FOREST AND STREAM. 
197 
Wimbledon Rave boasted of many a victory. The best 
blood now is undoubtedly that of Mr. Thomas Statter, of 
Manchester, and he is at present unsurpassed either for set¬ 
ters or pointers. A brace of his setters recently sold for 
£000 and a half broken young bitch for £130, whilst at 
Bala his liver and white pointer “Dick” fetched £60 on the 
ground. From this it may be seen that there are men in 
England who do not hesitate to give the price of a hunter 
for a dog, and I don’t blame them. Mr. Lloyd Price, of 
Rhiwlas, who has perhaps the finest grouse moors in 
Wales, only to be compared with Sir Watkin Wynn’s, has 
an immense number of well bred setters and carries off the 
palm at numberless field trials and shows. Mr. J. H. 
Wliitehouse, of Warwick, is justly noted for pointers, and 
his lemon and whites, whilst they trace back their descent 
like “Blair Athol” or “Gladiateur,” are alike excellent in 
the field and at the show. 
In retrievers nothing is so esteemed as the black wavy 
coated “Idstone” breed, imported originally from New¬ 
foundland and slightly crossed with the intelligent Scotch 
colley or sheep-dog. They frequently realize the high 
prices of £40 and £60 and battues are seldom without one 
of them in attendance. There is another strain much in 
vogue, of a curly coat, but they do not face wet and ex¬ 
posure so well, and though handsome, are delicate. As for 
spaniels, Mr. Phineas Bullock has been every where suc¬ 
cessful, and his kennels at Belston contain some scores of 
beauties. 
There has lately been a great discussion in the columns 
of Bell's Life as to the utility of setters in cover, “Old 
Calabar,” (the Prince Julius de Visme,) being for the 
motion, and “Frank” and Mr. Webber, of Falmouth, being 
against it. As a setter’s business is to point his game and 
stand perfectly motionless and cataleptic on his point, he is 
easily lost in cover whether with or without a bell, and his 
high turn of speed is useless whilst he cannot creep 
through runs and under briars and brambles; so I cannot 
see that he surpasses spaniels. There is, moreover, no 
breeze to carry the body scent to his eager nostrils as in the 
open, and as to backing another dog, that is out of the ques¬ 
tion. Of course where setters can go at a good pace and 
are not likely to be out of sight when on game they may be 
used with success. 
“Dropping” at the point is a great mistake, and is becom¬ 
ing,! fear,an ineradicable mischief,unless rigidly denounced. 
It was brought in by the famous pointer “Drake,” the 
property of Mr. Garth, the eminent Queen’s Counsel. This 
dog on his chain was as sober looking an animal as anyone 
ever saw, and plain and unpretending, not to say modest in 
looks and general behavior,but uncouple him and he beat a 
falcon going down a ride, or a Chicago express, as “Eccos- 
sais,” the Derby favorite, would a costermonger’s donkey. 
Like your first edition of greased lightning he bowled along 
the fallows catching wind of his birds and going straight to 
them venire d terre , putting up in a cloud of dust and lying , 
(alas ! not standing,) motionless as an Egyptian sphinx. 
He was a wonder, and being a genius, might be eccentric, 
like Diogenes, who lived in a tub, but though it is better to 
err with Pope than be right with Pye, (as Byron says in 
better language,) yet, Drake’s “Dropping,” without his 
speed, is a delusion and a snare. It is chiefly the result of 
a keeper’s orders given to prevent an unsteady dog from 
putting up his game, although it is in some cases in setters 
the proper instinct of the breed, and was peculiar to them 
all at one time, when the net was thrown over the covey. 
I do not believe in the theory of its easing a dog in his 
work, though Mr. Macdona is a good sportsman in practice 
as well as in theory. Taking down wind is another fallacy 
often resorted to by judges to try nose and scenting powers, 
and a fool’s errand and nothing more. No sportsman ever 
shirks a little extra trouble in going round to give his dogs 
the wind, and he is always rewarded for his pains. 
Possibly some of your readers are not aware that the 
English Field , not very long ago, sent out a special corres¬ 
pondent to America to shoot pinnated grouse and quail and 
stalk the moose and buffalo on their own prairies: but such 
is the case, and the Hon. Grantley Berkeley, a gentleman 
of great renown both with pen and gun, was the man. 
