THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 1. 
168 
any other colour, selected by Mr. B. out of more than as 
many thousands,—but simply, on the one hand, to afford 
Mr. B. an opportunity of proving, in opposition to my distinct 
denial of its truth, his assertion as to the identity or equality 
in point of merit, of the two strains known respectively as 
“ Brahmas,” and “ Mr. Stainton’s Greys and on the other, 
to induce him to give me an eligible opportunity of disprov¬ 
ing the alleged worthlessness of Brahmas, so authoritatively 
pronounced in his first letter, and maintained in his second. 
| Rejecting both these offers to submit the matter to arbitra- I 
tion, he gravely, and “all jesting aside,” proposes the above, 
! as “ meeting the question more fairly.” But, granting for , 
! a moment that it does, in Mr. B.’s view of it, in some unde- i 
finable way, meet the question at issue, will any one but 
Mr. B. say there would be the smallest reasonableness in ! 
being asked to show, in a competition for the best turnip J 
(to illustrate the case by carrying out his own simile), one 
[ of a quite new variety, howsoever excellent, taken from a 
patch of some twenty square yards of unmanured and 
untilled soil, against another selected from a breadth of 
1 some twenty acres of all other varieties grown on hind 
! brought to the highest possible state, of fertilization by the 
practical energies and high farming of a Meclii or a Philip 
Pusey ; for this is virtually what he asks me to do! Will 
any one, besides Mr. B., maintain that there is any semblance 
of fairness in asking me to show a bird of a strain, which, 
twelvemonths ago, was unknown in this country, and of 
which, even now, the whole genuine produce could be com¬ 
fortably lodged in an ordinary-sized poultry house, against 
a specimen chosen from the countless produce of the 
numerous other strains, which, for the last five or six years 
have inundated us, and which, during that period, under the 
stimulus of keen competition and extraordinary prices, have 
had the exertions of a hundred experienced breeders 
directed towards their improvement; every effort having 1 
been made, by means of fresh strains, and each year better j 
crosses to develop hi them the most approved characteristics 
! of the breed. 
Before I had even an idea of C. H. B.’s cognomen, I had 
heard some curious anecdotes of one Timothy Mason, but 
nothing certainly that would argue the want of tact or 
ordinary capacity, so patent in this proposition. Truly, 
though not indisposed to reciprocate civilities with him, I 
cannot, in this instance, return the compliment he has paid 
me, of well weighing my propositions before making them ; 
had he done so, he would have stayed his pen ere he risked 
his credit for fairness, by making The Cottage Gardener 
the medium of so quixotic a proposal. 
There is little in the remainder of Mr. B.’s letter relevant 
to the objections urged in mine; it appears to be an attempt, 
by a sort of special pleading, to draw off the attention from 
the chief points in discussion. In one place he asks, “ will 
W. C. G., or will anyone else say explicitly in what their 
(Brahma Pootras) superiority consists.” If Mr. B. intends, 
by this expression, their “ superiority over all other varieties,” 
he ought to know that I have never ventured to claim for 
them such superexcellency, unless as a mere matter of 
opinion, in the particular of showiness and attractive beauty 
of plumage, an opinion affecting merely individual taste and 
fancy, and one in which I know many owners of Buffs 
disagree, but one, also, in which I have good grounds for 
j believing the majority of those who have not had their pre¬ 
dilections established by the possession of either variety 
I coincide with me; but at any rate, it will be time enough to 
reply to this question when Mr. B. has given me the oppor¬ 
tunity I ask, of disproving the inferiority lie attaches to 
them ; and if, by accepting my challenge, he can prove the 
affirmative of his position, viz., their vast inferiority, it will 
of course involve, at the same time, an ample solution to 
the above question. 
