578 



JOURNAL OF HORTICDLTUEE AND COTTAGE &ABDENEB. 



[ December ^ 1871. 



room of Mr. McLacMan, who so ably carried out the first Show, 

 but whose time is so otherwise engaged that he was compelled 

 to relinqaish the post. He, however, rendered valuable aid 

 daring the holding of the Show. 



_ On visiting the Town Hall and Covered Market the evening pre- 

 vious to the Show, I found the stages and every necessary prepara- 

 tion made. Nothing more was required than the erecting and 

 filing together the pecs for the poultry, Pigeons, and Babbits. 

 Turner's pens had been hired, but the patience of the Com- 

 mittee, Judges, exhibitors, and visitors were sorely taxed the 

 following day owing to the pens not coming to baud. Towards 

 mid-day several mechanics were engaged erecting pens for the 

 Pigeons, and the noise of the hammers and saws somewhat 

 puzzled many applying for admission at the doors. Towards 

 tea-time Messrs. Holt and Allsop had patiently completed their 

 duties. 



I believe it was to Mr. Yardley that Mr. Homer, some time 

 during the day, remarked, " We shall have to do the same as 

 the Canary men — find our own pens." Something most 

 certainly will have to be done to obviate the very annoying 

 blander occurring elsewhere. But I understand other com- 

 mittees have been disappointed besides the Burslem. Why 

 should thi-f be? I would ask. If a contract is entered into, 

 there should be no risk about the matter. The non-delivery of 

 the pens in proper lime is a serious loss to a committee (it was 

 80 to the Burslem Committee), and, apart from the extra trouble 

 and annoyance, it is riskmg the lives of valuable specimens, 

 which have cruelly to be kept prisoners in hampers and baskets 

 until pens are provided. 



Birds are very frequently journeying to exhibitions during 

 the whole of a night. It is essential they be fed and attended 

 to the following morning, but if the pens to hold them are not 

 forthcoming, it at once places a committee in a fix, with no 

 blame whatever attached to them. 



Exhibitions having increased of late years, and often more 

 than one or two or more occurring on or about the same date, 

 as a necessity more pens are required. Perhaps a little more 

 competition in the letting-out of pens would be worthy of con- 

 sideration ; and if those who have the letting of them out were 

 compelled to enter into a bond to supply them, it would, 

 perchance, better ensure committees receiving the pens by a 

 proper time. As to the outlay incurred by the Burslem Com- 

 mittee in having had timber cut up and engaging wire netting 

 for the pens, will be a matter for future consideration between 

 themselves and others. 



As in the Town Hall, similar annoyance occurred in the 

 Covered Market, by only a certain portion of the poultry being 

 penned. The judging was thus delayed, and Mr. Cannan, the 

 Judge of poultry, had to leave Burslem for Swansea. Mr. 

 Gamon, I understood, took up the remaining classes after he 

 had been ofiiciating ovfr the Dogs, bat it was some time before 

 he could make much headway, through some of the birds not 

 having been penned. 



Now, apart from this most unfortunate hitch, and another 

 annoying circumstance I will mention below, caused through 

 the absent pens, all would have gone " as merry as a marriage 

 bell," for every provision was made to conduct and carry out 

 the Show in a satisfactory manner. The united endeavours of 

 a painstaking Committee, backed up with an able staff of 

 assistants, at length surmounted the difficulties in a cool, be- 

 coming, and praiseworthy way. Mr. Welch, the Honorary 

 Secretary, proved himself equal to the occasion. 



The Canaries had been judged in tolerable good time in the 

 morning. Several birds entered were found to be absent from 

 their respective classes. It was not until the Pigeon pens had 

 been erected that the hamper of Canaries forwarded by Mr. 

 Adams, of Coventry, was found. It appeared to have been 

 mixed up with the hampers of Pigeons, some of which it re- 

 sembled. The birds having been judged, Mr. Barnesby did 

 quite right in not entertaining Mr. Adams's birds, although, 

 had they been in their classes, he (the exhibitor) would have 

 been a much greater winner than he was. They appeared 

 quite warm enough beneath their pepper-moulted feathers, 

 although left out in the cold. — An Eye-Witness. 



to its legitimate extent by giving classes for hens equally with 

 cocks throughout. The result was a total of 861 entries. Thq 

 quality in Dragoons, Antwerps, English Owls, flying Tumblers, 

 (especially the Mottles), has never been equalled, 



'The Show as usual was held at Belle- Vue, the dinner, to 

 which about a hundred sat down, being provided by the Messrs. 

 Jennison ; the Society this year giving not only a free dinner 

 ticket for each member, but an additional one for a friend. 

 About twenty special prizes, ranging in value from six guineas 

 down to two guineas, were given by gentlemen connected with 

 the Society. The most successful exhibitor was Mr. Walter 

 Hire, who took five of these (value about £20) ; Mr. Eidpeth 

 being next with three, including the cups for the best bird in 

 the Show ; Mr. Clay next with three ; then Messrs. Taylor, 

 Townson, Gamon, Wright, Bluhm, Loversidge, Unsworth, and 

 Ord completing the list of special-prizewinners. 



