96 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICTTLTTJRE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 2, 18&4. 



August 30th. Pujdsey. Sec, Mr. E. Sewell. Entries close August 27th. 



August 31st. Dewsbury. Sec, Mr. F. Aked. 



September 7th and 6th. Manchester anp Liverpool. Sec, Mr. T. B. 



Ryder, Church Street, Liverpool. Entries close August 6th. 

 October lBt, 3rd, and 4th. Islington (Agricultural Hall.) Sec, Mr. J. 



Douglas. Entries close September 17th. 

 October 12th and 13th. Worcester. Son. Sec., Mr. J. Holland. Entries 



close September 29th. 

 November 28th. 29th, 30th, and December 1st. Birmingham. Sec. t Mr. 



J. B. Lythall, 13, Temple Street. Entries close November 1st. 



THE AGRICULTURAL HALL POULTRY SHOW 

 AND THE POULTRY CLUB. 



Nothing can be more fatal to the success of any under- 

 taking than to raise questions, "which, even if satisfactorily 

 answered, may indirectly affect its stability. There is an 

 old proverb about fools and wise men. We know that all 

 persons listen eagerly to inquiries, and are rarely satisfied 

 with the answers those inquiries elicit. This arises from 

 the tendency of human nature to imagine evil, and the diffi- 

 culty of expressing ourselves so that we may be understood 

 by all. 



The proposed show of poultry at the Agricultural Hall, 

 Islington, has, unfortunately, fallen into the difficulty of 

 having questions to answer, and explanations to make. 

 Be they rightly or wrongly put, be they easy or difficult to 

 dispose of, they will have the effect of alarming many. The 

 agitation may be premature, but it has begun, and now 

 there is no alternative but to ventilate the matter entirely, 

 and to give the fullest and most complete answers. 



None will doubt for a moment the propriety of the appoint- 

 ment of Mi'. Hewitt as a judge. Some question seems to 

 be raised as to the appointment of the other judges. It is 

 hard to say that a judge should not be a breeder or an 

 exhibitor ; but it is beyond question that neither directly 

 nor indirectly should a judge exhibit at a show where he is 

 to adjudicate. We must leave the Poultry Club to act accord- 

 ing to their judgment, and we must form our opinions by 

 the results. 



If the Show in question is to succeed it must be above 

 suspicion, and beyond reproach. Shows will soon cease to 

 be where men feel that they have no confidence, and do not 

 get a fair field. That the Poultry Club in their manage- 

 ment of this Show will maintain and enforce that honesty 

 and fairness which is their guiding principle we have no 

 right to doubt. 



One cannot help suspecting some hostility to the principle 

 of a poultry club to be lurking in some of the objections 

 brought forward against the Show at the Agricultural Hall. 

 I am inclined to look with favour on the principle. With 

 regard to the existing Poultry Club I cannot say anything, 

 as I do not know anything about it. Amateurs would be 

 glad to know more of it and of its intentions ; and most 

 probably that knowledge would conduce to its welfare. A 

 self-constituted and exclusive body cannot be tolerated, yet 

 a poultry club is to be desired. 



A poultry club constructed on the limited liability prin- 

 ciple, having the proper organisation of directors, officers, 

 and shareholders, might, by common consent, take into its 

 hands the appointment of judges, or, at all events, for all 

 shows that desired to have them so appointed. The Club 

 might also undertake the formation and management of 

 shows in neighbourhoods where they were desired, where a 

 certain sum could be guaranteed, but where there was 

 neither the knowledge nor energy to do the work. 



General meetings of the Club should be held at all the 

 principal shows in the kingdom : and it might be expedient 

 to have a northern and a southern committee. 



These are propositions which I would do my best to aid, 

 and which I shall be glad to see carried out. — Egomet. 



