January 12,1882.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 43 
and July, just before the cattle grazed on the pastures come into the 
market, for they always realise a better price about that time, par¬ 
ticularly if they are not too heavy, as light weights always sell best 
m summer time. 
DORKINGS IN THE PAST YEAR. 
Controversies among fanciers from time to time arise over 
their favourite breeds of poultry. It is natural that such should 
be the case. How far in estimating the merits of a bird size 
should count against marking, and what points are so essentially 
characteristic that they must be considered sine qua non, are 
questions not likely to be answered alike by all. There have 
been such controversies about Brahmas, Cochins, and other 
breeds, but none of them has been waged with so much ani¬ 
mation as the Dorking controversy. For the most part their 
subject has been marking, and the doubt has generally been 
settled by one or two eminent judges throwing their weighty 
favour into the one scale or the other. The Dorking controversy 
has been by no means so superficial a topic, the mooted point at the 
bottom of it being whether the useful English table fowl par ex¬ 
cellence has of late years deteriorated in useful qualities or been 
improved. Our views on the subject have more than once been 
stated to the best of our ability, and we are not now going to 
reiterate them. The great interest, however, that has seemed to 
be attached to the question is our apology for once more re¬ 
turning to it, just so far as to take a rough survey of the charac¬ 
teristics of the Dorkings shown during the past year. 
The first thiDg that must strike any casual glancer at the 
classes in any of the large shows is, that the long legs so often 
seen some three or four years ago are gone, we hope never 
to be seen again. This, doubtless, is owing partly to the per¬ 
sistence of some old and true fanciers in constantly condemning 
them, and partly to the fact that Dorkings are now constantly 
judged by Dorking breeders, and not by those who simply know 
them from poultry books. The other chief point of interest is 
whiteness of foot. Here we do not pretend to see an improve¬ 
ment all round as in the case of legs, but we certainly see an im¬ 
provement in the prize pen—a proof that attention is given to it; 
and we hear, too, when standing by a Dorking class many a 
critic’s remark thereon—another proof of the same fact, for a few 
years ago the point was little thought of and seldom spoken of. 
We will first speak of the Dark breed. When an outcry was 
justly raised against sooty feet some said, “Let us have lighter- 
coloured birds, it is impossible to have white feet with dark- 
brown plumage ; sooty feet came in with this plumage.” There 
seems reason enough in this belief, but we never held it ourselves 
for several reasons, and we fancy that we have this season seen 
fresh confirmation of our opinion. Certainly from the best yards 
many birds have been shown with white feet, and they for the most 
part have been of the rich brown colour. We have seen, too, 
much to strengthen our belief, often stated, that there is some 
real connection between white feet and the true Dorking shape. 
Careful breeders need to persevere in excluding dark-footed 
Dorkings, and in a few years they will, we hope, be as rare as are 
“ leggy ” birds now. To turn to the Silver Greys. We regret to 
see very dark feet often tolerated in pullets. They generally go 
with very pale breasts—another argument against their following 
dark plumage. 
A change has come over this breed. We remember when it 
was extremely difficult to breed pullets without red in the wing. 
This blemish is now almost unknown, but brown is constantly 
found on the cocks’ wings—a great drawback to the sharply con¬ 
trasted black and white, to our fancy one of the chief beauties of 
the race. These minutiae of marking are very hereditary, which 
should not be forgotten. 
Cuckoo Dorkings deserve more attention than they seem to get. 
We have never been advocates of hypercriticism on points of 
mere ornament, but surely breeders should be able to produce 
Cuckoos with better combs than most of those exhibited at the 
Crystal Palace had. Many of them were simply masses of flesh, 
so overgrown as to be uncomfortable to the birds. Crosses have, 
we know, been the bane of this as of other Cuckoo breeds. At 
first increased size is very apparent, while a large majority of 
the produce are still Cockoo. In two or three generations no 
more, perhaps fewer, are found correctly marked ; black or mixed 
produce are always appearing and disgust the breeder. Hence 
probably the few exhibitors of the breed and the mediocrity of 
their exhibits. 
White Dorkings have been stationary. A few old breeders ever 
stick to their fancy and are ever loud in its praise, but we see no 
general advance in the breed or dispersion of it. In a few cases 
we have regretted to see a tendency to misplaced spurs in Whites 
—a fault at once to be stamped out. It has become common in the 
coloured varieties solely because its importance was not at first 
recognised. A bird with a misplaced spur cannot have a strong 
leg or stand properly. Yellow plumage is fortunately rarer than 
it was ; we have always traced it, when found to any extent, to 
crosses with other breeds, White Cochins or Dark Dorkings. 
