December 80, 1B69. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICOLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



529 



a flower show of any proposition for excluding committeemen 

 there from exhibiting? If such were attempted, I know from 

 long experience that there would not be a provincial show in 

 the kingdom ; and if this rule were adopted poultry shows 

 would soon become things of the past. 



But people are disaatieiied, and think there is unfairness. 

 There are very few beaten men who can take a beating com- 

 fortably ; they must fell you how their shoulders ache, how 

 sore their back is, how very sharp the whip comes. I have 

 seen something of this at flower shows. I have seen a man 

 white with rage, not because he did not get a first prize, but 

 because another received an equal first with him. Therefore 

 I count these complaints as very little worth. There is one 

 thing which people do not take into account, and that is the 

 individual tastes of a judge. What I mean is this, that although 

 there may be certain well-defined points which every judge 

 must acknowledge, yet there is still a margin, in some classes 

 at any rate, to pave the way to differences of opinion, and 

 consequeatly diflerences in judgment. I would never think 

 of questioning the honesty of a judge, although I might ques- 

 tion his judgment, and I would never allow an appeal against 

 his decision unless in a case of proved unfairneaa in the exhi- 

 bitor. — D., Deal. 



GAME FOWLS. 



I THINK that the present breed of Game fowls as represented 

 at poultry shows has degenerated in many ways from the old- 

 fashioned breed. Many of the desired points cause the fowls 

 to lose both pluck and constitution. A long snake-like head 

 and a fine neck are necessary for prize birds. This has the 

 effect, speaking phrenologically, of causing the Game bird to 

 lose the organ of combativeness, for a thickish neck and a cer- 

 tain breadth at the back of the skull distinguish all fighting 

 animals. Again, length of limb, in order to make the bird 

 show in the pen, is sought after : and to attain this the weedy 

 cockerels and pullets are saved — birds which have a tendency 

 to be delicate, and so the constitution of the breed becomes 

 weakened. The feathering must be very short, close, and thin, 

 vrith a small tail, Now, to get the feathering short and thin it 

 requires a slender type of bird, but on good stout birds it is 

 easy enough to have the plumage short and close, but not thin. 

 People who have been used to seeing good-coloured cockers' 

 birds, when they see an exhibition bird on his run consider 

 him an ugly long-legged animal ; but the eyes of exhibitors and 

 the judges have become used to the present type of bird, and 

 if they see a good stout cockers' bird in a pen beside any exhi- 

 bition bird it is thought a coarse bird not worth looking at. 



The exhibition Game fowl has lost so much constitution that 

 it is not a really valuable farmyard fowl, as the chickens are so 

 delicate and difficult to rear. People say that sending birds to 

 shows ruins the constitutions of the various exhibition breeds ; 

 but the true reason is, so many weak-constitutioned birds are 

 saved for particular points, that in time the whole breed begins 

 to lose its stamina. I think that if judges only judged them 

 as the type of the old fighting birds, instead of mere cage birds, 

 the birds would be hardier, more nseful, and not less handsome. 

 — Chabybdis. 



A FEW WARNING NOTES. 

 '• Travellers see strange things " is an old saying, and I 

 may add, hear strange things. At Birmingham Poultry Show, 

 in the yard and at the hotels, I met and talked with, and heard 

 talk, many exhibitors — I wish I could say fanciers, but they 

 were so few that I think it will not be a very wrong designation ; 

 for several of them in my opinion had no pretensions to such 

 honour. I remember the time, and it is not so long ago, when 

 men, and women too, kept poultry and Pigeons for the very 

 love of them, looking at their beauties with delight, and priding 

 themselves on the purity and excellence of their particular 

 breeds — one celebrated for his gallant Game, another for his 

 heavy Dorkings, another for his superb Cochin fowls. Then, 

 again, the real Pigoon-fancier, who would exhibit with a glow 

 of pleasure the birds bred by himself, and which no money 

 wor.Id induce him to part with. But, alas ! what did I hear 

 at Birmingham y Where is the honour gone ? Now it is all 

 for profit, and money prizes, and cups. But in what way, 

 too ? I heard of borrowings and tendings, of buyings and sell- 

 iugs, of pluckings and weedings, of colourings and clippings, 

 tmtil I was fairly disgusted. Here are men getting prizes for 

 borrowed birds, and soon after we see advertised, " Birds same 



strain as those which took first prize at such and such a show." 

