March 2S, lS6o. ; 



JOUEXAL OF HOETICTJLTTJEE AND COTTAGE GAEDEXEE. 



259 



that a large number of fowls cannot be kept in one spot 

 without serious detriment to their health and profitable 

 employment; that the profits arising from them do not 

 increase in proportion to the number kept ; and that no 

 appliance, however ingenious and seemingly well,'adapted to 

 the purpose, am possibly compensate for the loss of the 

 natural pai-ent. The instincts of the chicken during the most 

 critical period of its existence ai-e feeble, it requires not only 

 the sheltering warmth of the mother's wings, but the 

 mother's -watchfid care, her afi'ectionate warning, advice, and 

 instruction. Xo artificial contrivance can provide these. 

 We may hatch eggs, but we cannot sucessfully rear chickens 

 by machinery. 



These remarks are dictated by no spirit of hostility to the 

 proposer of the Poultry Company. I do not know Mr. 

 Geyelin. His rery important suggestions and clever 

 arrangements will meet with the confidence of the public in 

 proportion to their standing the test of friendly criticism. 

 This will prove the most profitable advertisement of his 

 scheme if deserving the serious attention of the public. — 

 T.W. 



SCHEDFLES OF POULTRY SHOTVS. 



3Ib. J. "U'eight is in error as to my having written the 

 postscript without reflection. It is very easy for us exhi- 

 bitors to say such and such are the " duties "' of poultry- 

 show committees — a difficult matter to make them see that 

 these are duties. He says he received a catalogue without 

 any application being made by him, and he says he ought 

 to have received an amended copy. I think he was expect- 

 ing too much. The alteration concerned Brahma breeders 

 only, and I fancy was made on account of remonstrances 

 from breeders of that variety. 1 1 is much too h.ard to expect 

 that Secretaries are cognizant of the varieties which each 

 amateur keeps ; and on second reflection I continue of the 

 same opinion as when I penned the said postscript. I think 

 it would have been wiser, and I dare say more profitable, if 

 ilr. J. TTright had acted as I suggested, and he would have 

 done good to the Brahma cause. I am always willing to 

 meet secretaries half way, and to help them if I can, for " to 

 err is mortal." 



In reply to Mr. Irvine, Secretary to the Halifax and Colder 

 Vale Agricultural Association, I plead guUty. I recollect 

 that their schedules have been for " cock and one hen ;" 

 but I was treating the subject as regarded first-class shows. 

 Bradford certainly was this, as it oifered handsome prizes 

 and sUrer cups — to the best of my recollection double the 

 amounts offered by the Halifax and Calder Vale, and in the 

 latter case the silver cups were more spaiingly held out. 

 Still I plead guilty to forgetting- the fact, and I am very 

 glad to add it as strengthening my position, and I trust 

 both Bradford and Halifax and Calder Vale will in this 

 respect find many imitators. — ^Y. B. A. Z. 



pointment of judges in the hands of dealers whose interest 

 is to win prizes, not merely for the sake of the prize itself, 

 but as a means of raising the value of the bh-ds they have 

 for sale. VThich member of the Poultry Club wiU take up 

 this subject and prove clearly to "timid exhibitors," that it 

 is not, to sav the least, without its suspicions ? 



In your I^To. 203, February 14th, Mr. Douglas gives his 

 advice on the wholesale system, to " A Timid Exhibitok," 

 " Go boldly into exhibiting poultry, or if you keep in that 

 timid state of mind you never wDl be successful," and further 

 wishes to stamp upon the hearts of exhibitors, that he has 

 neither bred, sold, nor exhibited poultry for two years. 

 Then, again, in No. 205, February 3Sth, he says, "The pen 

 • A Timid Exhibitok' aUudes to, as bought and sold at 

 Manchester, was clairued when above one hundi-ed were in 

 the Show. It was claimed in my name, not by me, neither 

 was it sold by me." The first sentence is not tvue, if his 

 words on the day in c|uestion are not worthless. How I pity 

 the judge who will lend his name and confess it, and say. 

 afterwai-ds, " Neither was it sold by me." Perhaps he will 

 alter somewhat in his tone after reading the straightforward 

 and honest letter of Sir St. George Gore, in your edition of 

 Tuesday last, and the public, I think, cannot entertain a, 

 great desire to see such a man of principle judging their 

 produce. I leave it to you whether it is necessary to publish 

 my name in place of " A Timid Exhibitor." If you desire 

 to do so you have my fuU consent, particularly as several of 

 your subscribers seem desirous to see who and what I am. 

