582 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. f December 23, 1880. 
Some of the horses may be employed in carting gravel to roads, 
carting earth to heap from the roadsides, banks, and borders of the 
fences, to remain there until quite mellow and weeds and grass roots 
entirely decayed. It will then be useful in placing at the bottom of 
pens where cattle and pigs are fed, and also at the bottom of cattle 
boxes and yards with the manure accumulating. In this manner the 
earth does not weaken the manure, but absorbs what would otherwise 
be lost. When carted away and cast up together they make one of the 
best composts for dressing grass land that can be manufactured upon 
the farm. This leads us to the subject of winter management of the 
park land or pastures, for it is not uncommon to find tufts of grass 
which have been left and refused by the cattle. It is therefore 
important how these are to be disposed of—whether to pass the scythe 
over, or to put on the land a few poor cattle as gnawers and to eat it 
down, because well-fed cattle in other respects cannot be made to 
touch it without great loss in condition. As we have before now 
observed, they will eat it better when salt has been laid on. What¬ 
ever plan may be adopted, it is still better not to have any of this rough 
food left on the pastures, which raises the question, How is it to be 
avoided ? We reply, The home farmer should remember that the 
cause of these coarse grass bunches is the quantity of cattle droppings 
that is left undisturbed during the summer months. We advise that 
about once a week the droppings should be collected and taken 
to a heap of earth, in order to make a compost for dressing the grass 
land, or otherwise a person employed every few days to knock and 
spread the droppings during the summer. In this way we may have 
the pastures fed as smooth and as close as the turf on a cricket 
ground. This is not only best for the pastures, but it is almost the 
only way to make the p al 'klands ornamental and sightly as they 
should be. 
Hand Labour .—The odd horse and cart must attend to the work of 
fetching hay and straw for the dairy cows and fatting cattle, also 
roots from the storeheap or from the fields where grown, hay and 
straw for feeding being never better than when cut fresh from the 
ricks daily. Hedging, banking, and ditching will be going on in the 
enclosed districts, also cutting the undergrowth in the woodlands. 
Planting hedges and repairing live fences should now be done. The 
most difficult part of live-fence repairing is where trees grow on the 
banks or near, in which case the usual scrub wood dies away. We 
recommend for planting under trees the Myrobalan or Cherry Plum 
(Prunus Myrobalana), and by planting these the live fences may be 
kept entire without the unsightly wood fencing, which is also costly 
to keep in repair. Iron hurdles may be used, but they destroy the 
uniformity and are otherwise objectionable. 
Shepherds now are variously employed, for horned Somerset ewes 
have lambed and only need the usual attention. The Dorset downs are 
beginning to lamb, and folds or yards should now be made up com¬ 
fortable and well littered in a sheltered position. There is no better 
convenience for a lambing yard than when near an old barn, so that 
lambs or ewes which require extra attention may be cared for in the 
hospital barn. The Hampshire downs will commence lambing in 
January, aud their lambing quarters should be prepared—the sooner 
the better, as the ewes may be fed with hay and straw in them at 
night some time previous to the lambing. The only objection seems 
to be in the tendency to lameness amongst the ewes when fed in 
yards in wet weather. It is well to place some earth at the bottom 
of the dead fold, and the sheep will lie drier, especially if the land is 
a little sloping. 
The fatting sheep, the horned ewes and lambs, should now be fed 
with cut roots in troughs ; and, in order to insure a continuation of 
the root supply, not less than ten days’ or a fortnight’s provision of 
roots should be previously cleaned and prepared ready for cutting, 
in order that bad weather may not interfere with the women’s or men’s 
work in preparing and heaping the roots. It must be remembered 
after sheep have been fed at the troughs they could not be fed other¬ 
wise except at serious loss and inconvenience in many respects. The 
food for horned ewes and lambs will be cut Swedes for the former 
and cut Carrots or Cabbage for the latter. In both cases cake and 
bean or barley meal should be strewed over and mixed with the cut 
roots, but the roots should be passed through the cutter twice for the 
lambs. The ewes may have broad Clover or Saintfoin hay, but the 
lambs should have Dutch Clover or mixed Trefoil hay, as it is finer 
and softer, and they can eat it better at an early age. We recommend 
that all Swedes and early roots should be looked over by the women. 
They should also fork out all roots of Couch grass, Docks, and other 
root weeds, as these are easilj' seen when the leaves of the roots are 
fallen ; and we would request the home farmer to remember that the 
first cost in the removal of Couch, &c., is always the least. 
TOY PIGEONS—THE TRUMPETED. 
There is no variety of Pigeons which within our own memory 
has so much changed, and, from a fancier’s point of view, been 
so much improved, as the Trumpeter. We say from a fancier’s 
point of view, for, looked at aesthetically, we think the old English 
type of Trumpeter was decidedly a prettier bird than those of the 
Russian style at present exhibited. The origin of the Trumpeter’s 
name is not so obscure as that of most fancy Pigeons. Before 
playing to the hen the cock bows himself down and makes a long 
hoarse coo not very unlike the sound of an indifferent trumpet. 
