October 20, 1870. 1 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



317 



POULTRY, BEE, AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 



PRIZES, AWARDS, AND REFORMS IN 

 POULTRY SHOWS. 



The most promising symptom I can see of genuine progress 

 and improvement in the poultry fancy is the greater amoant 

 of active interest in shows and other matters oonnected there- 

 with. Fanciers are not content now to acquiesce quietly in 

 whatever a committee or a judge may choose to lay down for 

 them; awards get discussed and abuses get examined. There 

 never fails to be something well worth the talking about ; and 

 some remarks in the last number or two of "our Journal" 

 suggest to me several points in which I think a little change 

 would be very desirable, while it could offend the prejudices of 

 nose. 



For instance, in speaking of the Birmingham Malay classes, 

 Mr. Brooke justly remarks on the great difference between the 

 value of the first and second prizes ; but the criticism has, I 

 think, a much wider application. Time was when one really 

 first-rate pen in a class was perhaps the ordinary rule, but it 

 is not so now by any means. In all the great shows of the 

 year, and in most even of the second rank, the greater number 

 and the far sounder knowledge of the exhibitors have made the 

 competition very close and severe. Again and again have 

 judges no small difficulty in deciding which shall be first, 

 second, and third ; and as often have I noticed cases in which 

 any breeder would give as much for the one pen as the other ; 

 or a3 the Irishman said, one pen " was as good as another, 

 and a great deal better." The question arises, Should not the 

 value of the prizes show less money difference ? It is not a 

 question of justice, for no injustice is really done ; it is a 

 matter simply of expediency and popularity. The honour of 

 being first would remain the same, but I have reason to believe 

 that an increase in Becond and third prizes, even at the ex- 

 pense of the first, would tempt more exhibitors to many a j 

 show. 



A3 I have mentioned the Malay class, let me state the pleasure 

 with which I hear from Mr. Brooke that I am again to see 

 some real big birds again, and that some fresh breeders have 

 started them. I think, however, that " X. B. A. Z." is wrong 

 in attributing the deterioration in the breed which he admits 

 to having " so little encouragement." Is it not rather the 

 other way, as I endeavoured to make clear ? My impression is 

 that no breed ever lost ground from want of prizes, but rather, 

 as breeds have lost popularity, committees have been forced to 

 decrease prizes in sheer self-defence. To take solitary examples 

 is not safe. I have often noticed an almost empty class one 

 year fully filled the next, and vice versa ; but the committee of 

 no show can or will go on giving prizes to any variety which it 

 is found repeatedly does not pay by its entries ; whilst, on the 

 other hand, every leading variety but Dorkings, Spanish, and 

 Hamburghs has had no difficulty in fighting its way up in 

 spite of " no encouragement." I would not have named this 

 point again, but that I think its candid remembrance would 

 save much sore feeling; not to " Y. B. A. Z." certainly, who 

 has never shown any, but to some other occasional complainants, 

 who seem to think that their favourite breeds have a kind of 

 abstract right to as much and as many prizes as any other. 

 Let them make their pet breed popular, and committees will 

 give them all the " encouragement " they desire ; and mean- 

 while they are only fighting the same obstacles which Brahmas, 

 Houdans, Cieve-Coeurs, and others have successfully vanquished 

 before them. 



Another point, however, seems to me to be now of im- 

 portance, and that is, that the published awards at shows should 

 have some regular, recognised, and standard value. I am not 

 speaking of the value given to them by the known ability of 

 the judge, but something by which a simple reader of the award 

 list should be able to form a tolerably correct notion of thej 

 real value of the pens and the character of the competition. 

 Nothing could be more easy, while at the same time nothing, 

 it seems to ine, can at present be more important. MaDy still 

 speak of the poultry fancy as a mere hobby, while in point of 

 fact it has become a very serious business, carried on by many 

 of the highest, fairest, and most honourable in the land ; and 

 the mere amount of money invested in it, if calculated, would 

 make every reader of this Journal stare. Such interests as are 

 concerned ought by no means to be laughed at or left to chance, 

 as they often are now ; whilst a systematic theory of awards 



would in itself and by itself go very far to supply the place of 

 the more extended reports only too justly longed for by " Shrop- 

 shire Rector." At many shows a commendation is really 

 worth more than a prize at others, yet there is at present no 

 means of distinguishing between one and the other ; whilst 

 only the other day, in a judge's report, it was stated rightly that 

 a particular class was all through " of extraordinary merit," 

 whilst, besides the two prizes, the judge only awarded a simple 

 commendation to one solitary pen ! 



