THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
January 15. 
i 236 
used to say the farmer. “ They’ll amuse the Missus, and 
keep the children from a worse loss of time; but don’t let 
them eat too much corn, nor pull too hard at my barley- 
, stacks.” 
But, at the outset, a word may he addressed to those who, 
occupied with business, agriculture, or perhaps politics, look 
slightingly on these less important objects. It is acknow¬ 
ledged that domestic pleasures and domestic pursuits are 
characteristic of well-regulated English families. What 
tends to refine and elevate homely matters cannot he quite 
contemptible. Naturalists are allowed, without reproach, to 
; chronicle the motions, and study the habits of the merest 
; stray bird of passage which shall have arrived from North 
' America yesterday, and be off to South Africa to-morrow. 
Why may we not take an equal interest in birds that are 
permanently resident with us, which cross our path when¬ 
ever we walk abroad, and which mostly even pass the night 
under the same roof, either with ourselves, or some of our 
other dependent animals. It has been well observed by 
one of the most eminent naturalists of the day, that his 
favourite science is a good thing to teach children, for one 
reason among others, that it trains them to observe closely, 
1 and to discriminate habitually, between nice points of. differ- 
, erice. The same remark particularly applies to the gentle 
; gradations to be found amongst domestic birds, in com¬ 
parison with those of their wild relations. “ You,” it may 
be said, “ are well employed, as heads of families, in the 
weighty concerns which all but absorb you. You have (at 
least it may he hoped so) several merry faces clustered 
around you, for whose leisure hours you would wish to pro¬ 
vide innocent occupation and amusement. Or you have an 
aged parent, a sorrowing friend, a weakly child, whom you 
would still like to see interested and engaged, even though 
that on which they employed themselves might not be of 
paramount concern. It may be predicted, that you will find 
such societies as have just been inaugurated at Penzance 
turn out the means of lightening the load of many an irre¬ 
mediable sorrow, and of softening the stern advances of 
many an incurable disease. As years pass on the case may 
happen even to yourself.” 
It has not yet been satisfactorily explained, why, till now, 
poultry shows have been confined to the North and West of 
England for many years past. There they are old-esta¬ 
blished anniversaries. The great Birmingham meeting itself, 
though new, is no novelty in its own neighbourhood, but 
merely a concentration and a development, through the 
agency of railways, of the smaller local shows that w'ere 
held in the old coaching days. The Yorkshire Society seems 
likely to do for that extensive district, what Birmingham has 
done for the Midland Counties, and it is probable that the 
older meetings will be swallowed up and absorbed by their 
more robust younger brethren. But, hitherto, the North 
has had it all her own way. The poultry shows at the 
Regent’s Park Gardens cannot be considered as other than 
I failures ; one reason may be that they were held in July, or 
August, at which time the birds were either moulting, or 
better employed than in attending public meetings. At last 
the Soutli is to perform its share—Penzance has begun; 
Lewes and Salisbury are to follow. In the great Eastern 
poultry-rearing counties, in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge¬ 
shire, Essex, and Kent, poultry shows have not yet been 
dreamt of. East Anglia is at present content to be utili¬ 
tarian, leaving the rest of the world to pursue the orna¬ 
mental. 
The opening of this first exhibition of the Cornwall 
Society was made still more exciting by the zest of un¬ 
certainty as to some of its materials. Birmingham, and the 
Yorkshire towns in which poultry shows are held, are each 
the centre of a network of i-ailways, which may be depended 
on, as right as the mail, for the conveyance of contributions. 
! But the Land’s End, though the end of turnpike-roads, is 
I not the end of all things. Beyond it lie, in dreamy cloud- 
I like shapes, the Scilly Islands, which, as they happen to 
have plenty of tin, need want for little purchasable that 
earth can supply. The gentleman who is at present, under 
a Crown Lease, Lord Proprietor of these, Augustus Smith, 
Esq., of Trescow Abbey, whom Murray's excellent Hand¬ 
book of Devon and Cornwall describes as “ a most kind and 
i benevolent ruler, continually studying the welfare of his 
j subjects; ” this lord of the lonely isles had entered several 
very desirable lots (113—120) to cross the sea, weather per¬ 
mitting, and as the hour drew near, it became a matter of 
interest to know whether they could and would arrive. 
