April 28, 1881. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
347 
well-bred and well-fed young cattle are very apt to suffer from the 
quarter ill, unless great care is taken witb them on their first leaving 
the cattle courts and yards in the spring. The fat tegs or hoggets 
are now being shorn before being sent to market, especially in the 
event of their being ripe fat, but those in only moderate condition 
will sell best in their wool for another few weeks. Great care will 
also be required in washing them in readiness for shearing, for when 
washed in a pond or stream it requires great care so that no animal 
may remain in the water beyond his turn, as we have known sheep 
lost when taking in a quantity of water internally, and particularly 
when the animals are very fat, because they are then in a helpless 
state. We prefer tank-washing where the tanks are conveniently con¬ 
structed for the purpose. The weaning of calves will now be going 
on, and in case they are to be steered and fattened at two years old 
they cannot be too well kept from the first, and should receive after 
weaning not only the best advertised substitutes for milk, but also 
cake and beanmeal; and until they are several months old they 
should either be kept in yards and sheds, or otherwise in a dry 
sheltered paddock with night quarters adjoining, eating dry fodder, 
such as Trifolium and Yetches, until the earliest roots or Kale are 
ready. 
VARIETIES. 
Nightingales near London. —Will any of your readers kindly 
tell me where I can hear the nightingale within a few miles of 
London ? All the time I have lived in Dorset I have never once heard 
a nightingale, and I believe no one else has either. But when I was 
living in Sussex I used to hear them sing both by day and night. I 
am particularly fond of listening to these lovely vocalists, and if any¬ 
one will tell me a good place near to London where I can once more 
hear them I shall be very much obliged’to them.— Wyld Savage. 
- The Bantam Club.—T he long-talked-of' Bantam Club is, 
we understand, really in process of constitution. A meeting for the 
appointment of officers and consideration of rules is to be held at 
the Charing Cross Hotel on May 2nd, at 1p.m. 
- Toy Pigeons.—A circular is being sent round to fanciers of 
German Toy Pigeons about the establishment of a Society to pro¬ 
mote the breeding and exhibiting of such varieties. It is stated in 
the circular, that “ In addition to this it has long been felt that some 
definite standard should be determined upon, by which the merits of 
each breed could be arrived at in a more satisfactory manner.” Names 
of those wishing to become members of such a Society should be sent 
to Mr. W. H. Marton, 1, Glenfall Villas, Painswick Road, Gloucester. 
- The Mechi Fund. —This fund was started on the death of 
the late owner of Tiptree Hall, with the view of making a suitable 
provision for Mrs. Mechi and her daughters, through the instru¬ 
mentality of the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Leicester, Mr. Samuel 
Morley, M.P., Mr. James Caird, C.B., and other influential friends of 
the deceased gentleman, and now reaches £4400. In order, however, 
to secure an income to Mrs. Mechi of not less than £200 a year, an 
additional £700 is required, and this sum the Committee are endea¬ 
vouring to raise by a further appeal to the general public. The 
Government, in recognition of Mr. Mechi’s public worth both as 
a spirited and scientific farmer and a commercial man of unimpeach¬ 
able integrity, have advised Her Majesty, through the Prime Minister, 
to make a grant of £200 from the Royal Bounty Fund to the sub¬ 
scription that is being formed; and the Dukes of Devonshire and 
Bedford, the Earl of Leicester, and Mr. Samuel Morley have each 
contributed £100 to the same object. Other sums varying from £50 
to 10s. G d. have also been remitted from different parts of the country 
without distinction of class or profess'on. After Mr. Mechi’s death a 
public meeting was convened at the Mansion House, under the presi¬ 
dency of the Lord Mayor, to testify to the liberality and intelligence 
with which, before he devoted himself fo exclusively to agricultural 
pursuits, he had served the offices of sheriff and alderman, and the 
sum of £600 was subscribed for his widow on the spot. Before the 
termination of his City avocations, however, circumstances connected 
with the failure of a bank of which Mr. Mechi was a principal 
director, and to reimburse the creditors of which he voluntarily re¬ 
linquished a large fortune, had obliged him to resign his aldermanic 
gown and the honour of the mayoralty in the following year. These 
incidents in his life, added to the great philanthropic work he carried 
through in founding and establishing the Royal Agricultural Bene¬ 
volent Institution, now one of the wealthiest and most important 
cl arities in the United Kingdom, will, we doubt not, when they are 
b‘ ought to the knowledge of his countrymen, speedily operate in 
procuring the comparatively small sum still required in the interests 
of his widow and family, especially when it is remembered that their 
present destitute position is in a large degree owing to Mr. Mechi’s 
long and zealous attention to matters of public concern. The Marquis 
of Huntly, Chairman of the fund, and the Hon. Secretary, Mr. C. B. 
