking they could not 

 entertain them, there was no more said nor done in the matter, 

 not thinking Mr. Teebay would consider it an engagement, he 

 not being formally engaged. I was informed a few days before 

 our Show that Mr. Teebay had told several exhibitors he was 

 coming to Hanley as Judge, I immediately wrote to him and 

 told him what had been told to me, and reminding him that no 

 engagement had been entered into with him. 



Then it was stated that several hampers of poultry were left 

 unpacked during the Exhibition : allow me to tell you that three 

 hampers of poultry were sent here by the railway company iu 

 mistake ; they belonged to Mr. GilUver, he having left them at 

 the parcel office, as he was going to call for them on his way 

 home from Hanley. Some of the servants, not knowing this, 

 sent them tons, and they only remained in their hampers during 

 the judging; and then myself and Mr. Fielding, of Trentham, 

 put them iu some spare pens and fed them. Mr. Gilliver having 

 gone away, and expecting him to return, they remained in our 

 charge until the close of the Exhibition, and were then forwarded 

 to their proper destination by Mr. S. Fielding, of Trentham ; 

 and the o^wner of the birds, Mr. Gilliver, will write to you and 

 tell you so. 



The names of the Judges ha-ving been omitted was entirely 

 an error of the printer, which I had not noticed through pressure 

 of other business connected ■with the Show. — F. Coofku, Hon. 

 Secretary. 



At the last Hanley Show Messrs. Douglas and Martin were 

 Judges for poultry, Mr. Eidpeth for Pigeons, and Mr. Eaysou 

 for Rabbits. The Show was a decided success in every sense, 

 and I am sure there was not a pen of birds in the Show that 

 were not unpacked when the judging commenced. — T. Eidpeth. 



COLCHESTER AND BRADFORD PIGEON SHOWS. 

 In reading the report of the Colchester Show I find your 

 correspondent alludes to cups for points for Pigeons, and says, 

 in lieu of iucreasing the attraction such a cup appears to frighten 

 all small exhibitors, etc., and says the result "proves" a very 

 strong prejudice exists against them. He goes on further to say 

 that committees would do better without them, or words to that 

 effect, and that only nineteen exhibitors competed for the forty 

 prizes; but he does not state the amount the Colchester Com- 

 mittee held out as a tempting bait to induce Pigeon exhibitors 

 I to send there, and my only wonder is that so many as nineteen 



