Augcst 18. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
375 
I 
the actual age and the age declared. In one case, 1 
pointed out to an eminent amateur a prize pen of 
birds evidently sis or seven weeks (not to say more) 
older than was stated ; and the remark my friend made 
was, ‘ If the owner were to swear they are not older, I 
could not believe him.’ I noticed some chickens, in 
another pen, which I knew to be upwards of twelve 
weeks older than appeared in the catalogue. Now, I 
woidd acquit gentlemen (and J trust I should be right 
in so doing) of intentional mis-statements—the errors 1 
have noticed were possibly tho result of carelessness; 
but something is necessary to prevent such blunders, 
and to ensure exactness. If tho ages had to be declared 
upon honour, or verified by declaration, greater attention 
would be given while preparing the statements, and 
any mistake then occurring might fairly be deemed 
intentional aud premeditated. Some plan is evidently 
necessary to protect the interests of honest competitors 
who truly declare the ages of their birds; and I am 
content with having called the attention of your com¬ 
mittee to. so important a question.—W. H. Snell, Shir¬ 
ley Cottage, Norwood.” 
There can be no doubt that there is much truth in 
this charge of error in the statement of the age of 
chickens; and we think no one would object—certainly, 
no one ought to object—to sign a declaration in this 
form— 
“I hereby declare that ray Dorking chickens now 
sent for exhibition were hatched on or about the 10 th 
day of April, 1853. “ A- IB-.” 
A printed form might bo furnished to each exhibitor, 
j blanks being left for the words printed in italics. 
Supposing that any one is base enough intentionally 
to allege an erroneous age as being that of his chickens, 
even one so dishonest would be checked in his course ; 
for, if proof established the falsehood, his own hand¬ 
writing would prevent the shuffling plea that it was a 
mistake being available. 
This leads us to observe upon another case in which 
no plea of mistake should be permitted to prevail—wc 
mean the price alfixed at which birds exhibited are to 
! be sold. Whatever sum is stated in the handwriting of 
the exhibitor, or of his servant, in the form of entry, 
should be rigidly adhered to. If an exhibitor is so 
careless as not to acquaint himself with the require¬ 
ments of the Society whose form he fills up, he ought 
not to complain if he suffers from the consequences of 
such carelessness. To be lax in the enforcement of this 
i rule is to open a door for inconvenient shuffling. 
We know a very recent case where a pen of birds 
was marked in the exhibition catalogue at .£10. We 
thought the cockerel in the pen worth all the money, 
and so thought the most successful breeder of the 
variety. Ho claimed the pen, but was told it was a 
mistake, the price was -630 ; and he eventually gave 
T20. We do not for a moment intend to insinuate that 
it was not a mistake, because we have no evidence 
either to sustain or to forbid such an insinuation; but 
we do say, that if an exhibitor is allowed to increase 
his price, under any circumstances, then is a door 
opened which too many will take advantage of so soon 
as they find their birds are sought for; and it will be 
worse than foolish to append prices at all. It will be 
worse than foolish, because it will bo evaded by the 
shuffling, and adhered to only by tho strictly honourable. 
There is some reason to hope that the Potato Murrain 
is much arrested in its course by the hot, dry weather 
n,t the boginuing of this month. A gentleman, travelling 
from Penzance to Plymouth, says,—“ Mile by mile, as I 
journeyed, was tho blight less severe in the Potatoes, 
though even here bad enough. Hay is now (August 3) 
cutting in large breadths, but so long delayed that the 
bottom is quite blanched.” From the neighbourhood 
of Penzance we hear as follows,—“ Potatoes are here 
rotting fast in the ground; hardly a tuber fit to eat; 
never, in fact, worse in any previous year.” From the 
north of Ireland, on the contrary, we hear,—“The crop 
of Potatoes will not bo very much injured. The haulm 
looks very bad, but the tubers arc not proportionately 
injured.” We think no reliance is to be placed on 
reports which do not show that the tubers have been 
examined. 
Some of our contemporaries are labouring to ridicule 
the increased attention now being paid to Poultry- 
culture, and they chuckle over the idea that the prices 
of fowls arc declining. This is rejoicing at an imaginary 
result; for we know of prices recently given which are 
quite equal to those we have had to record. For in¬ 
stance, we know of <620 beiug paid for a Spanish cockerel 
and two pullets; and wo also know that Capt. Hornby 
refused T50 for his Spanish cockerel exhibited, and the 
same sum for a pen of Dorkings, at the London Summer 
Exhibition. This reminds us, that at that Exhibi¬ 
tion, Dr. G wynne received a prize for Black Shangliae 
Chickens, but his name was accidentally omitted in the 
published prize list. 
THE WEATHER, THE ORCHARD, AND 
GARDEN CROPS. 
To say that the past has been one of the most extra¬ 
ordinary seasons on record, is, I suppose, simply to 
affirm what every Englishman knew beforehand. 
After one of the wettest autumns we ever knew, 
and an open winter during part of December and 
January, we came to the hardest weather just at the 
very period when the spring is expected to advance. 
Then, during the third and last weeks in March, we 
had a thermometer, for several nights, indicating from 
1G to 20 degrees of frost. This was, indeed, most 
unusual, and well it was for fruit-growers that the past 
had been of a retarding character, or there had been 
little fruit in the kingdom; thus fairly shewing the 
value of retarding principles in covering matters which 
I was the first to insist on, although I had to fight the 
battle single-handed at one period. Since then we have 
had numerous converts. 
In the second week of May we had repeated snow- 