 Then there is a cup offered, perhaps, at certain shows for the 

 winner of the greatest number of prizes in the poultry, and 

 another in the Pigeon classes. Where do these go to ? Why, to 

 the one who can and does borrow the most birds in many cases, 

 and so the good (though not overstrong as regards numbers in 

 the way of varieties) fancier goes to the wall. It ought to be 

 worded in the schedule of prizes, " A cup to be awarded to him 

 who can horrow the most birds." 



But, as I have said before, the mischief does not end with 

 the show, for other birds are sent out often from the yards and 

 lofts of those exhibiting, with a statement that they are of the 

 same strain as those exhibited — in poultry I may add eggs — 

 when in reality they are no relation whatever, but often bought 

 for the purpose afterwards. I heard of one man whose birds 

 took prizes and were claimed, and who straightway went and 

 bought others and advertised them as " Having some birds 

 left," &■(!. Said some true fanciers to me, " We shall give up 

 shovring if this sort of thing is going to continue." Speaking 

 to one of the Judges, I asked, " Did yon find any trimming 

 this time?" "Why," replied he, " if all the feathers could bo 

 collected that have been drawn from the poultry and Pigeons 

 shown I should have a respectable feather bed." 



I have read much that has been written by exhibitors 

 against poultry committees and judges ; but it is my decided 

 opinion that if they were not more earnest for the welfare of 

 the poultry and Pigeon fancy than many of the exhibitors, 

 poultry and Pigeon shows would soon come to a miserable end. 



At Birmingham I heard that already men were beginning to 

 lay plans for borrowing for the London Show on the 15 th of 

 January at the Crystal Palace ; and I sincerely trust, and I 

 earnestly hope, for the sake of the honour and well-being of 

 the fancy and in justice to all, that these men will find — 

 though they seek never so much — that these men will find no 

 lenders. 



I write the above "without prejudice," and it is addressed 

 " to all whom it mav concern." — Black Domino. 



TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE LONDON 

 POULTRY SHOW. 

 Pbay listen to my complaint. I am an ill-used bird. There 

 are my pied cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Houdan, honoured by a 

 separate class, while I am huddled in with any other French 

 variety. Any other, indeed ! Hear what my friend M. Jacques 

 says of me in "Le PoulaiUer :"— " This admirable race pro- 

 duces certainly the very best fowls that appear in the French 

 markets. Their bones are lighter ; the flesh firmer, shorter, 

 whiter than those of the Houdan. The Creve-Cosur is the chief 

 race in France for the delicacy of its flesh, the ease with which 

 it is fattened, and its earliness ; and I think that it is also the 

 first race in the world from these points of view." And yet I 

 am put in "any other class." I can say no more. My crest 

 is up, my anger great, and I can only add that I am — An 

 Indignant Cbeve-Cceur. 



COMPETING COMMITTEEMEN. 



I NOW understand what " Aliquis " meant to say in hia former 

 letter about local cups and the " coatingeucy " connected with them. 

 He states in last week's Journal that " the local cnp is far beyond his 

 (the foreign exhibitor's) reach by being made local." He ooght rather 

 to have said that the outside or foreign exhibitor is exclnded from the 

 local cnp. The words qnoted above have no other meaning. The 

 inference, then, to be drawn from this is that in all cases where a 

 local cup is offered there should be a general cnp in the same class, to 

 which the local cnp stood second ; otherwise, good b.rds from other 

 neighbourhoods must necessarily be exclnded also. Are local cups 

 offered side by side with general cups as a mle ? They are not. If 

 they were, surely in the interests of ponltry-hreediiig generally, and 

 financially as regards shows, it would be niore advantageous to give 

 the money, which would otherwise be devoted to local cups, in cups 

 for other varieties, in order to draw more entiance fees, more esii- 

 bitors, and finer birds. As for the hononrs of local cups, I have no 

 sympathy with Tritons amongst minnows. As to the probationary 

 nse of local cups, the "contingency " mentioned by " Aliquis " of 

 winning both cups, shows that the AU-England-cnp is, after all, the 

 test. 



" An Ajiateur," quoting mv words, tries to turn them against me. 

 He says, " To carry the idea a'little further, a successful exhibitor also 

 becom"e3 a hireling" of the committeemen on his receiving a prize in 

 open and equal competition." Surely "An Amateur" knows the 

 difference between a fee and a prine, that the former is compulsory. 



