LIFE OF TEGETMEIER 



For many years he was my regular companion 

 at the Bishop's Stortford Flower Show, where a 

 " toss " of Homers was a feature of the gathering. 

 It was a great day for Tegetmeier when our late 

 King, at my request, graciously allowed a number 

 of the Sandringham birds to be brought to the 

 Flower Show and thence " tossed." 



His impatience of shams and impostures went 

 far, I think, to gain for him the name of " Teggy 

 the Fighter," by which he was known to his 

 intimates. Nothing roused his ordinarily placid 

 temper like endeavour to misrepresent or deceive. 

 This trait came out very clearly in his attitude 

 towards so-called poultry farming. He may at 

 one time have thought it possible to make the 

 rearing of poultry, as an independent industry, 

 pay ; he never condemned enterprise or experi- 

 ment without full and impartial investigation ; but 

 after long and patient examination he collected 

 an amount of evidence disproving the possibility 

 of making fowls pay on land solely devoted to 

 them ; and thenceforward he was merciless to 

 those who might try to mislead the public into 

 putting money into such enterprises. It is due 

 very largely to his remorseless exposures that 

 we hear little nowadays 01 the poultry-farm 

 myth. 



Tegetmeier's services to the poultry interest 

 would be impossible to over-estimate ; and they 

 serve, perhaps more than any other branch of 



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