58 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ July 18, 1878, 
were especially pleased with the sow and eleven pigs shown by 
Col. Portal, Ashe Park, Micheldever, Hants. In Class 85 Her 
Majesty again takes the prize with a pair of young sows, sent from 
the Prince Consort’s Farm at Windsor, which were deservedly 
admired. The Sussex breed of pigs represented in classes 86 and 87 
was a very poor competition, although this breed is kept more 
than any other in the South Hants district. The prizes were, how- 
ever, taken by Mr. Kent of Bognor, Sussex. 
We have entered at some length into the sheep, horses, cattle, 
and pig classes, each of them being very important to persons 
engaged in the management of home farms, and we trust that our 
observations and remarks will prove not only useful to young men 
commencing business, but that the names of the prizewinners will 
direct them where to obtain the best of all the kinds of stock they 
may require. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour now consists of preparing the land for turnips as 
fast as the green crops are cleared ; but these wiil soon be finished, 
and we prefer drilling the turnips at once ploughing as fast as the 
land is ploughed in order to retain the moisture in the land, and 
when the turnips are drilled the same day as the land is ploughed 
the seed is sure to start into vegetation immediately. Sometimes, 
particularly in sandy or sandy loam soils, little bunches of couch 
grass will be found, which should be dug out with the prong as 
fast as the green crop is removed, but sometimes the labour is 
not available through haymaking and other urgent work ; we do 
not, however, hesitate ploughing-in a few bunches of grass, be- 
cause we always look over the turnip land before folding off the 
roots with sheep. In fact this is best and cheapest way to keep 
the land quite clean, and time can always be found for this work 
in the winter months ; and the advantage is great, because an out- 
lay of a few shillings per acre will save a pound in extra plough- 
ing, besides the fact of the land being always ready when the 
season comes, without the delay caused by extra ploughing, &c. 
Horse-hoeing will still be required for the latest mangold crops 
and also for the Swedes, and in many cases where hand labour is 
scarce the implement invented for cutting out the plants into 
bunches in the lines may be used, but it can only be done where 
the plants are thick and regular in the rows. This, however, 
saves the plants from ge‘ting stunted, as the hand-singling and 
hand-hoeing may be done more leisurely afterwards ; but we like 
the work of horse-hoeing across the lines quite as well as the im- 
plement for hoeing, as it moves the land better. The hand-hoeing 
and singling require great care in order that the plants may be 
left singly, and we have often remarked to our shepherd when he 
has been hoeing Swedes and other roots that we did not require 
any twins until lambing tme. When vacancies occur in the root 
crops, and particularly in mangolds, we like to plant the large 
Drumhead Savoy cabbage plants, and always set them with the 
spade ; they are then sure to grow if the weather is ever so dry 
and the land hard. The odd horse will still find plenty of work 
in various ways, such as carting and clearing away hedge clippings, 
carting clover for horses, cattle, and pigs. We like the system of 
feeding cattle in the stalls with clover in summer time, because in 
using the clover thus it may be cut three times instead of twice 
only for hay ; there is no risk of spoiling like hay, and the result 
after feeding, as compared with that of hay as regards manure, is 
immensely in favour of foddering young growing cattle in this 
way, and we haye never had nicer fat cattle at Christmas upon 
arable farms than where they have been fed in this way during 
the hot weather in summer, with a small allowance of cake, say 
2 Ibs. or 3 Ibs. each per day. ; 
The herdsman should now look to his heifers coming two years 
old, and turn out with them a young bull about fifteen months old ; 
the calves will then come about the right time, that is in April 
and May, and this is the best time for heifers to bring their first 
calf, whether the breed is Shorthorns or otherwise. 
Preparations should now be made for the harvest, and arrange- 
ments made with the men required, fixing the rate of wages, &c., 
otherwise when the time comes and casual labourers are the only 
ones to be obtained it will be found very uncertain as to how the 
work and the men’s wages can be adjusted ; also it is well to look 
to all the implements, carts, &c., required in the busy time of 
harvest, so that all may. be in good condition for use at short 
notice. The cutting of winter oats, rye, and early peas will be begun 
in a few days, and it must be anticipated by getting all the work 
—such as hoeing of root crops, &c.—finished, in order that there 
may be no delay, as it will be indeed a busy time, because the 
second crops of clover will be ready at about the same time. The 
shepherds now will be drafting stock wether lambs for sale, some 
perhaps being required on the home farm, and care must be taken 
, of the ewe lambs to have them dipped to kill ticks and prevent 
the attack of the blowfly ; the ewes also will soon require to be 
treated in the same way where the wool grows up sufficiently. 
