September 29 , 1881. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 308 
At the Dairy Show we had many opportunities of learning 
what success poultry breeders in general have had this year. We 
think it may be taken to have been on the whole a fair average 
season. Some have had good hatches all through, but most people 
had many failures in February and March. Those who were for¬ 
tunate enough to have eggs to set in December had good hatching 
results from these, but had some difficulty in getting the chickens 
through the severe weather in the early part of the year, and the 
size of the January-hatched birds is consequently below the 
average. At the end of March things mended with most fanciers, 
and there are plenty of April-hatched birds in all quarters. These 
have done better than usual this year, doubtless because there 
were few early chickens to soil the runs and absorb an unfair 
share of care and food to the detriment of the late-comers. We 
therefore expect that the later shows will not suffer much, if at 
all, from the partial failure of the hatching season. A point in 
their favour will be that the unusually early moult which we hear 
of from many quarters will undoubtedly lead to the old classes 
being amply filled. We anticipate a successful year for the 
Crystal Palace and all the later shows. 
The Islington Show being a month earlier than usual could not 
be expected to be up to the average. In many classes the birds 
were so raw and unformed that passing judgment upon them 
must have been a somewhat difficult task. A judge can only take 
the birds as he finds them and place them according to their 
present merits; but to a judge who is also a breeder, and who 
sees indications of latent excellences in the youngsters with half- 
grown hackles and invisible tails, it must often be a hard struggle 
to follow out this rule. Exhibitors, too, are sometimes inclined to 
be over-exacting, and expect the judge to place their exhibits not 
according to their visible points but according to his estimation of 
what they will be later on. The exhibitor knows what his birds 
will in all probability grow into; his acquaintance with the strain 
enables him to see much more in the youngsters than the judge 
can see : the exhibitor can predict with reasonable certainty where 
the judge can only see promise which may never reach fulfilment. 
The advantage of having a judge who has himself been a breeder 
is that he knows which points are of most importance in the 
breeding yard, and also knows what changes and improvements 
time is certain to effect. Taking the birds as they are, reasonable 
allowance may be made for such matters ; and it is here that the 
judge who has actually kept the variety he is adjudicating upon 
has the advantage over the man who has merely picked up his 
knowledge in the show yard and from books ; but a prudent judge 
will rather err on the side of allowing too little than too much for 
such changes. __ 
A GOOD example of what we mean may be found in the Light 
Brahma classes. Here chickens are constantly exhibited with 
young feathers, which show a decided yellow or buff tinge. The 
owner, probably, is certain that this is merely the sap in the young 
feathers, which have only just grown or are still growing, and 
that another week or two will clear all this away and leave the 
feathers of the much-desired pure white. The judge who has 
been a breeder of Light Brahmas knows the parts of the plumage 
likely to be affected by any real impurity of colour, as also the 
indications which prove that what seems to be foul colour is 
merely sap. He can therefore make allowance for this seeming 
defect in cases where he is certain that it will not be permanent, 
while he makes no allowance for it in cases where he is uncertain 
as to whether it is or is not a real impurity of colour. The judge 
without practical experience must either exclude all birds which 
apparently are affected by the fault, and thus, perhaps, withhold 
a prize from the best bird in the class, or run the risk of admitting 
really foul-coloured birds to honours to which they have no claim. 
In some strains certain parts of the plumage grow full of sap and 
then clear off ; in others these parts are liable to be permanently 
defective in colour. No judge should make any allowance for 
such doubtful matters. The defect being there, and there being 
an uncertainty as to its permanence, he is bound to count it as a 
defect. This may seem hard to the owner, who knows that in his 
strain such colour always disappears with the maturity of the 
feather, but it is the only basis upon which a fair decision can be 
arrived at. 
Two matters in connection with the Show at the Agricultural 
Hall seem to call for a special word of censure. There was much 
to praise. The awards were made known with commendable 
rapidity, the birds were well cared for in the matter of food, and 
the general arrangements were excellent, but upon some of the 
days of the Show the heat in the gallery was almost unendurable. 
