May 26. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
147 
dace them bulky, a heavy run must take place on the l 
manure-heap. Still, they are full of quality, and must not | 
be despised. Our friends, however, who make profit the 
chief thing, must not sow until the middle of the month, i 
when either Ady’s Cos, or the Bath Cos, will, on good soil, 
turn out well. And now let me recommend, once more, ! 
cleanliness in. cultural operations, added to a jealous eye on j 
the manure-heap of the future year. R. Errington. 
THE RECENT POULTRY SALES. 
When Mr. Sturgeon, at the Birmingham show of 1850, 
put IIo each upon his pen of Cochin fowls, he himself 
believed and intended that price to be a prohibitory one. 
Two of his birds were, however, claimed, but the purchasers 
were thought to have taken leave of their senses. Two 
short years have scarcely passed over us since, and although | 
no stock multiply so fast, or come so quickly to maturity, as 
poultry, a moderately good bird can scarcely be had for the 
price which for the very best was then thought so out¬ 
rageous, and a first-rate one will anywhere readily command 
three times the money. 
If proof were required that the few, comparatively, who 
then took an interest in poultry matters have, in so short a 
period of time, succeeded in procuring a very large accession 
to their numbers, the results of the recent sales would alone 
afford ample evidence of it—so true is it that if the supply 
be not equal to the demand prices must inevitably rise. 
Other causes, no doubt, contribute to keep up the market 
. value of very first-rate specimens, not the least of which 
j (as most of our best breeders can testify) is, that out of a 
- very large number of chickens, bred from the very best of 
stock, but a small proportion can be placed in the first class 
I of merit, while a very large part are only fit for the kitchen. 
A nobleman, who was very successful in breeding grey- 
1 hounds, having been asked the secret of his success, re¬ 
plied, “ I breed a great many, and I hang a great many.” 
It is the same in breeding other animals, and poultry, we 
think, especially; and if, as is the case just now, half the 
world is in want of superior birds, and the other half have 
not sufficient of that quality wherewith to supply the 
demand, competition follows, and prices, for a time, greater 
or less, as it may be, rule high. 
This brings us to the subject with which we headed this 
article—“ The Recent Poultry Sales,” by which we mean 
the extensive sales which have of late taken place by auction 
in London. The first of these of any consequence was that 
of Mr. Sturgeon’s far-famed stock, to which almost every [ 
breeder is more or less indebted. As we noticed this sale ' 
soon after it took place, we shall not advert to it particularly 
here, further than to say that, although higher prices have 
since been obtained, we doubt if so good a lot has been 
submitted to public competition before or since. This was 
followed by Mr. Punchard’s sale, at which a fine lot of birds 
were displayed. Then came the sale of Mrs. Herbert’s 
beautiful whites, which afforded to amateurs the opportunity 
of procuring specimens of a breed theretofore possessed by 
I few, and which, for those living away from towns, are sure to 
! become especial favourites. Omitting minor collections, 
j Mr. Potts next brought to the hammer a collection second 
! to none in quality, and combining all the best blood extant. 
This sale was distinguished from its predecessors for having 
produced the greatest prices for individual specimens which 
had ever been obtained,—single birds having been sold for 
| the large sums of £42, £3G 5s., £28 7s., £23, £22, Ac. 
Mr. Fox’s sale followed next in succession, and the quality 
of his stock is proved by the fact, that several of the single 
lots fetched as much, or nearly so, and one bird actually 
over-topped the highest of the prices we have just quoted 
as having been produced by those of Mr. Potts; for while 
“Sir Robert” brought Mr. Potts £42, “Nelson” realised 
for Mr. Fox £43, at which sum he was sold to Mr. Sturgeon, 
by-whom he had been bred. The fact of Mr. Sturgeon 
giving such a price as this for a bird bred by himself, proves 
how highly he, as well as the public who competed with him 
for the possession of it, estimates his own stock, and, more¬ 
over, that lie has determined that neither pains nor expense 
shall be spared to keep it up to that point of excellence 
which it has, beyond all question, attained, and which the 
possession of such a bird as “ Nelson ’’ (probably the best 
ever shown in public) cannot fail to enhance. The last 
important sale was that of Mrs. George, who is indebted, we 
believe, for her best blood to Mr. Sturgeon’s strain. Some 
beautiful birds were among this lot, and they realised cor¬ 
responding prices. 
