THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
F EBRUARY 20. 
344 
Leeds ; Samuel Nutt, Esq., York ; and James Bissell, Esq., 
Birmingham. The honorary secretary, to whom much 
j praise is due for the success of the show, is W. H. Heaton, 
; Esq. The successful exhibitors in each class were as fol- 
I lows:— 
Spanish. —Captain Wyndham Hornby, It.N., Kn'flwsley, Prescot; 
John Henry Peck, Esq., Wigan. 
Dorking. —Watson Chapman, Esq., York; Captain Wyndham Hornby, 
1 It.N., Knowsley, Prescot. 
Cochin-China. —Mrs. Hosier Williams, Eaton Mascott, near Shrews¬ 
bury; C. H. Dawson, Esq., Beamsley Hall, near Skipton; Charles Bar- 
stow, Esq., Halifax; Robert John Simpson, Esq., Sandbach, Cheshire; 
James Cactell, Esq., Hatfield House, Birmingham. 
Malay. —James Dixon, Esq., West Brook Place, Bradford ; Mr. Pear¬ 
son, 4, Britannia Street, Deeds; Mr. George Jackson, Penley, York. 
Game. —Samuel Armitage, Esq., Bradford; Henry Kilner, Esq., 
Laveraek Lane, Lightcliffe, near Halifax ; William Smith, Esq., Halifax. 
Golden Pheasants. — Henry Clapham, Esq., Aireweil, Keighley; Richard 
Adams, Esq., Selby ; James Dixon, Esq., West Brook Place, Bradford. 
I Silver Pheasants. —Henry Clapham, Esq., Aireweil, Keighley; William 
j Ludlarn, Esq., Bradford; Joseph Kinder, Esq., Elmwood-grove, Leeds. 
| Chittuprat. —Mr. Joseph Tuley, Matchless House, Keighley; William 
j Smith, Esq., Kent House, Halifax. 
Poland.— James Dixon, Esq., West Brook Place, Bradford (Silver); 
John Hadwen, Jun., Esq., Kebroyd, near Halifax (Silver). 
Any other Distinct Breed. —Courtney Kenny Clarke, Esq., Haugh 
| End, near Halifax (Columbian); John Taylor, Jun., Esq., Cressey House, 
j London (Andalusian). 
■ Bantams: Gold or Silver Laced. —Mrs. Hosier Williams, Eaton Mas- 
i cott, Shrewsbury (silver laced) ; Jeremiah Stansfeld ltawson, Esq., 
Grecnroyde, near Halifax; John Greenwood Sugden, Esq., Steeton Hall, 
i Keighley (gold laced). 
Bantams : Black, White, or any other Variety. —James Dixon, Esq., 
West Brook Place, Bradford (black) ; Samuel Armitage, Esq., Bradford 
(white). 
Geese. —Henry Ambler, Esq., Watkinson Hall, near Halifax ; Captain 
Wyndham Hornby, R.N., Knowsley, Prescot. 
Ducks. —Captain Wyndham Hornby, R.N., Knowsley, Prescot; James 
Dixon, Esq., West Brook Place, Bradford. 
Turkeys .—Edward Akroyd, Esq., Denton Park; Henry Ambler, Esq., 
Watkinson Hall, near Halifax. 
Extra Prizes. —For the best cock in the exhibition—James Cattell, 
Esq., Hartfield House, Birmingham (Cochin-China cock). For the best 
hen in the exhibition—Robert John Simpson, Esq., Sandbach, Cheshire 
(Cochin-China hen.) 
Extra Stock. —The judges highly commend the Cochin-China fowls 
sent by Thomas Sturgeon, Esq., Manor House, Grays, Essex. 
THE DOMESTIC PIGEON. 
(Cont in ued from p. 281.) 
FOOD FOR PIGEONS. 
In their natural state they eat all kinds of grain, hut prefer 
those of leguminous plants. In a state of domesticity one 
cannot so much vary their food, consequently the vetch or 
tare has been chosen, which appears the most economical 
and the best to feed them with habitually. However, in 
those countries where the vetch cannot be procured, its 
place may be supplied by other grain, wheat, barley, buck¬ 
wheat, lentils, peas, small beans, maize (especially that 
small kind called “ Forty-days ”). 
All these kinds of food may be given without precaution 
to the dove-house pigeon, but this is not the case with regard 
to those of the dovecote, which are much more delicate, par¬ 
ticularly when their races are pure. Some of this food, and 
especially wheat, relaxes them much, makes them cold, and 
often causes a dangerous scouting, besides which it fre¬ 
quently occasions the eggs to be soft, and retards the laying. 
As soon as these inconveniences are perceived, they must be 
remedied, by giving the pigeons canary or hemp seed, but 
in a small quantity, because these seeds act in an opposite 
manner too powerfully. 
