22 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ Januai7 1, 1874. 



are accounted worthless, and their aspirations as Pouter fanciers 

 are nipped in the bud. We all linow the feeling when first told 

 of our success as prizetakere, and the pleasiu'e we have at seeing 

 our birds marked at the shows. Even a "commended" or 

 *' highly commended " is better than nothing, and if con- 

 scientiously so labelled, it must be esteemed a great step by a 

 young or poor fancier, particularly at a large show. Many of us 

 have had to fight our way up from a few birds of "Any other 

 colour or markings," and why discourage others feeling their 

 way in the same path ? But, second, the committees who ex- 

 clude this class surely do not know that they are striking at 

 the root of some of our finest breeds. Those who can purchase 

 a stock of standard birds must not think that they can per- 

 petuate all the points ; the strain will gradually dwindle down 

 and die out. We must every now and then have something to 

 put size into our strains, to give length of feather and length of 

 tmb, and that style which is imperative, besides keeping up the 

 purity of colour. It is from the discarded class that all this is 

 to be had. What better bird can be had than a Sandy for giving 

 the Black-pied style and colour ? Or a Mealy for killing the 

 chequer marks on the Blue Pied, and in place giving that soft 

 solid hue so much wanted ? Or a Splash for adding size and 

 length of limb to the Blue and to the White ? Were it not for 

 the Splash (any colour) our Whites would go out altogether, or, 

 at all events, become small delicate birds not worth the keeping. 

 It is all very well for those who keep Pouters for exhibition 

 to look with a cold eye upon this cla.-^s, but we breeders have 

 worked upon it before the first show was thought of, and had we 

 not done so there would not have been the birds which are now 

 being exhibited. I have heard some fanciers say they would 

 kiU every bird that was not up to standard marking, and if 

 this were put into practice generally, there would, by-aud-by, 

 be no Pouters either to kill or show. We cannot do without 

 this class, and it ought to be encouraged at all shows. Besides, 

 in it there are often found some of the handsomest Pouters in 

 the show, and we must recollect that it is neither colour nor 

 marking, but shape, that constitutes the Pouter Pigeon. This 

 class also often adds considerably to the amount of entry money, 

 and I consider that committees who exclude it from their shows 

 are not only damaging the Pouter fancy, but quaxrelling with 

 their bread and butter. — Jas. Huie. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Third and Revised 

 OfSce, and Messrs. 



The Bralnna Fowl. By Lewis Wbight, 



Edition. " Journal of Horticulture " 

 Cassell. 



OccAsioNiLLY — Very occasionally — one meets with people, 

 usually the wrong side of seventy, who speak of anyone who 

 goes to a poultry show as " gone to look at cocks and hens," or 

 who connect Pigeons with "Blue Eocks 10s. a-dozen, gents;" 

 these latter not the least the wrong side of seventy, but sporting 

 striplings of, with them, the silly side of twenty. But putting 

 aside such, there were many who, untU our Crystal Palace shows 

 and our handsome volumes on poultry and Pigeons, had no idea 

 whatever of the striking beauty which was to be seen among 

 these birds. The Crystal Palace Shows I regard as the educators 

 of the English eye on poultry subjects. Other shows are held 

 in places often out of the way and not architecturally pleasing, 

 and consequently the world in general is absent ; but one Crystal 

 Palace Show is of more value in spreading further and further 

 the love and culture of poultry and Pigeons than all the other 

 shows of England put together. Everyone sees it advertised 

 and thousands visit it ; and I hope its promoters wiU give six 

 prizes, or even eight prizes where they now give four, and make 

 it the Derby of the poultry world, and its first prizes immeasur- 

 ably beyond in esteem any other first prizes whatsoever. 



I consider, then, the great Crystal Palace Show as the eye- 

 educator of Englishmen in matters of poultry ; and as a larger 

 number of well-off people live near London than in any other 

 neighbom-hood, so we shall have a larger number of poultry, and 

 especially Pigeon fanciers and exhibitors, resident within twenty 

 miles of the metropolis. 



But among the mind-educatora of English people on poultry 

 subjects stands first and foremost Mr. Lewis Wright. His style 

 is pleasing. He begins a chapter in a way to catch the general 

 reader and make him read on. A mere dry detailer of poultry 

 points would and could never do this. It is not my province 

 now to speak of Mr. Wright's greatest work ; of that another 

 time, when its last number has reached me. I speak this week 

 of his second pubUshed work, and of that work's third edition. 

 " The Brahma Eowl " saw the light in 1870 ; in eighteen months 

 a second edition was called for, and now is issued a third. This 

 is a sign of the times. Here is a volume which touches the 

 pocket to the amount of five shillings, and treats of only one 

 variety of poultry, yet which has had so rapid a sale. The sale 

 has also, I beheve, not been limited to England, but in America 

 the work has been largely bought and read. I have spoken of 

 the career of this work as a sign of the times : it is so in more 

 respects than one. Fifty years ago no one would have been so 



unwise as to publish a five-shilling work on any one variety of 

 fowls, and if they had it would have never reached a third 

 edition within its third year. If there had been such a one it 

 would have been on fighting cocks, but not one on a gentle, 

 home-loving, domestic bird like the Brahma. The times are 

 changed, and the age of patronised cruelty is at any rate gone. 



