339 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 30, 1800. 



gramme of this year to the effect that, " the prices of poultry 

 and Pigeons will be allowed to be reduced on the Wednesday 

 and Thursday of the Show, on payment of Is. per pen for each 

 alteration." 



A further improvement inBingley Hall this year will be seen 

 in the introduction of new poultry pens, the Council having, 

 on the suggestion of the Poultry Committee, offered a premium 

 of £10 for the best design. There were several competitors for 

 this premium, which was awarded to Mr. Lythall, the Secretary, 

 whose design, with a few slight modifications, has been carried 

 out, and the result is, we think, all that could be desired. — 

 (Midland Counties Herald.) 



NEWMARKET RACES. 



Not the races for which that town is justly celebrated, but 

 the races of poultry which have been commented on lately in 

 "our Journal" by our new friend, or possibly old friend iu 

 new guise, " Newmarket." These remarks have appeared — 

 certainly as regards Game and Malays, possibly also as regards 

 the other breeds — as emendations of the " Standard of Ex- 

 cellence," and at some of these remarks I confess I have been 

 staggered ; but ere I commence fault-finding — so easy, is it not ? 

 ■ — let me greet thee, friend " Newmabket." Although I shall 

 be compelled to differ from you, pick holes in your words, 

 &c, yet is there much between us, friend ! Thou likest " our 

 Journal," so do I. Thou readest it, so do I. Thou writest 

 in it — well, I will not continue the similarity, but as all pugilists, 

 before they exchange with each other those very striking in- 

 terchanges of civility which disfigure the human form divine, 

 first shake hands, so will I now with thee, friend " Newmabket." 

 Oh ! but thou hast riled me, friend ! I can hardly believe 

 our worthy chaplain, " Wiltshire Rector," would have patted 

 thee so encouragingly on the back about the " Standard " had 

 he foreseen what " To be continued " really meant. Why, he, 

 gentle soul, can discover some beauty in almost every form 

 of nature, whether fish, flesh, or fowl; but if, as I under- 

 stand, the remarks in " our " issue of October 16th are thine 

 own thoughts, how sadly deficient must be thine eye, friend 

 *' Newmarket ! " 



Dorkings, rum-ornamental ! Nay, how can I write it? What 

 is it ? The retailer of scandal is as bad as the maker ! For- 

 give me, then, Dorkings, but ye are ugly, heavy, and clumsy! 

 and your '• flesh insipid ! ! " 



Spanish possess "no great beauty." Listen, ye Spanish 

 Hidalgos ; if your blood was not " blue " before, surely this will 

 make it so. Ah ! I have it. Read this to the young Spanish 

 chickens before they show their white faces, it will give them 

 that blue tinge which every Spanish-breeder looks for early in 

 the face, as the best sign of future excellence. Poor Spaniards ! 

 what a blow to your aristocratic feelings — no great beauty ! 



Then Cochins and Brahmas, what have ye done ? " Large " 

 — oh ! that mine may always have this fault — " awkward, 

 clumsy, ugly, heavy " birds ! 



Weil, "Newmarket," the first ar.d the last, yes, thou art 

 right ; but oh, dear ! how many I am glad to say do not see 

 them with thine eyes. " Quite unfit for table, being coarse 

 and yellow-fleshed." Well, I suppose I am easily satisfied. 

 What a comfort ! 



Hamburghs I had better leave " Wiltshire Rector " to do 

 battle for ; but they are " not ornamental." 



Malays are a sore point, and I must leave it for a future time, 

 as there are one or two points in this breed that I intend to 

 notice; but as my best Malay cock has died this day, perhaps 

 stabbed by "Newmarket's" words, I pass over their descrip- 

 tion at present. 



Geese and Turkeys, what can you expect ? the ugliest of all 

 poultry! I think a lady friend of mine, " Newmabket," will 

 remember thy words in re Turkeys. I can only say I sym- 

 pathise with thee, because, if really thou canst see no beauty 

 in these various breeds, how much thou must lose in the way 

 of pleasure ! 



And now a word on the Ornamentals. Game, yes, to be 

 sure, game evidently to the back-bone, no mistake about that ; 

 a true lover of them, knows all about their fighting properties 

 too — " the best layers of all." Well, I think I must demur to 

 that; but the "Standard" has evidently something to learn 

 about them, for I do not doubt that " Newmarket " is correct, 

 for he loves them, and has studied them. Red Duns "won 

 first prize at Sheffield in 1857." Ah ! but did they get it ? 