A six-days show is bad enough at any time, but six days of such 
an atmosphere as the birds experienced on the Monday would 
have killed many of them. As it was we could almost see the 
combs of some of the cockerels growing, so much were they drawn 
up by the heat, while hundreds of the poor birds were to be seen 
gasping for breath. If there are means of ventilation in the Hall 
they should have been made use of, and if there are no such 
means they should certainly be provided by another year. That 
is one matter ; the other relates to the judging of the class for 
table poultry. The prizes were liberal in this class and the entries 
were numerous, no less than twenty-eight pairs of chickens coming 
forward. They were judged by a poulterer, who in the first place 
ignored the conditions of the schedule by giving first prize to a 
pair of cockerels undescribed in the catalogue, while the class was 
fora “cockerel and pullet” or “ pair of pullets,” and the rules 
required the parentage to be stated ; and in the next place, as we 
are credibly informed, made his awards without handling a single 
bird. How even a poulterer could tell the table qualities of a 
bird by merely looking at it in its pen passes our comprehension. 
The Judge seems to have acted on the principle, so far as he had 
any principle in his judging, that Dorkings were the best table 
fowls, and that large Dorkings were better than small Dorkings. 
We had no opportunity of handling the exhibits, but so far as 
appearances went we thought many of the other birds better than 
some of the winners. There were some good Houdans and also 
some meaty-looking cross-bred birds. These may or may not have 
been really better than the winners, but in any case they should 
have been handled and the quality of their flesh ascertained before 
any awards were made. The judging here was universally con¬ 
demned, and we trust that by another year the Committee will 
find some means of having this class properly adjudicated upon. 
CHICKENS IN AUTUMN. 
Auttjmn is upon us; it is time, therefore, to give some hints on the 
management of chickens in autumn. If weather be only fairly 
favourable it is not a season in which we find it difficult to keep our 
poultry, the young birds especially, in good health. This, we well 
know, is not the opinion of all fanciers, but for our part we have 
always found it more difficult to manage chickens through the 
hottest months of summer than through the autumn. Much, how¬ 
ever, depends upon whether our advice has been taken and a 
judicious system of thinning-out has been constantly kept up ; if so, 
the good results therefrom are sure now to be visible. Wherever 
the fewest chickens have been reared these are the finest. Those 
which have suffered from summer catarrhs should now be outgrow¬ 
ing them, and all should he getting on apace. Cockerels in par¬ 
ticular advance with amazing strides through September and Oc¬ 
tober. Cold nights, combined with hot and-sunny days such as we 
have la'ely been enjoying, seem to brace and stimulate them. It is 
perfectly wonderful what a fine month about this time of year will 
do for April and May-hatched cockerels in bringing them on. We 
have often, notably last year, quite despaired at Michaelmas of our 
cockerels, from their lateness, ever cutting a respectable figure at 
the great autumn shows, and then, so quick has been the progress of 
some, that by the time of the Crystal Palace Show cups have fallen 
to their lot. 
As in summer heat and want of ventilation in the poultry houses 
are the chief difficulties against which we have to contend, so in 
autumn damp, both in the soil and in the houses, is the great enemy 
of poultry. First, then, as to the houses. We would rather keep 
poultry in the most tumbledown old cart-shed, provided it were 
really dry, than in the most elaborate house with damp flooring or 
an imp rfect roof. Fortunately damp in houses is almost always 
remediable. If the roof is bad a new one must be put on such as 
we have often described. Patching is seldom satisfactory. If the 
floor is damp it must be excavated a foot, dry rubbish put in, and a 
floor of dry earth, raised somewhat above the surrounding ground, 
rammed down on the top of it. 
Damp in the soil is a far more difficult evil to deal with, yet 
according to our experience far from an insuperable one. When 
poultry have complete liberty they will always find out dry corners 
in wet weather under some densely Ivy-clad stem, or slanting tree, 
or leaning wall. In bright frosty mornings they will escape the 
chilling exhalations of the ground by mounting some bough or 
fence. 
It is a peculiar pleasure to us to watch our birds through the dim 