Shaw, will be glad to receive and acknowledge contributions ad¬ 
dressed to them at 2G, Charles Street, St. James’s, London, S.W. 
ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY’S SHOW. 
In consequence of the removal of the Society from the premises in 
Kildare Street, Dublin, in which their shows have for so many years 
been held, to the new premises at Ball’s Bridge, the usual winter 
Show was not held. To make up as far as possible for this loss, 
classes for poultry and Pigeons were added to the schedule of the 
spring Show, which opened on Tuesday the 19th inst., and lasted 
four days. 
The premises at Ball’s Biidge are considerably larger than the old 
buildings in Kildare Street, and a portion of the spacious gallery 
round the main hall was allotted to the poultry. The light was 
admirable, and the substitution of more modern wire show pens for 
the old wooden ones formerly used was a great advantage. If on a 
future occasion, as on this, the system of showing pairs of hens 
together be adopted, it would be better that the pens should be 
set up at their full width and not narrowed by overlapping the fronts 
some inches, as they were on this occasion. 
It is, we believe, the first time in which the cocks and hens have 
been shown separately here. This is a great improvement, but we 
think it was rather a mistake to make the classes for two hens 
instead of one. No doubt it is a greater test of the real merits of a 
yard matching a pair of hens for .the show pen than merely sending 
out a single bird, but the system must of necessity injuriously affect 
the number of entries. 
As the season of the year is now somewhat advanced, we do not 
propose to give a detailed report of the Show, but shall merely make 
a few notes upon some of the leading birds. 
The schedule opened with Silver-Grey Dorkings, which were not so 
well represented as we have seen them in former years, the cocks 
especially being deficient in size. The first-prize bird shown by Mr. 
Shaw was shapely and short in limb, but hardly so silvery in colour 
as Miss Drevar’s, which, however, was not in very good condition. 
This bird, we regret to say, was very severely wounded in the comb 
on the second day of the Show, we fear maliciously. There is great 
want of supervision on the part of the Show authorities in this 
department; and while upon the subject we may mention that the 
laxity which prevailed upon the removal of the birds at the close of 
the Show exceeded anything of the sort that we have seen elsewhere. 
The gallery was crowded with visitors, and each exhibitor seemed to be 
at liberty to remove his birds from their pens without the super¬ 
vision of any responsible person. It say3 much for the honesty of 
the exhibitors that the facilities for theft thus afforded do not 
appear to have been made use of. 
The second prize Silver-Grey Dorking cockerel had white in his 
breast and tail, and should on that account, we thought, have been 
passed over. The hens shown by Messrs. R. P. Williams and D. 
Shaw, to which first and second prizes were awarded, were good in 
size and colour, but still hardly up to what we have seen here in 
previous years. The Coloured Dorkings were not numerous, but 
were of very bigh quality, first and second in each class going to Mr. 
W. H. King, and third to Messrs. Smyth. The general high quality 
of the birds may be indicated by the fact that the Palace cup cockerel 
here, as at Belfast, stood behind a bird bred in the Londonderry yards, 
but which has now changed hands. 
Spanish were fairly well represented, the chief prizes going to 
Messrs. J. Barlow, Cannan, O’Reilly, and Henry. The birds, how¬ 
ever, were as a rule hardly in show condition, which, considering the 
season of the year, is not to be wondered at. 
The Brahma classes were upon the whole far the best we ever 
remember to have seen in Dublin. In Light cocks Mr. R. Mitchell’s 
bird, which won the cup at Birmingham, here stood second to a large 
clear-coloured bird of Mr. Cannan, somewhat long in leg and hollow 
in breast. The Birmingham bird looked smaller and narrower than 
when we last saw him. Had he been in first-rate condition he would 
doubtless have stood first. In the hens Mr. Mitchell stood first with 
his well-known hen mated with a somewhat inferior companion, Mr. 
C. Graham taking second with a large shapely pair of pure colour 
fairly matched. 
Mr. Mitchell’s Dark Brahma cock, first at Hull, Wolverhampton, and 
elsewhere, here added another to the list of his honours ; second going 
to Mr. Comyns’ shapely bird which won the Cambridge cup as a 