Had Mr. Tudman answered my communication himself, 

 instead of delegating the duty to another, it would have 

 been more satisfactory to me, and, I presume, to your general 

 readers also. Why he has not done so is best known to 

 himself. As respects the communication of his locum tenens, 

 however, it has not mended the matter, notwithstanding the 

 latter's attempt to raise a new issue on the character of 

 those under whose auspices the doings of the Poultry Club 

 have been ushered into public notice. Now, the " worthy 

 Honorary Secretaries " and other officers may be all that he 



contends for ; they may be " gentlemen acting and giving 

 their services for the benefit of the poultry-loving commu- 

 nity," and be " purely honorary ;" they may, as Shakespeare 

 says, be " all, all honourable men ;" but when your corre- 

 spondent urges on the strength of this that "they are not 

 public property to be reprimanded," &c, in other words, 

 that they are above responsibility, I am persuaded I shall 

 not stand alone in demurring to such an assumption. Per- 

 sons who hold a public position, whether as honorary or paid ■ 

 officers, must submit to public criticism, and to wince under 

 the ordeal is sure to awaken suspicion that all is not sound. 

 Now,.it cannot be denied that great soreness has been mani- 

 fested by both of your correspondents ; why, it is, perhaps, 

 not for me to say. One thing, however, which is certain, 

 is, that no assumption nor any amount of soreness can alter 

 facts which are patent to all your readers. 



The first of these facts is the correctness of your state- 

 ment that Mr. Hewitt was appointed one of the judges in 

 the forthcoming Islington Show ; and after the evidence you 

 adduced from the correspondence between that gentleman 

 and Mr. Tudman, in which the latter offered, and the former 

 accepted, the office, the genuineness of which has never been 

 questioned, even by Mr. Tudman himself, the bold assertions 

 of Mr. Tudman and his coadjutor "A Poultry Fancier" 

 to the contrary can have no other effect, save that of throw- 

 ing discredit on the other statements of the same parties. 

 It is indeed truly amazing that any one in the face of evi- 

 dence, such as that furnished by yourself, should have the 

 hardihood to deny so palpable a fact. 



The next is, that such offer was accompanied by the with- 

 drawal of the conditions, to establish which, it would seem, 

 is one of the principal objects contemplated in the formation 

 of the Club, and that Mr. Hewitt's acceptance was the con- 

 sequence, to use his own expression, of such " restrictions 

 being withdrawn." Your correspondent waxes quite indig- 

 nant at the bare intimation of the rules having been in any 

 way compromised. " How your correspondent [viz., myselfj 

 could state that the rules of the Club have been sacrificed 

 or broken down he (the Pou ltry Fancier) cannot conceive ; 

 for as yet," he adds, " they have been little acted upon, the 

 test being yet to come." Now, how comes it that they have 

 not been acted on ? unless it is that judges of standing and 

 character, like Mr. Hewitt, refuse to act under the restrictions 

 iittempted to be imposed by them. If this is not failure, 

 i nd failure of no ordinary kind, I should like to be informed 

 what is. It is the reference to this fact in your editorial 

 remarks, which, in my opinion, is the gravamen of the offence, 

 and the cause of the soreness felt by your correspondent ; 

 and that I, or any one else, should venture to submit that 

 this involves the failure of the elaborate production is, of 

 coarse, unpardonable in the eyes of so august a body — the 

 more unpardonable on the ground of its truth. 



Tour correspondent, moreover, offers grave objections to 

 the publication of the names of the judges, for the reason, 

 as he says, that the doing so would afford dishonest exhibi- 

 tors the means of communicating with them. This is cer- 

 tainly not very flattering to th e judges of the Club's selection, 

 implying, as it does, that they are not proof against, efforts to 

 tamper with their decisions, notwithstanding the alleged 

 high qualifications of certain members to fill the office : for 

 the judges being above such influences, any attempt would 

 only end in the discomfiture of the exhibitors who resorted 

 to such practices. But since your correspondent has raised 

 this point, it may be asked what security have the public, 

 that exhibitors who are in the secret of such appointment, — 

 for it cannot be supposed that there are no exhibitors among 

 the Honorary Secretaries and other officers of the Club — 

 will not avail themselves of their exclusive knowledge ? And 

 if we may judge by the denial of the palpable fact, and 

 other features brought out in this correspondence, the 

 officials are quite as open to the insinuation as the exhibi- 

 tors. — An Exhibitor. 



Malays. — The admirers of this variety have now an op- 

 portunity of obtaining some of the best strain ; for an ad- 

 vertisement states that Mr. C. Ballance intends selling his 

 entire stock. That gentleman purposes discontinuing ex- 

 ! hibiting, having so frequently to officiate as judge. 



