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JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 17, 1S72. 



Bend the committeeman far ahead of the prize-giving officials, 

 and would render any after-conflict of assertion as to empty 

 pens impossible. 



Another circumstance that at intervals has given much pain 

 to acting committemen, has arisen from wilfully displacing the 

 prize-cards ; whether simply from that pure spirit of mischief 

 for which there are individuals who hold an unenviable 

 notoriety, or for baser purposes, it is always difficult to deter- 

 mine. Some of the north country shows have been especially 

 practised upon in this matter. This might readily be defeated 

 by writing legibly on the different prize and commended cards, 

 before attaching them to the show pens, the number they hold 

 in the printed catalogue. 



The return, along with the survivors, of fowls that unfortu- 

 nately die during a show, for the satisfaction of owners as to the 

 causes of death — the dispatch every evening by post of notice of 

 birds " claimed " at shows, to allay the anxiety of exhibitors as 

 to their non-return with the other pens — and the rule to prevent 

 com m ittees being held responsible for unforeseen accidents at 

 shows — were suggestions of my own through the press many 

 years back ; and time has not only confirmed their advisability 

 from their general adoption by committees, but also added to 

 my own first conviction of their utility. I hope some of the 

 present hints may prove equally worthy of at least considera- 

 tion, and if it is supposed any comments I have written are in- 

 tentionally personal, I can only assure all parties I had no such 

 motive in their compilation. 



_ There is, however, one other feature I cannot pass silently — 

 viz., the betting practices of some few would-be-called amateurs 

 (which decidedly they cannot be) as to the decisions. "When it 

 is known that eight and a half guineas have been given simply 

 for the loan of a pen to win a five-guinea cup ; and other cases 

 have occurred where £35 have been lost and won by bets on a 

 single award ; it is not difficult- to conjecture what these con- 

 tingencies may give rise to, to secure the attainment of a 

 "win; " or what compromise of all that is honourable, straight- 

 forward, and just may be wilfully accepted for the sake of ob- 

 taining such undeserved pecuniary success. — Mr. Hewitt (in 

 Mr.L. Wright's " Illustrated Book of Poultry.") 



. BROWN LEGHORNS. 



Tee only variety of the Leghorn as yet known in this country 

 is the White, which was first imported, so far as I can find, by 

 Mr. Tegetmeier, and is becoming greatly valued as most hardy 

 and an abundant layer. This is far the most common variety 

 even in the United States ; but there is another which they call 

 Brown, which is far more highly prized by all American fanciers 

 —so much so, that during the past season eggs have been sold at 

 higher prices than those of any other variety whatever. I know 

 of numerous sales of eggs at so high a price as ten dollars per 

 dozen. The Brown Leghorn is said to be even hardier than the 

 White, to lay slightly larger eggs, and to lay them earlier in the 

 year; besides which, its colour is adapted for ordinary wear, 

 and allows it to be kept where white fowls could not he preserved 

 in clean condition. 



I had heard much through the whole of this year from various 

 American fanciers respecting Brown Leghorns ; and in the 

 summer Mr. A. M. Halsted, of Bye, New York, kindly sent me 

 over a trio, chiefly for portraiture. They appear to have reached 

 Liverpool all right, but, very unfortunately, during the journey 

 from Liverpool to London one of the hens was fatally injured in 

 some way, bleeding profusely rom the month and one or two 

 ■Worm ds on the comb, and dying the night of arrival. They 

 Were each in a separate compartment, and fighting was out of 

 the question. The other birds were in perfect health, and the 

 hen laid next morning. 



Imust say that the sole surviving hen has quite kept up the 

 lyaing character of the breed, having laid almost constantly 

 since arrival. I set some of her eggs, and on August 2nd hatched 

 nine chickens. They have had no special care, but are all doing 

 well, and appear to be six pullets and three cockerels. My 

 chief object in hatching birds so late was to see for myself how 

 far t hey bred uniformly, as I had a strong suspicion the breed 

 had been formed by a cross from the Black-red Game. This is 

 strongly denied by all American breeders, who affirm that many 

 birds have been imported direct from the Mediterranean; and 

 I am bound to say that of all my nine chickens none favours 

 such a supposition, the whole being as uniform in character as 

 any brood I ever saw, which is so far satisfactory. 



The shape of body, head, and comb is like that of the Spanish 

 fowl, or rather Minorca, as the face is red and only the deaf-ear 

 white — that is, both have large combs, the cock's being upright 

 and the hen's falling over. The size is, however, not so great, 

 but about midway between Spanish and Game ; and this was one 

 of the facts that made me at first suspect a cross. The plumage 

 is exactly that of the Black-breasted Bed Game in both cock 

 and hen, the breast of the latter being a salmon colour, hackle 

 gold striped with black, and back and wings partridge-marked. 

