$he fouling 
POULTRY AT THE WESTERN N. Y. FAIR. 
The show- in this department of the Fair 
was probably the largest ever made in this 
couotry, at any agricultural exhibition. The 
Superintendent, W. J. Winfield, however, 
was equal to the emergency, and proved to 
be, as in former years, “ the right man in the 
right place.” 
There were upwards of 1,000 entries made 
in this department, and so well was the 
management that there was sufficient room 
allotted for all exhibitors, giving all a fair 
chance to exhibit their birds to good advan¬ 
tage. 
Another good plan was adopted by the 
managers of this department, i. e., no mark 
to indicate the ownership of any coop of 
fowls was allowed to be placed upon them 
until after the awards were made, and the 
premium cards tacked on the coops. All 
coops were numbered, and the entry books 
which were placed in the hands of the Judges 
contained numbers corresponding with the 
cards on the coops, so that no partiality 
could be shown in favor ot' this or that ex 
liibitor. 
Geo. Chapman & Co. of Brighton carried 
off the first premium for the largest collec¬ 
tion of fowls ; L. D. Ely of Rochester the 
second, and E. A. Wkxdall of Albany the 
third. Henry Harrison of Rochester made 
a fine display of White Dorkings, and carried 
off the lion’s share of prizes. The same may 
he said of Cartwright & Co. of Fairport for 
their display of Silver, Spangled and Bearded 
Polands, 
The. display of Asiatics was very large, and 
contained a large number of fine birds. In 
the game class the exh'bition was fair, but 
the mating of birds showed very poor taste 
as well as lack of knowledge on the part of 
the exhibitor. As, for instance, a Blue Rod 
cock was mated, with a wheaten-colored hen 
and entered as “Blue Reds.” Many coops 
were passed over by the Judges containing 
birds mismatched in this manner that, if 
properly paired, would have been entitled to 
notice, and probably awards. 
The show in Bantams was unprecedentedly 
large, and contained gome fine specimens of 
the^e miniature beauties. In pigeons Wen- 
daxl of Albany took the lead, with ElX- 
wanger of Rochester close on his heels to 
dispute his right to the first prize for the 
largest and best.collection. Mr. Van Vechtan 
of Rochester made a good display of Buff 
and Partridge Cochins. His Buff Cochin hen 
was by far the finest bird in her class on the 
ground, with plumage almost faultless. 
The Partridge Cochin hen, exhibited by 1 
Geo. Chapman & Co., was a monster in size 
and took the premium for the heaviest hen 
—weighing between 12 and 1*1 lbs. 
The show in Bronze Turkeys was good 
but not large, only some eight or ten being 
on exhibition. In GBeao and Ducks the en¬ 
tries contained all the leading varieties, which 
were fair representatives of their types. 
Taken all In all the show in tills department 
was a great success. 
___ 
FOSTER-MOTHER HENS. 
Our old Wbitey was a peculiar hen, pos¬ 
sessing such kindness of heart, as you seldom 
see in anything short of humanity. We 
could put two, three or six, chicks with her 
own brood, even when they were much 
younger than hers, and she would give them 
the same motherly care that her own chil¬ 
dren enjoyed without dissatisfaction. 
But all this did nob prepare us for one of 
the benevolent acts of her life, like the fol¬ 
lowing sketch. While she was caring for 
and tenderly rearing a large brood of chick¬ 
ens, nearly as large as quails, a sister hen, 
who had some fourteen very young ones, 
received some injury which caused her 
death immediately—we supposed she was 
snake-bitten—and the pitiful cries of the 
dear ones so suddenly orphaned attracted 
old Whitey’s attention, who took her brood 
along with her, in this labor of love, and 
kindly adopted the motherless chicks, ap¬ 
parently with the full consent of her own 
brood at the time. Once in a while they, 
(the older ones) seemed to think they were 
the natural proprietors of the bugs and 
worms which their mother uncovered by her 
increasing industry, but when discovered by 
her, in using their beaks too freely ou the 
orphans she would soon reduce them to 
rules of propriety and restore order with be¬ 
coming dignity. 
But wo had another, a real grandmother 
hen which our children thought was a little 
ahead of old Whitey, because she did the 
grardmother, as well as if she had been 
as Intelligent as others bearing that title. 