We have adverted to these sales, not with a view to par¬ 
ticularize the specimens comprised in each of them, so 
much as to consider the effect of the high prices generally 
realized upon the poultry world, and its future prospects. 
Upon some of the causes of these prices we have already 
observed. That they will continue for a time, those who 
know how very many of our wealthy classes have began to 
take an interest in poultry and poultry-keeping will scarcely 
doubt. When first John Bull determines to do a thing, he 
seldom does it by halves. That feeling is enhanced, when 
there is a little of what is termed “fancy ” in the way, and 
the competition afforded by our numerous poultry shows will 
add a zest to the tvhole. Moreover, the feeling—undoubt¬ 
edly, we conceive, a just one—that poultry, as a pleasant 
and profitable branch of rural economy, lias long been much 
neglected, has generated a desire to make amends for the 
past by taking better care for the future; and this again 
has been increased by the success attained in so short a 
time. The consequence has already been, that where there 
was one person who ever gave the quality of his poultry a 
thought, there are now a hundred, and may soon probably 
be a thousand. To meet the demand of these increasing 
numbers, the care bestowed by the present race of breeders 
(if the term is allowable), will, no doubt, produce a much 
greater number of good birds every successive season. 
These, as we have said, multiply fast; the best of each 
stock will be chosen; there will be a gi’eater supply of strains 
from which to obtain a cross, and these means combined will 
ultimately pi’oduce a supply to meet the demand, however 
much it may be extended. The ultimate consequences, as 
we think, will be that a first-rate specimen, of whatever 
variety, will command a high price, as is the case with all 
stock—a good Spanish hen, for instance, being worth more 
in the market at this moment that at any previous period; 
although the writer of this has kept them for more than 
twenty-five years; but, on the other hand, prices genei - ally 
will, after a time, lower vei’y considerably, so that tolerably 
good birds will be procurable at a moderate rate. But we 
anticipate a much more important effect, and believe that it 
has already partially commenced, from the sales which we 
have been noticing, combined, no doubt, with the compe¬ 
tition which takes place at the different shows, and the pains 
which are bestowed upon the breeding of birds for both 
purposes ; we mean that, the breed of poultry generally will 
bo, and is rapidly impx'oving around us, by the dissemination 
of good varieties, instead of the tag rag and-bob-tail lot of 
mongrels which, only a short time ago, alike disgraced the 
poultry yai’ds of rich and poor. As prices become more 
moderate, and good birds are placed within reach of all, this 
effect will extend itself, and amateurs will, we hope, make 
the sales of their surplus stock subservient to the great 
object for which the different societies and their exhibitions 
have been established. 
In order to do this, and at the same to keep up the inte¬ 
rest in these matters which already prevails among the 
higher classes of amateurs, it is necessary that the utmost 
fairness and plain dealing should exist on the part of those i 
who submit their stock to public competition. We have heard j 
rumours of great unfairness, with respect to pedigrees and 1 
ci'osscs—that birds, for instance, have been advertised as 
“ imported,” or as bred from this or that stock, or strain, 
which afterwards proved to be anything but what had been I 
represented. Complaints have also reached us of “ puffers " j 
having been employed at sales to run up prices to an unfair 
amount. We wish it.to be distinctly understood that we do 
not intend hei'e to point at any individual, or at any particular 
instance, although we shall not hesitate, if such misconduct 
he pursued, to expose the perpetrator of it. Our object, 
from first to last, in supporting the different exhibitions, and 
giving our humble assistance to the societies established for 
the purpose, has been the single one of pi*omoting, to the j 
utmost of our ability, the improvement of the purer and 
more valuable varieties of Domestic Poultry, and their dis- 
