272 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September w, isso. 
chasing some prize chickens, or such as are likely to become such. 
The pian is certainly a good one, for it is a sore tax to patience 
to begin in the autumn with a breeding pen which perhaps may 
never produce good chickens, and if it does, whose owner 
may not be able to choose the best. Many of the greatest and 
most successful exhibitors have thus begun. We remember how 
“the Henwife” relates in her personal experience that the begin¬ 
ning of her famous career as an exhibitor was the purchase of a 
pen of Dorkings in England, which subsequently won honours 
for her at all the Scotch shows. We know many a fancier who 
has first been taken with the poultry mania on seeing an exhi¬ 
bition in the early autumn when cockerels and pullets are in the 
pink of condition and the fullest bloom of plumage. The great 
shows are still to come, and birds purchased now even at high 
prices may easily win more than their cost in cups and prizes at 
the winter shows, and may lay the foundations of a lasting fame in 
the poultry line for their proud purchasers. To love a good 
bargain is said to be inherent in human nature ; nevertheless, 
unless we are much mistaken, there is considerable charm in re¬ 
garding a costly purchase when it turns out well and answers the 
purpose for which a liberal outlay has been made. 
There is much pleasure in the first laurels won in any contest, 
and certainly we have never known more enthusiastic or pains¬ 
taking fanciers than some of those who have begun by a spirited 
speculation in prize birds. As we have said, interest at once 
centres on such ; they can almost immediately be shown in their 
new owner’s name, and by comparing them with their competitors 
a novice may soon learn more than he can from pages of descrip¬ 
tions or daily admiring surveys of his home stock. Many of our 
home-bred Swans turn out in the show pen to be very ordinary 
Geese ; yet so convinced are some fanciers of the superiority of 
their own feathers that nothing but ocular proof will make them 
see their deficiencies. Another argument in favour of the pur¬ 
chase of early exhibition chickens is this : Really good birds can in 
September generally be purchased at moderate prices. The yards 
of most breeders are crowded, the cockerels begin to quarrel, and 
often if not parted with some of the best stock has to be sacrificed. 
Those, too, which are now winners may not win hereafter, and 
the thought of this naturally weighs with sellers. 
This brings us to the point of our subject—viz., to some hints 
on the selection of young show stock. To begin with, precocious 
birds should be avoided ; we mean such cockerels and pullets as 
are often seen, still not nearly full grown, yet with all their full 
adult plumage and highly developed combs. Such birds have 
been forced on, and will grow little more ; an inexperienced 
judge is often taken with their prettiness and condition, and even 
the best judges sometimes cannot help putting them in prominent 
positions when all other competitors are still combless chickens. 
Again, purchasers should look out for any signs of severe moults. 
Early chickens which have quickly developed the plumage of 
cocks and hens, especially pullets which have laid, often go into 
deep moult, which unfits them for exhibition through the greater 
part of the autumn. A practised eye will easily detect such 
drawbacks, but a beginner may not find it easy to do so, and, 
indeed, no one can be certain that any young birds will remain 
continuously in good plumage. Moults come on suddenly and 
capriciously, and depend much upon temperature ; the over¬ 
heating of a show room will sometimes throw chickens into the 
moult. 
We advise all beginners to get introduced to some well-known 
fancier of the breed he is inclined to take up, and to follow his 
advice in the selection of birds to start with. There seems a 
general bond of sympathy between true fanciers. We must say 
that we have known many who, though total strangers at first, 
have done all in their power to assist a promising novice in 
poultry or Pigeon matters. If it is impossible to get advice on 
the purchase of birds at a show, which is generally preferable, we 
advise a young fancier to write directly to some exhibitor of 
repute, state his requirements and about the price he can give, 
and trust to receiving his money’s worth in the shape of good 
birds. When this course is straightforwardly pursued we believe 
that instances of cheating are very rare. Too often a beginner 
reads up a list of points in some poultry book, looks out for the 
advertisements of first-prize cup birds, answers one put in by 
some unknown individual, who has probably never won a prize at 
all, or if he has, only at some fifth-rate village show, describes 
the perfect and ideal bird, and in return receives a reply that 
he can have such a one for 15.?. or £1. Of course some worthless 
creature arrives, the buyer is disgusted, complains that fanciers 
are rogues, and often buys no more. If more confidence were 
placed in really well-known and great breeders, and if the 
ignorant really confessed their ignorance, and instead of pre¬ 
tending to expect perfection would ask the description of birds at a 
certain price, their merits and their imperfections, we believe that 
much disappointment would be obviated, and that many a useful 
young bird both for breeding and exhibition might at this time of 
year be picked up at far less than the exorbitant prices which 
winning specimens always command by the time of the great 
autumn shows.—C. 
