T 
February 10. 
NeKt week we shall review the euhject from 1808 to 
the present time.— H. 
Year. 
Duty. 
Quantity 
imported. 
Average 
price at 
Covent 
Garden. 
Year. 
Duty. 
Quantity 
imported. 
Average 
price at 
Covent 
Garden. 
8. 
Bushels. 
8. 
d. 
s. 
Bushels, 
s. t 
d. 
1819 
4 
92,212 
notknown. 
1829 
4 
31,093 
3 
0 
1820 
4 
45,324 
notknown. 
1830 
4 
22,462 
5 
6 
1821 
4 
80,887 
8 
0 
1831 
4 
52,615 
6 
0 
1822 
4 
45,830 
8 
6 
1832 
4 
16,537 
3 
6 
1823 
4 
31,123 
7 
0 
1833 
4 
27,087 
3 
6 
182-4 
4 
08,758 
6 
9 
1834 
4 
18,447 
3 
4 
1825 
4 
68,304 
8 
0 
1635 
4 
11,5/4 
3 
0 
1823 
4 
40,86.5 
7 
0 
1836 
4 
14,859 
3 
6 
1827 
4 
28,0/0 
4 
6 
1837 
4 
20,502 
2 
3 
1828 
4 
48,202 
5 
6 
We have been favoured with an early cojiy of the Prize 
List and Kales of The Birmingham anil Midland 
Counties Exhibition of Poultry for the present year. 
In them we see very gratifying marks of liberality on 
the part of the committee, demonstrating their willing¬ 
ness to increase the number and ralue of their prizes; 
and some improvements in the classification, but there 
are other portions of their arrangements still open to 
censure. 
The days of exhibition are December the 13th, 14th, 
loth, and IGth. This we cannot but again hold up as 
deserviug the most determined reprehension; and we 
advise those gentlemen who are circulating their me¬ 
morial for a reduction of the days of exhibition not to 
relax from their efforts; but to persevere in obtaining 
signatures, and to present it to the Committee. The 
intention to exhibit for four days is not like a law of 
the Medes and Persians—irreversible, and wo think that 
the committee, when they see the recorded opinions and 
wishes of some of their best supporters, will give way 
upon a point which, we think, has no one plea in its 
defence, except a supposed advantage to the Society’s 
fund; every dictate of humanity, and the interests of 
exhibitors and purchasers are totally opposed to such a 
lengthened period of exhibition. 
A gi-eat improvement in the rules is that which 
declares that “ Chichens of 1853 cannot he shown in the 
classes for fouls above one year old.” This, as we long 
since pointed out, will save the matronly hen from being 
brought in unfair comparison with the freshness and 
neatness so peculiar to the pullethood. 
Wo are well pleased, though not quite satisfied, with 
this modified regulation :—“ High condition, quality, 
beauty of qdumage, purity of race, and uniformity in the 
markings, combs, and other characteristics, tvill, in all 
the classes for Foui, be taken into consideration by the 
Judges in a greater degree than mere weight without these 
distinctions, if the more perfect specimens are at the same 
time of a fair average size!’ 
Wo are not quite satisfied with this, because it has 
omitted some sueh warning as this :—“ Trimming, or 
artifieial alteration of the plumage, or of any other part 
of a bird, will disqualify it for receiving a prize.” 
Such an announcement is fair to exhibitors, for with the 
liberties which we have seen taken with the top-knots 
of Polands, and with other parts of other varieties, it is 
357 
evident that some exhibitors do not consider trimming 
inadmissible. 
The amount of most of the second and third prizes, 
and some of the first, are doubled; and a fourth prize is 
added to some of the classes. 
In Poland fowls, all distinction as to ruffs, or no 
ruff’s, is done away, which is a step in the right direc¬ 
tion ; as is, in the class for “ any other distinct breed,” 
the announcement that the judges will “ make their 
awards separately on eaeh variety shoivn in the class." It 
is also an improvement giving prizes for Turkies hatched 
in 1853, as well as for birds exceeding one year old. 
There are two separate and new classes for Black 
Shanghaes; and this, with some other increases, makes 
tlie number of classes amount to fifty-six, notwithstand¬ 
ing the reduction in the Polands, whereas last year 
there were only fifty-two classes. 
FORSYTH MSS. 
Next among these MSS. occur tho letters of John 
Wedgewood, Esq., tho oilginator of the London Hor¬ 
ticultural Societ 3 ^ 
Of this amiable man and most assiduous gardener, 
we have been obligingly furnished with the following 
brief memoir, by the Kov. J. A. Wodgewood, rector of 
Dumbleton, near Evesham. 
“ As to the immediate subject of your enquiries, the 
time and place of my father’s death and burial, I have 
to observe that he died at Tenby, of bronchitis, con¬ 
sequent on an attack of influenza, on the 23rd or 24th 
of January, 1844, and was interred in the burial- 
ground of the parish church of Tenby. I am not 
certain as to tho exact day of his death,4 but if my 
present information is not sufficiently exact, I can 
obtain the precise date from my brother, Lieut.-Col. 
Wedgewood, St. Mary's Hill, Tenby. 
“As to any biographical details of my late father’s 
life, there is very little to be said likely to be of any 
public interest. His life was so entirely private and 
domestic, and so much out of the way of public men, or 
learned societies and institutions, and his disposition 
was so retiring and unobtrusive, that it affords very 
scanty materials for any notice of his life. He was the 
eldest son of the first Josiah Wedgewood, the founder of 
Etruria, and was born in March, 1700. He was sent 
at an early age to a school kept by a dissenting minister, 
a Mr. Holland, I believe, at Bolton-le-Moors, in Lan¬ 
cashire. Here he learnt tho classics, and other branches 
of rudimentary learning. He remained some years 
here, and then returned to his home at Etruria, near 
Newcastle, Staffordshire. Some time afterwards he 
went to Edinburgh, along with his next brother, Josiah 
Wedgewood, and there studied various branches of 
science, especially, it appears, chemistry. After he had 
finished his residence and studies at Edinburgh, my 
father seems to have remained at home, assisting his 
father in the management of the works, and at tho 
same time maintaining and extending a friendly inter- 
♦ 2Gth January, aged ys.—Gentleman’s Magazine, 1844, i. 333. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
