Jaxuary 15. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
283 
send me liis name and address, I might give Inm a hint in 
the correspondence.—W. H. Warner, 2Ielrose.” ' EARLY PRIZP] CHICKENS. 
I ' KILLING TREES. ! 
“ In America, I destroyed sever.al large trees in the follow- ^ 
ing manner :—I bored a hole with a centrehit to the inside 
of the trunk, low down. I then introduced a good quantity 
' of common salt, and plugged up the hole. In the cour.se of 
; a short time (three months) the tree died. Another way ; 
I bored the hole as before, and poured in boiling water; 
[ tliis I did several times. It had the desired effect.—W. H. 
Warner, Melrose.” 
' I 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
Grbat Northern. Jan. 23rd and 2tth, at Doncaster. Sec. H. Moore, 
Esq., Doncaster. 
Kendal. At Kendal, February 1st and 2nd. See. James Geldard. 
Liverpool. I6th, l/th, and 18th of January. Sec. W. C. Worrall, 
Esi)., 6, Lower Castle Street. Entries closed December 21th. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
There are in villainy as in all other bad acts of man, 
I three degrees, and the superlative of this—the greatest 
1 villainy—is that which designedly injures the poor. An 
instance of such villainy is now before us, and if we 
knew the name of the perpetrator, be be who be may, 
we would publish it, and ask of every Poultry Show 
Committee to puhlisli at the head of their Prize List the 
name of this offender as one who would not be allowed 
to exhibit. 
The case to which w'e aliude occurred at the late Bir¬ 
mingham Show, and has been communicated to us by 
an unimpeachable witness, as follows:— 
“ We are aware of a pen of poultry being lent for ex- 
j liibition at the late Birmingham meeting, to compete 
I against the cottagers, on the pre-agreed understanding, 
j that the professed exhibitor should claim the pen the 
1 instant the sale office opened. This drew upon us re(d 
I owner tlie undoubtedly well-merited punishment which 
I followed. 
“ 'The prize-taker and his friends, exultant witli success, 
adjourned to the ‘ second class refreshment-room,’ and ! 
there, whilst enjoying creature comforts, were forgetful 
altogether of rules enjoined, or ‘the moments as they 
tlew,’ and never, till the subject was mooted by a bye- 
stander (which was some considerable time alter the sale 
had commenced), was the attempt even thought of, to 
secure the safe return of this pen of poultry to the real 
owner. But the sequel is soon told. A claimant had 
already appropriated the treasure, and our cottager (?), 
who a moment before was exuberant in joy and ex¬ 
ultation, breathing defiance to all and every pen in the 
same variety, either at Birmingham or elsewhere, be¬ 
came, with pantomimic rapidity, as suddenly chofi fallen 
and demure. What may be the eventual arrangement ' 
between the parties thus engaged in plans of complicity, i 
we do not, of course, attempt to determine, but trust j 
the exposure may possibly prevent its so frequent 
: ijractice elsewhere. AVe must, also, add, this is nut by . 
; any means an isolated instance, but simply an ‘ illus- j 
tration ’ of the fraudulent means so commonly adopted 
to frustrate the good intentions of those, whose onhj ' 
object was to really offer premiums worthy of compe- ‘ 
tition among the deserving poor; fraudulent means, be 
it remembered, adopted to defeat and to rob of the prize j 
! the honestly-exhibiting cottager.” ; 
i 
It is an unquestionable fact that we begin the new year 
badly unless we have gained wisdom from that which has 
just finished its career. The time of rest from Ponltry 
Sliows will soon be here. In a few weeks all tliat will be 
beard of them will eitlier be a recapitulation of past tri¬ 
umphs and disappointments, or the note of lU'eparation for 
those that ai'e coming. 
Among these the earliest will, no doubt, be llie Royal 
Agricultural Society and the West of England. These are 
in July. It is certain, that for winter exhibition. May 
chickens are better than January or February; but they are 
too young for summer shows. Chicken classes, for this 
season of the year, are principally coufined to Dorkings, 
Cochins, and Spanish. While the difficulty of rearing them 
iu the winter is admitted, still, as it is accomplished by some, 
' it may be by others, and the season tempts us to enter a 
t little into detail on the subject; following “ Tristram’s ” 
i capital notion of plain and common sense views. 
Select a young, healthy hen to sit on five, or, at most, 
seven eggs, and let her have a quiet, warm, and sheltered 
place. If it will allow of her being shut in, so much the 
better. As the nest must be on the ground, the locality 
must be chosen perfectly secure from rain, or from the 
searching irruption of melted snow. 
! Feed the hen generously, and, as the eggs soon chill in 
j the winter, let her always have food and water within reach, 
I in small portions. If a quantity of meal is thrown clown, 
and she is considered provided for till it is all consumed, it 
is a fatal error. It lies about till it is sour, and nothing hut 
sheer hunger, approacliing to starvation, will make her eat it. 
This is too often the case when hens are declared to he off 
their feed. Twice every day she should have good oatmeal 
mixed with hot water, and given warm. A few grains of 
hempseed in the middle of the day are good food. As the 
number of eggs will appear small, we A^ill try to justify it. 
No bird hatches her young under more favourable circum¬ 
stances than a hen plieasant. Warm weather, short nights, 
the earth teeming with food, yet she never rears more than 
seven. What prospect can there be, then, of a hen rearing 
eleven, or even nine, under every natural disadvantage. Of 
course, some will dissent from us, and trying a larger num¬ 
ber, and hatching them, will, when they are ten days old, 
smile at The Cottage Gardener; but we shall he content 
to bide our time. Although not strong, they may be alive. 
Wait till they are three weeks old. 
The difiiculty that interferes most with reai’ing early 
chickens is to overcome the long night of from fifteen to 
sixteen hours when they are without food. There is only 
one substitute, and that is warmth. This must be deiived 
from the hen. It will now be seen why she should not have 
more than five chickens. If she had nine, they would, 
wliile small, be well covered ; but they grow while the hen 
does not. Her capabilities are not increased by the require¬ 
ments of her progeny. The consequence is, she cannot 
cover them during the night. 'I'he outer chicken feeling 
tlie chill, fidgets, or, as we used to say at school, “ squeeges,” 
till it has displaced one of the more fortunate among its 
hretliren. But it was chilled before it got in, and tlie 
shitted one is so as soon as it gets out. They may not die 
directly, hut they do not thrive afterwards, and they will 
never win a silver cup. This is, generally, the foundation 
for the lament over the decline and fall of a promising 
brood. How familiar the words are, “They did well till 
they were about five weeks old, and then, one by one, they 
died. Every morning there was a poor little thing, witli its 
little wings drooping, making a mournful noise, and shiver¬ 
ing even in the sunshine. After a time it died. It is so 
disheartening.” Tlie cure is to allow a hen hi^t five chickens, 
and she will rear four. She can cover them after they 
have started to grow, and till the nights get shorter and 
warmer, 'The hen should he under the coop, or rip, till the 
chickens are at least ten weeks old, and at night it should 
always he covered with matting or sacking, or a piece ,of 
carpet. 
Let them have, when young, plenty of curd, of egg chopped 
fine, and of oatmeal mixed with new milk ; if you can add 
thereto some onion-tops so much the better, During the 
