112 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( Jannary 29, 1874. 



prizes, and following in the wake of Cambridge, special prizes 

 in the majority of the classes -will be given to be competed for 

 by local exhibitors only. Numerous suggestions previous to 

 the late Show having arrived too late for consideration. The 

 Committee invite the support and opinion of fanciers \\hoae 

 breeds are not already represented in the schedule. 



COMING BABBIT SHOWS. 

 -The Fakenham and West Norfolk fourth annual Exhibition, 

 to be held on February the 3rd and 4th, is the next Show of any 

 importance to Kabbit fanciers. It has two classes divided in 

 the usual manner— viz., one for Lops, the other for Any foreign 

 variety, with moderate prizes (including one for the county 

 only), and a silver cup value £2 2s. The entries are already 

 closed. Nantwich follows on February 6th, but is of little or 

 no importance. 



Hanley Grand Show will be held on February 10th and 

 following two days. This gives four classes and two prizes to 

 each, besides extra prizes of pottery, &c. The entries, which 

 close on the 31st inst., will, I hope, be numerous, thus encouraging 

 Eanley to give more classes next year. 



The first Kettering Exhibition is announced to take place on 

 the 17th and 18th of next month. Although Rabbits are rather 

 scantily provided for, I wish it success with hopes that it will 

 increase in classes as it progresses. The classes are three in 

 number, with three prizes to each of them, and include a 

 Belling class, which I hope will be well iiUed. Entries close on 

 the 2nd. 



Walsall has three classes, one for length of ears, another for 

 all properties, and the other is a selling class (price not to exceed 

 k.1 in the last). There are good prizes to each class, and a 

 three-guinea cup for competition between them. The Show is 

 to be held in the Agricultural Hall of Walsall, on February 

 20th, 21st, and 23rd. The entries are priced low, and close on 

 the 0th. Mr. Henry Tardley, of Birmingham, is the appointed 

 Judge, whose awards gave great satisfaction last year. 



King's Lynn will give a grand Exhibition on the 26th and 27th 

 of next month. This Show has no less than seven classes for 

 Babbits, not very well divided, but, nevertheless, with good 

 prizes to them. I hope that this first meeting will be well sup- 

 ported with plenty of entries, since if this is the case, the 

 Committee will no doubt give more classes and prizes at its 

 future exhibitions. Altogether King's Lynn has, I think, made 

 a good start in the right direction. I must not omit to note that 

 all entries close on the 12th. February is rich in exhibitions for 

 Eabbits, and will doubtless be welcomed by fanciers ; not less 

 so, however, is March, but of these I will treat in my next on 

 the subject. — A E.iebit Fan'Oieb. 



BELFAST CANABT SHOW. 

 This was held in connection with the Poultry and Pigeon 

 Show, of which the award of prizes was given at page 68. I would 

 preface my notes thereon by calling the attention of English 

 fanciers to two things : That the Show merited their hearty 

 support, and that they didn't give it; in the doing or non-doing of 

 which, I think they made a great mistake, which, I feel satisfied, 

 only requires to be pointed out to ensure its non-recurrence. 

 The somewhat contracted nature of the schedule might possibly, 

 to a great extent, account for this, though there was ample room 

 to make up a fair entry in those varieties which are cultivated 

 on this side of the water. There might also be some hesitation 

 in sending birds across the sea; but on that score let me assure 

 exhibitors there is no ground for apprehension. Birds dispatched 

 from almost ajiy part of England by either of the usual routes 

 on the evening of one day land in Ireland next morning, and the 

 quietest and warmest part of the journey is in the saloon of the 

 steamer. The question of transit should really be no bar to the 

 success of a show in the sister isle. 



Just a word in the ear of exhibitors and Canary fanciers gene- 

 rally. You all know as well as I how desirable it is that Canary 

 shows should be in the best possible hands, and what an excel- 

 lent thing it would be if they were more frequently held in 

 connection with first-class poultry shows, with the liberal scale 

 of prizes and other incentives to emulation which the funds of 

 wealthy societies are in a position to offer. There can be no 

 doubt that a display of cage and song birds is a great adjunct to 

 any show ; for though among the crowds of visitors who throng 

 the avenues of poultry and Pigeon exhibitions there is, as in 

 all similar gatherings, a large proportion who look on with the 

 critical eye of a fancier, there is a much larger proportion who 

 visit shows simply as sight-seers ; and the more attractive the 

 spectacle can be made, independently of its intrinsic excellence, 

 the greater will be the concourse of visitors, which means influx 

 of revenue and consequent financial success. 



Surely there is as much to attract and interest the ordinary 

 sight-seer in a display of birds as in pens of Geese, Ducks, or 

 Turkeys, which, mustering in comparatively small numbers, and 

 presenting by no means an imposing spectacle when viewed from 



other than a critic's standpoint, yet absorb a considerable portion 

 of the prize funds. And the music, too, will bear comparison. 

