450 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. t November it, uso. 
constantly on the increase from the number of disputes among 
fanciers which are submitted to their arbitration. The fact that they 
are so submitted, and that, too. sometimes by fanciers who are not 
members of the Club, is naturally gratifying to your Committee. To 
publish any list or details of them would be obviously inexpedient. 
In the majority of cases prompt settlements or arrangements are 
effected through the intervention of the Club, and ready acquiescence 
has been given by both sides to its decisions. In one case unfor¬ 
tunately this has not been the result, and a dispute has been dragged 
into publicity : we allude to the controversy arising from the Hemel 
Hempstead incubator contest. We do not wish to reopen the ques¬ 
tion, but as garbled accounts of our action and decision have appeared 
in print, we inform you very simply what we decided and what we 
declined to decide in the matter. In the charges submitted to us 
two points seemed much confused—viz., imputations against the 
general management of the contest, and imputations against more 
than one member of our Club in some way connected with the con¬ 
test. We endeavoured to separate the two, and concerning the latter 
entirely exonerated the gentlemen in question ; concerning the former, 
from the many contradictions in the statements of the two parties, 
and our want of power to examine witnesses on oath, we refused to 
give judgment. 
Other important questions have from time to time been brought 
before us, especially that of a new standard of excellence for poultry, 
which we consider rather subjects for discussion at a general meeting 
than matters to be decided by a Committee. We shall therefore 
endeavour to have them brought forward at the genei'al meeting 
during the Crystal Palace Show, when we trust to see a large number 
of the members of the Club and other fanciers. 
POULTRY CLUB MEETINGS AT THE CRYSTAL 
PALACE. 
May I announce through your columns the arrangements for 
the meetings of the Poultry Club during the Crystal Palace Show ? 
The first committee meeting will be held in my room at the Crystal 
Palace Hotel at 5 p.m. on Monday the 15th inst. The general 
meeting will be held at 4 P.M. in a room adjoining the Marble 
Hall in the Palace. This room is near the entrance to the Palace 
from the low level station. As on a former occasion the Marble 
Hall was found intolerably cold, I may mention that the room 
will be warmed. To this meeting all fanciers, both ladies and 
gentlemen, are invited, and questions of much interest will be 
discussed, and the undermentioned resolutions will be submitted. 
—0. Ernest Cresswell, lion . Sec . 
Resolutions. 
To be proposed by Mr. A. Comyns. To be seconded by Mr. 0. E. 
Cresswell:— 
That the following be added to the rules of the Club :— 
“ That, except as hereinafter provided, every candidate for election 
as an officer or committeeman shall be nominated with his own con¬ 
sent by at least two members of the Club ; that notice in writing of 
such nomination be sent to the Secretary at least a fortnight before 
the election, and that a list of the names and nominators of such 
candidates be furnished to each member with his voting paper ; that 
retiring officers and committeemen who have not signified their 
unwillingness to serve again be eligible for re-election without 
nomination, and that the number of votes obtained by each candidate 
be published after the election.” 
To be proposed by Mr. A. Comyns :— 
“ That a copy of the rules of the Club, with a circular specially 
directing attention to the objects thereof, be sent to each person 
whose name appears in the poultry section of the ‘ Fancier’s Direc¬ 
tory ’ for 1880.” 
To 'be proposed by Mr. S. Lucas. To be seconded by Mr. A. 
Comyns :— 
“ That a circular be sent to the secretaries of the various poultry 
shows in United Kingdom requesting them to communicate with the 
Secretary of the Club as early as possible as to the dates of their 
shows in the season 1881-2, wfith a view to ascertain if, and how far, 
any of such shows are likely to clash, and, if possible, to obviate such 
clashing.” 
To be proposed by Mr. L. C. C. R. Norris. To be seconded by Mr. 
A. Comyns :— 
“ That a circular be sent to the principal railway companies 
throughout the kingdom directing their attention to the various 
abuses existing as to cost of carriage, rough handling of birds, and 
other similar points, and requesting the application of remedial 
measures.” 
To be proposed by Mr. A. Comyns. To be seconded by Mr. E. 
