345 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 2, 1858. 
Names of Plants [Mrs. L. Dundas ).—We believe it to be Clematis 
polymorpha, variety semitriloba, or Half-three-lob-edleaved Poly- 
morphus Virgin’s Bower. It is a native of Corsica and Majorca. If 
you had sent us a spray with its flowers and leaves, we could have been 
certain. ( Tonbridge ).—The bits sent scarcely justify a guess at the 
name of your plant. We think it is Lobelia bicolor. 
THE POiLTO? ©TO©flt®L 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Bath and West of England. Sec., Mr. 
John Kingsbury, Hammet Street, Taunton, 
June 28th, 29th, and 30th, and July 1. Sheffield. Sec., Wm. Henry 
Dawson, Sheffield. 
N.B .—•Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
. SELLING POULTRY—COOKING OLD 
FOWLS. 
It is one of the solaces of our editorial position, that it 
brings us constantly in communication with many pleasing- 
correspondents, of the softer sex. Most of them, however, 
have a cuckoo note, at this time of year, “ What are we to 
do with our surplus stock ? ” The answer to this involves a 
repetition of what we have said, for the last four or live years ; 
and it tends rather to a change next season, than to any pro¬ 
fitable relief for the present. 
Almost every one exhibits Poultry, and, in order to do so 
successfully, many chickens must be bred. It is an impos¬ 
sibility to breed all winning birds ; and, at the age of fourteen 
or fifteen weeks, a Draconian edict should be issued, punish¬ 
ing the slightest defect with death. Nothing entails so much 
loss, as the amiable hope that a faulty chicken will grow out 
of its deformity, or that the puny survivor of an unfortunate 
brood, will “ take a start.” If it be intended to rear Exhi¬ 
bition birds, it must be remembered, that they will have to en¬ 
counter those that have never had a check, but have grown 
up uninterruptedly. How, then, can the poor straggler hope 
for success? “ Well then,” says our fair querist, “Suppose 
I do make up my mind to kill the poor creatures, what shall 
I do with them ? ” “ Sell them,” we answer. “ Yes,” is the 
reply; “ we see in your quotations fowls at 5 s. and 6s. each; 
and, when we want to sell, we only get 3s. 6d. or 4s. Qd. the 
couple.” Not a bad price, either; though we think that in 
May you would get more ; but, it must be recollected, we 
quote for the very best qualities: and for you to expect to 
make as much as those people, who have followed Poultry 
breeding as a livelihood, would be as unreasonable as for a lad 
to wish to ride for the Derby, because he had ridden his 
father’s cob round the park without a fall. We promise you, 
the cliickens you draft for sale, in May, will pay you all they 
have cost. You must not look to these for your profit, but 
to those you have selected for Exhibition ; for, even if they are 
not prize takers, they will sell at prices that will be profitable. 
In nineteen cases out of twenty, where Poultry is unprofit¬ 
able, the reason is, that too many birds are kept. Amateurs 
hope against hope, as to the capabilities of tlieir pets, and 
allow abortions to go on eating food, when it is certain they 
will never make any return for it. 
But what a manifest advantage it is to clear your yards and 
runs, thereby giving every scope to your selected birds ; and 
what a diminution of the consumption of food. We hardly 
know whether to laugh or groan, when we find a person, who 
started with the intention of keeping only a few fowls—say 
ten hens and two cocks-^and who does not mean to keep more 
as a breeding stock, surrounded at Christmas with fifty or 
sixty, all declared too good to kill, and yet absolutely unsale¬ 
able ; too old to eat—not good enough to sell as stock, unless 
at low prices, as ordinary fowls. Many do not make as much 
in December, as they would have made in May and June ; 
and Pater-familias , although not a little proud of his capa¬ 
bilities as a carver, looks askew at the rounded and firm pro¬ 
portions of the fowls before him, and cuts, and strains, and 
soils the cloth, in his endeavours to dissect the full-grown 
members of the yard, which, with many a sigh, he has de¬ 
voted to the spit, on which they should have turned five 
months before. 
