November 13, 1366. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTI CULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



377 



show), was proficient in the. modern classification and manage- 

 ment of a poultry show. 



I have been pressing upon the Committee the necessity, if a 

 good Show is to bo held, of throwing open competition to nil 

 England, enlarging tho prize list, obtaining the services of a 

 first-rate judge, and promising good pens for exhibition. Un- 

 fortunately the schedule and rules were in print befoire an 

 opportunity arose for making thesr i > i entations ; and while 

 there is great hope next year of enlarging and improving the 

 Show, the Committee havo most courteously adopted at once 

 sevoral suggestions-- notably that of oblaiuing a good judge. 

 I have pleasure in adding that one our best-known and ablest 

 judges has most handsomely offered his services gratuitously. 



Further, the Committee have accepted my offer to give a 

 prize of one guinea, respectively, to the best pens of Cochins 

 and Brahmas, neither of which varieties was mentioned in the 

 schedule ; these prizes to he open to all England, and with no 

 fee or subscription required. 



I hope by these means to induce some of my brother fanciers 

 to send good specimens to Guildford, and thereby both encou- 

 rage the Committee to have a flrst-xate Show another year, 

 and also stimulate the love of poultry in the district. I may 

 add that Mr. R. U. Baker, the Hon. . xetary, will give to 

 intending exhibitors any information they may desire. 



The Show is fixed for December the 11th. — John Takes. 

 Postford, near Guildford. 



KEEPING POULTRY IX LONDON. 



I kkow there are some people who say this is impossible, 

 but I have done so for two years and wish to state my ex- 

 perience. Having formerly lived in the country, and having 

 there been a poultry fancier, when I came to London I natu- 

 rally had the desire to keep my old friends — fowls. Now, I 

 have a garden which is about 120 feet long and 40 broad, and 

 at the bottom of it I have put up a fowl-house, a good-sized 

 court, in which I keep half a dozen hens and a cock. They 

 have for about five mouths of the year the run of the garden, 

 but are shut up iu the court during the remaining months. In 

 looking over my accounts I find I have suffered no pecuniary 

 loss by them, for taking the eggs at London prices I find I 

 have gained 2s. 6d. I have found out that one breed does not 

 thrive in London, and so have adopted a cross between Dork- 

 ings and barndoor fowls. 



The following is the number of eggs laid by the six hens in 

 the year: — 



January 24 



February 70 



March 47 



April 62 



May 94 



June 65 



July 34 



August SO 



September 3 



October 



November 3 



December 16 



Total 443 



[We wish that our poultry-keeping readers would furnish us 

 with similar tables of their yearly egg produce". It would be 

 useful, and still more so if they would tell the number of 

 chickens hatched and reared, in every instance specifying the 

 variety of poultry. The table should be in this form : — 



April . 



62 



Dor.Ki? ' . 



Ghickeni 

 reared. No. 9 



6 .... IJ ] 



INCUBATORS. 



I am glad to see the subject, " Whose is the best incubator ? " 

 noticed in your Journal (which needs no praise, as it is the 

 best, I think, that could be sent out). Mr. Brindley has, with 

 an Englishman's confidence of superiority in his own manu- 

 factures, volunteered to lend one of your correspondents an 

 incubator of his make for trial. Now, I would propose that 

 Mr. Schroder, and all the other inventors of incubators, should 

 make the same offer to the same gentleman, and thus the 

 public would have some criterion to go by in choosing these 

 articles. I have a circular from one inventor, which states 

 that he " has tried every similar description of apparatus yet 

 invented, and scruples not to say that he has found every one 

 wanting, or to have certain fatal objections," &o. Now, in 

 fairness and openness of trade, might not all the inventors 

 make the same offer to the same correspondent as Mr. Brindley 

 has done, or to some other well-known fanciers ? and the igno- 

 ramuses, such as myself, would be the wiser if the results of 

 the experiments were inserted in your Journal. I give each 



invi-nlor el-edit for truly believing that his own productions 

 inn i all others ; but if there are any faults, would they not be 

 able by this test to see and rectify thorn, which ought to lead 

 to much improvement, if not to perfection.— Edov 



M'SWICII POULTRY AND PIGEON SHOW. 

 The ftrst Poultry Show ever held at Ipswich took place on Thursday 

 and Friday last, the Goto i\<h:ui -r offering the raosl a Dpi accom- 

 modation to an entry of 537 pens. So large sn entry at a first show 

 is vi tv rare, and we are nappy to atate that most of the principal 

 breeders in the kingdom competed. The only drawback which occurred 

 com the wilful dilatoriness of the party from whom the pens 

 \.' n hired. Although offered by the Committee the gratuitous assist- 

 ance of a number or Local carpenters, he sternly refused such help, 

 worked on only as he himsi If thought fii as to time, ami ill'' re-mltwas 

 that instead of the Ibrbit] ttors being enabled, as proposed, to commence 

 the first thing in the morning, it was within a few minutes of 3 p.m. 

 before even all the pens were erected. The Committee have wisely 

 made provision against the recurrence of such an evil in future years, 

 as they purpose not only having their own pens, but also to arrange 

 for the erection of these under their own superintendence. When at 

 length completed, the Show was certainly a very fine one. Scarcely 

 any class could be named in which the competition was not good, and 

 to add to the general interest, a large proportion of the birds were 

 chickens of the present year, and were now exhibited for the first time. 

