February 24 , 1881 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 163 
strong, healthy, and to bear confinement as well as any breed I 
know. They are continual layers, and do not get broody. I 
would advise everyone who keeps fowls to keep young ones, as 
many people keep the same fowls year after year instead of rear¬ 
ing chickens and killing ofE the old hens. The consequence is 
they get very few eggs, and that is why they do not pay. 
I am sure we have used as many eggs all the year as we wanted, 
and they have cost me nothing, in addition to the very handsome 
profit which is stated below. 
POULTRY ACCOUNT FOR 1880. 
Dr. 
Cr. 
January 1st, 1880. 
£ 
s. 
d. 
Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st. 
£ s. 
d. 
25 fowls of sorts. 
16 
3 
Number of eggs laid, 1620 
3 fowls bought. 
. 1 
4 
6 
112 eggs sold for sitting .. 
1 16 
9 
Corn, meal, &c. 
. 8 
2 
9 
903 eggs sold for eating .. 
4 4 
5 
Advertising and postage .. 
. 0 
16 
5 
605 eggs used by the family 
Entry fees, carriage, and 
and for sitting for stock 
show expenses, &c. 
. 1 
8 
7 
23 cockerels and pullets sold 
5 19 
6 
13 cockerels killed, at 2s. 6d. 
1 12 
6 
£15 
8 
6 
Prize money. 
0 5 
0 
To Balance, Profit.. 
. 6 
7 
8 
Dec. 31st—in stock : 
20 pullets, at 4s. 
4 0 
0 
6 liens, at 3s. 
0 18 
0 
9 cockerels at 6s. 8 d . 
3 0 
0 
£21 
16 
2 
£21 16 
2 
—E. Steward, New Harford , Nottingham. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
The Poultry Club.— To-day will meet for the first time the 
new and enlarged Committee of the Poultry Club. There seems 
a general expectation that the Club is from now to take, so to 
speak, a fresh departure, and that the sphere of its influence will 
be enlarged. 
The Dorking Fowl. —An interesting controversy has been 
going on in one of our contemporaries upon our old English friend 
the Dorking fowl. The chief points in it seem to be the question 
whether the modern Dorking is as a table fowl equal or superior 
to the Dorking of our grandfathers, and also what “ points” are 
really essential to the purity of the breed, and what are the 
merely arbitrary creations of the fancy. We shall be glad of the 
opinions of our readers experienced in the breed. 
Rearing Chickens Without Water.— From time to time 
many practical poultry breeders have given their opinion that 
chickens in their early days thrive better, and are less subject to 
diarrhoea and other maladies of chickenhood, without water than 
with it. We have always consulted Nature much in our treat¬ 
ment of all live stock, and so have been inclined to disagree with 
this system. During the last fortnight, however, we have given 
it a trial, and are determined to pursue it through the early part 
of the season. Of course, when the weather becomes really hot 
water must be requisite for the comfort of all gallinaceous birds, 
but at present we find that the milk from a good feed of bread 
and milk once a day is quite enough for our young broods to 
drink. 
Pekin Ducks. —We have heard very opposite expressions of 
opinion as to the merits of Pekin Ducks as layers ; it may not be 
out of place, therefore, to give the result of our experience. In 
moderate confinement we find them excellent layers ; on a large 
piece of water at complete liberty very poor ones. 
Crossing Poultry. —The result of crossing different breeds 
or different subvarieties of poultry is always interesting. An 
experimenter in Polish crosses last year mated a white-crested 
Black Polish cock with two Silver Polish hens. Curiously enough 
the whole of the produce are pullets, heavily bearded and pure 
black, some with a very few white feathers in their crest. How 
far may the original CiAves be indebted to some such cross 1 —C. 
PARIS SHOW. 
The annual Exhibition of live and dead fowls, which is held in 
connection with the show of fat beasts, seeds, cereals, Ac., was 
opened to the public on Saturday last. It is under the management 
of the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, and is in many re¬ 
spects very different from similar shows in this country. Fanciers 
of poultry are almost unknown in France, and the most of the ex¬ 
hibitors are dealers. The prizes are offered by the Government, and 
no entry fee is charged; the giving of a simple notice as to the 
number of pens they require being all that is necessary on the part 
of exhibitors. As a natural consequence of this the quality of the 
exhibits is in some cases very poor, the dealers appearing to treat the 
Show as much as a market for the purpose of getting rid of their 
superfluous stock as a contest for prizes. 
The ideas of the Judges upon what are known as fancy points over 
here seem to be in most cases rather unsettled ; and the fact that 
several exhibitors showed two cocks in one pen, and that the number 
of hens in each pen varied from three to six or eight, must have ren¬ 
dered the task of the Judges by no means an easy one. 
