THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, May 12, 1857 
and, where they lack flavour or some of the other good 
points of old favourite sorts, let well-directed skill be em¬ 
ployed in the raising of other varieties which may equal 
! if not excel any hitherto known. We have had enough 
| of old kinds ; and, though it is unkind and ungrateful 
to discard old friends, we cannot well retain all who are 
a burden to us; and, be it remembered, old Apples and 
Pears were often the compeers of our ancestors, and 
| are consequently excusable if they fall short in the 
utilitarian principle which governs the dealings of the 
; present day. If there be any one who disputes the 
liability of all cultivated varieties of fruits, perpetuated 
as they are by budding or grafting, to fall into irre¬ 
mediable decay, let him point out instances where the 
| old kinds have been retained in health and utility when 
. the trees have arrived at maturity. Until then I, for 
one, must class all the improved varieties of fruits with 
fallen mortality, and whether the utmost that each 
specimen may attain be three hundred years or three 
score and ten, the time for each is sure to come, and 
usually, in both cases, preceded by disease. 
J. Robson. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Emigration to America ( John Thomas).—We have no information 
on this subject. If you have friends out there write to them for in¬ 
formation. Emigration for employment on speculation is a risk no 
sensible man would incur. 
Wireworm (J. G. F .).— There is no mode of destroying these 
wholesale, except by paring and burning one spit’s depth of the whole 
surface. To trap them slices of potato and carrot must be buried near 
the crop to be protected, and the slices examined daily. It is said that 
powder of linseed cake put about the crop to be protected checks the 
ravages of the wireworm. 
Protecting Tree Stems by Tar (A. B. C.).—Stockholm tar is 
employed for the purpose. Gas tar would injure, if not destroy the 
trees. Apply the tar cold from the surface of the soil to such a height 
as the sheep cannot reach above. We should prefer tying pieces of 
wood round the stems so close together that the sheep could not get 
their noses between the pieces. 
Ammonia added to Hard Water (A Constant Reader). —It is 
quite true that our direction to add “very little ” is indefinite, but it is 
one of those cases in which precision is impossible without knowing the 
amount of salts per gallon rendering the water hard. However, a quarter 
of an ounce of carbonate of ammonia to two buckets (five gallons) of 
water will be enough under any circumstances, and would do no harm 
to the plants watered with it. 
Names of Pi.ants (M. G.). — Aubrietia purpurea ; You rightly 
describe it as “ flowering for the last two months, and will continue in 
beauty for another six weeks.” It is very pretty cither in a mass or as 
an edging plant, and is very hardy. (J. Ray).— I. Orobus vernus. 2 . 
Doronicum Austriacurn. 3. A fungus, not detectable from such a 
specimen. (G. M. J.), — 1 . Alii aria officinalis. 2 . Barbarea vulgaris. 
3. Car ex riparia ? 
1 THE.POULTRY" CHRONICLE. 
' .i ■ - -.- . . . 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
June 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Bath and West of England. Sec., Mr. 
John Kingsbury, 10 , Hammet Street, Taunton. Entries close the 1 st 
of May. 
June 26th. Exeter. Sec., T. W. Gray, Esq., Queen Street, Exeter, 
j July 8 th, 9th, and 10th, 1857. Leamington. Net*., Thomas Grove. 
July 9 th. Prescot. Sec., J. F. Ollard. 
July 28 th, 29th, and 30 th. Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and 
North Derbyshire. Sec., William Henry Dawson, Fig Tree 
Lane, Sheffield. 
August 8 th, loth, llth, and 12 th. Crystal Palace. Sec., W. 
Houghton. 
August 19* Bridlington. Sec., Mr. Thomas Cape. 
September 2 nd. Dewsbury. Set*., Harrison Brooke, Esq. 
September 7th, 8 tli, 9 th, loth. Gloucester. Sec., Mr. H. Chtrtchill, 
King’s Head Hotel. 
October 1st and 2 nd. Worcester. 
November 30th, and December 1 st, 2 nd, and 3 rd. Birmingham. 
Sec., John Morgan. Entries close the 2nd of November. 