 The cock, of course, is black on the breast, bar of wings, and tail ; 



hackle bright red striped with black, wingbow red, secondaries 

 rich bay, and saddle the same as the hackle; the legs are yellow. 

 Really good fowls of this breed being very scarce and dear, Mr. 

 Halsted could not spare a very good cock so early in the season, 

 and the bird he sent me is rather wanting in yellowness of legs, 

 and has a deaf-ear much stained with red, hut the hen appears 

 first-class. He rather leads me to expect he may enter first-rate 

 specimens at the ensuing great shows, and if so they will no 

 doubt be examined with much interest. 



I should not like to offer an opinion as to whether the- breed 

 will become a favourite in this country. The plumage is very 

 neat, adapted for hard wear anywhere, and I can most tho- 

 roughly recom m end the breed as likely to prove one of the most 

 useful I ever met with. As a layer I believe it has hardly an 

 equal, and the chickens appear as hardy to rear as chickens 

 can be. The hens never sit, I believe, e.nd the average produc- 

 tion of eggs is about two hundred per annum. On the whole, 

 I am much pleased with the birds, and, with so many good 

 qualities to recommend them, have thought that these few par- 

 ticulars would be interesting to English fanciers. I should have 

 given them before, but wished to see if the chickens fledged 

 with tolerable uniformity. — L. "Weight. 



THE CROYDON POULTRY SHOW". 



I fully concur — in common, no doubt, with many other per- 

 sons who take an interest in poultry and poultry shows — in the 

 observations made in your Journal of the 10th inst. with regard 

 to the impropriety (shall I add the injustice and the unfairness ?) 

 of several purchases of birds having been allowed to be made 

 at this Show before it was fully open to the public. I arrived 

 at the Show about the time at which your own reporter appears 

 to have reached it, and I can confirm his statements upon the 

 point in question. When I entered the Show at a few minutes 

 past twelve o'clock, only about half the pens of poultry, and, 

 apparently, only a few of the pens of Pigeons, had been judged; 

 and I witnessed, I must say with much surprise, the fixing of 

 " sold " cards to several pens of fowls some time before the 

 cards announcing the Judges' awards were put up. The latter 

 followed, and were fixed, too, upon the same pens — a circum- 

 stance which does not give rise to a very pleasant impression. 

 I look upon this course as being the more objectionable, because 

 the schedule of prizes expressly announced, in one of the regu- 

 lations, that exhibitors would be permitted to alter the prices 

 of their birds upon payment of the fee therein named at the 

 Secretary's office, a provision which was rendered valueless, 

 indeed rendered a mockery, to an exhibitor whose birds had 

 obtained a prize, and who, had he been present and been made 

 aware in a proper manner of the fact, may have desired to raise 

 the price previously put upon them, but who may have been 

 deprived of his birds by this premature claiming. 



Whilst writing in reference to this Show, I would suggest that 

 it would have been well had the Committee of Management, 

 when they found that the entries were so numerous, obtained 

 the services of a second Judge for the poultry at least, or even 

 of two extra Judges, one for the poultry and one for the Pigeons. 

 That they were not deterred from doing so by want of time is 

 sufficiently clear from the fact that, on becoming aware of the 

 large number of entries, they changed the place of exhibition 

 from the Public Hall to the Central Railway Station. The 

 time which sufficed for the one change would surely have suf- 

 ficed also for the other. I would also suggest that at any future 

 show that may be held at Croydon, the Committee will do well 

 to see that all the pens of birds are staged alike ; or, in any 

 event, to take care that some are not placed upon the ground 

 amongst the empty baskets, as was the case on the present oc- 

 casion with the Ducks, and with some of the " fancy Ducks," 

 whilst others are placed either on the first tier or just " on the 

 line." The advantage which the birds placed in the manner 

 last described possess over those placed as first mentioned is 

 too obvious to need to be pointed out more pl ainl y. In conclu- 

 sion, I will only add the remark that Ducks and other waterfowl 

 frequently experience great difficulty in obtaining their food 

 and water from tins so narrow as those which are usually placed 

 in poultry pens at exhibitions, or from tins fixed so far from 

 the bottom of the pens as the tins in question are generally 

 fixed, a circumstance which appeared to me to have been, lost 

 sight of at Croydon. — A Looker-on. 



Hyde Poultry and Pigeon Show. — This will be held on the 

 13th and 14th of December.' There are two silver cups for 

 poultry, with twenty-nine classes, and most of the prizes are 

 30s. and 15s. In Pigeons there are nineteen classes, and the 

 prizes 20s. and 10s. each, with two silver cups. 



Oxford Poultry Show. — I have been collecting subscriptions 

 for cups for Black East Indian Ducks and Light Brahmas at the 

 above Show, and I thank most warmly all those who have so 

 kindly aided me, and whose subscriptions I give below : — Black 



