JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
72 
[ July 21, 1881. 
cleanliness, ventilation, and the supply of clean fresh water to 
the birds. Do not leave the drinking vessels exposed to the sun, 
but put them in some shaded part of the run, or improvise a 
shade for them if necessary. If there be not sufficient natural 
shade for the birds this should also be furnished by thatching a 
few hurdles with straw or other like material, and raising them 
a couple of feet on short posts driven into the ground. Use 
carbolic fluid or some other disinfectant liberally, and see that 
the dust bath is kept well supplied. Paraffin or petroleum 
rubbed into any crevices where the insect pests collect will put 
them to flight or exterminate them, and a good coat of white¬ 
wash will also be of advantage. 
It is now time that the chickens be thoroughly weeded out. 
E ven the later ones ought to be old enough to show their quality, 
and, apart from the question of space and overcrowding, which 
is of primary importance, it is false economy to keep over 
chickens which are not of high quality. The days are gone by 
when birds fetched high prices simply because they were pure 
bred. Fancy poultry are so widely spread through the country 
that it is only really good specimens which will command good 
prices ; it is better, therefore, to kill off and send to the market 
or consume at home all the second-rate chickens. The only ex¬ 
ceptions to this rule are the breeds which have a special reputation 
for laying qualities. Defective specimens of these can generally 
find a market at something over killing value, and an attempt to 
dispose of them by advertisement will usually prove successful. 
FANCIERS v. FARMERS. 
When I wrote in answer to the article on page 23 I could not 
go so fully as I could have wished into the matter, I therefore 
renew the subject. The writer of the notes referred to says “the 
fancier, as a fancier, has nothing to do with the food supply.” 
Indirectly he has. If the writer knows anything about the reason 
why the poultry shows were instituted he will well know that the 
reason assigned was for the benefit of our food supply, and the 
press loudly proclaimed with such inducements as the shows held 
forth that we soon should have much finer poultry and almost 
eggs to spare. Then, again, who are the fanciers ? Surely not 
those who buy up a few well-bred birds, show them and get prizes 
as long as those birds last, and advertise birds and eggs from such 
and such a prize strain. A fancier is one who keeps anything 
from the pure love of it, looking to and keeping and purifying its 
most minute points of stated excellence and beauty. Take the 
Auricula, the Picotee, the Polyanthus, the Tulip, and other 
fanciers. Would they, any one of them, sell or part with their pet 
flowers ? No : instead of this they will sit and gaze at them with 
a loving tenderness by the hour, and when they sleep dream of 
their loveliness, or pass sleepless nights longing for the morning 
to again behold them. Does anyone know such an enthusiast in 
poultry ? If so, then dub him a fancier ; but not the little dealer 
who would fain, as he moves in a respectable circle, be considered 
one, nor the man wffio kills the birds he ought to love by sending 
them from show to show until they die from sheer exhaustion 
through his greed for gain. 
“ Fanciers versus farmers ” in poultry. How oddly it reads to 
one who has been among poultry all his life ! Versus farmers ! 
Where did the so-called fancier, the self-dubbed fancier, get his 
fowls from when the poultry mania arose ? Why, he trotted off far 
and wide to the farmer for his Dorkings, also for his Hamburghs, 
his Game fowls, and others ; and from them he started himself in 
business, and by the help of the press he, to the farmer’s astonish¬ 
ment, laid down the laws for the good, bad, and indifferent of 
poultry breeding. Who brought the Buff Cochin into notice ? 
Mr. Stringer, a farmer. The Partridge Cochin ? Mr. Punchard, 
a farmer ; and has there been any better shown than these two 
farmers exhibited ? Again, Mrs. Herbert for White Cochins—a 
farmer's wife. Everyone knows the splendid Game fowls that 
were to be seen in farmyards and runs. “Yes!” will say the 
so-called fancier ; “ so far we are one. You had the Polish, the 
Malay, Spanish, &c. But have we not introduced the French 
varieties ?” True, this may be : but did you do it for the love of 
the thing as a fancier ? No ! You did it for gain, became little 
dealers, and you know it. Hark, you farmers at what the fanciers 
have done for you !—made a big mongrel from your old English 
Dorking, and ask you 24s. a dozen for the eggs. 
Why is the fancier so anxious to breed poultry pure that the 
farmer may have them to cross with his “ common fowls ?” Look¬ 
ing over some of the cross-bred poultry yards of late, I think I 
never saw a more dreary sight in the way of poultry—all sorts of 
form, all sizes, all colours, comb, top-knot, &c. And this is what 
“the fancier” wants the intelligent farmer to do. For my part 
I have known, and happily I do still know, a number of farmers, 
and I may add intelligent farmers—so intelligent that they are 
not, in my opinion, likely to buy the eggs of dark-legged mongrels 
at 24s. a dozen, or even at 12s., of their truly disinterested kind 
friends the fanciers, even if it is to improve their poor white-legged 
delicate home-grown Dorking. There are many other breeds that 
the intelligent fancier has taken in hand for exhibition purposes, 
which, taking them as they were even twenty years ago, he cannot 
point with pride and say they are better, or even so good. A 
reporter, and also a good judge of many years standing, mentioned 
this to me a few days back, and he is not the only one by many 
who has observed the gravity of the situation. I suppose prices 
are going down or their little playful ways are found out, as “ the 
fanciers ” are now bidding up for the farmers to help and buy. 