We have received the schedule of a Poultry and Pigeon Show 
to be held at Winchester on August 14th and 15th, in connection 
with the Dog and Flower Shows. The poultry classes, twenty in 
number, are for chickens of the year, with three prizes in ecu of 
| north country village some twenty years ago. 
respectively 30s., 15s.,and 5s, Cockerels and pullets are shown 
separately. Pigeons have twelve classes, with three prizes in 
each, 15s., 10s., and 5s. Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier is to be the Judge. 
The rules against fraudulent practices seem to be stringent, and 
to be modelled on those of the Poultry Club. The name of Mr. 
T. C. Burnell is on the Committee, which is a guarantee that the 
regulations will be honestly and well carried out. 
POLISH FOWLS. 
THE increase of poultry shows has not done unmixed good to 
fancy poultry. The breeding of the most useful varieties, or 
those which from time to time are believed to be such, has been 
greatly stimulated by them, and the classes of these fashionable 
breeds are often immense ; but the difficulty of making those for 
the rarer kinds pay, and the caprice with which old favourites are 
discarded for new ones, has brought down many ornamental—aye, 
and useful—kinds to the “any variety ” class, where honours must 
necessarily much depend on the taste of individual judges. Many 
breeders unfortunately think too much of the results of these 
wheels of fortune, and so discard really valuable birds because 
they do not win. Such has to a great extent been the case with 
some beautiful varieties of Polish, now nearly extinct. We had 
not long ago at the Paris Exhibition the opportunity of seeing 
some of them, and, as we promised in our report of that Show, 
now proceed to give some further notes upon them. The varieties 
which there appeared over and above those which are well known 
were six, 
1, Chamois.—There are no doubt some of these still in England. 
Within three or four years we have seen them at the Birmingham 
Show, but always of a dull mealy colour; not the bright yellow 
birds with white lacings, such as they have in France. It was not 
that there were one or two good pens of these in Paris, but enough 
to make a class. The first-prize trio of hens and the first-prize 
cock were such as we had never before seen ; the second-prize 
cock (which by the way has come to this side of the Channel) was 
even richer in colour, but a little spoilt by his close-fitting crest. 
The French judges seem really to have some definite idea as to 
the points which they desire in this breed, the chief of them being 
brightness and richness of colour, specially in the tuft hackles and 
tail of the cock. 
2, Then came pure White-—We must say there were not enougk 
of these. The characteristics of those there were did not strike us 
as being sufficiently defined to lead us to believe that the breed 
still exists in any great purity. We have vague recollections of 
some of this breed, which we then thought fine specimens, in 3 
It is true that in 
childhood we are apt to exaggerate the size of everything, still our 
belief is that there were large robust birds, pure white and bearded, 
in size more like Houdans than Polish, yet with real Polish heads. 
We have since seen a farmyard in Lombardy full of birds approach- 
ing this type yet showing signs of some cross from the smallness 
of their tufts and absence of beards ; however, we had never before 
seen anything like good specimens in the show pen. There was in 
Paris one cock, deep in the moult and deeply tinged with yellow, 
yet evidently from his general expression a pure Polish fowl, which 
struck us much. Shown by the same exhibitor were four hens, 
matching in general form, but not so in legs. There were two or 
three more entries, but the birds were smaller and bore evident 
marks of relationship to Sultans. 
3, Cuckoo.—These, we believe, are not so rare as the White, but 
less pure. Cuckoo is an easy colour to produce, and our British 
strains of Cuckoo Dorkings or Scotch-Greys have been spoilt by 
crosses. Some years agoa good pair of Cuckoo Polish were show 
in England by the Rey. A. G. Brooke, but we have not seen any 
since in thiscountry. There are a few at the Paris Jardin d’Accli- 
matation, and there were some at the Exhibition shown by an 
Italian Baron ; these latter were good in colour, but small and 
poor in crest ; they had combs, too, which looked as if they might 
be related to Houdans. 
4, Ermine (French, Herminé) are certainly pretty. They are 
white birds with black spots on tail, hackle, and their well-deve- 
loped crests. They are evidently a cross-breed between Silver- 
spangles, to which they are indebted for their fine crests, and 
White ; indeed, the great Parisian dealer told us that he had so 
produced his exhibits. 
5, Blue.-—We have sometimes heard of Blue with white crests, 
but we never saw them. These were, however, entirely blue. 
They were shown by two Italian exhibitors, the hens being entered 
as Cremonese. Their appearance was spoilt by heavy fleshy-look- 
ing combs, 
6, Frizzled—We had neyer before seen Frizzled Polish, and 
thought both the Chamois and the White specimens good, for 
their size was large, their crests fine, and their colour pure. The 
French Judges were not taken with them, and considered them 
mongrels, We could not agree to this in the general acceptation 
of the term, for their uniformity of crests and thoroughly Polish 
look showed that the variety must have been long bred to a fixed 
standard. F 
We inquired about the long lost and now almost fabulous White 
