478 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Jane 15, 1876. 



hesitate to think one of the principal reaBons is that so many 

 half-grown, wizen-faced-Iooking chickens are annually allowed 

 to live and are daily offered for sale, so the market becomes 

 overcrowded and choked with perfect rubbish. Now, we repeat, 

 is the time to thiu before the runs are contaminated, diseases 

 are bred, and the corn bill is run up. 



Water, too, is as important an item in the chicken's menn 

 as ever the best wines are at oar own great feasts. Chickens 

 must have clean water, and they must have fresh water. We 

 do not mean that stale water would kill a chicken, but when 

 birds are wanted for the exhibition pen no pains must be spared 

 to produce them up to the mark. Water which stands from 

 morning to morning does them harm. Eain water which is 

 allowed to stand in the water-tub does them harm. Water 

 which can be found by the chickens in stagnant puddles, or 

 ■which drains from farmyards, does them harm. We like no 

 pans so well as the circles of rings ; they hold but little water, 

 are easily cleaned, and afford no fear of the tiniest baby chick 

 being drowned in them. We like when we can possibly afford 

 the time to fill these pans and wait till the chickens have satis- 

 fied themselves, and then empty the pans again. This entails 

 trouble, but we believe it would amply repay for it, and with- 

 out trouble no real and permanent success can possibly be ex- 

 pected. 



Some recommend meat very highly, and we believe many of 

 our breeders do use it, but we would never give it to the birds 

 as meat. We like to make a good soup of it and then mix- 

 np the soft food with it. We are sure this is a better way than 

 cooking the meat and giving it to the birds in pieces. Pot 

 liquor in which mutton or veal has been boiled when used to 

 mix-up the soft food makes the birds grow rapidly and thrive 

 well. 



Next as to the times of feeding. This must depend upon cir- 

 cumstances. For instance, the size and material of the runs, 

 the breed of the birds, and the quality of the ground where 

 there is plenty of space. We can lay down no definite list cf 

 hours, but can only emphatically say, the best rule is " little 

 and often." We have now two grass runs with only a hedge 

 between them, and yet in one of them a brood of chickens would 

 almost find their own living, while in the other they would 

 shortly starve. Some grasses and herbs seem especially suited 

 for insect life, which after all form the most natural and best 

 food for young chickens. — W. 



TOULOUSE GEESE. 



A South Wales correspondent has given in your Journal of 

 June Ist the number of eggs laid by a Toulouse Goose in his 

 possession daring the present season. The pure-bred Toulouse 

 is an excellent layer, principally owing to its being a non-sitter. 

 I have five Toulouse Gaese, which in 1874 produced 255 eggs ; 

 in 1875 the number laid by the same Geese was 2i5, and four of 

 these birds have np to the present time this year laid nearly 

 IGO eggs, and are still laying regularly. They were bred in 1873, 

 and are all prize-winners. As showing the difference between 

 the pure Toulouse and the thorough-bred Embden, I will men- 

 tion the fact that from three of the latter Geese I have only had 

 37 eggs daring the present season, and, further, the Toulouse 

 are stiU producing eggs, the Embdens having entirely ceased 

 laying. — Tobkshibe Bkeeder. 



POULTRY AND BEE NEWS AND QUERIES. 

 We hear that "open judging," which we wrote about a week 

 or two back, is to be tried at Ipswich on September 26th and 

 27th ; but as we see another Ipswich Show is advertised for 

 December, of which Mr. W. B. Jeffries is the Hon. Secretary, so 

 we conclude the latter is the old-established meeting. Much as 

 we should like to see opep judging given a fair trial, still we 

 would recommend committees to be very careful at first how 

 they offer points cups, for, as we stated when writing upon the 

 subject, we fear open judging and points cups going hand-in- 

 hand really might cause some ^.trouble and give occasion for 

 disputes. 



At the coming Oxford Show there will be a class with four 

 handsome prizes from £3 downwards for nndnbbed Game cock- 

 erels. The money is kindly guaranteed by Mr. Lewis Wright. 

 We mention the subject thus early that breeders may not dub 

 all their cockerels, but reserve some for this contest. 



We hear there is a wish among one or two White Game 

 breeders for classes for that variety. We should be sorry to see 

 the variety die out, and would recommend their writing to the 

 Secretaries of the Palace and Oxford Shows, guaranteeing so 

 many entries in case of loss, and we think every facility would 

 thus be afforded them. 



We hear that several exhibitors have determined not to ex- 

 hibit again at the Bath and West of England Society's Show of 

 poultry nnless some very different arrangements are made. We 

 should earnestly suggest that they should think seriously cf 



letting the birds come in on the Monday and be judged on the 

 Tuesday. The horticultural department was, we believe, so 

 managed this year. We are convinced it would turn the Show 

 into a great poultry meeting, for so many approve of the old 

 pair-of-hen system, which for many reasons we regret to see so 

 universally dying out. 



