May 1. 1873. ] 



JOUBNAIi OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



363 



no idea of what Col. Hassard possesses, but beg to say that I can 

 show four cocks and two hens now, the pick of my stock, which 

 is considerable in proportion to the scarcity of the breed, that 

 would be utlinired by all amateurs of that breed. I have also 

 corresponded with several other breeders, and feel sure that we 

 shall be able to obtain a subscription large enough to otTer three 

 prizes, and perhaps a cup and two prizes should the Crystal 

 Palace Poultry Committee be agreeable to let us bring forward 

 our despised pets. — A. A. Vander Meehsch, Bosc ViUaj Morton 

 Jioad, Touting^ S.W. 



ADOPTED CHICKENS. 



The following "experience" may possibly interest some of 

 your readers. I had the other day two fine young Brahma- 

 Dorking hens confined in rips — No. 1 with eight chickens five 

 weeks old, and No. 2 with ten about four weeks old. They both 

 commenced laying within three weeks of hatching, but at first 

 continued to treat their chickens pretty well. They were both, 

 however, becoming restless, and at the time I speak of No. 1 was 

 allowed to join the otTier fowls, still keeping her eight chickens 

 with her. Naturally the charms of society soon led her to 

 neglect them, and iu the course of a day or two my gardener 

 summoned me to witness a curious spectacle. She had very 

 considerately given these chickens an extra meal in a cow house 

 devoted tn sitting purposes, and, after doing justice to this, they 

 were all found clustering round an old Brahma hen which had 

 been sut about a week. She seemed quite delighted with her 

 precocious offspring, and clucked to them as if she had hatched 

 them herself. Whether she or they made the first advances, of 

 course we cannot tell. 



This hint was too valuable to be thrown away, bo I speedily 

 transferred her eggs to another hen, and installed her in the 

 evening ia No. 2's rip with eighteen chickens. The two broods I 

 should have said had long been playfellows. They are all as 

 happy as jiossible, and I probably owe their preservation during 

 the last few cold nights to this good old hen's fostering care. — 

 E. H. R. 



FOWLS IN THE AZORES. 



The climate is mild, the coldest nights in winter seldom as 

 low as -10^ and the summer temperature seldom over 80" in the 

 shade on the hottest days. Fowls seem to lay all the year round, 

 and there are always young chickens running about. Fowls 

 there are worth about li)d. each, and eggs are three for a penny. 

 — Ram.u.110. 



[M. FouQUE continues, in the current number of the Revue dcs 

 Deux Mondes, his series of papers on the Azores, giving in 

 this chapter some account of the products of cultivation in the 

 islands, and of the various organic forms to be met with. It is 

 mentioned, that while in 1840 the number of cases of oranges 

 exported to England from San Miguel was only GD.UOO to 8U,000, 

 in 1850 it had risen to 175,000, and last year it was ,\bout 600,000. 

 A great pest in agriculture in these islands is the innumerable 

 multituae of grauivorous birds, and "sagorous means of defence 

 have to be adopted. The writer, in treating of the animal and 

 plant species of the Azores, rejects the theories founded on pro- 

 pagation of species from a distance, and inclines to the idea of 

 local origin. — {Emjlish Mechanic.^ 



WASHING A FOWL FOR EXHIBITION. 



Aftek my old birds got used to it, I found I had hardly ever 

 to use the straps at all, but when put on the saddle they would 

 keep quiet of themselves. Finding such ease and comfort in 

 the plan, I took to giving my best birds a daily washing of face, 

 head, and feet ; and they became so tame and used to it that 

 they would allow me to pick them up in the yard at any time 

 except when feeding. One old cock in particular — a great pet 

 of mine — which had been used to the saddle for two or three 

 years, on my projecting it for use from the old dresser in my 

 stable, used to jump on the dresser top, and give a lusty crow 

 and flap of the wings, as much as to say, " Now for a good wash." 

 He would then eye me inquiringly, which I took to mean, "Are 

 you going to put me on ? " and if I still hesitated would step on 

 to the saddle and then wait a few minutes in a sort of forlorn 

 mood, till at length he brightened up, and called to me just as 

 if to his hens, at the same time making sham pecks at the pad, 

 as if thereon lay a most delicious morsel if I would but come 

 and see. I waited one day to see how he would conclude the 

 ceremony without a wash. After various marchings up and 

 down the old dresser, off and on to the saddle, calling, crowing. 

 Arc, it terminated in his attempt to mount or rather descend to 

 the saddle without assistance. The attempt I must say was a 

 very sorry affair, for after trying first to puc down one leg and 

 then the other for a score of times, he made an indescribable 



attempt to slip down both at once, which brought liim quickly 

 to the floor. He was on his feet iu a moment, looking round 

 wratbfully indignant ; when his eye caught the saddle and he 

 tiew at it as if at another cock, with his spurs in the air. Being 

 too high he did not reach his aim, but found liiinsolf on his tail 

 again; when he rose iu a rather stately but subdued style, and 

 slunk off the scene, looking thoroughly disi^usted with me, the 

 saddle, and himself. — {From Wright's lllu&trateil Book of 

 Poultry for May.) 