 Independently of a liberal amount of money prizefi, six silver cups of 

 the actual value of five guineas each were given in the poultry classes, 

 and a cup of the value of three guineas was also allotted to the winner 

 of the greatest number of prizes in the Pigeons. 



The silver cup for the best Game pen was taken by Mr. J. Fletcher, 

 Stoneclough, near Manchester ; the silver cup for Dorkings by Lady 

 Holmesdale ; that for Cochins went to Mr. Albert Fenton, of Roch- 

 dale, who exhibited two Buff hens such as are but rarely seen. The 

 fourth cup for BraJimas was secured by a most excellent pen of Dark 

 chickens, hied and exhibited by Mr. Boyle, of Dublin. The Spanish 

 cup fell to the lot of Mr. Beldon, of Bingley, Yorkshire, and the silver 

 cup for the best pen of any variety of Hamburghs, to a first-rate pen of 

 Golden-pencilled, exhibited by Mr. Pittis, of the Isle of Wight. It 

 will he thus seen the cups were very widely distributed, nor was there 

 any one of them taken except in a severe competition. The cup for 

 Pigeons was awarded to Mr. llobt. Fulton, of Deptford, London. 



The general quality of the birds shown was so good as to take many 

 of even the oldest exhibitors by surprise, and the remark was general 

 as to the extreme difficulty in the present day of any one breeder secur- 

 ing the number of prizes that was easily attainable a few years ago. 



The display of Pigeons was remarkably good, and that of the Canaries 

 and Rabbits, was not less praiseworthy. 



The Committee were universally congratulated on their great success 

 in the first institution of the Ipswich Show, and there seems to be 

 every probability that iu future years this meeting will show greatly 

 augmented proportions, as the success of the present undertaking 

 appears to have enlisted the warm support of most of the gentry of the 

 neighbourhood. 



Game (Black-breasted and other Reds). — First and Third, S. Matthew, 

 Stowmarket. Second, J. W. Harrison, Spalding. Commended, J. Fletcher, 

 Stoneclough, Manchester; J. Smith, Grantham. 



Game (Duckwings and other Greys and Elues\ — First and Cup, J. 

 Fletcher. Second, S. Matthew. Highly Commended, S. Matthew. Com- 

 mended, H. R. Sexton, Wherstead, Ipswich. 



Game (Any other variety). — First, J. Fletcher (Piles). Second, S. 

 Matthew fPilesJ. 



Dorkings (Coloured). — Cup, First, and Second, Viscountess Holmes- 

 dale, Linton Park, Staplehurst, Kent. Third, D. C. Campbell, M.D., 



Brentw L Highly Commended, D. C. Campbell, M.D.; W. H. Walker, 



Shenfield, Brentwood ; J. K. Fowler, Aylesbury. Commended, H. Ling- 

 wood, Needham Market; J. Frost, Parham ; Mrs. Bailey, Longton. 

 Dorkings (White).— First and Second, H. Lingwood. 

 Cochin-china (Cinnamon or Buif).— Cup and First, A. Fenton, Roch- 

 dale. Second and Third, H. Lingwood. 



Cochin-china (Anv other colourk— First and Second, J. R. Rodbard, 

 Aldwick Court, Wrington, Bristol [Partridge). Third, Master F. M. Shaw, 

 Rougham Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds (White). Highly Commended, 

 A. Fenton (Parti 



Br: ahma Pootra (DarkV— Cup and Fir=t, R. W. Boyle, Bray, Co. Wick- 

 low, Ireland. Second, J. K. Fowler. Third, J. H. P'ickles, Bridgeroyd, 

 Todmorden. Commended, E. Pigeon, Lympstone, Exeter; J. Hinton,. 

 Hinton, near Bath ; J. W. Harrison. 



Brahma Pootra .Light).— First, F. Crook, Forest Hill, Sydenham. 

 Second, H. Dowsett, Pleshev, Chelmsford. 



Spanish.— Cup and First.'H. Beldon, Goitstnck. Second, J. R. Rodbard. 

 Third, E. T. Holden. Walsall. Staffordshire. Highly Commended, W. H. 

 \\ alker ; T. Wood, Black Notley, Essex. 



Hamburgh Golden-pencilled).— Cup and First, F. Pittis, jun., Newport, 

 Isle of Wight. Second, J. W. Cannan, Bradford. Highly Commended 

 H. Beldon. Commended, C. Havers, Ingatestone, Essex. 



Hamburgh (Silver-pencilled).— First, W. Bairstow, FeamsclitT, Bingley, 



Yorks. Second, J. Walker. Commended, J. W. Cannan ; H. Pickles, jun. 



Hamburgh (Goldr-n-prinL'lert .- Fir^t, J. Roe, Hatfield, Manchester. 



Second, J. Buckley, Taunton, Ashton-under-Lyne. Highly Commended, 



J. W. Cannan. 



Hamburgh Silver-spangled).— First, J. Fielding. Newchnrch, near 

 Manchester. Second. J. Walker. Highly Commended, H. Beldon. Com- 

 mended, Rev. F. Tearle, Gazelev Vicarage, Newmarket. 

 Hambuhgh (.Black).— First, C. Sidgwick. Second, Mrs. P. R. Burrell. 



