280 



JOUIiNAL OF HOETICULTUEJE AND COTTAGE GARDBKEK. [ March u, 1865. 



might be communicated by a knavish exhibitor to giv6 a 

 cue to a knavish judge. But surely the parties in collusion, 

 it such things be. would be mufl's also not to evade any such 

 precaution. It is not necessary to know the number, for a 

 man m.iy know the birds. Is not broad daylight the best 

 preventive to cheating — viz., publicity and free discussion 

 among the poultry -loving public ? and does not the reliance 

 on secrecy lead to a kind of countermining — a trial of skill 

 between the pai-ty that insists on keeping a secret and 

 the one that is so much the more eager to find it out ? — 

 T. T. 



EXTEA PEIZES FOE BUFF COCHIN-CHINAS. 



(ClECULAR.) 



The additional prizes of silver cups to Buff Cochins at 

 the late Bii-mingham Shows having proved of such import- 

 ance to the breeders of this variety of bii-ds as to make it 

 most essential that these extra prizes should be continued, 

 in fact extended, I have consulted some of the most influen 

 tial breeders upon this subject, all of whom have promised 

 to subscribe £2 each; and I may add that in consulting 

 Captain Heaton he most liberally promised that if .£20 could 

 be collected he would give ^£5 himself to make the amount 

 .£25, to be divided as follows :— viz., £5 silver cup to each 

 old and young birds, .£5 cup for the best single cock, ^£5 cup 

 for the best pair of hens, and a .£5 cup for the best pair of 

 pullets._ Thus divided, all breeders would have a good chance 

 of obtaining a most desirable honour ; and to enable this to 

 be done the amount must be subscribed before the Birming- 

 ham prize-list is published, so that the extra prizes may 

 appear in the same, and gain publicity in the catalogue at 

 the time of the Show — a matter so important, and which 

 could not be done last year in consequence of the amount 

 not being subscribed until after the prize-lists were pub- 

 lished. It is proposed that these prizes shall be given for 

 general competition, and you being a breeder and exhibitor 

 of Buff Cochins win, I am sure, estimate the importance of 

 these extra prizes, and forward your subscription at once, 

 that the necessary amount may I)e made good. Mr. LythaU, 

 the Secretary of the Show, has kindly offered to receive all 

 subscriptions and provide cups, which will be presented to 

 the successful exhibitor on the first day of the Show. 



Tour prompt attention wiU oblige yours, most respectfully, 

 Henet Tomlinson, Balsall Heath Road, Birmingham. 



[It will be evident to our readers, from the circular issued 

 by Mr. Tomlinson, that those amateurs who feel an interest 

 in breeding Cochins are busQy exerting themselves to offer 

 some additional valuable prizes to be competed for in con- 

 junction with those appointed by the Birmingham Com- 

 mittee at the Show to be held in Bingley Hall next 

 December. 



When it is borne in mind these " five extra silver cups for 

 Cochins " are to be .allotted to a variety of domestic poultry, 

 perhaps the most popular and useful of any, wo cannot 

 doubt but that the amount required will be readily obtained, 

 particularly as we understand more than half the money 

 requisite is even already in hand. It will, however, be 

 necessary for subscribers to give notice of their intention to 

 become aiders of this movement as speedily as possible, for 

 by 80 doing it will allow of a list of the additional iiremivims 

 appearing in the forthcoming Birmingham prize schedule to 

 be issued in about a month hence ; and it will also make it 

 certain that the names of those parties wlio may eventually 

 prove anccesaful will be printed in the Birmingham cata- 

 logue.] 



SCHEDTTLES OF POULTRY SHOWS. 

 Surely your correspondent " Y. B. A. Z." wrote the post- 

 script to liis article without reflection. If I received a cata- 

 logue or list of prizes of the Bradford Show, which contained 

 no prizes for Brahmas, and the Committee afterwards re- 

 solved to make a class for those birds and to offer prizes for 

 them, ought not the Secretary at once to liave forwarded 

 me an amended catalogue ? The catalogue was sent to me 

 without any application from me ; and, as such, the Secretary 

 of a poultry show keeps, or ought to keep, the names of those 

 to whom prize lists have been forwarded, and he ought to 

 have sent an amended one to oU who had received the first. 



