March 17, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



215 



to Spanish and coloured Dorkings produced respectively ten 

 and fifteen entries ; whilst £2 offered to Polands (any variety), 

 produced six, and the like amount offered to Brahmas produced 

 six. Some of the Bantams and Buenos Ayroan Ducks far out- 

 stripped this number ; yet each had paid an entrance fee of 6s., 

 and the Dorkings and Spanish paid no more. At the same Show 

 sixteen pens of Cochins had £9 divided between them ; yet 

 these only paid the same entrance fee. 



But to return to the schedule of the Worcester Show. Where 

 are the classes for White Dorkings, Malays, and Brahmas? 

 All of these breeds expect classes at " grand " showB. Why are 

 White-crested Black Polish chickens to have prizes, while the 

 aged specimens may take refuge in the Any other variety class ? 

 In my simplicity I believed that Polish adults were handsomer 

 than chickens. Why are Black East-Indian Ducks classless ? 

 Wherefore are spangled Hamburghs out off from a third prize 

 in each class, whilst their brothers and sisters, the Pencilled, have 

 three ? At the Crystal Palace Pencilled produced, omitting single 

 cocks, thirty-nine pens, but Spangled forty-four. 



In exchange for these sins of omission, we have Worcester 

 setting us the bright example of separate classes for Creve 

 Coeurs. These birds, which one of your correspondents lately 

 denominated degenerate Poles, have yet to prove their merits. 

 I cannot say I was over-pleased with the specimen I once kept, 

 but this may have been an exception. But surely these birds 

 should not displace other well-known and useful breeds from 

 the class list. 



I fancy, too, that some exhibitors will ask where their birds 

 are to be kept for one whole week. Every place for exhibitions 

 of poultry is not the Crystal Palace, and in hot July too ! Two 

 days are sufficiently long for any show except the really " grand" 

 ones — Birmingham and the Crystal Palace. The Committee 

 should recollect that the poultry are not cattle, and that they 

 cannot stand the confinement in the same way. 



I have written you at once, as there is plenty of time for the 

 Committee to alter some of their plans. If they do not, I fear 

 their Show will not prove so successful as they doubtless imagine. 

 Turning to the schedule of the Bath and West of England 

 Poultry Show, I find no classes for Gold or Silver Polands, 

 none for Brahmas ; Gold and Silver-spangled Hamburghs massed 

 together, while their Pencilled brethren enjoy their two classes. 

 _ To deduct 3s. 6d. from each entry in the sweepstakes for 

 single cocks seems monstrous. Surely there must be some 

 error here. 



Last, not least, it is a five-days Show, the birds being cooped 

 about seventy hours before the Show commences. Altogether, 

 many valuable birds — if their owners are simple enough to send 

 them — will be cooped-up for ten days or more, journey included! 

 Will one of the latter rules prove a " soothing Byrup" to 

 them? It runs — "In case of the death of any poultry during 

 the time of exhibition, the bird or birds" (very cool) " so lost 

 will be sent back for the inspection of the exhibitor." Great 

 satisfaction may it give him, especially if the death is from a 

 contagious disease, and the dead and living birds journey home 

 together !— Y. B. A. Z. 



[Our experience of the management of poultry shows tends 

 to convince us that there is always a great difficulty to com- 

 mittees in pursuing the exactly midway course that insures 

 entries in due proportion to the appointed prizes on the one 

 hand, and at the same time gives general satisfaction to ex- 

 hibitors of different varieties of poultry on the other. Each 

 breeder most probably selects for his choice his own particular 

 "hobby," and fancies it the most deserving of support and dis- 

 tinction — in fact, supposes for the time being the breed he then 

 holds superior to all others : hence, on the part of exhibitors, 

 discrepancies must always prevail as to the opinion of which 

 breed of fowls is the most deserving. Committees, on the other 

 hand, are compelled not unfrequently, as expressed by homely 

 phrase, " to out their coat according to their cloth," and thus 

 are forced to the really unenviable task of a selection among 

 the numerous classes of such breeds as must be among the most 

 limited, as to the amount of premiums offered. Unfortunately, 

 statistics of their previous meetings are not invariably trust- 

 worthy to committees, for it frequently happens a class com- 

 prising only three or four entries one year calls forth the 

 succeeding season perhaps quadruple that number, for the simple 

 reason that, as the prizes were so easily won formerly, the 

 next trial induces a great number of expectant winners to 

 enter into the competition. This variation of entries seems 

 beyond the power of computation, and thus the number of com- . 



petitors is altogether conjectural until the olose of the time for 

 entries makes plain the matter in dispute. Of course, even 

 committeemen have their partialities for different varieties 

 equally with the exhibitors themselves ; and however anxious to 

 arrange their schedule of prizes to meet the views of all those 

 most interested, they must fail occasionally in so doing. 