ODe of her full grown children after hatch¬ 
ing a brood of her own, of which she was 
very fond, was caught by a weasel or some¬ 
thing whi *h took her blood and left a brood 
to peep their distress and bereavement as 
best they could. 
At this critical period of their lives came 
the dear grandmother and called with her 
“cluck, cluck” and gathered the little ones 
FREMONTIA CALIFORNIA. 
The Gardeners’ Chronicle says that Frc 
montla Californica, a plant of the most per¬ 
fect symmetry, is splendidly in flower at 
Kew. It has the appearance of being studded 
over with gigantic buttercups, and, having 
very neat foliage, is one of the choicest 
shrubs introduced. 
It is singular that this plant, a native of 
California, and introduced by Coi. Fremont, I 
ERYTHRINA PARCELI. 
under her wings and gave satisfaction as a 
mother, notwithstanding she still found it 
necessary to leave them, to play a few 
minutes each day and while she went to 
fulfill a previous arrangement for filling 
John’s market basket with eggs. So the hen 
did double duty—as the children said—leaving 
the chickens in the fence-comers sometimes 
and sometimes under an apple tree to play 
while she was holden for former liabilites. 
Aunt Flora. 
ERYTHRINA PARCELI. 
Our readers will recall our illustration of 
E. Crista galli in a recent issue—a semi¬ 
hardy plant of some merit that, after a neg¬ 
lect of years, is again becoming quite popu¬ 
lar. 
The present sketch i3 a novelty offered by 
Mr. Wm. Bull of England, who describes it 
substantially as follows: 
A very handsomely variegated stove plant 
from the South Sea Isles. It has a stoutish 
woody seem, furnished with alternate leaves, 
the petioles of which are fully six inches 
long, and support three leaflets, the middle 
one of which has a foot-stalk of one to two 
inches in length, and the lateral ones a stalk 
of half an inch in length. The leaflets are 
upwards of five inenes long, more or less 
acute, and narrowed in a somewhat angular 
manner towards the base. The variegation 
is yellow, sometimes forming a feather-like 
stripe along the mid-rib and veins, some¬ 
times more suffused, and forming a band an 
inch wide, in which case the veins take on 
more color, and the colored line extends 
along the veinlets, When at its fullest color- 
jug the center of the leaf is mottled with 
yellow. The leaves are strikingly ornamental 
in character. 
The flowers are very attractive, of a bright 
cinnamon-red color, 
whose generic'name it bears, is not to be 
found in our catalogues. 
HEMSLrcr speaks of It as a deciduous shrub 
from six to ten feet high, large cordate 
leaves from five to seven lobed, clothed with 
rusty hairs beneath, flowers large, bright 
yellow, solitary,on short peduncles, rare and 
beautiful. 
Can any of the Rural readers give us any 
further information respecting this shrub ? 
We should like to procure it. 
-♦ ♦♦- 
MR. GLADSTONE ON COTTAGE FLOWER 
SHOWS. 
A English exchange says:—“ One great 
merit of these institutions is the encourage¬ 
ment they give in a sober, quiet, unobtrus¬ 
ive way to a most healthful emulation 
among the people for a description of dis¬ 
tinction which does nothing but good to 
themselves and everybody else. It is most 
important for us all to be conversant with 
the works of Providence in Nature. A gar¬ 
den is almost always to a poor man—to u 
person to whom it is of great importance to 
economise hri means—a source of consider¬ 
able addition to his bodily comforts and to 
those of his family. Besides that it is a 
source of great delight to him, and tends to 
instruct his mind both by information and 
observation of the most interesting kind, 
and also by teaching kirn to turn his mind to 
the Providence who gives us all the fruits of 
earth in order to meet our wants. A more 
healthful pursuit there cannot be conceived— 
healthful for the body and healthful for the 
mind.” 
-- 
FLORICULTURAL NOTES. 
Lilies .—Two years age last fall we planted 
two fine large bulbs of L. Humholdti, last 
fall one. They rotted in the ground, a plot 
in which the Lancifollwns iSpectosums), 
AunttuniH, Uulbiferums , Umbellatums, etc., 
grow splendidly. We planted, likewise, a 
bulb of Washingtonianum last full, which 
was the last of that. 