At all events, some Brahma breeders had amended catalogues 

 sent them, otherwise there would have been no exhibition of 

 that class, and no prizes awarded. The effect of sending 

 them only to a few instead of to all certainly limited the 

 competition and leaves it open to remark. Poultry Com- 

 mittees and Secretaries should be Uke Cassar's wife, not 

 only without-fault, but above suspicion. — J. AVbioht, Church 

 Street, Woodhridge, Suffollc. 



POULTEY-EEEPING FROM A COMMERCIAL 

 POINT OF YIEW. 



" Nemo," the defender of " C. S. J.," has my best thanks 

 for his kindly lecture as to what is required to establish the 

 success of anything now-a-days. I do not find fault mth his 

 opinion as regards the jirofits poiiltry breeding w'Ul yield, 

 and in the absence of any actual statistics of my system on 

 a large scale, I can only reiterate what I stated in my reply 

 to '•" C. S. J." There are, however, a few assertions with 

 wliich I beg to differ, even with " Nemo." 



1st. Were it not for sanguine minds few improvements 

 would ever be can-ied out, and were even the minimum 

 profits given there would still be found many jjersons who 

 would with just as good reasoning reduce it below zero. 



2nd. The artificial hatching can be entirely dispensed 

 with in my system, as for every 1000 hens, I can rear at 

 least 10,000 chickens, and under any circumstances it will 

 only be resorted to to hatch chickens when hens have ceased 

 to be brood^'. As to whether my system of artificial hatch- 

 ing is superior to that of Cantelo or any other, I may state 

 that I do not claim any originality, but rest the success only 

 on the well-known law of a uniform temperature at which 

 there is not the slightest difficulty to hatch chickens, and 

 this uniform heat can be maintained either by manual or 

 mechanical means, which are well known to engineers, and 

 which will be described in some subsequent Number of this 

 Journal, under the laws of nature in relation to poultry- 

 keeping. The failure of Cantelo, and others, cannot be 

 asci-ibed to the hatching, but solely to the rearing of the 

 chickens. Now, this is my system, and on it I rest the 

 success of poultry-breeding, and though I do not intend to 

 rely on artificial hatching, yet I shall entirely depend on 

 artificially rearing all the chickens, whether hatched by a 

 h ■>' or by an apparatus. 



3rd. My system of breeding poultry and its profits can no 

 more be judged by the present mode than railway travel- 

 ling when first projected could from the old stage coaches. 

 For its success it will require a staff of servants, and a sub- 

 division of labour, then a good disciplinarian as superin- 

 tendent, and the whole will form a piece of mechanism which 

 will work with the greatest precision, and afford such sta- 

 tistics as will surprise sceptics. To carry this out is a mei'e 

 matter of money and will, whether by a private individual, 

 or a public company; but tho idea of an association of work- 

 ing partners to attend to fowls, is simply ridiculous, and 

 I doubt whether, if they could be found, they would long 

 remain a united family. 



4th. If " Nemo " will take the trouble to read the article 

 on natural hatching, No. 198, he will find that I advocate 

 natural hatching and artificial roai'iug. Has it ever occurred 

 to him in estimating the annual profit of a hen, to cliargo to 

 her credit the liatcliing of one or two broods, which sm'ely 

 is more valuable than tho number of eggs she could lay in 

 twenty-one days? — Geo. K. Geyelin, C.E. 



The Ieish Eao Trade. — At the annual soirde of the butter 

 and egg merchants of Glasgow, Mr. Patrick Mcchan, who 

 occupied tho chair, mentioned the following particidai's re- 

 garding tho import of eggs from Ireland into Glasgow. 



" That tho butter and egg trade is becoming of consider- 

 able importance there can be no question. I will only refer 

 to one item in it. Both Den'y companies have run six 

 steamers weeltly, carrying each an average of 100 boxes of 

 eggs ; and I think we may safely allow 100 boxes from Cork, 

 Dublin, and Belfast — in all, 700 boxes per week, or 36,400 

 per year. The average price par box is £H, so that the 

 .'innual value of tho eggs imported into this city alono is 

 Uttlo short of i;300,000." 