WALSALL POULTRY SHOW. 



No one could be otherwise than pleased with the excellence 

 of the general arrangements of the Walsall Show. The Com- 

 mittee are evidently well disposed to work with a will, and what 

 is of equal importance — unanimously. The consequence was, 

 every arrangement was completed so promptly as to give the 

 Judges the whole of the time originally allotted for making the 

 awards. It proved, we are glad to say, quite a success, the new 

 Agricultural Hall being well suited to exhibit the poultry and 

 Pigeons to great advantage. Many of the exhibitors hailed from 

 very distant parts of the kingdom, and it was a pleasure to find 

 tliat not a few of them attended in person on the day of opening. 

 We need scarcely add the attention paid aUke to poultry, Pigeonp^ 

 and Rabbits was unexceptionable. Few individuals anticipatea 

 .so good an entry precisely in the breeding season, and that may 

 possibly be assigned as one reason why the entries reachod five 

 hundred pens. The premiums offered were good, and in addi- 

 ( tion to money prizes eleven silver cups were awarded. 



The Dorking cock class was good, the principal winner being 

 sent from out of Hampshire. The hens uf this breed, however, 

 constituted a still better class, and the hen exhibited by Mr. 

 H. Lingwood proved, consequently, the cup-winner. In Buff 

 Cochins Mr. S. R. Harris, of St. Day, Cornwall, took the cup with 

 a very well-shown good coloured young cock sent in capital con- 

 dition, but which, if a little more heavy in the featUer, would be- 

 improved. The first in hens of this variety was taken by Mr. H. 

 Tomlinson with a superior-coloured bird, shown in very excel- 

 lent condition, but which certainly was not equal in size and 

 contour to some previously shown by that exhibitor. Messrs- 

 Aspden of Church, and Stephens of Walsall, had entered especi- 

 ally good Partridge-feathered Cochins, the hen shown by the 

 latter gentleman being a remarkably pure-feathered one. In 

 White Cochins, as might be expected, Mr. Woodgate, of Tunbrid^ fr 

 Wells, had all the best of the battJe to himself, though some 

 really good birds also competed from other yards. We cannoti 

 say much in favour of the Light Brahmas, the cocks as a rule 

 proving very yellow for so early in the season, whilot most of, 

 the hens were very cloudy in the hackle ; the first-prize hen^ 

 however, was quite an exception to this general failing. The 

 breed as yet this year certainly does not show any marked im- 

 provement, but, on the contrary, somewhat of a retrograde move- 

 ment. Dark Brahmas, were, however, much better, particularly 

 the cup cock shown by Mr. Horace Ling^vood in first-rate feather. 

 Mr. Ausdell here showed both good cocks and hens, but cer- 

 tainly not in the same good show trim that has marked his 

 exhibits during many former years. The Spanish were unex- 

 ceptionably good classes ; even Bristol, Birmingham, and the 

 Crystal Palace Shows could not boast of better. Messrs. Boulton 

 of Bristol, and Jabez Walker of Wolverhampton, divided the 

 principal spoils with admirably conditioned specimens. In the 

 Game lists Messrs. Fletcher of Manchester, ami Mathews of 

 Stowmarket, were competitors with grand pens, both of these 

 well-known breeders showing birds hard as whalebone in the 

 feather, and which were evidently quite ready and no less 

 willing to have vindicated their right as Game fowls in other 

 positions than the show pen. A lovely-feathered Black Red was 

 the cup-taker, after a very lengthened inspection by the Judges^ 

 against the first-prize Brown Red hen, she being equally fault- 

 less in every point ; the time thus occupied proved afterwards 

 thrown away, as both were the property of Mr. Fletcher. Tha. 

 second-prize Brown Red Game cock also belonged to Mr. 

 Fletcher, and was in his present condition very little inferior 

 to the cup-winner. In Hamhurghs, though Mr. Beldou won 

 three out of the four first prizes oflered for the different varieties, 

 Messrs. Duckworth, comparatively new exhibitors, carried off 

 the cup with a Golden-pencilled cock wonderfully neat and true- 

 feathered. French fowls were admirable. It is indeed but very 

 rarely any are seen so good ; in fact, in the cock class every pen. 

 obtained favourable notice, the prizes going iu this order to La 

 F'ieche, Crcve-Cceurs, and Houdans. In the hen class, though, 

 scarcely less praiseworthy, Creves here took everything. Golden- 

 spangled Rolands, Malays, and Black Hamhurghs took places in 

 the prize list for Any variety in the cock class ; and in that for 

 hens a marvellously well-developed Black Cochin hen, GoMen- 

 spangled Poland, and Silver-spangled Poland took precedenc& 

 in the order named. Some few good Game Bafitams were com- 

 peting, but the other varieties of Bantams were not so good as 

 they might have been. Aylesbury Ducks were decidedly at a 

 great discount, but the Rouens were good. A very fine-plu- 



