452 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



[ December 7, 1871. 



Birds that have their full liberty and are well fed always 

 mou't well ; but when they are kept in confinement, care and 

 precaution are generally necessary. The eflects of food may be 

 proved by a fact. Quails are exceedingly fond of hemp seed. 

 This is of a very heaing nature, and if they are allowed to 

 •sat too much of it their plumage becomes nearly black. If 

 they are fed entirely on it, their bodies are so heated that every- 

 thing is dried up, and no nourishment is possible. The feathers, 

 like plants, die for the lack of moisture. If proper food has this 

 •effect, then judicious feeding ought to assist. When birds are 

 moulting they must have plenty of cooling food, and there is 

 zione so good as lettuce ; if it has gone to seed and stalking so 

 much the better. Sods of growing grass, and plenty of fresh 

 earth with them, are also excellent. 



A little treatment of this kind not only benefits the health of the 

 fowl but shortens the period of moulting one-third. In additi'^n 

 to that, the growth of feathers is stronger and heavier, and the 

 •fowls are thus better able to stand the cold -nTnter. The appear- 

 ance of the fowl is also vastly better; the feathers are lustrous, 

 and appear as if oUed ; the bird takes on fat at once, and meets 

 the cold weather with a vigorous health and strength which 

 otherwise it might not have. 



Sometimes a fowl will be seen while moulting to be continually 

 pecking or scratching at one spot of its body. On examination 

 it will be found that one or more feathers have failed in passing 

 "through the opening in the skin that is provided for the puipose. 

 They keep on growing, but they grow beneath it. This causes 

 much pain. It is common in the top- knots of Polands, but the 

 remedy is a very easy one ; take a stout needle and pass it under 

 the qmUend of the covered feather, then draw the feather from 

 under the skin. 



Not only is an abundance of warming nutritious food needed 

 at this time, but a tonic of some kind may also be given. Stale 

 bread snpped in old ale given two or three times a-week, is said 

 to be beneficial ; but perhaps one of the best things to use is one- 

 ialf pound sulphate of iron (green vitriol), one ounce sulphuric 

 acid, two gallons of water. Put a teaspoonful of this mixture 

 to each pint of water in the drinking fountain, and keep it by 

 them during the whole time of moulting. 



One thing requires to be wa tched ; they wiE sometimes, in a 

 dissatisfied habit of body, begin to peck and eat each other's 

 feathers. If a fowl does this it should at once be removed, as it 

 ■win teach others the same habit. — {Avierican Stock Journal.) 



OVERWORKING THE JUDGES. 



Peemit me, as an old poultry fancier, to endorse most 

 beartily the remarks which your reporter made at page 384 on 

 the insoffieieney of Judges at the Crystal Palace Show. It is 

 most true that the work was "too arduous, the number of 

 judges too small, and the awards made," as was well described 

 in the Journal, " in failing light and other disadvantages, and 

 with greater dispatch than advisable." 



Were the Judges allowed more time, we should certainly hear 

 fewer complaints, and read less severe criticisms afterwards in 

 the leading poultry jourrjals. Could we find a more palpable 

 example of the effects of this haste than, for example, in the 

 Light Brahma classes? There we beheld, to our amazement, 

 cups awarded to a hen with vulture hocks, and a cockerel with 

 a squirrel tail ; prizes given to birds showing, as your reporter 

 po nted out, a " tendency to white tails," while other old cocks, 

 including the first and second-prize Sjuthampton birds were 

 passed over for rivals seedy in health, dull in colour, or, as 

 your reporter described one of them — a " bird we do not like 

 in any way." — Beahma. Pootea. 



BIRMINGHAM POULTRY SHOW. 

 Little alteration has taken place in Bingley Hall since we 

 last wrote on this subject. One of our humorous writers, re- 

 cording the kind deeds of Toby Tosspot, speaks of some who 

 "lose half man's natural estate of sun by borrowing too largely 

 of the moon." Just so : the appearance of space, which has 

 been diminished every year, has again been encroahed upon 

 by t he erection of another gallery. The Hall has now galleries 

 all round. That they were needed is evident from the fact 

 that they are filled with goods and with buyers. If space were 

 afforded we believe the four days of the Show would be a per- 

 fect fair. At present there are most things, from the cowhide 

 of our relative across the Atlantic, to the composiiion for mend- 

 ing glass so strongly that the vessel cannot be broken again in 



the repaired part ; there are foods so cunningly compounded 

 by a master of the subject that it should cost nothing to fatten 

 cattle, and the process should be a certainty ; medicines that 

 set sickness at defiince; gigantic roots that grow without re- 

 ference to soil or manure ; machines that so economise labour 

 that, though all the cottages on the farm but two or three were 

 vacant, yet men would not be wanted. Indeed, so much seems 

 to be done to conquer everything that is antagonistic to the 

 interest or the well-being of man, that it becomes a matter of 

 surprise that poverty should still exist, or that man should not 

 have everything he needs. 