We have had small African Doves whose gestures and notes are 
very similar. We possessed a flight of white English Trumpeters 
in childhood twenty years ago ; extremely beautiful they were, 
active on the wing, like their relations the Swallows, and altogether 
much lighter and more agile than the exhibition Trumpeters of 
to-day. They bred well and were good mothers, indeed, a variety 
which might well be kept for their prettiness and. useful qualities 
as table birds combined. Some time later, about fourteen years 
ago we think, a wonderful importation of Russian Trumpeters 
arrived in this country. They were introduced by Mr. Baily of 
Mount Street, and were, we understood, brought with the greatest 
difficulty across the Steppes from Siberia. Strange it seems that 
so savage a region should afford a race of birds which must 
undoubtedly long have been bred with care up to an artificial 
standard of merit ! Many of them perished on the way, but 
those which arrived on English soil perfectly astonished Pigeon 
fanciers with their size and their wonderful development of 
Trumpeter points. As soon as they had sufficiently recovered 
from their travels to be exhibited they at once drove the old type 
of Trumpeter out of the field. For a time it was attempted to 
have separate classes for birds of the two types; but this plan 
soon failed, inasmuch as there was no real distinction between 
them, the only difference being great development of already 
acknowledged points in the new birds. The Russian breed has 
now quite superseded the other as exhibition birds, and those 
shown and seen in good lofts all mainly owe their origin to this 
or some other importation. 
The points of the Trumpeter are not many ; but to be understood 
it should be seen, and almost defies description. The Trumpeter 
is a heavy bird and now by no means active, for the feathers of 
its rose, like those of the Poland fowls’ tuft, much impede its vision. 
It has a shell or crown at the back of its head, such as we have 
described when speaking of the Nun, which should come as much 
round the head as possible on each side. One of its most distinc¬ 
tive points, however, is the rose—a tuft of feathers rising from the 
root of the beak. This in the old birds merely formed an irregular 
tuft, but in the modern Trumpeter it is of immense size and com¬ 
pletely circular, almost covering the beak and the whole of the 
head within the crowns. Great weight is given in judging to the 
size and regularity of this rose. The other most characteristic point 
is foot-feathering. A good Trumpeter is heavily feathered or 
hocked on the leg, and then has beautiful flat feathers extending 
like little wings from the feet. These two latter points should in 
our opinion be equally considered, and not all given to rose, which 
we have frequently seen some good judges do. The colours of 
Trumpeters were formerly many, the Whites being the best. The 
great Russian importation were nearly all mottled— i.e., black and 
white, or black ; these two colours have consequently become the 
most popular, which w r e regret, for the Whites are extremely beauti¬ 
ful. At the last Crystal Palace Show, however, two magnificent 
Whites were shown, and quite held their own against all colours. 
It is not easy to imagine much more beautiful Pigeons. As with 
some other white Pigeons, we believe that young birds are often 
speckled, and only moult out pure white after tw r o or three years. 
Of course this is not the case with such old-established breeds as 
White Fantails, but the Trumpeters and Jacobins, the various 
colours of which have been much interbred, are seldom pure white 
their first year. Yellows and Reds were formerly known, and we 
have seen a Blue Trumpeter depicted on a very antique mosaic; 
but they have now disappeared, and to reproduce them of a 
type to compete with the wonderful mottled birds which we now 
see in the prize pen, would take much time. Of course, care 
is requisite to keep the foot feathers of Trumpeters in nice order 
and condition, which adds greatly to their beauty, and which is 
often not sufficiently appreciated by judges. Trumpeters are 
fitted rather for the aviary and loft than to fly at complete liberty, 
for few Pigeons so easily fall a prey to cats. They breed well 
when not too highly bred, and in their improved state are a profit¬ 
able variety for domestic use.—C. 
BELFAST POULTRY SHOW. 
This, the leading Irish Show, was held on the Wednesday and 
Thursday of last week. Both in the number of entries and in the 
quality of the birds shown, it was considerably ahead of former years. 
The Victoria Horse Bazaar is a large well-lighted building, very 
suitable for a show. The arrangements were admirably carried out 
under the direction of Mr. Waters, who is a model Secretary, and 
a Committee of fanciers well up to their work and with their hearts in 
it. The poultry were all on the lower tier, the Pigeons above ; and 
as the floors of the Pigeon pens did not cover the back part of the 
tops of the poultry pens, a rather trying cross light was the result. 
Mr. Leno judged the poultry, a task which made a pretty hard day’s 
work for him ; Mr. Pulton the Pigeons. At this Show the attendance 