Many were the articles he wrote and many the anecdotes he 
related in his graphic and pleasant style, of the time he 
passed and the hospitality he enj oyed in American Society. 
Are they not written in those thick volumes which I read 
so attentively at college when I ought to have been climb¬ 
ing up a remarkably steep Parnassus? 
There is one disagreeable feature in the canine world:— 
It is the newspaper correspondence. Scarce is a show over 
or a field trial decided, before the disappointed exhibitors 
who can mostly neither lose like gentlemen or write like 
them, rush into print, and forgetful alike of all courtesy and 
their real subject bespatter with gross personalities every 
one who doesn’t avoid them and unfortunately possesses a 
different opinion. I am glad to see that, this is not yet in 
practice with Forest and Stream. 
I think it would be a good plan for American sportsmen 
to import a good English dog-breaker who would show 
them better the British method of training dogs, beating 
lor game, and killing it when found, than any amount of 
writing. But it must be understood that I am not depre¬ 
cating the knowledge of the gun in the United States but 
merely indorsing with regard to a united code of dog laws 
a nd the institution of international field trials. 
A perusal of such books as “Stonehenge” or “Idstone’’ 
the dog, published by Messrs. Cassell & Co., of London, 
would do much to illustrate how we do things on this side 
°t the Atlantic, and no doubt you would soon beat us in 
sport as you have in steamers, railways and “cocktails.” 
Laver sham, Kent } England . 
FIELD TRIALS. 
W E have invariably stated in our correspondence with 
influential English sportsmen, that the great draw¬ 
back to the present method of field trials is the system of 
“drawing” the entries, and moreover, the evident all-power¬ 
ful licence given to the judges which militates considerably 
against the satisfactory success of these tests of pointers 
and setters. 
In our issue of April 9th we gave a plan for field trials 
which we think, if carried out with one or two alterations, 
would satisfy all the requirements of owners of dogs on 
trial, and avoid all disputes and wrangles which seem to be 
inevitable under the present arrangement. In order to give 
the opinions of all classes of breeders of dogs on this inter¬ 
esting subject, and as there is no doubt that field trials will 
eventually become as popular in this country as they are 
to-day abroad, we therefore publish a letter from a corres¬ 
pondent in Bell's Life, in which it will be noticed that he 
sanctions the plan of field trials published by us two weeks 
ago.— 
Sir: —Field trials will never become popular among the 
sporting public until considerable modification in the 
system of judging is brought about. There is a very gen¬ 
eral feeling that too much bias exists in the minds of judges 
as to the previous performances of the animals, which acts 
detrimentally against an unknown competitor, and too 
beneficially in favor of one with better-known credentials. 
After the Ipswich trials of last year I ventured to express 
my opinions on this head in your journal of Oct. 4, 1873; 
and from the hearty response, with which those opinions 
were received I have reason to believe that in reiterating 
them now, at the commencement of another season, I shall 
do so with the acquiescence of many who, like myself, 
would freely participate in field trials if they could do so 
without the incubus which is attached to canine obscurity. 
In my humble judgment, field trials should, like coursing 
trials, decide themselves by a series of easily-reckoned points, 
which can pass through the calculations of the judges in a 
give-and-take manner during the trial , and leave one of the 
competitors with a surplus at the end, and, therefore, 
“master of the situation.” Then, it cannot be right to go 
through the formality of a public “drawing” to determine, 
by lot, the order of competition, and to overturn this order 
by placing beaten doffs against unbeaten ones in any part 
of the stake, and to allow a dog that has suffered individual 
defeat to take a second or third prize away from animals 
that have gone through their trials unconquered ! As a 
dog is drawn, in that order he should run through the stake 
—a winner displacing a loser in every trial, and a winner, 
inferior to himself in every round, and so on until the final 
course decides the fate of the last two left in. Here the 
element of chance which accompanies “the draw” adds to 
the excitement of the competition and equalises the pros¬ 
pects of many of the antagonists. Furthermore, judges 
should not shoot, for the very palpable reason that two 
