November 7, 1872. ] 



JOTJBNAL OP HOETICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



371 



my entries, and the secretary's rule seems to be not to send 

 them. There are, I am glad to say, some business-like excep- 

 tions, but I find as a general rule that catalogues are forwarded 

 either late or not at all. Now, after they have been paid for, I 

 hardly think the latter is honest ; and surely it is not hard to 

 address wrappers, as the entries are received, to those who 

 forward the price of a catalogue, and, aB soon as the catalogues 

 and prize lists are issued, forward them at once in the previously 

 addressed wrappers. The want of this is one of those small 

 annoyances that are more irritating from their perpetual recur- 

 rence than is some more serious matter which only happens now 

 and then. 



A few weeks ago I purchased two pens of birds at a show, of 

 which one pen travelled elsewhere for a fortnight, and finally 

 arrived from the east instead of the west ; but I was less " put 

 out " by this than I am at the present moment from not having 

 received a catalogue of a show which closed forty-eight hours 

 ago, and from which my birds have not yet returned, although 

 the distance is not eighty miles. I believe, although I have not 

 tried both, that you may walk with less irritation with a wooden 

 leg than a blistered heel. — E. S. Tiddeman, Ghilderditch 

 Vicarage, Brentwood. 



DEALERS AND SHOWS. 



SojrE weeks since I received a very urgent request to give my 

 views on dealers exhibiting at poultry and Pigeon shows, and 

 wrote back declining to do so. I did this partly because an 

 article on the subject, which I knew to be in my friend's mind, 

 had appeared in another journal; but chiefly, as I told him, 

 because I hardly thought it really " worth powder and shot," 

 being written by one who is known to be no authority whatever 

 among skilled Pigeon- fanciers. 



The request has, however, been repeated by others — I fear 

 those who thus ask my opinion attach far too much weight to it 

 — and the evils of such personal attacks are so liable to multiply 

 and grow independent of the standing of their authors, that I 

 have thought it might be well if not only myself but others 

 should freely discuss the question on all sides, in candour and 

 good faith. 



To all acquainted with the facts it will be at once apparent 

 that this new crusade against dealers is prompted solely by the 

 very same egotism and pique which, it is well known, did more 

 than anything else to breakup the once-promising Poultry Club. 

 The egotism is sufficiently manifested by the fact, that the new 

 higher-priced selling classes at the Crystal Palace and Norwich 

 have subsequently been coolly assumed to be the consequence 

 of this attack upon the dealer class, whereas they were suggested 

 in this Journal nearly a year ago. No one can positively say 

 that the Crystal Palace classes were a consequence of this sug- 

 gestion ; but I do know, on the authority of the Secretary him- 

 self, that the Norwich were, and I actually wrote one or two of 

 the sentences which appear in the Secretary's address ; yet both 

 have been virtually spoken of as if the result of the personality 

 alluded to. The pique is equally evident, being, indeed, scarcely 

 disguised. Special complaint is made that the dealers regularly 

 protest against " certain gentlemen," who are assumed to have 

 rendered themselves obnoxious by opposing trimming, and 



that they refuse to show if Mr. is to act as judge. Now 



it would be easy to name those gentlemen who have been most 

 prominent in thus putting down dishonesty, and who never 

 on that account are so complained of ; and let us remem- 

 ber further that the dealers "who are the subjects of attack 

 are of necessity the most competent men in the fancy, and the 

 keenest to detect any incompetency through which they may 

 have suffered. I am, however, the last to deny that there is 

 much room for fair difference of opinion on the merits of the 

 case, and any temperate discussion of it must therefore do good, 

 and I hope will follow. I will just now make a few remarks 

 "which occur to myself. 



1. It is said that " a man "who buys and sells for gain is a 

 dealer, "whether he keeps a shop or adds to this occupation any 

 other brisiness." Now, I scarcely know a single amateur "who 

 is indifferent to the profit and loss of his yard, or "who is not 

 anxious to make it pay if he can. I have heard amateurs in the 

 very strictest sense of the word tell with pride how much they 

 made by their fowls last year ; and no one can possibly sell 

 without gain being the object. I know a farmer who regularly 

 calculates on two or three score of pounds annually from his 

 fancy poultry : is he therefore a. dealer ? The number of ama- 

 teurs who make a moderate profit by their fowls, and who partly 

 keep them for that profit, is now considerable ; and I might 

 even go further, and say that no amateur ever enters upon the 

 pursuit at all but hopes to be one of the lucky ones "who make a 

 gain of their birds. I cannot see "why carrying this further yet, 

 and making it a really profitable as well as pleasurable pursuit 

 to breed and sell prize birds, is not as perfectly legitimate as to 

 breed Shorthorn bulls. 