If I be asked how this could be amended, what I would pro- 

 pose would be that the award of " very highly commended " 

 should be given to all pens, and to thoBe only, which in any 

 ordinary show would be thought worthy of a place in the prize 

 list. I Bay to all, because the number of such awards would 

 always be then a guide to the quality of the class. If, besides 

 this, the pens "highly commended " were arranged in their 

 order of merit, I think all that is necessary would be done, and 

 the list of awards alone would then present a real index for the 

 use of absent breeders, which it certainly does not now. In 

 the case of those catalogues which, like the Bristol, give the 

 awards in the margin instead of in a separate list, the order of 

 the pens highly commended could be Bhown by numbers, and 

 in the mere commendations I think order of merit would be 

 hardly necessary. Nothing could be more easy, and I venture 

 to think hardly anything would be of more use to the body 

 of poultry fanciers. I would much like to know the views of 

 Mr. Hewitt, than whom no one is better acquainted with the 

 important interests involved, upon this subject, and I had meant 

 to ask them privately before mentioning it in these columns, but 

 the remark of " Shropshire Rector " respecting the want of 

 information leads me to broach the question now. 



Regarding trimming, which two correspondents have recently 

 mentioned, I think " Aliquis " has either not seen or has 

 forgotten Mr. Hewitt's suggestion as to a punishment. I have 

 not yet lost my interest in the matter, but I always have and 

 always shall object to any rule precluding an offender from 

 showing again, as not being analogous to any law either Divine 

 or human. I think Mr. Hewitt's suggested penalty severe 

 enough. But in one thing "Aliquis" is quite right; the 

 whole matter now rests with committees. No one can say now 

 that judges will not act. Mr. Hewitt has formally asked for 

 more power, and expressed his willingness to accept all the 

 responsibility; he will pass the judgment if the " civil power," 

 in the shape of committees, will enforce the penalty. I regret 

 to have to add that I have been forced to the conclusion that 

 a great many committees have no desire the abuse should be 

 discouraged, for the simple reason that many of themselves or 

 their friends are too deeply compromised. I quite understand, 

 and was much amused at, the delicate allusion of " A Disgusted 

 Exhibitor" to the " pickled " feathers ; and in answer to his 

 inquiry as to Birmingham, I beg to say that the inaction of 

 the Council is not for want of reminder. Many readers will 

 remember that a while ago I spent much, both of time and 

 money, upon this matter ; and a year since I sent them a copy 

 of the protest against the practice, signed by over fifty of the 

 very best names in the fancy, with an earnest appeal, if they 

 could not see their way to anything further, that they would 

 simply state that their judges would be "specially requested" 

 to disqualify all fraudulently trimmed birds. I de not know 

 on what ground any committee could refuse at least as much 

 as that ; but the Birmingham folks did, and the annual spectacle 

 which followed as usual di?gu8ted not only your complaining 

 correspondent, but — L. Wright. 



POULTRY SHOWS, 



THEIR management and reports. 

 The new county rector of "our Journal," and may their 

 name be legion, I mean " Shropshire Rector," has, I fancy, 

 had but little acquaintance with ponltry shows, or he would 

 have found that the great number of committees do not at all 

 consider that " every exhibitor whose entrieB amount to, sav, 

 10s., is entitled to a ticket of admission." I cannot answer for 

 the northern shows so much ; but in the south, with the ex- 

 ception of Bristol and Clifton, and Lord Tredegar's Show at 

 Newport, there is no free entry to exhibitors. In the north, I 

 fancy, they are more liberal ; certainly both at Middleton and 

 Rochdale exhibitors were sent tickets, at least I was, and this 

 is as it should be. I feel confident the omission is an injury to 

 a show. 'The fact of receiving such a ticket enlists additional 

 sympathy in the success of the show, and often decides a doubt- 

 ing exhibitor on visiting; it. I have often advocated the 



