360 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 9, 1858. 
I 
| 
I 
MR. W. C. WORRALL’S HAMBURGHS. 
I much regret to find, from The Cottage Gardener of 
February 23rd, that Mr. W. C. Worrall again, as last year, 
recklessly rushes into print, condemnatory of the awards at the 
late Preston Poultry Show. On the present occasion, how¬ 
ever, confining his strictures more especially to the Golden- 
spangled Hamburghs. 
Most poultry amateurs would have vainly imagined his 
very dearly-bought experience last spring, from the complete 
exposure of the utterly groundless complaints he then pre¬ 
ferred against the Judges, would have exercised a somewhat 
lasting and salutary influence upon him, and prevented this 
second attempt to enforce statements equally apocryphal and 
incapable of justification; but the present result proves the 
contrary. The lachrymose style ot “despair” he now as¬ 
sumes from not standing, as he evidently anticipated, A 1 at 
the Preston Show, and his acknowledgment that “ his case is 
really pitiable,” few will dispute ; more particularly as, after 
“ flattering himself his selections have been made with judg¬ 
ment,” he immediately adulates “ beautifully laced breasts, 
as the sine qua non of “ Spangled ” Hamburghs. Although 
well-understood, I will confine myself exclusively to Mr. 
Worrell's letter, as it appears on the surface, and confidently 
assert, if poultry Judges are to be thus wantonly assailed, and 
called upon to defend their honest opinions, simply to satisfy 
the caprice of parties who assume a knowledge they do not 
possess, no painstaking, and really conscientious, indivi¬ 
dual, who stands equally disinterested among all exhibitors, 
will accept office ; and I, therefore, maintain such conduct is 
highly reprehensible in those discomfited exhibitors who 
attempt it; and, I feel assured, will never be tolerated to any 
extent by the generality of the poultry fancy. Again, when 
Judges are thus assailed, they may, with the most perfect 
reliance and consistency, remain silent under so discreditable 
an aggression. 
I will allow Mr. Worrall’s brilliant description of his 
own favourite Hamburgh to pass unnoticed, except as to 
one grave fault he admits as existent—“ the comb being 
rather large.” So large, indeed, is it, that a Yorkshireman 
would have exulted in its possession in a legitimate “Red 
Cap j” but nothing can be more preposterous in a “ Mooney.” 
The livid colour, too, of the comb of Mr. Worrell's Preston 
bird, was strangely at variance with the condition it was shown 
in at Liverpool, and was strongly indicative how relent¬ 
lessly its owner taxes the physical endurance of his poultry, 
in the hope of adding to the Plate triumphs of his sideboard. 
Humanity would have rather suggested careful treatment at 
home, whether considered for the fowl’s present comfort, or 
future restoration. But, on the other hand, I cannot permit 
Mr. Worrall’s unjust remarks of the rival birds, he so parti¬ 
cularly specifies, to pass unnoticed. Neither Mr. Jones’s 
nor Mr. Chune’s birds have “ crooked combs,” although 
Mr. W. thug confidently, in print, asserts it to be so. These 
fowls are always producible, to attest the error of such bare¬ 
faced assertion. I regret and repudiate the ungrateful at¬ 
tempt of Mr. Worrall (as one of the Liverpool Secretaries) 
to hold up the awards of the Judges at his own meeting as 
perfection, and, by inference the most direct, imputing to the 
arbitrators at Preston, a not being “ cognizant of the points 
of merit, or able to distinguish one sub-variety from another.” 
This is suggestive of another remark, admittedly unpalatable. 
The Preston Poultry Show is not to be obliterated from our 
annual meetings, to serve party purposes. Lancashire is an 
extensive county, and there is ample room for all its present 
Shows of Poultry to prosper well, independently of each other, 
provided they are fafrly conducted. “ Live and let live ” is 
surely the most honourable order of the day. But, Mr. 
Worrall writes, at Preston “ the Exhibitors of Game fowls 
have pleaded hard, and obtained separate Judges,” and con¬ 
cludes by asking the same privileges for the Hamburgh classes, 
as an act of “great propriety.” There surely could not be the 
slightest objection to this arrangement, in any instance, where 
the funds of the Committee sanctioned the consequent increased 
expenditure. At Liverpool, however, the Game classes were 
not the subject of specially selected Poultry Judges ; and from 
Mr. Worrall having himself mooted the question of Game 
fowls, and being one of the two Secretaries, through whom the 
extremely valuable prizes for Single Game Cocks were offered 
to the public competition for this variety, will he kindly 
explain why the £40 premium, for the best Single Game Cock, 
was, at the time of the Show at Liverpool, assumedly awarded 
to a person of the name of Armstrong, yet is now advertised 
in the public newspapers as having actually been the attain¬ 
ment of his co-Secretary ? No doubt, Mr. W. C. Worrall 
can easily clear up what, at first, appears so decidedly incon¬ 
gruous ; and, to the community of poultry exhibitors, really 
difficult of explanation ; but, as the circumstance just alluded 
to, has caused a great variety of speculative conjecture, no 
doubt, as far as possible, it would be the wiser policy, to 
obviate all future misapprehension by the open acknowledg¬ 
ment at the time being, of the individuality of the prize takers ; 
and thus give no suggestive room for differences of opinion, 
as to the causes requiring concealment of identity in the first 
instance.— Golden Mooney. 