We would be glad to know the experience 
, of readers of the Rural with Humboldti 
1 and Washingtonianum. 
fkmtrlogintl. 
REMOVING THE ROUGH BARK FROM 
TREE8. 
Thomas Meehan, Editor of the Gardeners’ 
Monthly, is a man of positive ideas, and not 
at all averse to having them opposed which 
only gives him opportunity to re state than 
more positively. Here is what he says 
on the subject heading this article : 
We have repeatedly called attention 
in these pages to the great advantages 
of assisting the tree to throw off its out er 
jjk bark, lliis is done by scraping, washing 
HB or slitting’ up and down with a knife in 
many iustances. We have had to stand 
10 a great deal of ridicule from men whoso 
horticultural knowledge is conllued to 
the books of the college library,—but we 
r have recommended it from actual ob¬ 
servation of the good resulting,—and 
moreover the pructice is not inconsistent 
with our understanding of the processes 
of plant life. To be sure, it is not pleas- 
ant to have a professor in a college, as 
|jk one diil a few years ago, gravely tell 
his class that when “ the editor of the 
Gardeners’ Monthly recommended the 
slitting of the bark of fruit tret s, the 
advice was ou a par with the belief of 
Panting in the inoon signs, and as likely 
to be of service to the tree as the slitting 
of a man’s leg would bo to cure the 
LYW rheumatism,” — and then we have a 
k\f learned society in Massachusetts teach- 
\| * n £ that “ the rough bark of fruit trees, 
is designed by nature for the protection 
of the stem from cold winds, and the 
Gardeners’ Monthly might as well con¬ 
tend that taking off the scales from a 
small - pox patient would prevent the 
small-pox, as that clearing of bark 
scales would make a tree healthy.” It 
is singular how prone people are to argue 
in this smart way. It makes little dif- 
erence to us, however ; of the two we 
should prefer to be a professor than a 
believer in a ‘‘moon’s signs,” — but if 
the penalty for believing in the efficacy 
of bark washing, scraping and slitting 
be to be remanded among the “ ignorant 
Pennsylvania Dutch,” us we have been 
told, we gladly accept the company wo 
are placed in. We know of nothing 
more seasonable just now than this at¬ 
tention to the bark, and which may bo 
continued as opportunity offers, till 
spring time. 
We know the risk we run of turning 
the bile of our intelligent friends,—bub 
we are quite sure that those wiio follow our 
advice will thank us for it ; and this will be 
a sufficient return for our forced contribution 
to the “small-pox” and “rheumatic” en¬ 
tertainment. 
- +-*■+ - 
HOW CAN I RAISE QUINCES'? 
To this question the Germantown Tele¬ 
graph says “that they can be raised as 
easily as apples or pears, in the way we 
shall describe. There is no secret about it. 
Got the “ orange ” variety. See that they 
are entirely free of the borer before planting. 
Set six or eight feet apart in rich soil. 
Bandage the stem with two or three wrap¬ 
pings of old muslin, or any kind of cloth, as 
far down in the ground as possible, as the 
roots start from near the surface. Let this 
bandage rim six or eigbtinches above ground 
then pile the soil compactly a couple of 
inches around the bandage, and renew this 
early every spring. Fine, large golden quin¬ 
ces, rivaling the largest oranges, will bless 
your efforts annually.’ 
“ Sh'uld tile borer by any means steal in, 
ferret them out carefully with a piece of 
wire. Should they, however, get the advan¬ 
tage of you, and your trees become honey¬ 
combed, set out again young trees, so that 
by the time the old ones are gone the young 
ones will bo finely in bearing. We have 
raised these quinces In perfection, but not 
caring for the fruit they were removed when 
they were about to die from the operations 
of the worm.” 
The Fanciers Journal and Poultry Ex¬ 
change comments on this as follows : 
We have long held the opinion that if fan¬ 
ciers who own the land on which their 
poultry yards are situated, would plant 
them with quince trees, they would realize 
more value from the fruit than from the 
fowls, which would be greatly ben fited by 
the shade, and in return would make it very 
uncomfortable for the borer, so much so, 
that it is our opinion the trees would live to 
a good old age. In the Philadelphia market 
, this fruit has realized from four to eight 
| dollars per bushel for many years. 