[ We regret the prize lists were not sent to ns as they ongbt. 

 —Eds.] 



DRAGOONS V. HOESEMEN. 

 All our fanciers of the Dragoon proper must feel grateful to 

 the "Wiltshire Rector" for his manly and straightforward 

 article on this subject in the Journal of December 10th. Cer- 

 tainly, as to the Dragoons now exhibited, the winners lay small 

 claim to be Dragoons at all. We are going " deeper and deeper 

 stiU " into the heavy Carrier wattle and bead. The Belfast 

 winner, as was correctly noticed in a contemporary paper, " had 

 a beak-wattle many a good Carrier need not be ashamed of." 

 As long as judges encourage these the fanciers of the "light 

 little fellow " (the Dragoon proper), need not exhibit, as the 

 Horsemen and " weight Carriers " they have become always are 

 preferred to the smaller birds. I for one trust soon we may see 

 some change, or these mongrel Carriers will be the sole repre- 

 sentatives of what once was the useful English Dragoon. — C. F. 

 Staunton. 



NORTHERN COUNTIES COLUMBARIAN SOCIETY, 

 MANCHESTER.— December 5th. 

 While inspecting the great and grand Show of the above 

 Society, threading our way through row after row of pens of 

 birds of the highest quality, we were impressed with the truth.fal- 

 n ess of the popular estimate of Manchester character— viz., its 

 originality and thoroughness; and it seemed to us that just as 

 in the past the "Manchester School" left their footprints in 

 th e van of ct mmercial and political progress, so now our brother 

 f a nciers there have struck out new lines, and have accomplished 

 su ceessfully what has never before been attempted. The Society, 

 w hich consists of breeders rather than exhibitors, accepting the 

 si Dgle-bird system as the base for competition, carried it out 



THE MEALY POUTER: ITS MERITS, &c. 

 In the columns of " our Journal " of the 3rd inst., a correspon- 

 dent writing on the Kilmarnock Show of Pigeons, gives me a 

 good-natured rub on the position in which, as Judge, I placed 

 the Mealy birds at that Show. I will readily allow that after 

 the lengthened discussion on the subject of the "Any other 

 colour or markings " class, it might appear to some that I 

 ought to have placed the Mealy in the position I advocated for 

 it ; but it must be remembered that I am not the " Pigeon 

 fancy," I am but an individual member of it, and cannot arro- 

 gate to myself the right of raising to the standard platform any 

 bird I please. Thus it was at the Kilmarnock Show — " Reds, 

 Yellows, or Mealies," by existing rules, and of long-standing 

 too, I was bound to give the standard-coloured birds the pre- 

 ference, and would still be so bound until some understanding 

 be come to by the " fancy." I had hoped for a public expression 

 on this matter much more wide than has been given. From 

 the south there is an opinion from my friend " Wiltshibe 

 Rectob," plainly set forth in this Journal. Mr. Ure has as 

 plainly given his verdict ; Mr. Spence and Mr. Lyall, all on 

 the east side of Scotland; Mr. McNaught, Mr. Gibson, Mr. 

 M'CuUoch, and one who signed himself " Novice," but who is 

 not of that grade, on the west side of the country. From London 

 I have letters, from the far north, from Edinburgh, and the east. 

 I cannot get our friends to send their views to any journal. " Oh ! 

 I never wrote for the papers," they say. In Glasgow, and all over 

 the west of Scotland, I find fanciers on this subject of one mind, 

 with three exceptions ; one still keeps a good stock of Pouters, 

 the second has given them up long ago, in disgust I presume ; 

 and the third, after much trouble, has been marked " notfound." 

 Now that there has been a public movement, an evident expec- 

 tation that I at least should have given the Mealy a better place 

 — viz., treated it as a standard bird, I feel justified in intimat- 

 ing that where I have the honour to judge in future, the Mealy 

 shall have the same consideration as the old standard-coloured 

 Pouters, and be treated as such, whether there be a separate 

 class for it or no, so that my Kilmaurs friend need not harbour 

 the least alarm. 



Allow me in a few lines to give my reasons for this decision. 



Ist. It is without doubt the desire of a large majority of the 

 Pouter fanciers. 



2nd. The Mealy Pouter is a bird of colour as uniform as the 

 Red or Yellow, and as liable to the same variety of shades. 



3rd. It equals any of the old-named standard birds in beauty, 

 and a Light Mealy certainly surpasses most of them, the colour 

 being simply lovely. 



4th. It is a bird bearing the same markings as the old standard- 

 coloured birds, and as a rule it is well marked. 



5th. For shape, the paramount point in the Pouter, it generally 

 excels. 



And 6th. The Mealy is after aU a shade of the Blue, and when 

 it is interbred with that colour improves it in all respects. 



Last, and not least, it has become a bird of great value. At 