Besides the cultivation of ornamental poultry on the Island, 
which is his residence, Mr. Smith has good opportunities of 
indulging his zoological tastes, which he does not neglect. 
One uncultivated Island, St. Helen’s, is stocked with deer; 
another, Tean, with white Angola rabbits. The Scilly spe¬ 
cimens did appear in good time. Excellent White Dorkings, 
capital Muscovy, Rouen, and Call Ducks, besides Egyptian 
Geese, displayed their graces in the Corn Hall of Penzance. 
As an opening Show, the collection may be described as 
exceedingly creditable to the town. Of course there was an 
inequality, and a deficiency in some of the classes. It is 
not till after a first show that either the weak or the strong 
points possessed by any retired neighbourhood can be exactly 
ascertained. Thus, the White Dorkings were of high merit, 
while the Speckled Dorkings were less commendable. All 
Dorkings, everywhere, ought to be first-rate, and well shown. 
Cornwall is strongly recommended to make trial of the Grey, 
or Cuckoo Dorkings; in these birds, either the rose, or the 
flat single comb is admissible; the writer of this most 
fancies the flat combs. Of either it may be said, to quote 
Mr. Daily’s judicious report of the Birmingham Show, in 
December 27th’s Ayricultural Gazette —“It is hard to look 
on a Dorking pullet, and not to think, while weighing her 
good qualities (and the century-and-half she has stood her 
ground against all new comers), that she realises in herself 
the valuable properties the Vicar of Wakefield’s wife sought 
in her wedding-dress, which was chosen ‘ not for its fine 
glossy surface, but for such qualities as wear well.’ ” The 
poultry fancy is certainly advancing; but rve are not yet 
come to the degree of mania attained by the amateur, who, 
when asked whether his birds were good for the table, was 
utterly at a loss to comprehend the drift of such an extra¬ 
ordinary question. 
Exhibitors, appearing as such for the first time, have 
several little points to learn; nor will it give offence to 
allude to them here, for the benefit of future adventurers 
on the same stage. Thus, in catching birds for the show, 
it is as well not to seize them by the tail, lest they have to 
appear in their pens deficient in a portion, or the whole of 
that appendage; nor, except in the case of Frizzled fowls, 
is rumpled and tumbled plumage any recommendation. 
Birds, to compete for prizes, may as well be in good as in 
bad condition. Single-combed Bantams have no great chance 
of success; still less would it be advisable to associate 
single-combed cocks with double-combed hens, or vice versA, 
even with Dorkings, with which either form is allowable. 
No given pen is thought the better of by the judges for 
containing hens of the greatest possible variety in shape, 
colour, and age, &c., &c. Half a word to the wise suffices. 
The Cochin-Chinas, the high aristocracy of poultrydom, 
at present riding on the upper circumference of the wheel 
of fortune, deigned to afford their august presence. As 
good birds as reasonable men need care to have, were exhi¬ 
bited by Mr. R. H. Bowman, Mr. A. Blee, and the Rev. W. 
Wriothesley Wingfield. The Spanish class must be re¬ 
ferred to the preceding “ Arc., ire., &c.,” with the simple hint, 
that those who wish to get on well with Spaniards, must 
literally carry out the oriental metaphor of “making their 
faces white.” 
No Game fowl were present to disturb the Coin Hall by 
their bickerings, which was rather a pity, for they are very- 
pretty, very useful, and very various. True, they are quar¬ 
relsome, though not so incorrigibly as is believed, or as they 
are apt to give cause for believing, so long as they are inces¬ 
santly checked and insulted on the least manifestation of 
their natural propensity. Besides, a little spirit is the salt 
of character. How is a young female, for the time 
being in a state of widow-hood, to provide for and protect 
ten or twelve little ones, unless she be gifted with some 
spice of energy to carry her through. 
Most, if not all of these little defects will be amended 
another year. In an isolated, yet central, meeting like this, 
it is more instructive to visitors, though it may be less 
gratifying to the tastes of exhibitors, to have every class 
fairly represented, rather than that one or two should ap¬ 
pear in great perfection to the exclusion of the rest. Hence 
the strong motive for attracting a well-filled extra class, 
