250 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 30. 
plant must be enquired after morning and evening.—A 
Wiltshire Practical Man. 
[We hope to hoar from this correspondent often, and we 
recommend his excellent Fuchsia-culture to the attention of 
our readers.— Ed. C. G.] 
puted to he; and I think your readers will agree with me 
that their intrinsic beauty alone would warrant the high 
“ fashion” they seem destined to attain to. Sol. 
COST OF POULTRY FEEDING. 
SHANGHAE FOWJ,S. 
One of your correspondents, a short time since, suggested, 
that in endeavouring to form an estimate of the comparative 
merits of various breeds of poultry, we should regard them 
as “ egg-making and meat-making machines.” With refer¬ 
ence to the first of these conditions, I think the verdict of 
such of your readers as keep Shanghae Fowls will vary 
somewhat; several having found that an excessive prone- | 
ness to incubation in their stock detracts from their other- 
ivise undoubted merit; while the fact of eggs by the bushel 
appearing to have been collected from the Shanghae pens 
at a season when fresh laid eggs are scarce, while other 
breeds seem to have returned a “ beggarly account of empty 
boxes” at tbe various poultry shows, would appear to others 
pretty conclusive evidence of their pre-eminence in this j 
valuable quality. 
My own experience tends to prove that different families, I 
or “strains” of pure Shanghaes vary as much in these j 
characteristics as do Spanish, Dorking, or Game Fowls; | 
inasmuch as I have hens that have never gone “broody” 
the year through ; others that have done so after laying 
seventy-six eggs in a few more than the same number of 
consecutive days ; while, again, others have only laid fifteen 
eggs before wishing to sit. And as I have noticed that each 
of these qualities has been perpetuated, to a greater or less 
degree, in such of their descendants as I have kept for stock, 
we may fairly infer that an “ infusion of fresh blood” from 
stocks which possess the opposite quality to that which we 
wish to neutralise, will be found quite as efficacious as the 
manufacture of a mongrel race, suggested by others of your 
correspondents. As to their capacity for “ meat-making 
machines,” I think there can be no question as to their 
supremacy over all known varieties of poultry; and if the 
three following trials are accepted as evidence, they will bo i 
found tolerably conclusive on that head;— | 
Weighed lbs. ozs. 
1. Cockerel Nov. 17 8 8 
2. „ Nov. 2!) 5 I 
;}. „ Nov. 2il 5 13 
Weighed lbs. ozs. I 
Nov. 25 t) 4 1 
Dec. 4 (i IJ ! 
Dec. 4 0 11 , 
They were weighed on the evening of each date; it results, 
therefore, that the first gained 12ozs. in eight, the other two 
Dliozs. and ]4ozs. in five clear days, or at the almost in¬ 
credible rate of 20ozs. a week. 
New, as regards the vexed question of their being vora¬ 
cious feeders, 1 have kept 120, from four to eight months 
old (when we may consider them as at their highest con¬ 
suming power), at a cost of eight shillings a week; but even 
if “ Gallus" had proved against them, to the most objection¬ 
able extent, that they are enormous consumers of food, he 
will admit, at all events, that they do not “ put it into a bad 
skin,” and that this consumptive tendency is of a far less 
heart-breaking character than that to which Spanish Fowls 
are notoriously subject. 