 A recitative from a Goose with chorus from surrounding pens is 

 more noisy than melodious, and not more attractive than the 

 delicious melody which greets the ear when some hundreds of 

 songsters are chanting their lays in notes which give a life and 

 cheerfulness known only to the bird show. I know very well 

 that poultry takes the lead in every way, and do not begrudge 

 it the enviable position it has attained ; but I don't feel disposed 

 to be " sat upon " by cats ! If pussy has now become an object 

 of attraction— and they are trying to breed cats up to standard 

 markings, to produce tortoiseshcll Toms and yeUow-striped 

 Queens— surely there is hope for us ! The breeding and exhibi- 

 tion of high-class poultry and Pigeons is the luxury of the 

 wealthy, while our quieter but deeply-interesting hobby is 

 essentially the child of the working-man, the companion of the 

 unobtrusive thinker, who loves to be absorbed in such a pursuit 

 rather than in the many objectionable pastimes which beset the 

 path of the artisan, glad to find some relief for the mind after 

 the drudgery of his daily toil. StiU, each in its way is but a 

 hobby, widely differing in character and treading a different 

 walk ; and I think all true fanciers and admirers of the best of 

 evrything of its kind should recognise the breadth of idea and 

 liberality of those who, in organising an exhibition of their own 

 particular speciality, do not confine it selfishly to that which 

 they alone admire, but open their purse-strings to make the 

 exhibition more comprehensive, and embrace every variety of 

 domestic bird, from the lowly tenants of the poultry-run and 

 the wonders of the Pigeon-loft, down to the equally wonderful 

 varieties of modern Canaries, and the more modest but not less 

 interesting songsters of our woodlands, or the less melodious 

 but more gorgeously-attired denizens of far-off lands. I see no 

 reason why, duriug a great portion of the year, poultry shows 

 and bird shows should not go hand in hand, and am well assured 

 each would be mutually benefited. 



"The best route is to Stranraer, and then by steamer to 

 Larne— about three hours' passage, and in daylight. Tours 

 truly W G Mulligan." Yours truly W. G. Mulhgan had said, 

 in a previous note, something about Fleetwood and Barrow ; but 

 a reference to the map showed it was a roundabout way, ending 

 in a long dotted line, indicating the track of the Belfast steamers. 

 The dotted line was far too long for me. It looks very weU on 

 the map ; but half a day at sea when the Fitzroy drums are 



hoisted is not so well, try it. Commend me to the Stranraer 



route with only three hours' sea passage, and m daylight, io 

 arrive in time for the steamer necessitates an early start ; but 

 the view at daybreak amply repays for any inconvenience of 

 that sort Daylight saw us at Castle Douglas, and thence to 

 Stranraer the line runs through the wildest country. One 

 sometimes sees bits of warm colouring m hiU scenes specially 

 in chromos, and we wonder whether such things are ; but no art 

 could depict the wild beauty of this corner of Scotland ; and 

 were it coloured true to nature, few would beheve m the 

 nicture To one living in a district where the winter landscape 

 • of the chessboard pattern, with large black and green squares 



interspersed here and there with homesteads, pretty enough in 

 its way it was something new to travel for many a mile through 

 the gi-and old hills, many of whose lofty ridges were sprinkled 

 with snow, while on their rugged sides and in the valleys the 

 rich hues of autumn still lingered in warm glowing tints, unlike 

 anything but themselves. No trace of any habitation was visible 

 for mUes, except occasionaUy a rude peat-thatched hut, and no 

 signs of life other than a few sheep, with snowy fleeces, or a small 

 drove of rough, wild-looking, shaggy oxen, with now and then a 

 few Grouse, which, disturbed by the passage of the iron horse, 

 took wing lazily, and settled down again quietly when the rush 

 was over One or two stops (at one of which a Cochin, which I 

 saw fall off a barrow at CarUsle, then turned upside down, and 

 finally almost pitched into the van, broke the silence with that 

 peculiar crow and a cadenza in A minor, m which hia heart 

 delights), and we pulled up at the rude open platform on 

 Stranraer pier, where the "Princess Louise was waiting to 

 eive us a taste of " about three hours' passage, and in (Jayligbt; 

 Yours truly W. G. Mulligan, who sat at home at ease, how little 

 did you think upon the dangers of the seas when you lured four 

 unsuspecting victims on board that steamer! For besides 

 myself and Mr. Baxter, it transpired tliat my colleagues, Mr. 

 Jones and Mr. Leno, were on board, and had traveUed with us 

 and the melancholy Cochin from Carlisle. 



The little town of Stranraer is charmingly situated at the 

 south end of Loch Ryan, which, a fellow voyageur assured me 

 in a Scotch accent, was the prettiest salt-water lake in Great 

 Britain. If there be prettier, pretty indeed must they be. Horse- 

 shoe-shaped and enclosed by hills, it presents a noble sheet of 

 water up which we steamed for some thirty or forty minutes at 

 fourteen knots in smooth water, during which few minutes of 

 peace most of the saloon passengers mdulged in breakfast. I 

 didn't. I couldn't quite make up my mind whether it would 

 prove a freight to be carried comfortably in a heavy sea. bome 

 cargoes are apt to shift. So I stowed myself quietly away, and 