We do not wonder at these things. Although many visit 

 these Shows determined to keep their pockets buttoned, it is 

 by no means an easy task, especially if the visitor is blessed 

 with the society of one of the fair sex. The man who visits 

 this Show in such company is for the time invested with im- 

 portance ; he goes the round of the galleries, and is solicited 

 at every step by vendors, and is, perhaps, coaxed by his better 

 half. " Allow me, madame, to show you this washing machine, 

 a child may manage it ; it washes, wrings its own things, and 

 positively costs but a few shillings." " Do, pray, come along," 

 says Henry. " Well, but see, Mrs. Kuffdri is nearly worn out, 

 and when she leaves o2 I don't see whom we shall get, unless we 

 have lilrs. Uppish, and she eats and drinks so much, does so 

 little work, and requires such extra pay, that I am sure this 

 machine will be a great saving." Sooner or later Henry must 

 buy it. His turn comes, for there are a ohaii and turnip- 

 cutter will save their cost in a month ; for, says the vendor, 

 "half the food is wasted, and the other half spoiled by the use 

 of worn-out and antiquated machinery." Henry is sure of it. 

 Better half says, " Do. come along, do. You never go to a 

 show but you buy something to economise labour, and I do 

 not see you keep one man the less." " But," says Agricola, 

 " I have never had such a machine as this." " No," says 

 better half, " but you know there is an outhouse full of such 

 things, and half of them have never been used." True, very 

 true; but Henry will buy it. This goes on all day for several 

 days. No wonder, then, if those who have goods to sell take 

 standings, and thus from very small beginnings a monster 

 Show has grown up. 



In looking over the poultry that forms one part of this great 

 Exhibition, it is impossible to avoid being struck with a great 

 fact, that while there is'an ebb and flow in those that make up 

 the fancy classes, the breeds of practical utility, either as egg 

 or meat producers, hold their own. Thus we find there were 

 280 pens of Dorkings, 261 of Cochins, 346 of Brahmas, 89 of 

 French breeds, 86 of Spanish, 205 of Hsimburghs, 58 of Po- 

 lands, 382 of Game, 153 of Bantams, 108 of Ducks, 30 of Geese, 

 a of Turkeys. 



Seventy-seven pens of Dorkings were honourably mentioned 

 by the Judges. The first-prize Dorking cock, belonging to the 

 Countess of Dirtmouth, was a bird of rare merit, and deservedly 

 took an extra prize of ten guineas. Among the Silver-Greys 

 there were more perfectly feathered birds than we have ever 

 seen before. The White held their own, but no more. There 

 was throughout these classes an entire absence of inferior 

 birds, and the number of new names among the prizetakers 

 was remarkable. We heard some remarks among the spectators 

 that they seemed to make no progress, but we think it is un- 

 reasonable to expect increase upon increase. There must be, 

 and there is, a limit. Having reached that, the aim must be 

 not to lose ground. 



We are bound to speak in very high terms of the CocJdn- 

 Cliina classes. The silver-cup bird, belonging to Mr. W. 

 Augustus Taylor, was a beautiful specimen of the bird of the 

 year. We may notice here that in these, as iu other classes, 

 there was an absence of defects. This was especially true of 

 the Grouse Ciobins, where those dieqnalitjiag defects that help 

 the Judges in their arduous tasks were not to be found. Weight, 

 colour, and points were characteristic of every class. 



The Brahmas were good, and some oJ them of great weight. 

 Many were exquisite in colour, but in these, as in some of the 

 Cochins, there is a tendency to breed vulture hocks. This is 

 a mistake. 



There was not only a good number of the French breeds 

 shown, but they were birds of unusual merit. We must, how- 

 ever.except the La Fleche, which brought but ten pens into 

 competition. This breed finds no favour, and it would seem 

 advisable to distribute the money offered to them between the 

 Creve-Cceurs and Houdans. Both these latter breeds have 

 made great progress, and showed birds of large size and great 

 beauty. We cannot help recollecting that only a few years since 