Although the vetch may appear to be the best food for 
pigeons, it still has its inconveniences, particularly when too 
new. It then causes the young pigeons a diarrhoea, which 
may become fatal, unless quickly remedied by means of salt, 
I as we shall describe presently. There is no economy in 
i purchasing cheap vetches, because the birds consume more, 
1 and they are not so nourishing. Vetches should be chosen 
heavy, hard, of a bright and deep black, and a true econo¬ 
mist cannot do better than have his provision a year in ad¬ 
vance, for the seed agrees better with the pigeons when two 
t years old than the year it is grown. Some amateurs have 
j attempted to replace the vetch with the small garden lean, 
l but its size prevents the small species from swallowing it, 
| and all of them can only disgorge it with great difficulty, 
painfully, and sometimes dangerously, particularly among 
the Pouters. Greg peas do not presont so many incon¬ 
veniences. 
. 
If wo see that the vetch does not agree with the dovecote 
pigeons, instead of replacing it with only one kind of grain, 
we shall do better by mixing all those we have just named; 
nature would dictate to each pigeon that which would best 
agree with it. The dovecote pigeons, although more dedicate 
than the others, still subsist on a greater variety of food. 
They easily accustom themselves to eat the crumb of bread, 
the paste given to poultry to fatten them, and even with 
meat cut very small. Should they be very much pressed 
with hunger, they will seek food on the dunghills, and even 
in tilth. They are extremely fond of the sorrel leaf, and 
sometimes peck it in the gardens. Some pigeons will even 
eat insects. 'When pigeons are backward in laying, and 
require urging to set, we must give them food prepared for 
them, which consists of one quart of canary seed, one quart 
of hemp seed, and one quart of buckwheat. We may throw 
them a few handfuls of this daily, but only during winter 
and the moulting season. This food warms them, and soon 
induces them to brood. We may, without any gradual transi¬ 
tion, make them do without any other food than this; hut 
that is not the case with regard to depriving them of it, and 
yet it is necessary to wean them from it as soon as it becomes 
useless, that is to say, when their young ones are hatched. 
We then begin to mix some vetch seed with it, at first in 
small quantities, and increase it by degrees, so that by the 
end of ten or twelve days it is all vetch. 
All pigeons are passionately fond of salt. Even when an 
old wall loaded with saltpetre is in the neighbourhood of 
their residence, we may see them fly to it in great numbers 
every hour of the day, and fight desperately to approach the 
place where the mortar is most saline. This taste amounts 
with them to an instinct for the preservation of health, for, 
as has already been remarked, salt is always very beneficial 
to them, and frequently even cures their disorders. Amateurs 
also give it them, but prepared in the various manners that 
we are about to enumerate as the best. 
In the south of France, and particularly in the envi 
rons of Lyons, they try to procure the body of a fox, or, 
if this cannot be obtained, they take a dead cat, flay it, 
and fill the cavity of the body with cummin seed and 
sorrel leaves. It is then soaked in water in which as much 
salt has been dissolved as possible. After having been left 
in this brine for a fortnight, it is taken out and placed on 
the spit before a large fire. As it roasts, they sprinkle it ! 
with salt powdered very fine, and leave it at the fire until it j 
is nearly all dried up. It is then taken into the dove-liouse, j 
or dovecote, and suspended in a place where the pigeons can ) 
easily peck it, which they do so greedily, that in a very short 
space of time there is nothing remaining of it but the 
skeleton. The farmers who employ this method assert that 
they attract by this means the pigeons from the environs, 
and that when these pigeons have once tasted the salted fox, 
they adopt the dove-house for ever. 
Some authors direct salt to be given in the following 
manner:—Take ten pounds of vetch, or such other fari¬ 
naceous seed you like; add to them one or two pounds of 
cummin seed. Have some clayey earth well sifted, and 
sufficiently moistened to be kneaded by water in which you 
have dissolved two pounds of common salt, and mix them 
thoroughly. This kind of paste must be made into cones, 
and exposed to the heat of the sun, or placed in an oven 
moderately warm, until their dampness is entirely evaporated; 
they must afterwards be kept in a very dry place. Several 
of them are taken into the dove-house and dovecot, where 
the pigeons come and peck them. It has been remarked 
that the seasons in which they attack these cones the most 
is winter, during the continuance of rain, when they feed 
their young, and still more so while they are moulting. 
This clay, thus prepared, is not only a preservative against 
sickness, but it is a stimulant to laying. 
Some persons content themselves with merely scattering 
salt in the dovecote, or dove-house, without its having under¬ 
gone any preparation ; others place it in a vessel, where the 
pigeons go and peck it. These two methods are both had, 
the first because the salt is lost, or made dirty by the filth, 
the second because they can abuse what at first warms 
them, but ends in making them ill. The manner of giving 
salt which appears to us most preferable, is to give them the 
tail of a salt cod-fish to peck, or a mackerel, or any other 
fish prepared in the same manner—that is, strongly satu- 