The French breeds were of course most numerously represented, 
there being no less than 531 in the sections devoted to them. The 
classification as regards the foreign birds was by no means what one 
would desire, and the entries in this section numbered only about 
400. 
Turkeys, Geese, and Ducks were rather under 300 in number, while 
Pigeons had 470 entries. Dead fowl classes were on the whole of 
great excellence, and far superior to anything of the kind we see 
over here. They had 233 entries. 
The live poultry classes opened with Cr'eve-Cmurs, there being fifty- 
five entries in the cock class, and as many in that for hens. Con¬ 
sidering the enormous number of birds thus brought together the 
quality in some points, such as size and shape, was better than 
could have been expected, but such fancy points as crests, comb, and 
muffling were sadly defective. This section has the largest amount in 
prizes offered to it, there being five in each class. Both the firsts 
went to M. Jean Farcy. The winning cockerel was of good size, 
but much too long in leg for our taste : the hens were perhaps the 
most even lot in the class. Other prizes went to MM. Lemoine, 
Bouchereaux, Breschet, and Yoisin. M. Aillerot showed some white 
birds which, however, were so dirty that it was hard to be certain 
whether the colour was pure or not. In Houdans, which numbered 
in the two classes 182 entries, the two first prizes and the Prix 
d’Honneur went to MM. Rouillier and Arnoult for a cockerel of no 
great merit, and a fairly good pen of hens. It was to these latter 
that the much-coveted chief prize was awarded. The same remarks 
■which we made above as to the Creve-Coeurs apply equally to the 
Houdans, with the exception that the general quality of the exhibits 
was not so good in the latter classes as in the former. We may note 
that the prevailing colour, especially of the hens, was much lighter 
than that which is most fashionable over here, thus indicating the 
probability of a cross with the Creve-Coeur having been resorted 
to here to gain the fashionable dark colour. There were only three 
prizes offered in each class, and the remaining prizewinners were 
MM. Lemoine, Giraud, Yoitellier, and Pointelet. We can remember 
to have seen in England (as well in regard to size and shape as to 
fancy points) many finer birds both in the Creve and Houdan classes 
than any exhibited at the Paris Show. 
Next on the list came the La FVeclie with 130 entries. The general 
quality here struck us as being better compared with that of birds 
shown in England than in the preceding classes. This may probably 
be on account of the delicacy which these birds develope in the 
English climate having prevented their being largely cultivated here. 
Both first prizes went to M. Farcy, who also gained two out of the 
remaining four prizes, the other two going to MM. Lasseron and 
d’lmbleval. The hardness of plumage of these birds makes them 
look smaller in the show pen than the Creves or Houdans, but when 
plucked for table they are really the largest of the three breeds. 
The remaining French breeds to which separate classes were 
allotted were the Pace du Mans and Paces de la Bresse. The former 
of these seems to have its points as regards comb, &c., rather un¬ 
settled, but the prizes were both awarded to rose-combed birds. All 
the exhibits, while varying greatly as to comb, were uniformly black 
in colour. They suggested a cross between La Fleche and Black 
Hamburghs as the origin of the variety, and the result is a somewhat 
larger bird more upright in carriage than the Black Hamburgh, but 
otherwise very similar to that variety. As the laying qualities of the 
breed are very highly spoken of, we presume it is for this that they 
are honoured with separate classes. The prizes for this class went to 
MM. Yoitellier and Loyau. 
The La Bresse, as exhibited, appear to be of three kinds, all single- 
combed. The first black birds, very much of the type of the Minorca, 
but not so large as the best specimens of that breed. To this variety 
the two first prizes were awarded, the exhibitor in both cases being 
M. Maurice. The second variety simply differs from the first in 
being white in colour, while the third has a white ground colour 
poorly spangled with black in a manner suggestive of a very bad 
Spangled Hamburgh. To this last variety the two seconds went, the 
exhibitors being M. Farcy and M. Yallois. 
The next two classes were for any other French variety, and there 
were four prizes in each class, with fifty-two entries. By far the 
greater number of these were Courtes Pattes. These birds were all 
black in colour, and some of them were extremely short in leg. They 
would appear to be now quite as well fixed as a distinct variety as the 
better known French breeds. The first-prize cockerel, which was 
exhibited by M. Farcy, was of this breed, and of great merit, being of 
fine size, very short in leg, long in body, and in brilliant condition, 
while he was the only specimen of the breed that had any claim to be 
described as white in earlobe. Judging from the number of birds 
with red earlobes exhibited at Paris, we think the English judges are 
wrong in at present attaching too much importance to this point. In 
the class for hens second went to Courtes Pattes, belonging to the 
same owner. There were three in the pen, all short in leg and good 
in size. One of them was in brilliant condition and specially good in 
all points, but the other two showed traces of feathers on their legs, 
which we consider a great fault. The second prize in the cock 
class and the first in the hens were awarded to birds exhibited by 
