174 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 8. 
of Evelyn; and two centimes, or even double that 
number of years, may be readily allowed for an Apple- 
tree’s probable life-time. This meets the inference 
drawn by Mr. Hogg from the faet, that “ In the Bromp- 
ton Park Nursery, where the same Golden Pippin has 
been cultivated for nearly two centuries, and continued 
from year to year by grafts taken from young trees in 
the nursery quarters, there is not the least disposition 
to disease, canker, or decay of any kind; but, on the 
contrary, a free, vigorous, and healthy growth.” (British 
Pomology, 97.) 
Grafting may postpone the arrival of death, just as 
the transfusion of blood will revive a sinking animal; 
but we cannot reasonably conclude that the postpone¬ 
ment can be for a time indefinite. The day must come, 
we think, both to the animal and the scion, when its 
vessels shall be without the power of propelling or 
assimilating the vital fluid. 
We make these observations only to warn our readers 
from expecting too much, but in no degree to depreciate 
the essays to which we allude. On the contrary, we 
prize them highly, for they have as their common object 
the preservation of old friends to a still more vigorous 
and greater age. Like Rousseau, we dislike to have 
an old post removed with which we have been long 
acquainted—much more do we shrink from the taking 
away of a tree that is an old acquaintance; and we are 
grateful to any one who aids us to preserve it. Fully 
do we enter into the spirit of him who recently wrote as 
follows:—“Many thanks for sparing that old tree. 
Whenever I think of my earliest home, that free, with 
its huge excrescences and widely outspread limbs—even 
the very colour of its bark—rise vividly to my memory. 
I was beneath and about that tree during the first 
twenty years of my life—the freshest and the happiest. 
My first love was told beneath that free, and my first 
dog was buried beneath it. When I think of my 
mother, father, brothers, and sisters, in early days, 
there is always some event connects them with that old 
free. Glad—grateful—am I, then, that it is spared; for 
I should miss its trunk and limbs almost as much as 
the faces I shall never again see beneath them, and the 
voices I shall hear do more.” 
No one can have attentively visited a succession of 
Poultry Exhibitions without noticing a considerable 
diversity, and even irreconcilability, in the decisions 
of different judges. We have so often observed this, 
though we knew that the judges in each case were men 
of honour, and gave their decisions honestly and care¬ 
fully, that we have long considered over the question— 
Cannot a code of Rules be devised that shall insure a 
greater uniformity in the decisions, and leave less to 
the uncertainty of individual taste and judgment? 
We had taken some steps towards securing an object 
so desirable, and we are again roused to the subject by 
the following letter:— 
“ In looking over your valuable work, The Cottage 
Gardener, I find many of your readers puzzled much at 
the decision of the judges at various shows, some holding \ 
out that dealers should not be chosen for judges, and some, | 
no doubt, thinking them the most fit persons to fulfil this j 
important office. For my own part, I will not find fault 
with the judges, but with the system as at present carried j 
out. Only think of choosing a man to judge poultry, no 
matter whether he be dealer or not, and having no laws 
made to guide him in his judgment! How is it possible ! 
that a man can do justice either to himself or to the 
exhibitor under such conditions? "Why not, at once, take 
pattern by the old Clubs of Lancashire, that have been in 
existence for so many years, and make laws for all classes 
of poultry, similar to those they have for the fowl they show? i 
It is only reasonable to make the laws first, and then to 
choose the judges ; place the laws in their hands, and say, | 
“ Judge these fowls by these laws.” Then, and not till j 
then, will the exhibitor have justice done him. At the | 
same time, the judge will be placed in a very different 
position; for having such laws, he must be guided by them, 
and not be called upon to judge fowl such as be has, 
perhaps, never seen before, and merely according to his 
own taste. 
“ I here enclose you a copy of the old Lancashire laws, as 
you may think them worthy of publishing in The Cottage 
Gardener. They give the old names of the fowl, but 
I have added the names they are shown under at the new 
Exhibitions. 
“ If these laws had been in existence, I should have had 
no cause to complain. I will here point you out my case of 
complaint. At our Birmingham Show, last year, I sent 
four pens of Gold Spangled Hamburghs, and they were 
thrown on one side as mere rubbish. These fowls, after 
being brought home, were thought very much of by parties 
who saw them at the show; and, in a little time, my son 
sold to Mr. Adkins some of the hens that had been so 
unnoticed at the Birmingham Show, and Mr. Adkins sent , 
them to the London Summer Show, and there he took a first I 
prize with them. I find, also, the following, in your remarks ! 
on that show, in your August Number, page 34G :—“ The 
Hamburghs, as a whole, were inferior, with the exception of 
the Golden Spangled Hamburghs. The birds which took 
the first prize belonged to Mr. Adkins, and were eminently 
rich in their colour and markings.” Here, then, is a clear 
case, showing the necessity of an alteration of the system of 
judging, for the fowls did not alter at all, having the same 
feathers on them at both shows, as they had moulted off 
before the Birmingham Show.— -John Brown, Globe H'inc 
i / ’units, Great Hampton Street , Birmingham.'' 
The Lancashire Rules, alluded to by Mr. Brown, are 
inserted in The Poultry Booh, but we here republish 
them. 
RED MOONED PHEASANTS (Golden Spangled Hamburgh). 
POINTS. MASKS ON FEATHERS, &C., CONSIDERED BEST. 
1st, Comb.—Best double, best square, the most erect, and most piked 
behind. 
2nd, Ears.—The largest white. 
3rd, Neck.—The best streaked with green black in the middle of the j 
feathers, and best fringed with gold at the edges. 
4th, Breast.—The largest moons, brightest and best green black, most 
free from being tipped with white or red at the end of j 
the moon, and the clearest and best red from the moon 
to the bottom colour. 
5th, Back.—The largest moons, brightest and best green black, least , 
tipped with white or red at the edges of the moon, and 
the best and clearest red from the moon to the bottom * 
colour. 
6th, Rump.—The largest moons, brightest and best green black, least j 
tipped with white or red at the edges of the moon, and 
the best and clearest red from the moon to the bottom 
colour. 
7th, Wing (divided into four parts). 1st, Bow .—Best and brightest 
green black, and best and clearest red. 2nd, Barg. — j 
To have two distinct bars, composed of the largest, | 
clearest, brightest, and best green black moons, and the i 
clearest and best red from the moon to the bottom i 
colour. 3rd, Flight.— The clearest and best red. 4th, 
The Lacing , or top of the Wing t above the flight. — j 
Largest, clearest, brightest, and best green black spots 
on the end of the feather, and the best and clearest red 
from the spot to the bottom colour. 
3th, Tail.—The brightest, darkest, and best green black. To be full 
feathered. 
9th, Legs.—Clearest and best blue. 
10th, General Appearance.—The beat feathered heu. 