It should be kept always in mind that any show to be success- 

 ful must be self-supporting ; for the cases in which a voluntary 

 subscription is to be depended on among the non-exhibiting but 

 resident gentry is a most unusual occurrence, and a resource 

 that after a few repetitions speedily becomes threadbare to the 

 very core. After all experiments that have been introduced it 

 seems that equal payments for the privilege of competition, with 

 equal amounts gained by the successful ones in each class, is the 

 most universally-approved arrangement. True it is, at the outset 

 a few (and in some instances very few), pens compete, and the 

 loss to the Society by certain classes is considerable ; but, in 

 many cases where the attempt has been renewed, the entries the 

 year following have been so strangely reversed, that in the aggre- 

 gate of the two years an absolute gain has been obtained. 



We think with our correspondent, " Y. B. A. Z," that the time 

 the birds are detained at Worcester is too lengthy. The fact is, a 

 better and a larger show would undoubtedly be insured had its 

 duration been of a less protracted nature, particularly as chickens 

 invariably suffer more from confinement than aged poultry. We 

 trust, therefore, the Worcester Committee may think well even 

 yet to reconsider this matter, with ths view to meet the wishes 

 of exhibitors generally, more especially as their Poultry Show 

 of this season should boast of a very greatly-increased amount 

 of support, on account of its taking place during the time of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting at Worcester.] 



TAUNTON POULTRY ASSOCIATION. 



This well-managed and remunerative Society, according to 

 an advertisement which appears in our columns to-day, is 

 " dissolved." This causes us mucb surprise, because, as some 

 comic character observed on an undesired death, " there was no 

 occasion for it." We are not astonished when a society retires 

 to the catacombs after being ill-conducted, or when it is in debt, 

 but neither of these " occasions" befell the Taunton Association. 

 No secretary could have ministered more satisfactorily than Mr. 

 Ballance ; and we see in the printed accounts that there is a 

 small sum in hand. 



We do not think that a valid reason for dissolving is " the 

 subscribers having failed to attend the meeting" — a more cogent 

 reason would have been their "having failed to subscribe." 

 Much do we hope that the subject will be reconsidered — that 

 Mr. Ballance will resume the secretariat ; and, we think, that 

 subscriptions will increase rather than diminish, if application 

 is made for them, when the threatened extinction of the 

 Association is thus publicly known. 



APIARIAN NOTES. 



OPEN BEE-HOTJSES. 

 Thebe is nothing at all novel in the advocacy of open bee- 

 houses ; and if " A. K. H." will turn to STo. 10 of Vol. XXIV., 

 page 161, he will see that I have written in favour of them, 

 though in a modified form. It is recommended that the hives 

 should be on separate pedestals, but there is not the slightest 

 objection to a double rail for their support, and in some respects 

 this would be found to be the most convenient plan. 



But, surely "A. K. H." cannot have tried the form of open 

 house he has described at page 179, or he would hardly have 

 brought it forward as an improvement on any known method of 

 protecting hives. He would find it, as he has figured it, anything 

 but a protection for his bees. The double tier of hives is fatal 

 to it. To work supers the roof must be at such an elevation 

 above the lower tier that rain must freely drive in at the front 

 and back ; and as to the high exposed sides, the hives might as 

 well be out in the open air altogether. I thoroughly detest 

 hives being placed one above another, even if the upper entrances 

 are not immediately over the lower. Let the upper tier be 

 dispensed with, the roof brought down to a proper distance, 

 allowing ample room for supering, and there can be no objection 

 to the plan. But I would do a little more before I should 

 consider my hives safe from driving rain ; the ends should be 

 closed-in with some material, such as pieces of old floor-cloth, 