Another question, I have noticed, seems a puzzle to several 
of your correspondents, viz., the extraordinary value set 
upon clear-necked light-colour birds. The only solution of 
the mystery they can arrive at appearing to be, the ex¬ 
treme difficulty of breeding them so. Now if this was the 
sole reason, it is a sufficient one, as tbe rarity of most things 
enhances their value; but I happened some time back to 
visit the poultry-yard of a gentleman, who had unlimited 
opportunity of importing the choicest specimens of their 
kind, and was shewn three hens, the plumage of which, on 
lireast, back, and thighs, ivas a clear cream colour, the 
hackle, like threads of pale glistening gold, rivalling in bril¬ 
liancy that of their lords (a privilege rarely granted to the 
softer sex among feathered tribes), and was informed that 
this variety is prized, even in China, as “ high caste,” added 
to which, they are, from their days of earliest chiokenhood, 
presentable and loveable little pets, quite a contrast to the 
strange gawky looking objects Shanghae Chickens are re- 
I HAVE seen stated, in some of the late numbers of your ; 
Cottage Gardener, the relative consumption of food by 
Shanghae and Spanish fowls. These remarks have induced 
me to ascertain the cost of keeping a promiscuous stock; 
and I am glad to find the expense is less than I had anti¬ 
cipated, and much below what is generally believed. I have 
twenty-one birds, all, with the exception of two that I had i 
as nursing mothers for my young broods, were hatched in 
jMay, and being now six months old will, I fancy, require as 
mucli food as older birds. Five of these, a cock and four 
hens, are the third in descent from a direct import from 
Shanghae; a cock and two hens. Speckled Dorkings; 
eleven Spanish, of pure breed; and the two old nurses; 
together twenty-one birds. The Spanish are fed by them¬ 
selves, whilst the others mess together. The Shanghaes 
and Dorkings are large birds. The Spanish, by contrast, 
appear small; yet the quantity of food consumed daily is 
nearly the same by both lots, and so abundant, that when 
six Shanghae cocks of four months old were killed, their 
average weight, when trussed for the spit, was four pounds. 
I did not ascertain their live weights. 
On the 24th of October, my bins being empty, I bought 
from a grain dealer, 
2 stones, or 28 lbs. of Oats, which cost - 2s. 
Ditto do. Barley - 2s. 
Ditto do. Indian Meal - 2s. 
Small Potatoes - - - - 2s. 
costing, together, eight shillings, which has served the fowls 
until last night, being thirty-two days ; the twenty-one birds 
thus costing exactly one penny a head per w'eek. This is 
satisfactory, showing how trifling the expense is of keeping 
a mixed stock. 
It does not, nor was the experiment intended, to settle 
the disputed point of the relative expense, of keeping large 
or small fowls. My birds, both lots, being fed alike as nearly 
as a guessed quantity, no weights being used, could be 
formed, are large and plump, and any day ready for the 
table. 
My mode of feeding is—when the birds are let out, 
between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, they have 
oats for breakfast; at noon, boiled potatoes, mixed with 
Indian meal; and before going to roost, a feed of bailey. 
The potatoes at noon are mixed, at times, with kitchen 
scraps ; to which I attach no value, as if not thus used they 
would be thrown on the dunghill. The birds have the run 
of a grass field, which the Dorkings and Spanish much 
frequent, the Shanghaes remaining more contentedly ndthin 
the shelter of a large paved yard.— Irton. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
ALTHOun we gave so copious a report of The Birmingham 
Poultnj Show in our last number, yet there are many facts 
connected with it that deserve notice. There were about 
five thousand birds assembled on the occasion, and of these 
.£1000 worth were sold on the first day. The highest price 
we know of being given was £25 for Mr. Punchard’s pair of 
buff Shanghae fowls (No. 408); and Captain Hornby sold his 
pen of four of the same variety (No. 272) for thirty guineas. 
The JMidland Counties Herald}nst\y remarks that these prices 
are not more contrasted with those given at the first Show- 
in 1848, than are the Shows themselves. At that little show 
eight guineas were given for the pen which obtained the 
medal. 
The arrangements of the Committee to facilitate business 
were all excellent, and can scarcely be improved upon, 
unless it be by a list, added to as sales are efi'ected, being 
hung up outside the sale office, stating which pens are sold, 
and by a loud announcement of each sale in the office. 
This would prevent the disappointment attendant upon 
waiting for half an hour, and then finding that the lot 
desired had been sold whilst you were detained. 
1 
