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FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S73, by Joseph M. 

 Wade, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



JFanciers' Journal and ItJoultry (J^xchancje, 



JOSEPH M. WADE, Editor and Proprietor. 



Published Weekly at 39 North Ninth Street, Philadelphia. 



SUBSCRIPTION. 



Per Annum, $2 50 



Six Copies, one year, 12 00 



Specimen Copies, by mail, 10 



ADVERTISEMENTS 



From reliable parties, on any subjects interesting to Fanciers, will be 

 inserted at 10 cents per line, set solid ; if displayed, 15 cents per line of 

 space will be ebarged ; about 12 words make a line, and 12 lines make an 

 inch of space. 



1 inch of space, set solid SI 20, displayed 81 80* 



1 column, about 108 lines, set solid 1080, " ' 16 20 



1 page, 216 lines, solid 21 '60, " 32 40 



Advertisements from unknown parties must be paid for in advance. 



Sherman & Co., Printers, Philadelphia. 



HOBBIES AND REST. 



Every hard-working man should have a hohby. This is 

 sound doctrine. Especially should the professional man and 

 the active business man remember this. He whose mind is 

 occupied during the day with severe labor will find it impos- 

 sible at evening to abandon his work. The responsibilities 

 of the day will weigh on him at night ; he cannot rid him- 

 self of them. Social enjoyment, conversation, ordinary 

 amusement and recreation will serve but a temporary pur- 

 pose, and cannot be relied on to divert the mind from anx- 

 iety and care. Try the experiment. Take to collecting en- 

 gravings or coins or shells or anything else, so it be a subject 

 to interest you, and make a hobby of it. It will absorb the 

 mind, enable it to throw off all business thought, afford sen- 

 sible relief and refreshment, and be a great insurance against 

 those diseases of the brain which close the labor and useful- 

 ness of so many strong intellects. 



The summer vacation, which is about the only recreation 

 an American professional or business man allows himself, is 

 apt to be wasted entirely by the want of mental refreshment 

 which cannot be found in the ordinary resorts of summer 

 pleasure seekers. The vacation does little good to him who 

 carries his business on his brain ; and it too frequently hap- 

 pens that men go to places where they have no resort for 

 amusement except to the newspapers and the business talk 

 of other weary men like themselves. It is not every man 

 who should go a-fa'shing, but there are many who would find 

 this their true rest and recreation of body and mind. 



(For Fanciers Journal.) 



THE DUST-BATH FOR FOWLS. 



It has been noticed by many breeders that a great many 

 Asiatic fowls raised and kept in a city have white legs, and 

 particularly the light Brahmas of this city. It is often re- 

 marked by the owners of these fowls that if they had a grass 

 run for awhile they would come all right, but could not give 



a reason for their legs being white. It is a well-known fact 

 that nearly all fowls kept in large cities have no grass runs, 

 and the yards in which they are kept are usually on a strata 

 of ashes, and as their dust-bath is composed of ashes also, 

 a great portion of which is from wood, the alkali I am satis- 

 fied is what causes the mischief; and, having no grass run, 

 the natural color of the legs does not return, and so many 

 an otherwise good fowl has been condemned for this, which 

 is no fault at all. City fanciers, cover your yards with sandy 

 loam or road dust. Make your dust-bath of the same mate- 

 rial, into which a little carbolate of lime may be put, and 

 my word for it, you will have no more white-legged Asiatic 

 fowls. This is no theory, but has been proved by actual test. 



(For Fanciers' Journal.) 



THE NEW DEPARTURE. 



Me. Editor : I am glad to know that the Buffalo Show, 

 which is now the largest and most prosperous in this coun- 

 try, adopts what you call the " New Departure," in offering 

 society premiums for single specimens instead of trios. A 

 few years ago I wrote several articles for one of our poul- 

 try journals advocating this departure from our usual mode 

 at least so far as giving premiums for pairs in preference to 

 trios is concerned. I am glad to know that the Western 

 New York Society takes the lead in this matter, and sets up 

 the true standard for the country. 



When you or I come to purchase a fowl, as when we come 

 to purchase a blooded cow or a blooded horse, we examine 

 into the individual merits of the specimen. It has always 

 been a mystery to me why fowls, particularly chickens, 

 should be exhibited and be made to compete for premiums 

 in trios, while every species of animal, cows, horses, sheep, 

 dogs, and all, were made to compete by single specimens. 



The Connecticut society has for several years been exhib- 

 iting in pairs, and I have wondered why their plan has not 

 been followed by other Societies ; in fact, all the Societies 

 have, in a great measure, acknowledged the truth of this 

 principle, by securing and offering special premiums for 

 single specimens. 



The result will certainly be to bring out the best indi- 

 vidual specimens. There is many a one who may have an 

 excellent specimen, or a number of them, and yet they may 

 not match as perfectly as some one's trio of much less beauty 

 or perfection, and yet, by the old method, the inferior birds 

 would carry off the prize, and the best bird be made to accept 

 the second, or possibly a lower premium. Single specimens 

 of excellence now have a chance, and let us hope that ad- 

 vantage will be taken of this new departure, and the best 

 fowls in the country be brought forward at Buffalo, and 

 doubtless the remaining Societies in general will not be slow 

 to adopt the same plan if it prove good in practice. 



Another suggestion in this connection and I have done. 

 Now that this plan bids fair to be adopted, would it not be 

 well always to have the number of points adjudged the first 

 premium bird published in the report of the exhibition ? It 

 seems to me, as I have argued before, that this would have 

 a tendency to encourage many to exhibit who now keep their 

 fowls at home, believing that they will have no chance to 

 win. When it is generally known that even a first premium 

 bird may not carry more than eighty-five or ninety points, 

 the tendency will be to call out birds of excellence which 

 have never been before the public. A. N. B. 



Lock Haven, Pa. 