December Ifith and 17 th. Nottinghamshire. Entries close No¬ 
vember 18th. Hon. Sec., Mr. R. Hawksley, jun., Southwell. 
January 9 th, llth, 12 th, and 13th, 1858. Crystal Palace. 
January 19 th, 20 th, 21 st, and 22nd, 1858. Nottingham Central. 
Sec., Mr. Etherington, jun., Notintone Place, Sneinton, near Notting¬ 
ham. 
N .B.—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
93 
BIRMINGHAM POULTRY EXHIBITION. 
“ On revient toujours a ses premiers amours.” True. We 
therefore hail the appearance of the Ninth Annual Prize- 
List of Bingley Hall, Birmingham. The whole place is 
familiar to the amateur—the crowing of the fourteen or 
fifteen hundred cocks—the noble and titled company—the 
great show of every breed of poultry—the very squeezing at 
the office-door—everything has its charms. It is looked 
forward to, and it was delightful last year to know that it 
was profitable. 
The Society has peculiar claims on all who are interested 
in poultry, and we hope the support they will meet with this 
year and for many years to come will prove that amateurs 
are not unmindful of the obligations due to the Council of 
this Association. It is here that everything which has been 
adopted elsewhere has been tried, and in past years the first 
step of any new Committee was to ask advice from Bir¬ 
mingham. It was always fully and freely given. They 
formed the different classes, and whatever influence they 
have acquired has always been exerted for the benefit of the 
pursuit. While we press these claims on amateurs, we hope 
we shall not be thought exceeding our duties if we remind 
the trading classes of Birmingham and the railway com¬ 
panies that they are largely benefited by it, and that its 
claims on them are very strong. 
PROTESTS AT POULTRY EXHIBITIONS. 
A doubt cannot rest on the mind of any careful observer 
of matters connected with our Poultry Exhibitions otherwise 
than that the awards of those who officiate as Judges are 
far more closely scrutinised than they were at the time such 
meetings were first instituted some seven or eight years 
since. 
At the onset there were but very few amateurs who 
possessed anything like an extended knowledge of beyond, 
perhaps, one or two varieties, to which their “ fancy ” or, per¬ 
chance, something connected with their particular locality, 
had especially directed their individual attention. How 
different is the case at the present time! The peculiar 
characteristics—at least the most remarkable—are pretty 
generally well known to those who have visited many of our 
Poultry Meetings, in reference, at least, to all the leading 
classes, and any gross neglect in the arbitrations of 
acknowledged requirements in the successful pens at once 
draws down the Avell - deserved animadversions of the 
spectators. It cannot bo denied, however, that not un- 
frequently rivalry and jealousy tend in no smalt degree to 
foster complaints against the decisions when there is really 
no just cause for so doing. Some men are proverbial as 
“had losers,” and even acknowledge a personal gratification, 
if they cannot win, in “bringing it to a wrangle.” 
Although a subject of regret that such a state of things 
should exist, as manifestly injurious alike to good fellow¬ 
ship, order, and even the permanency of such meetings, 
still it may be fairly presumed that the unsuccessful 
exhibitor will ever be most sensitively alive to the im¬ 
perfections of his rivals, exultant in pointing out their 
defects, and equally indefatigable in eulogising the merits of 
the poultry he has long looked upon with feelings, perhaps, 
closely akin to considering that his own birds alone possess 
all the attributes of perfection. It is undoubtedly true that 
even the failings of poultry become less apparent by being 
brought frequently, perhaps daily, before the eye of an 
owner, who naturally regards them with an absolute in¬ 
disposition to examine too closely into evident defects. How 
certain it is, also, that poultry “at home” as frequently 
appear far more worthy of commendation than when com¬ 
peting for public favours in the exhibition room. It is only 
by the closest contrast that the relative merits of dif¬ 
ferent specimens can by possibility he estimated; so much 
so, that in large classes we have frequently known some of 
our most competent and practised Poultry Judges ac¬ 
knowledge their inability to arrive at a positive conclusion 
unless rival and distantly-located pens were temporarily 
placed in juxtaposition for their more minute investigation, 
being immediately afterwards restored to the place originally 