Is not a hint, as to cooking Poultry, in the proper place, in 
the Poultry Chronicle ? Well, then, we will give one to such 
of our tair readers as take an interest in culinary matters. 
How to make the best, and most savoury, dish, with old 
fowls. Take a dish (an oval one is best), and it must have a 
cover to it; cut thin shoes ot bread, and line the bottom and 
sides of it with them ; then put a layer of bacon. You may 
then either put in your fowl whole, or, if you have more than 
one, you may cut them up; if the latter, lay them in layers, 
filling up with any odd scraps of meat you may have— 
nothing is too common or too fat; any remnants or trimmings, 
pieces of bacon, any of the little hits that turn to no account; 
but fill every space—make it, in fact, a sort of edible grout¬ 
ing. When the dish is full, pour in gravy ; or, lacking that, 
pour in water till it is full; then put a layer of bacon and 
bread, as before; put on the lid, and tie it down. Let it be 
put in a slack oven over night, and allowed to remain simmer¬ 
ing till the morning; then let it get cold, and your old 
Cochin-China, or Dorking cock, will be tender and juicy, and 
built in, in a bed of jelly and succulent meat. Your odds 
and ends of fat will be turned to flavoured marrow, and the 
bits of stray meat will be seen set in amber. Hungry boys 
and girls are very fond of the crisp slices of bread, that have 
lined the vessel. We forgot to say, that the top of the tureen 
should have the necessary small hole, to prevent a blow up. 
We must defer the further consideration of this, and our 
instructions, till a future paper; but we will conclude in a 
merciless spirit, and say, If you have too many fowls, and 
cannot turn them into money, because the breed is so good, 
that you will not spread it by selling at low prices—kill 
your superabundant stock: it will prove a positive gain. 
PERCHES. 
In reply to your correspondent, “ An Inquirer,” I beg 
to hand him what little information I possess on the subject. 
I have tried large and flat perches, on which the birds rest 
without clasping them ; also straw, bound with string, on a 
medium-size perch; both of which prevent crooked breasts ; 
and I have found them choose a perch, bound with straw, in 
preference to a plain one. A split fir pole, three or four inches 
on the flat side, which is downwards, is very good. With 
Game fowls, and other varieties, that fly with facility, height 
is of small importance ; but Dorkings should never ascend 
above three or four feet. As an instance : I had some Dork¬ 
ings, Game, and Hamburgh fowls, roosting on a beam twelve 
feet high, in a shed paved with chalk, and consequently very 
hard; they had a small ladder, which they used to ascend, 
but always flew down ; the lighter varieties escaped injury, 
but the whole of the Dorkings became tender footed, and one 
severely injured its breast bone. As a general rule, I consider 
Game less subject to crooked breasts than the heavier varieties. 
In conclusion, I will quote an excellent account of breeding 
and rearing Game cocks, in the “ Sporting Magazine,” of the 
years 1793 and 1794 :—“ Provide your chickens with round 
perches, and covered with woollen cloth, which will prevent 
their growing crooked breasted; they must not, however, be 
thicker than they can gripe with ease, as that would occasion 
them to grow duck-footed ; and they would not then be able to 
stand so firm in battle, as if their claws were in a proper di¬ 
rection. Neither should the perches be placed too high (that 
is, not higher than four or five feet, till they are three months 
old), lest it should occasion them to have swelled feet.”— 
IIenricus. 
BLACK EAST INDIAN DUCKS. 
Many are the correspondents, in your valuable paper, who 
have boldly advocated the cause of the Black East India* 
Ducks, with respect to their having a separate class for them¬ 
selves, at the different Poultry Shows. 
In your paper of March 31, 1857, you will see that I there 
sought to draw attention to this omission, on the part of the 
framers of prize lists ; and, if my remarks with respect to the 
Crystal Palace Show of January, 1857, were sufficient to prove 
(I will not say the necessity, but) the propriety of having a 
separate class for these birds, the catalogue for the last Show 
at the Crystal Palace will prove, beyond all doubt, that, next 
to the Aylesbury and Rouen, the Black East Indian Ducks 
