9G 



JOUBNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAUDENEB. 



[ Jutnury DO, 1800. 



tliev may long c«ntinna to hold the high poeition Uiey have bo 

 jnstly gained is the sincere wish of — Gallcs. 



[" Gaixus " properly enongh might have asked if I had bred 

 Game Bantams ; yet he, not being of my ncqnaintance, had no 

 right to answer his own question by a '• certainly nut." 



"Well, I will reply quite openly. I have been a breeder of 

 Game Bantams, and that of recent years, but gate thom up for 

 Black?. I have also been watching the breeding of the.'e birds 

 lor the la.-<t two years at a hou.se not more than two huiidied 

 yards from my own rectory, also in a town near me on a still 

 larger scale ; and I inspected a yard of some fifty birds quite 

 recently, these being Black-breasted Keds, and I marked also 

 the result in another instance. Now for the conclusion I came 

 to. Dnckwings I fonnd were apt to ran out of colour ; the 

 hens came sometimes salmon instead of silver-grty, and the 

 cocks too dark, and also mottled-breasted. But the Came 

 Bantams which appear in by far the greatest numbers are the 

 Black-breasted Reds. At Birmingham there were sixty-seren 

 pens of these, and only twenty-five of Duckwings ; and at other 

 shows I have seen even a greater disproportion — at small 

 shows many Black-breasted but no Duckwings at all, or but 

 one pen. Manifestly, therefore, when I spoke of shows " be- 

 coming overburdened with these miniature Game fowls," it 

 was to Black Beds that I mainly referred. 



Now I aver that these are easy to breed. In proof : A friend 

 of mine purchased a pen last spring through an advertisement 

 in this Journal. The price was not very large, but the adver- 

 tiser was an honest man — not one of the " shabby," equivo- 

 cating, deceiving gentry, so his birds were good. Every egg laid 

 was put under some hen or other, and a vast propoi-tion were 

 hatched and reared. In November last I saw them, and a 

 great number they were, yet not one had run out of feather ; 

 every one was willow-legged, and among them were prizetakers 

 at different shows. I also aver that a large number were of 

 equal goodness, yet this gentleman was contemplating killing 

 them wholesale, not knowing what to do with them. Again, 

 high prices are no gmde in anything that only depends on 

 fancy. Did "G.u-lus" never hear of tulip bulbs selling for a 

 small fortune during the tulip mania ? or of the sailor who ate 

 one and thought it a bad onion, and the enraged owner wonld 

 have cut the sailor open had he but swallowed the talip whole ? 

 Committees must award prizes for whatever varieties of fowls 

 muster in any great number, from whatever cause. In poultry, 

 popularity rests upon two bases — usefulness and fancy: the 

 former a permanent basis ; the latter anything but permanent. 



I do not desire to see any variety of fowls " go out :" hence, 

 though there is little to recommend them, save former fancy, 

 I hope even Malays will not entirely disappear from our shows ; 

 and I have endeavoured to speak a word for Polish, a sort too 

 much neglected, for surely they are ver}- beautiful. I am sorry, 

 likewise, to see Stbrights declining in number ; yet, when good, 

 as regards the beauty of feather no kind of fowls can be com- 

 pared with them for a moment ; they at once attract all eyes, 

 especiaHy those of the ladies, who generally understand beauty 

 of feather and colour a great deal better than we do. I am son-y 

 that other real Bantams are by no means numerous. I am not 

 insensible to the beauty of miniature Game fowls, although I 

 think their beauty inferior to real Game, because in them we 

 see power as well as courage, the might of muscle as well ns 

 the courage of will. Bantams, the so-called Game, are not. 

 The word Bantam is now an old English word, and implies a 

 consequential strut, broad full breast, and a drooping wing ; and 

 these the Game of course must not have ; but in all other 

 Bantams these properties arc seen to perfection. I have kept 

 all kinds of Bantams, even Nankin and Partridge. The only sort 

 I found profitable (I am setting aside fancy prices), were the 

 Blikcke ; they never wander and get killed or lost ; they lay well 

 in winter, if pullets, and I wish I had not parted with them, 

 for from my Cochins I had no eggs in October, November, and 

 December, when fresh eggs in Bath were 2J<f. apiece, whilst 

 from Black Bantams I always had eggs during the months men- 

 tioned. If " GiLLrs" has a large number of Game Bantams 

 for sale, I fear they will hang on his hands, or sell for little. 

 Fancy, their only supporter, is a changeable as well as im- 

 perious deity, and looks out constantly for something new, and, 

 lacking that, turns back to old loves.— 'Wn.isniKE Eeciob.] 



tinus, of which beautiful erergieen I have a bodgo now in full 

 bloom.— W. L. L. 