Pritchard :— 
“ That the Committee be requested to formulate a scheme for the 
increase of the number of the Committee by the addition of sufficient 
leading fanciers in London and the other important local centres of the 
fancy, to allow of the formation of a quorum for the transaction of 
the business of the Club in each local centre. The Committee be 
empowered to form sub-committees of its own members, and to dele¬ 
gate to such sub-committees the power of deciding any question or 
cases which it may think fit. That the Committee be empowered 
from time to time during the year 1881 for the purpose aforesaid to 
order that the number of the Committee be increased. That any 
new members to be added to the Committee be elected in the usual 
way by the Club.” 
To be proposed by Mr. H. J. Storer :— 
“ That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable, when the funds 
of the Club will admit thereof, that a club room be hired in London 
for the use of members at least one night in each week.” 
To be proposed by Mr. 0. E. Cresswell. To be seconded by Mr. A. 
Comyns :— 
“ That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that a standard 
of excellence be prepared by the Committee.” 
To be proposed by Mr. E. Pritchard. To be seconded by Mr. 
L. C. C. R. Norris 
“ That in the opinion of this meeting it is desirable that a Club 
Show in London, or some other large town be held in the autumn of 
1881.” 
Question to be asked by Mr. A. Comyns :— 
How many committee meetings have been held during the past 
year, and how many of such meetings have been attended by each 
member of the Committee ? 
VARIETIES. 
The Government and Irish Farmers. —At a recent meeting 
of the Kildysart Board of Guardians, a communication was read 
from the Local Government Board consenting to the postponement 
for twelve months of the payment of the first instalment of money 
advanced for the purchase of Potatoes and Oats, under the Seeds 
Act, during last spring. The farmers are highly pleased at this 
concession. 
-Entomological Society. —At the last monthly meeting of 
the Entomological Society Sir John Lubbock exhibited some inter¬ 
esting larvae, which Mr. Calvert had forwarded to him from the 
Troad, through Sir J. Hooker. These larvae have recently appeared 
there in great numbers, and are likely to prove most useful, as they 
feed on the eggs of locusts. Sir John Lubbock thinks that they are 
coleopterous, and probably those of a beetle belonging to the same 
family as the Cantharis or Blister beetle. Mr. Riley has recently 
described the transformations of certain insects belonging to this 
group, and natives of the United States. The young larvae when 
they leave the egg are thin active little creatures, which eat their 
way into the cases or “ pods ” (as they are called from their shape) 
of locusts’ eggs, where they rapidly grow into flat fleshy grubs. Mr. 
Calvert states that in his neighbourhood a large proportion of the 
locusts’ eggs have this year been destroyed by these larvae. If the 
species does not exist in Cyprus it might be well worth while to 
introduce it there. 
- The Royal Agricultural Society.—A t the meeting held 
on the 3rd inst., at which the Prince of Wales and an influential 
company were present, it was decided, on the recommendation of the 
Implement Committee, to offer a gold and silver medal for the sheaf¬ 
binding machines which, after a trial during the harvest of 1881, the 
judges consider the best and second best, the binding material to be 
other than wire. Letters were read from the Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs respecting a national convention of sheep husbandry 
at Philadelphia, and an international sheep show at Mecklenburg. 
A letter was read from the Countess A. de Noailles, offering a prize of 
£20 for an essay on the benefit to flocks and herds which would 
accrue from giving them access to running water to drink in place of 
stagnant ponds, and it was resolved to accept this offer. Reports of 
various standing committees were received and adopted. A discus¬ 
sion took place with reference to the importation of cattle from 
Ireland affected with pleuro-pneumonia; and on the motion of Mr. 
Bent, seconded by Mr. Wakefield, it was resolved “ that the President 
of the Society be requested to call the attention of the Privy Council 
to the letter received from the Clerk of the Peace of the County of 
Cumberland relative to an outbreak of pleuro-pneumonia which 
occurred in a cargo of cattle lately landed at Shilloth, and that he 
should urge upon the Privy Council that more stringent regulations 
and more careful inspection of imported Irish cattle is requisite both 
at the ports of embarkation and arrival.” 
- Bees and Clover.—B ees are necessary to the fertilisation 
of some kinds of Clover. This fact the New Zealand Government 
have discovered to their great dismay, for the Dutch Clover in that 
colony will not produce sufficient seed owing to the absence of the 