 — J. D. Newsome, Bailey. 



THE POTJLTET CLFB. 

 Ix the first and second letters I ^n-ote to you, I had no 

 other than the best of wishes for the fair and honest judg- 

 ment of all poultry be the judges or judge whom they or he 

 may be, and I honestly and frankly avow the same to be 

 my present feeUngs, and I do hope that you will believe 

 such to be the case. I cannot refrain fi'oni expressing my 

 regret, if my former letters have incurred the odium of any 

 well-wisher of fah- and honest judgment at our poultry 

 shows. Neither must I forget to remind your readers that 

 I have noOl-wiU or malice against Mr. Douglas or any other 

 breeder or exhibitor of poultry, so that in touching upon 

 certain letters which have lately appeared in your Journal, 

 your readers and yourself wiU give me credit for doing my 

 best to place our judges and their judgment on a more 

 honourable and straightforward principle than I have reasons 

 to believe they have been, more particularly since the Pordtry 

 Club took its stand in such a form as it has done. In your 

 Journal of March 7th, I find .^n excellent letter from some 

 one who, like myself, up to this date has written under an 

 assumed name, I mean the one who styles himself "A 

 liOOKEE-ON,'' and I must endorse his words when he says 

 the Club has fallen into no small error by leaving the ap- 



THE OPENING- SEASON. 



How truly delicious to the snowed-up bee-keeper was the 

 perusal of " A Devonshibe Bee-keepek's " " genial day " 

 among his bees. 



"^Vhat a contrast Devon presented to Eenfrewshii-e ! Here 

 wreath upon wreath of snow, with the keen frost and the 

 thick pendant icicles — spring flowers. Crocuses, and Snow- 

 drops, where were they ? Just peeping through the ground, 

 buried several feet beneath the snow ; the bees close pri- 

 soners for many weeks. How cordd it be otherwise while 



bitterly 



" Boreas ^i his blasts did blaw." 



There spring flowers in fuU bloom, bees busy poUen- 

 gathering, and even youthful yellow-jackets dancing with. 

 firefly radiance, 



*' While saft the -westlan breezes bla-n-." 

 With what a "longing for spring" did that paper inspire 

 us we need not stay to depict, "Our chaplain" having 

 already discoursed so eloquently from that text as only to 

 require our emphatic Amen. 



On Tuesday, February 22nd, the sun burst forth with 

 something like spring brightness over the white and glis- 

 tening landscape. Saw from the windows the snow barri- 

 cades on the points of the landing-boards sensibly diminish, 

 particularly those that had suffered most fi-om the active 

 ti-ead of that sly little marauder Master Tom Tit, and finally 

 I to entice out the bees. Thinking it high time >o substitute 

 I some more enduring sun shade for the hive-fronts, sallied 

 i forth ; but there's a lot of black-faced highlanders standing 

 on their hind legs, tearing away most voraciously at some 

 favourite ivy. They must get "a Scotch convoy" to the 

 ' highway to seek their own home. We pity as we expel 

 them, for they, poor things, are evidently starving. As we 

 return, there, too, is a contrast. Their southern sisters, 

 our oivn Leicesters, lying around their rack chewing the cud 

 of sweet content, nothing dist-arbed by the " cawing rooks," 

 not cawing now, but mysteriously silent (although the first 

 Sunday of March, their first field-building day, is so close at 

 hand), as they pace along their broad backs, anxiously 

 raising and carefully examining the silken staple. Not ad- 

 miring it, surely? Only quietly hunting after small game, 

 as they are also starving. Why do those skylarks raise 

 their tufted crowns so delightedly as they dart from among 

 that troop of poultry in the shed ? They have just appro- 

 priated a few crumbs or potatoes dropped by those matronly 

 Dorkings. They, too, axe starving. But to the bees. 



Enee deep waded along the gai'den walks, or, we should 

 rather say, as nearly as we could guess where walks should 