This third edition of " The Brahma Fowl " is like the first 

 edition, and yet diilereut. It is the same in size, shape, and has 

 exactly the same nximber of pages and the same number of 

 coloured pictures ; but the pages are not the same, nor the pic- 

 tures. The pictures in the first edition were good, but in this 

 third they are better. Markedly so is the portrait of the Dark 

 Brahma cock and the Dark Brahma hen ; the latter is especially 

 a lovely bird. There is a pleasant fact connected with " The 

 Brahma Fowl," that it led to its author wi'iting his great 

 " Book of Poultry." Thus Mr. Wright tried his wings with the 

 " Practical Poultry-keeper," strengthened them with " The 

 Brahma Fowl," and soared away into full public favour with 

 " The Illustrated Book of Poultry." 



The Brahma is Mr. Wright's especial fowl ; and although as 

 yet, owing to limited accommodation for his pets, he has not 

 been a large or general exhibitor, yet a large proportion of the 

 winning chickens of the last two or three seasons have been bred 

 on one side or the other from his strain, and a hen hatched from 

 eggs supplied by him realised the largest sum of money given 

 for any single hen of any breed during the last twenty years — 

 viz., i'2U. 



" The Brahma Fowl " treats fully on the subject indicated by 

 its title, beginning with the origin of the Brahma, then speaks 

 of its qualities and management, contrasts the Dark and Light 

 varieties, and goes on to speak of breeding, rearing, and managing 

 Brahmas, finishing with a chapter on judging them. 



I always tell anyone desirous of taking to poultry. Adopt on© 

 variety — that which you fancy, and which those who understand 

 the matter think your home is adapted for ; and then read-up 

 the subject and get your variety ; and above all things, if you 

 wish to succeed, stick to it. If Brahmas be your fancy — and if 

 they are there will be smiles for you from your wife and children, 

 or you will have eggs for breakfast when perhaps your neigh- 

 bours have none ; and the kitchen denizen or denizens, the maid 

 of all work or the grand cook, will willingly save-up scraps and 

 learn to help you, as they find what a kitchen friend for eggs 

 and chickens is the Brahma. Let such a man or woman (ladies 

 are excellent fanciers, indeed among the very best), with a 

 Brahma turn get this work, read it hard, master its contents, 

 and within the first season he or she will save its cost over and 

 over again. — Wiltshike Rector. 



Pheasants for Coverts and Aviaries. By W. B. Tegetmeier. 

 H. Cos, London. 

 The eleven engravings are beautiful, including the species 

 of Pheasant for use and ornament, kuown in this country ; the 

 paper is equal to drawing paper, and the binding handsome. 

 The literary part is useful, but chiefly a compilation. 



HIGH-COLOURED CANAEIES. 



■We were very much surprised to see in your Journal that the 

 receipt for breeding high-coloured Canaries belonged to Bemrose 

 and Orme. We wish you to understand that we (Wright and 

 Shaw, of Sutton-in-Ashfield), sold this receipt to Orme last year 

 (1872), with an understanding that he was not to divulge it to 

 anyone. We are very sorry to learn that he has deceived us. 

 This year the birds exhibited by Bemrose & Orme principally 

 have been bred and moulted by us. — Weight & Shaw. 



[We forwarded a copy of the chief contents of this note to 

 Messrs. Bemrose & Orme, to which Mr. Bemrose replies as 

 follows : — 



" I beg to say Mr. Orme did purchase from Messrs. Wright 

 the method of feeding that we adopted to obtain high colour, 

 which I had known for years but I had never given the food in 

 sufficient quantity. Mr. Orme, contrary to my wishes and 

 unknown to me, told the method of feeding to a man named 

 Bennett. I was not aware of this until some time after, but it 

 eventually came to my knowledge that Bennett aud Barnesby 

 (to whom Bennett had told it) were writing to fanciers offering 

 to sell the method adopted by us — in fact had sold it to several, 

 amongst the number to Holmes, of Nottingham, who gave 

 Barnesby .i'2 for it. Upon finding this out I at once wrote to 

 you, deeming it the most straightforward course to pursue. I 

 can only say I deeply regret Orme's conduct, and my having 

 had any connection with the case. 



" With regard to the latter part of Messrs. Wright's letter, 

 stating 'that the birds exhibited by us were principally bred and 

 moulted by them,' it is simply untrue. At the commencement 

 of the season they had three variegated birds, which I thought 

 would turn out well, but they have not done so. In order to obtain, 

 these we had to buy several others quite useless as show birds, 

 having sold three of them myself as song birds for 5s. I am 

 quite willing to admit all that is true, but must protest against 