things can rarely be done well at the same time by the same 
person. What objection, may I ask, can there be to the 
owners or keepers of the animals competing taking their 
guns in hand during their trials. Surely this is the most 
natural condition for the dogs to show themselves to ad¬ 
vantage; and by this means another drawback I have 
noticed would be obviated, of too much crowding in the 
van by the judges or the spectators, which tends frequently 
to shut out the view of the dog from his master at a critical 
moment. Next, the time specified for the trails should be 
carefully apportioned, and as strictly kept; well-known 
dogs, if “out of form,” should not have the chance of rem¬ 
edying faults made to-day by an extra period of grace given 
them, because the judges have seen them win a field trial 
yesterday. As a dog behaves on the day of competition, 
on this let his chance for the stake depend. No argument 
can convince me that one dog should have twenty minutes 
and another be down two hours. A timekeeper should be 
appointed—allowance made by him for change of ground 
and getting over fences—and at his dictum the trial should 
terminate, all sharing equally. An undecided may result; 
then, as in greyhound trials, after two courses, it can be 
run off, unless the owners have, in the meantime, entered 
into an arrangement to draw one in favor of the other. I 
believe an easy modification of the present “code of points” 
would render the whole thing simple enough, and, conclud¬ 
ing that sufficient care has been given in the relative ap¬ 
portionment of these points to constitute a perfect animal, 
by cutting out the ciphers of the present code, by taking 
the guns out of the judges’ hands, and, above all, by decid¬ 
ing a trial, then and there , as points have been won and lost 
throughout its length (not summing up at the end of the 
day, and having dogs put down again matched capriciously 
by the judges,) a very great step in the right direction 
would be taken, which would render trials of this kind 
more popular among our pointer and setter' breeders. 
OLD CODE OF POINTS. 
30 
20 | 20 
15 j 10 
5 
100 
Nose. 
Pace and 
style o f | 
hunting. 
Breaking, as 
shown by 
working t o 
hand,drop’ng 
to wing, fur 
shot, &c. 
Pointing 
style and 
steadiness 
Back¬ 
ing. 
f 
• 1 
Drawing in 
game or road- 
Ing. 
1 
I Total. 
3 
1 2 
STTGGESTE 
2 
D ALLERATION. 
| H | 1 
i | 10 
Yours, &c., J. H. Salter. 
Tolleshunt Darcy, Essex, March 31,1874. 
Setter pup “Flash.” —Our Baltimore correspondent 
“Nimrod,” asks us the following questions about the Pedi¬ 
gree and breed of his setter “Flash:” “Will you oblige me 
very much by telling me ifyou know anything about the dog I 
am about to describe and now own? He came to me with the 
following pedigree: black and white setter puppyFlash, from 
the kennels or Mr. Gubner, Long Island, out of his famous 
bitch Lisca, by his dog Jack; Lisca is out of Wm. Nash’s 
bitch Fan, the dam of H. Russell’s famous Snowball and 
John Conley’s Rover, she by Paul Mead’s old Dash, he by 
L. Swarty’s Glen out of Maggie, a white bitch of great 
fame. Jack is out of a white and black bitch imported by 
Mr. Palmer, of New York, and is one of the finest setters 
on this continent. Flash is now about fifteen months old, 
is a dog of great promise, but was never handled until this 
spring on snipe and is anything but a handsome dog.” 
Answer.—The dog Flash, if he is out of Lisca, was sired 
by Hugh McLaughlin’s Dan, this being the only time she 
ever had a black and white pup. Lisca’s pedigree, as 
stated by “Nimrod,” is correct, but the dam of Dash, 
Maggie was red not, white and black. There is also a mis¬ 
take in the pedigree of Jack; he is out of Belle, a red Irish 
bitch imported by Mr. Palmer, of New York, the dam of 
Rodman’s Dash by Stephen Putnam’s Dan. We are in¬ 
debted to A. Gubner, of New Utrecht, Long Island, for 
the courteous explanation. 
--- 
—Mr. R. Schuyler, son of the prior of the firm of Messrs. 
Schuyler, Hartley & Graham, of Maiden Lane, has just re¬ 
ceived a magnificent specimen of a Gordon setter bitch, 
who was a winner in the puppy stakes at field trials held at 
Shrewsbury in 1872. This dog was presented by Mr. Tom 
Webley of the firm of Messrs. Webley & Son, the eminent 
breecli-loading gun manufacturers of Birmingham, England. 
JPr J Ijiorsq mjd thq Hw/wf 
•- 4 -- 
—The Fleetwood Park Trotting Association inaugurated 
the trotting season on Saturday May 2d. There were two 
events set down. The first was a match of $400 against 
time three miles in twelve minutes. The bay gelding 
Whitefoot trotted the first mile in 3:44; second mile 3:51; 
third mile 3*42—Total 11:17. 