Fanciers are only by degrees learning the true value of pure long- 
established race, and make too many experiments by far in such 
crosses. When fresh blood is absolutely necessary pure old 
families must be sought ; a cross with such, even though they 
may fail in size, is far more desirable than one with a different 
breed, even though the results of the latter may at first appear 
satisfactory. Such are briefly the general points in the Dorkings 
of the year which have struck us, and the conclusions we draw 
from them.—C. 
THE POULTRY CLUB. 
A meeting of the Committee of the Poultry Club was held at the 
New Corn Exchange, Cambridge, on Thursday, 5th inst., at 10 a.m. 
There were present the Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dutton (in the chair), 
Messrs. T. C. Burnell, A. Comyns, R. H. Dugmore, S. Lucas, L. Norris, 
and G. Yigers. 
Ejection op Members.— The following new member was elected— 
H. H. Young, Stapleton, Dorking. The following new Associates 
were elected—W. It. Firman, Belchamp Walter, Sudbury ; W. Weston, 
Si, Mount Street, Aylesbury ; W. A. Blakston, Douro Terrace, Sun¬ 
derland. 
Trimmed Game Cock at the Crystal Palace Show.— A case 
which had been several times under the consideration of the Com¬ 
mittee was again brought forward. It was alleged that the Rev. 
R. F. Maynard had exhibited at the Crystal Palace Show a Game 
cock whose hackles had been cut. The Committee having satisfied 
themselves that the facts were as stated, the following resolution was 
passed— 
“That the Rev. R. F. Maynard be disqualified for one year, from January 1st, 
1882, from exhibiting at shows held under Poultry Club Rules.” 
Attempt to Bribe the Club Secretary.— The Hon. Secretary 
read a correspondence which had taken place between Mr. John Burn 
of Hodbarrow, Millorn, Cumberland, and himself, from which it ap¬ 
peared that Mr. Burn had offered the Secretary a considerable per¬ 
centage on any prize money won by Mr. J. Burn at the Club Show 
held at Cambridge on January 4th and 5th. The following resolu¬ 
tion was passed— 
“ That Mr. John Burn be absolutely disqualified from exhibiting at shows 
held under Poultry Club Rules.” 
Election op Officers. —The Secretary was directed to issue 
voting papers for the annual election of officers and committeemen. 
Next Meeting. —The next meeting of the Committee was fixed 
for Monday, February Gth, at the Charing Cross Hotel, at 2 p.m. 
NOTES ON THE POULTRY CLUB SHOW. 
The Poultry Club held its first Show of poultry at the New Corn 
Exchange, Cambridge, on Wednesday and Thursday in last week, in 
conjunction with the Show of Pigeons, Cage Birds, and Rabbits of 
the Cambs Ornithological Society. The hall is in every respect 
admirably suited for such an Exhibition, being large, lofty, and well 
lighted. There were in all 2284 exhibits, and the capacities of the 
building were by no means taxed to the utmost. All the open classes 
of poultry and Pigeons and all the cage birds were staged in the 
main building. The large breeds stood for all practical purposes in a 
single tier in four double rows down the centre of the hall. We say 
for all practical purposes, because, though the Bantams, Pigeons, and 
cage birds were staged over them, the pens of the smaller breeds 
were set back some 9 inches from the fronts of the larger pens, and 
thus a full view of these was obtainable without difficulty. The 
Game and Hamburghs occupied the upper tier round the outer walls, 
while the Langshans and other open classes of poultry, including 
live table poultry, occupied the tier immediately under the Game. 
Every bird in each class was upon a perfect equality as to light, 
position, &c., and this must have greatly facilitated the task of 
judging. The Geese and Turkeys occupied the foot of the room, 
and owing, we believe, to the Honorary Secretary of the Club having 
somewhat late in the day to find 300 or 400 feet of staging for cage 
birds, which had been originally intended to be shown in another 
room, the Ducks were obliged to be relegated to the ground at one 
side of the building, where, however, there was a good light. The 
Rabbits and all the local and selling classes occupied the side 
building. 
The special railway arrangements made for the Show are worthy of 
notice. Through the exertions of Mr. Comyns, no less than twenty 
through vans from various parts of the kingdom ran direct to Cam¬ 
bridge, and each exhibitor was furnished with a list of these, con¬ 
taining a time table of their respective departures. 