NEW BOOK 



The Poullry-keepeTi' Manual : containing deicriptiom of all 

 hindi (if Ihiniestic PouUnj, with Iiutructiims for their Manage- 

 ment, and Iheir Treatment whni Dixeaaed. By CoNTBtBCroKS 

 TO " The Jouns.u, of Hobticultcbe and Pot" i.tbv Crso- 

 xicLE." With Ticetriy-two Coloured Knprarings and Sumeroiu 

 fVoodcutg. London : Journal of Horticulture Office. Is.dd. 

 " NciTEBocs inquiries for an easily consulted work on Poultry, 

 having coloured portraits of the varieties, showed that such a 

 publication was needed. This, combined wish the abundaooe 

 of communications in our possession from most of the best 

 authorities on Poultry-keeping, induced us to prepare the pre- 

 sent volume. Its contents, therefore, commend it to all who 

 require such a book for reference." 



To the above copy of the title-page and extract from the 

 preface, we will only add that the voliune combines informa- 

 tion from most of the best-known poultry-breeders, and is so 

 arranged as to be most easily consulted on any subjoct con- 

 nected with poultry. 



MrLBXEss OF TiiE SEASON NE.VB ExETEK. — I observed this 

 morning, 23nl of January, my bees busily gathering pollen, 

 from, and humming joyfully about the flowers of the laurus- 



QUEEN encase:^iexts. 



I AM glad to notice that your excellent correspondent, 

 " R. S.," has taken up the subject of queen encasements. I 

 hope he will continue to note the cases that may occur in ids 

 apiary, and give ns the benefit of his experience and obser- 

 vations. 



Since my last communications on this subject, I have had 

 several additional cases in my own apiary, one or two of which 

 I shall mention ; but before doing so, I may here state, that in 

 advancing the opinions which I then did, based though they 

 were upon close study and diligent observation, I was not un- 

 aware of the difficulties of arriving at a true solution regarding 

 some, at least, of the cases alluded to. These were put forward 

 in a form somewhat hypothetical. Future observations on the 

 part of others as wcU as myself may probably lead to resolving 

 some of these within a narrower compass, and, it may be, up<ni 

 a simpler basis ; but in order to attain this end, the subject is 

 one w^ ich requires the closest attention, and a complete ae- 

 qnaintance with the history and character of the queens so 

 treated. I quite admit, therefore, the pertinency of the re- _ 

 marks of " R. S.," in calUng upon me to explain "by what 

 means " I had asceitained the ages of some of the queens 

 referred to. 



In an experimental apiary like my own, where many of my 

 queens have in my various manipulations to pass frequently 

 under review during the season, it is not at all impossible to 

 note peculiarities and distinctions, not more so, I imagine, 

 than with a Pigeon fancier, or a rose amateur, who can by the 

 turn of a feather, or the form of a petal, see ]>oints of difference 

 in apparently th« same objects. In my apiary at present stand 

 some thirty hives, and I acknowledge myself to possess a pretty 

 good acquaintance with each matfrfamilias throughout, and on 

 all occasions know as certainly when any change of government 

 takes place in a hive, or when a young princess ascends her 

 apian-throne, or, which is much the same, when the celebration 

 of her nuptials occurs, as if a royal ealnte were fired overhead 

 from the cannon's mouth to announce the fact. Nor do I claim 

 to myself any extra knowledge over other close observers, if in 

 regard to not a few even of the black monarchs in my apiary 

 I could say. In this hive reigns a queen moderate in size, and 

 dark and sombre in colour ; in that a smaller one. but darker 

 still, and fleet and agile; there an aged sovereign with ruffled 

 wing and tottering step ; here a lihput, scarce distinguished in 

 size from her less honoured sisters, the uncouth remnant of an 

 artificial batch ; and there in yonder hive reigns a monarch 

 worthy of the name, large, noble, magnificent, " bom to com- 

 mand," whose every step is grace, and every movement majesty; 

 there, too, is a worthy rival, superior far in beauty and colour, 

 whose saffron hue and golden tinge might well claim a closer 

 kindred to the still more beautiful Italian. No, no, I cannot admit 

 that there are no queen distinctions, and that it is impossible 

 for us to note them. This, then, is my reply to " K. S." in his 

 remarks on this subject. Every scientific apiarian should have 

 as intimate a knowledge of the history and character of the 

 queens in his apiary as Miss Strickland has with the Queens of 

 England. , 