' The next race was a sweepstake of $200, mile heats, best 
three in five, amateur drivers. Ben. Wilson’s Patsey Bol¬ 
ivar won in three straight heats 3:00; 3:01; 3:01 
—The May trotting meetings at Beacon and Mystic parks 
closed their entries last week. The several purses filled 
remarkable well, there being in all fifty-two entries for 
each meeting. The Mystic Park meeting commences May 
12th, and the Beacon Park May 19 th. 
—An excellent painting of Sensation, the winner of the 
$20,000 purse at Buffalo, last year, is on exhibition in the 
window of Hanlan & Co., on Tremont street, near West. 
The painting is by G. LI. Bailey of this city. 
—To-morrow there will be a race at Mystic Park. The 
entries are Modoc Chief, Meddlesome, Lady Mac and 
Grace. 
—Mr. H. N. Smith, the owner of Jay Gould, has accept¬ 
ed the challenge of Mr. A. F. Fawsett, the owner of Ba¬ 
shaw, Jr., and will trot his fast young stallion against the 
latter horse, for $5,000 a side play or pay, as proposed; the 
race to be miie heats, best three in five in harness, on 
Bishop’s course, October 15th. 
—L. Dorsey of Eden Stock Farm, near Louisville, Ky., 
has accepted the challenge of Mr. Jas. Willson of Indiana, 
the breeder of the Blue Bull stock, to trot four or five races 
—two colts, the get of the rival stallions Golddust and Blue 
Bull, to be entered every race, for $1,000 each race. 
—Mr. Charles S. Green of Babylon, L. I., offers to trot 
his horse Wallace in a race of twenty miles against any 
horse in America, for $500 or $1,000. 
—The proprietors of the Prospect Park Course have 
given a purse of $2,000 in a race of nine heats, best three 
in five, to be trotted between the 15th and 16th inst. Epli 
Simmons has entered the roan gelding Walter, with run¬ 
ning mate, to wagon; William Lovell enters the renowned 
trotter, American Girl, in harness;Mr. Crawford enters the 
wonderful roan pacer Copper Bottom, in harness; and 
owner enters the famous trotting gelding Judge Fullerton, 
in harness. 
Cribbing Horses. —Mr. Lyman Thayer, of Franklin, 
Mass., a gentleman who has had a large experience in the 
care and handling of horses for the past thirty years, in 
answer to the question “How to cure crib-bitting,” says he 
has been quite successful by nailing strips of sheep skin on 
the edges of the manger, in every place where the horse 
could get hold with his teeth. The skin is put on with the 
wool side up, and if the horse attempts to play at his old 
trick or habit, he will find himself pretty effectually 
gagged. We were shown an inveterate cribber, which ap¬ 
peared to be thoroughly cured by this simple treatment. 
Mr. Thayer, like most others, considers cribbing more of a 
habit than anything else. The sheep’s wool seems to be a 
little digusting to the aimal, and as he gives up cribbing in 
the stall, he appears to forget his habit when on the street. 
Cribbing is generally believed to be a habit more than a 
disease, although, if persisted in, it may be an indirect 
cause of disease.— New England Farmer. 
This Journal is the Official Organ of the Fish Cultur- 
ists’ Association. 
Massachusetts Anglers’ Association. —The member¬ 
ship of the Massachusetts Anglers’ Association increases 
apace. At their meeting held at Codman Hall last week, 
ten new members were added, and twenty propositions con¬ 
sidered. 
Walter M. Brackett, Esq., offered the following pream¬ 
ble and resolutions which were unanimously adopted. . 
Whereas. We all feel the importance of the enactment 
of uniform laws for the protection of game and fish in all 
the different States, so far as practicable, therefore 
Resolved , That the Massachusetts Anglers’ Association 
most heartily sympathise in the movement to establish an 
American Protective Game and Fish Association, and that 
we pledge ourselves to use our best efforts to secure its suc¬ 
cess, so far as consistent with the objects of this organi¬ 
zation. 
Mr. Brackett also alluded to the extensive aquarium 
about being established by Dr. W. Rimmer, on Tremont 
street, as tending to create an interest in fish culture, and 