VARIETIES. 
Goat Show. —An Exhibition of Goats will open this day (Thursday) 
at the Alexandra Palace, and remain open for a week. About a 
hundred specimens have been entered, the exhibitors including the 
Baroness Burdett Coutts, Lady Pigot, and many members of the 
British Goat Society, whose Honorary Secretary, Mr. H. S. Holmes 
Pegler, will act as Judge. 
- Field Potatoes in Scotland. —A correspondent communi¬ 
cates the following on this important crop :—“ Regents and Victorias 
will be very excellent. The disease has been stopped by the extremely 
dry weather, but I have seen mildew very bad indeed. With regard 
to the Champion there will be some disappointment this season. Not 
only will the smallness of the crop have to be reckoned on, but owing 
to the abundant crops of the above-named superior Potatoes, the 
stocks of Champions will have to be sold at a low price. I have 
been for a few weeks past doing a kind of voluntary penance testing 
the quality of new Potatoes, and what a pleasure it is to get back 
again to old-fashioned sorts !” 
- The [Harvest and Corn Values.—T hat the harvest is a 
good one may be estimated by the price of British Wheat last week, 
which was 42s. 2 cl. per quarter. This was several shillings per 
quarter lower than it has been on an average of several years past. 
The average price of Oats last week was 21s. 8d., which was much 
below the average price during the corresponding weeks of several 
preceding years. The same may be said of Barley. 
- Agricultural Education in Italy.'—'A rrangements are 
being made by the Italian Ministers of Commerce and Agriculture for 
the institution of “ Ambulatory Agrarian Schools,” after the pattern of 
those which have effected such good results in parts of Germany. A 
number of professors of the sciences practically allied with agricul¬ 
ture will lecture and hold classes in the principal towns of these 
provinces during a few months of each year, in order to instruct the 
country folk in the most rational methods of cultivating their soil. 
The Ministry has also determined to erect at once a number of 
specialist agricultural schools at Avelino, for general agriculture ; a 
second in Florence for pomology and horticulture ; and a third in 
Bari for Olive culture. Similar schools are planned at a later date for 
Alba, Modena, Catania, Brindisi, Alghievo, and Ferrara. 
- From Harvest to Harvest. —In the twelve months ending 
August 31st, 1880, the import of Wheat into the United Kingdom 
reached 59,815,691 cwt., equal to 13,803,621 qrs.; and when we add to 
this the import of Wheat flour—which amounted to 10,431,726 cwt., 
or 2,980,493 qrs.—we find that M'e received from abroad no fewer than 
70,247,417 cwt., or 16,784,114 qrs., of Wheat and Wheat flour. In the 
twelvemonth ending August 31st, 1878, the amount was 62,255,125 cwt., 
or 14.808.966 qrs. ; and in the twelvemonth ending August 31st, 1879, 
it was 60,849,823 cwt., or 14,543,607 qrs. Our other imports of corn in 
the twelvemonth ending August 31st, 1880, comprised 31,870,896 cwt., 
or 7,436,542 qrs., of Indian Corn or Maize ; 12,382,665 cwt., or 3,467,147 
qrs., of Barley ; the very large quantity of 15,622,912 cwt., or 
5,681,059 qrs., of Oats ; 2,002,772 cwt., or 445,061 qrs., of Peas ; and 
2,754,518 cwt., or 642,721 qrs., of Beans. The grand totals are as 
follows :—In 1877-78 the twelvemonth’s import thus classed under 
the title of “corn” amounted to 131,430,348 cwt., or 33,858,689 qrs.; 
in 1878-79 it was 124,866,538 cwt., or 31,510,900 qrs.; and in 1879-80 
it reached 134,881,180 cwt., or 34,45'5,644 qrs. In the last of these three 
periods, compared with the first of the three, the increase in Wheat 
and Oats was nearly counterbalanced by a large decrease in Indian 
Corn and in Barley, so that the grand totals show no very great 
difference.—( Times.) 
- The Egg Trade in America.—T his is referred to as follows 
by Messrs. Read & Pell in their report on American farming :—Eggs 