The season which seems to have been so very peculiar for 

 man, beast, and bird, has been extraordinary in the length of 

 time which eggs have taken in hatching. We know of a sitting 

 of Silky eggs in Surrey which were five days overdue, and then 

 every egg produced a chicken ; and we had a sitting of Cochin 

 eggs hatch in a hedge five days after the time, and we could 

 mention similar cases occurring aU over the country. — W. 



NEW BOOK. 



The Illustrated Boole of Pigeons. By Robert Fulton. Edited 



and Arranged by Lewis Wright, with Fifty Coloured Plates 



by J. W. Ludlow. Cassell, Petter, & Galpln. 



The last number of this work, which has been issued about 

 monthly for a little more than the past two years, has just 

 reached me. It will form a companion volume to Mr. Wright's 

 larger book on poultry. I am rejoiced to see that a work on fancy 

 Pigeons should stand side by tide, equal in every respect to one 

 on fancy fowls. A few years ago there were poultry shows in 

 abundance, but at which not a Pigeon appeared ; now, wherever 

 fowls are shown there also are Pigeons to be seen. 



It is interesting to note how the press always rises to an 

 occasion in this country. Thus, in 1848 I believe was the first 

 Birmingham poultry show, in 1850 about the first handsome and 

 large work on poultry was published, that by Messrs. Johnson 

 and Wingfield. So in regard to Pigeons, as they have come to 

 the front, notably at the Crystal Palace shows, works of mag- 

 nitude and excellence have been written about them, particularly 

 this volume by Messrs. Fulton and Wright. The advance in price 

 of Pigeon books is also interesting to note, as marking the ad- 

 vance of the fancy from the poorer to the richer classes. Thus, 

 in the "Gentleman's Magazine" of February, 1735, among 

 " the Register of Books " is the following advertisement of the 

 first book ever written on fancy Pigeons :— " Columbarium : or 

 the Pidgeon House, being an introduction to a Natural History 

 of Tame Pidgeons, by John Moore. Printed for J. Wilford. 

 Price one shilling." Now the fancy has so advanced that in this 

 year of grace 1876 comes out a work on the same subject price 

 a guinea and a half. Oh, fanciers ! raise your heads up high, 

 for no stale jokes about your meetings at " The Pig and Whistle " 

 will do now. You meet at a palace, and your literature is pro- 

 portionately elevated in character. 



Former works on Pigeons, particularly the earlier works, were 

 filled chiefly with descriptions of the different varieties, how 

 one sort might be known from another, and this rightly, for 

 people in general did not know the names of the birds. When, 

 however. Pigeon shows became the rage, as of late years, and 

 birds were kept not for amusement only but for competition for 

 prizes, another want arose — namely, how to breed exhibition 

 birds. Now, there was in England one man who knew enough 

 of all varieties to win in every class, and whose stock was the 

 largest and best perhaps in the world. That one man was 

 Robert Fulton — born a fancier, by taste a fancier, by trade a 

 dealer in high-class Pigeons, and an exhibitor with success of 

 every variety ; his mind was stored with valuable Pigeon-know- 

 ledge as to the breeding and management of birds fit for exhibit- 

 ing. More than that, no man can succeed as a fancier without 

 an ardent love for the birds themselves. Robert Fulton has this 

 love and this knowledge. Then there was a skilled writer at 

 hand, Mr. Lewis Wright, who could put Mr. Fulton's knowledge 

 into a form attractive to the general as well as to the special 

 reader, and this he has done. Another requisite there was for 

 the issue of a successful work — ihere must be accurate portraits 

 of prize birds, to be pictorial standards to fit the letterpress, 

 which must detail what prize birds should be. There happened 

 to be a fancier-artist, whose pencil I believe first showed itself 

 to advantage in the pages of this journal, Mr. Ludlow by name. 

 He has illustrated the book, and has combined in the pictures 

 point accuracy with artistic beauty, and the result has been a 

 work which stands above every other, and will be received by 

 fanciers as their authority, presenting as it does prize fancy 

 Pigeons of this present period to its reader. 



To give any analysis of the work would occupy too much 

 space ; however, I will say this much, the literary history of 

 Pigeons is spoken of, quotations from many English writers are 

 given, many of which had never been noticed before. Then 

 follows capital advice about building Pigeon lofts of various 

 sizes, illustrated by diagrams. Then each variety is taken in 

 its turn, beginning with the high-class varieties on to Toys, and 

 last, but not least certainly. Runts. If I must decide upon par- 

 ticular merits of any particular part, I would say the accounts 

 of the Pouter and the Jacobin— Mr. Fulton's own especial 

 favourites— are the best of all. Some may think that placing 