BUYING EGGS. 
I am glad to see some one has taken up the cudgels in the 
defence of egg buyers, as well as of egg sellers ; and, if the whole 
truth w r ere known, I think it will be proved that eggs are the 
worst possible way to get into any breed of fowls. I will give 
you the result of my experience. Last year I exchanged 
twenty-four eggs, with a breeder of some of the best birds in 
England, my own being equally good. The gentleman from 
whom I received them, I am quite sure, would not sell his j 
honour for a rotten egg ; from his twenty-four eggs, I hatched ; 
only four chickens ; and, they proved to me, I w T as dealing ; 
with an honest man. I sent him the same number of eggs as j 
I had received, and his luck was not better than mine; although ; 
I took the greatest care to send him the newest eggs. The 
distance sent was about 120 miles. Now, the inference to 
be drawn from this, must be, that if a buyer gives a guinea a 
dozen for his eggs, and half their hatched produce are reared, 
and turn out good birds, which my experience convinces me 
is a large allowance, he gives a guinea a bird, besides the ex¬ 
pense of rearing : consequently he had better go to the Poultry 
Shows, and pick exactly what he wants. I also received 
twenty-four eggs of another breed, and from nearly the same 
distance, not one of which hatched; and these, I felt sure, were 1 
honestly sent, as the lady from whom I bought the first twelve, 
sent me twelve more in consequence of the first all proving 
bad.—R. B. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Golden-spangled Hamburghs ( A Constant Reader ).—It is difficult 
to give an opinion of a bird, judging from two feathers. If those sent 
are fair samples of the entire plumage, then we advise to breed from 
No. 1, presuming that the little fault in the shape of the moon is acci- j 
dental. No. 2 are bad feathers. No. 3 are good, almost equal to No. 1. 
Choose hens with accurate spangling, and rather dark than light. 
Dubbing Game Fowls {Mary McDitff) .— The original purpose of ( 
dubbing was to remove everything that an antagonist could take hold 
of; hut there were always two opinions: one left a poi'tion of the 
comb as a protection to the skull; the other removed all. Our opinion 
is that the latter mode is the better. Comb, gills, and ear-lobes should 
all be carefully taken off; it is all superfluous. Nothing more is taken 
away; if it were, it would interfere with the action of the beak, and 
injure the fighting properties of the bird. The head should be clean 
as that of a snake. 
Points in a Black Bantam Cock [J. D .).—A perfect black Bantam 
cockshould have double comb, white ear-lobe, black legs, andlong-flow- 
ing tail; the longer the better. But as perfection is hard to be attained, 
and birds forming a model pen generally remain in the class “ deside¬ 
rata,” we do not advise you to be discouraged if your bird does not 
possess all these points fully devoloped. 
LONDON MAR KE TS— March 8th. 
POULTRY. 
There has been little change since last week, either in supply, de¬ 
mand, or prices. 
Each. 
Large Fowls ... 
5s. 0 d. to 5s. Gd 
Small ditto. 
4 
o „ 
4 6 
Chickens. 
3 
o „ 
3 9 
Goslings. 
7 
0 „ 
7 6 
Ducklings . 
3 
o „ 
4 3 
Guinea Fow ls. 
2 
9 „ 
3 0 
Each. 
Wild Ducks ... 2 s. 9<L to 3s. 0 d. 
Widgeon. 
.. 1 
9 
99 
2 
0 
Teal. 
.. 2 
0 
99 
2 
3 
Pigeons . 
.. o 
8 
99 
0 
9 
Rabbits . 
.. 1 
4 
3 9 
1 
5 
Wild ditto .... 
.. 0 
9 
99 
0 
10 
London : Printed by Hugh Barclay, Winchester, High-street, in the 
Parish of Saint Mary Kalendar; and Published for the Proprietors, at 
The Cottage Gardener Office, No. 20, Paternoster Row, in the 
Parish of Christ Church, City of London.—March 9, 1858. 