But the farmers are not so foolish as to spoil their stocks, when 
they have them, of the old true Dorking ; and they know also 
that you cannot get flesh and eggs from the same fowl no more 
than you can get flesh aud butter from the same cow, however 
much the wiseacres of fanciers try to beguile them into a cross 
for that purpose. Though the old Dorking laid a fair quantity of 
fine eggs, still as a table fowl it was pre-eminent. The exhibition 
Dorking is the very worst layer I ever had. 
You say, in the way of eggs “ During the last few years there 
has been a tendency to improvement.” Which way ? More from 
abroad or from home produce ? If I remember rightly, the Govern¬ 
ment return shows that the import of eggs is still on the increase. 
The small farmers are asked to keep good poultry, of course the 
fancier’s poultry. Where would he get the capital to buy it at 
prices now asked for it ? and if he had many he would have to' 
buy grain, &c., and then where is the profit ? 
Again you say, “ Many of the useful qualities of a breed are 
doubtless sacrificed by the fancier in his efforts to attain perfection 
in standard points.” Surely this is a misprint. Take table 
poultry, take the egg-producing fowl, how is perfection to be 
gained if you sacrifice its usefulness ? I fail to see how ; but no 
doubt the intelligent fancier knows right well. 
“ The best results both as regards table and laying qualities 
which we have heard of have been attained by taking the pro¬ 
ducts of the fancier’s labours, undoing the harm and retaining the 
good which had been accomplished, and then, regardless of fancy 
points, developing the useful qualities by careful selection and 
judicious crosses.” Read this, ye farmers. What you have to do 
is merely to buy of the fanciers, and then use your own brains 
and time to undo what they have done for you. You had a good 
fowl, the Dorking. They have muddled it. Buy it of them, and 
undo their work, and restore it to its original fine quality and 
usefulness. No, stay ; this is far better : Try with the stocks you 
have to make it what it once was, the king of the barndoor. 
Why the man who buys a few fowls, who never kept any before, 
should immediately call himself a fancier and look down on the 
farmer who has kept poultry all his life, and probably to advan¬ 
tage in every sense—why that man who buys such fowls, and by 
the exhibition of them obtains prizes, should call himself a fancier 
and lecture the farmer as if he were an imbecile, is a matter 
beyond my comprehension, and I am sorry to say that there are 
others equally as dull as myself. —Harrison Weir. 
P.S.—In the nineteenth line from the top of the second column, 
page 23, the word “ have ” should have been printed “ had.”—W. H. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden square,London. 
Lat. 51° 32'40 'N.; Long.0° 8'0" W.; Altitude.lll feet. 
LATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
Rain. 
1 
1881. 
July. 
Barorne- 
! ter at 32° 
1 and Sea 
l Level 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
of Wind. 
Temp, of 
Soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Lry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass. 
Inches. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sun. 10 
S0.<*94 
02.0 
54.2 
W. 
61.1 
75.7 
54.7 
127.2 
52.0 
_ 
Mon. 11 
30.215 
71.3 
59.0 
s. 
03.0 
79.1 
55.6 
128.3 
51.4 
Tues. 12 
30.039 
72.7 
62.6 
s. 
61.3 
82.4 
55.9 
132.6 
50.6 
0.048 
Wed. 13 
30.220 
07.4 
59.6 
w. 
65.0 
83.7 
53.7 
128.8 
50.2 
— 
Thurs. 14 
30.317 
64.4 
62.1 
w. 
65.7 
87.4 
57.6 
132.7 
53.6 
— 
Friday 1.5 
30.088 
80.0 
69.6 
s.w. 
67.1 
94 6 
61.3 
135.0 
55.9 
— 
Satur. 10 
30.058 
74.7 
60.5 
N. 
68.6 
84.5 
68.0 
131.3 
57.6 
0.035 
Means. 
30.148 
70.4 
61.9 
65.0 
83.9 
57.4 
130.8 
53.0 
0.083 
REMARKS. 
10th.—Fine, bright, and warm. 
11th.—Warm, very fine; bright moonlight night. [very warm. 
12th.—Close oppressive morning ; rain for short time 10 A.M., fine afterwards ; 
13th.—Fine, bright, and warm; pleasant breeze. 
14th.—Foggy generally, but fine and very warm. 
15th.—Hazy at first, afterwards fine, bright, and very hot. 
16th.—Cooler, but still very warm ; fine with much cloud about; rain at 10 P.M. 
An extremely hot week, the thermometer on the 15th rising to a higher point, 
94.6°, than on any occasion since observations commenced here in 1857. The 
nearest previous approach to it was 93.3° in July, 1868.—G, J. SIMONS. 