Let me now, before laying down my pen, give your readers 
two or three specimens of Mr. B.’s accuracy in the statement 
of facts. Wishing to make it appear that he “ might have 
had these fowls, had he so wished,” at their earliest intro¬ 
duction, he says, “ It was I who first directed Mrs. Hosier 
Williams’s attention to Dr. Bennett’s work on American 
! Poultry, the perusal of which led to the first introduction of 
Greys into this country by that lady. Before ordering these 
birds, she sent me the book for my opinion on it, but, as the 
i engravings would have disgraced a child’s penny primer, 
and the matter was exceedingly vague, I did not like to offer 
one; but these Greys were selected, as the lady felt anxious 
to introduce what she supposed would be new in this 
country.” Now, it so happens, for the convenient upsetting 
of this statement, that Dr. Bennett’s book does not once men¬ 
tion either Brahma Pootras or Grey Shanghaes, nor in any 
way whatever allude to this variety; and for the simple 
reason, that at the date of the publication of that book, in 
1801, the original birds had only recently been brought to 
America, and were then known only to two or three indi¬ 
viduals, from one of whom Dr. Bennett afterwards procured 
his birds 1 Continuing his veracious history, Mr. B. says, 
“They (the Brahmas) were exhibited at Birmingham, 
escaped notice, and were afterwards bought in at an auction, 
at a nominal price, while Turner's half-bred 10s. Greys re¬ 
ceived the prize,” &c. 
1st. Now, the only two pairs of so-called Brahmas (my 
own pair, at least, were only half-bred Brahmas, certainly 
not genuine Sbanghae) exhibited there, were not put up nor 
bought in at any auction. Sndly. They did not compete, as 
Mr. B. here distinctly implies, with Mr. Turner’s “ Greys,” 
which were not at the same show with the Brahmas, but in 
that of the previous year, viz., 1851. So much for the 
accuracy of the statements Mr. B. volunteers on a subject 
he would have us believe he knows so well; and on the 
pretended accuracy of which knowledge he grounds his chief 
claim to be considered an authority. W. C. G. 
[Here the conflict had better cease, for the judgment of 
competent authorities are in course of being obtained upon 
the so-called Brahma Poutras. Four pens, from different 
breeders, were exhibited at the Winchester Show, as recorded 
in our last; and we know the collective opinion of many 
good authorities there assembled is that they are a good 
Grey variety of Shanghaes.—E d. C. G.] 
CULTIVATION OF CHICORY IN GUERNSEY. 
Chicory began to be grown in Guernsey in 1844 or 1845, 
and its cultivation increased rapidly until 1851, when the 
different dispositions of government caused it to fluctuate 
much, and to decrease down to the rate of the present year. 
At that time no less than six hundred acres of it were in 
cultivation in our small island, and which fetched £2 a ton 
from the field, the average produce being about ten tons to 
the acre, making £'20 an English acre—£12,000 in all. 
The advantages are, besides this handsome return, that a 
second or even a third crop may be grown, and it may also 
be followed by other roots ; cattle also eat it, but I do not 
believe it will ever be a favourite feeding-root. The dis¬ 
advantages are the expenses of the culture—not manuring, 
because it requires nothing more than for other roots—but 
the weeding and digging, the only remedy for which is 
sowing in drills at about a foot distance, and turning over 
the roots with a very deep, narrow plough, with at least six 
horses, followed by men with digging-forks, to clear the 
Chicory from, and throw it on, the soil. The other evil is, 
that from the root being so full of life in every particle, and 
being easily broken, it leaves a really bad weed in itself for 
succeeding crops. The best remedy found here is to grow 
Parsnips, which are always carefully weeded, after Chicory, 
then Vetches, followed by Turnips. The price is now thirty 
shillings a ton, which reduces the value one-fourth ; still, in 
the absence of the Potato, of which about £18,000 worth 
have been exported in former years, the culture of the 
Chicory is valuable, if it could only be stable. During the 
fluctuations in 1851, mentioned above, some of the mer¬ 
chants got a few of the farmers to give their Chicory at ten 
shillings a ton, which was ruinous. Such are the most 
important traits of Guernsey culture of Chicory, which I 
understand you wish to collect, and which are very much at 
your service.—A Guernseyman. 
DERBYSHIRE AND MIDLAND COUNTIES’ 
EXHIBITION. 
The first annual Exhibition of Poultry of the Derbyshire 
and Midland Counties’ Society, was held in the County 