2. I would warn amateurs who may be jealous of such pro- 

 fessional men that the question is not all one of rival interests : 



their own interest is in great measure involved. If the best 

 birds, purchased regardless of expense, are no longer permitted 

 to be shown, the price of first-class fowls will inevitably decline, 

 and with that decline will go one of the sources from which 

 they defray the heavy expenses of their yards. I say heavy 

 expenses, because every amateur has, when fairlj r embarked, to 

 incur such. He must buy first-class new blood froin time to 

 time to recruit his strain, he must pay heavy food-bills, and he 

 often has to pay high rent and wages too. An occasional sale 

 at £10 to £20 is a mighty help to meeting these heavy outgoings ; 

 but if free competition is denied it will be available no more, 

 and his whole stock will be depreciated in value to an enormous 

 amount, while the very credit of winning would be immea- 

 surably decreased, for who would care to be a Triton among 

 minnows ? For my part, if I could not win in good company I 

 would not care to win at all. 



3. Any real fancier can thus contend successfully even with 

 dealers in fair fight. The mistake people make is that they will 

 keep such a lot of breeds. The dealer can do this and succeed, 

 because he makes his whole business of it; but the amateur 

 cannot, therefore as an exhibitor he fails. But let him choose 

 some one breed, stick to it, love it, study it, and ere long he will 

 " make his mark " on the fancy. I never knew a single excep- 

 tion yet to this rule, where anyone kept on and bred the same 

 breed carefully for three years running. 



4. I am, however, far from saying that no qualification of this 

 free competition is necessary. It was to meet whatever need 

 of such there was that I suggested the plan now being tried, of 

 establishing selling classes at fair but still limited prices. Here 

 all may find their level, for I suppose no one will contend that 

 it is desirable to give prizes to actually bad birds. It is in this 

 way I think all interests may be conciliated ; and by thus having 

 open classes and limited classes everyone may be benefited and 

 find a place, without either the serious evils of handicapping or 

 any wretched attempt to exclude our highest standard birds 

 from competition. No dealer, I am eonvinced, will feel any 

 jealousy whatever of such classes ; indeed, a large breeder and 

 dealer whom I know well was one of the warmest advocates of 

 the Norwich experiment. I trust and believe that experiment 

 will succeed, and if it do it will do good, and doubtless be 

 imitated by others. 



5. It might also be well, I think, if our most esteemed judges 

 would be still more severe than they are with overshown birds, 

 or even mark their disapprobation in gross cases by notice on 

 the pens or in the catalogues. I know they feel the evil, for I 

 have letters from our two best authorities on the subject. A 

 time comes when they cannot give any more prizes to the poor 

 broken-down birds ; hut it may, perhaps, be suggested that if 

 the penalty of passing over were inflicted earlier in some cases 

 it might not only check a growing evil but save many a valuable 

 bird. If the words " Disqualified for overshowing " were the 

 penalty in very bad cases it might be still more effective, with- 

 out leaving such sore feelings as a similar penalty in cases of 

 fraud. But I fear such stringent measures have little chance of 

 adoption. 



I had intended adding some paragraphs on general show 

 matters, but must defer them to a future occasion. — L. "Weight. 



OXFORD POULTRY AND PIGEON SHOW. 

 A poultry and Pigeon Show on a scale of any magnitude 

 had never been attempted in Oxford till last week, when the 

 Corn Exchange and Town Hall were occupied with as fine a 

 collection of poultry as has been gathered together anywhere in 

 Great Britain during the past season. There were no less than 

 forty-nine distinct classes, and the Committee found, long before 

 the time for closing the entries arrived, that the Show, which 

 was originally intended should be confined to the Corn Ex- 

 change, had assumed proportions that could not he accommo- 

 dated within that by-no-means small building, and consequently 

 they added the Town Hall to their space, and were even then 

 obliged to decline a number of entries. In the Corn Exchange 

 were the heavy poultry and the Ducks and Geese, whilst in the 

 Town Hall were the Bantams and Pigeons. In Coloured 

 Dorkings, the three first prizes were very worthily bestowed. 

 The excellence of this class may be imagined when we say 

 that the third-prize birds shown are the same pair that took 

 the first prize at the National Show at Croydon. In Silver- 

 Grey Dorkings, the champion at Oxfordshire local shows carried 

 off the cup against eleven other competitors. The class for any 

 other variety of Dorkings was also exceedingly' good, the cup 

 birds being among the best shown this season. Spanish Were 

 of average merit ; the cup cock and hen also took the honours 

 at the Croydon Show. Cinnamon and Buff Cochins were a 

 good class. In Partridge Cochins Mr. E. Tudman carried 

 everything before him. Any other variety of Cochins was, as a 

 class, declared by the Judges to be the best they had seen for 

 years. In Dark Brahmas the first and second prizes were taken 

 by Mr. Lingwood, with the same birds that sarried off the 

 honours at the Ipswich Show a few weeks since. The Light 