 There's the rub ! One year at Sheffield, but I forget which, I 



dunned and dunned for prize-money awarded to me ; but in 

 the end I was done. I wonder if the " Red Duns " were .' m 

 too! 



Polish, handsome and " prolific." I will not say positively, 

 but I believe the latter to be rather mythical. I hive beeri a 

 Polish breeder many years, and I should never consider them 

 first-rate layers. I believe that the most successful breeder of 

 the day is of the same opinion. They certainly have the credit 

 of being prolific. Much as I like them, I do not think they 

 deserve it — "they possess great beauty, being crested." 

 Houdans and Creve Cceurs are " crested " too. There is some 

 hope for them, then, for poultry, love, and beauty do not 

 always take us by storm at first sight. May their case with me 

 not be like that of many a wife, who refuses over and over again 

 the man whom she ultimately marries, and then declares that. 

 a better creature never lived? And so, perhaps, some day 1 

 may learn to admire even these forms of our feathered friends, 

 but not yet; though crested, they have horns ! Perhaps it i-'. 

 because I have been a Polish lover for years, therefore intent 

 on breeding out h"rns ; then comes a crested bird with horns, 

 and such a pair! No, I cannot yet; but, perhaps, like some of 

 our lady friends, I may learn to. But, seriously, surely Polish 

 are not ornamental, simply because crested ? The contrast of 

 colours in the White-crested Black, and the markings of the 

 Silver and Golden-spangled surely entitle them to be called 

 ornamental. 



Perhaps-, after all, it is my mistake, and " Newmabket " may 

 mean something else by what he says, and then the character 

 he has given to several favourite breeds would not be what we 

 ' by the words. We do not all call the same things 

 by the same names, especially in this country, and perha] s we 

 are all of us disposed to think that our version must be cor- 

 rect. It reminds me of a story I will relate. Friday is not be- 

 hindhand in his own estimation ; he can neither read nor write, 

 talks Zummerset that requires the strictest attention to under- 

 stand, and calls my Malays, Viss AUays, Brahmas, Brail 

 and buckwheat, Dutc\ heat, &o. ; still he " do fancy that lie 

 knows considerably more than a thing or two." Perha] b.e 

 old man is right, and if bought at our price and sold again at 

 his own, a handsome fortune might be realised. However, a 

 clever fellow came from another part of the country to work 

 with him. Very naturally, the two clever fellows did nut get 

 on very well together. A few days after the new arrival wa3 

 duly established he was asked his opinion of the country and 

 the people. The former was satisfactory enough ; but he 

 evidently had not formed any exalted ideas of the inhabitants, 

 and he wound up his opinion by stating that they were igno- 

 rant, illiterate, and did not even know how to speak properly, 

 giving Friday as a case in point. Now, as our new friend had 

 a peculiar jargon of his own, we were somewhat tickled and 

 anxious to discover whet e Friday so transgressed. The reply 

 was, "Why, he says thic." "Well, what ought ho to say, 

 then?" "Why," ho replied, "time, to be sure!" The 

 denouemi nt was perfect ! Can it be that while " Newm 

 says thuc of certain breeds, he all the time means " thic.'" In 

 any case, friend "Newmarket," pardon me. I love my 



feathered friends so much I cannot rest contented without 

 lifting up my poor voice against the epithets thou haat used. — 

 Y. B. A. Z. 



UTILITY versus HIGH BREEDIN< i. 



I am inclined to believe that there is some danger of weaken- 

 ing our poultry in the effort to produce perfection in cer!:iin 

 "points" of presumed excellence in certain breeds'. I wi old 

 instance Spanish poultry, with which I am conversant. My 

 own Spanish poultry are very fine birds in size, in plumage, 

 in egg-laying qualities, but they do not come quite up to the 

 mark in respect to the breadth of white about the eyes — not 

 that they come far short in this respect. Also the cock, a very 

 handsome fellow (the sole survivor out of a hatching of eggs 

 from Mr. Baily, of Mount Street, which only produced two 

 cocks), has not a perfectly erect comb. 



Aware of these defects in my birds, I paid a visit to the 

 yards of a well-known breeder of Spanish fowls in my neigh- 

 bourhood, and a very successful prizetaker too. There I was 

 struck, indeed, with the superiority of the points in which my 

 birds are defective, but I was also surprised to find that in all 

 other respects my own birds were fully equal or much superior. 

 They are larger birds, and lay larger eggs and a greater number 

 of them. 



Now, I infer that my Spanish birds have some slight cross, 



