THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 4, 1859. 
13 
were thought worthy of distinction, and were named accordingly 
in the prize list. The four prizes went to Rev. F. Thursby, 
Mr. John Shawe, Rev. F. Thursby, and Mr. Harrison. All 
these were of very high merit, and many of the commended 
deserved prizes. Mr. Tatham. took the prize for a Single Cock 
with a very fine bird. Spanish were excellent. Mr. Wright was 
first with a beautiful pen ; Mr. Shawe second; and the Rev. Mr. 
Thursby third. Four pens in this class were highly commended. 
The Game fowls were very good ; but the chickens were not 
dubbed, and the old birds that had been operated on, were badly 
done. This is a great disadvantage, and'is noticed in these days 
when this class is shown in such perfection. Messrs. Burnaby, 
Shefibrd, and Freestone, took the prizes ; and Mr. Shefford that 
for a Single Cock. Mr. Tatham took both prizes for Cochin 
Chinas. We are bound to notice two pullets in pen 300. They 
were the best we have seen this year. The Rev. Mr. Thursby 
took a prize for Brahma Pootras. We do not approve of the next 
class. Two prizes given for cross-bred fowls. Both were taken 
by chickens between the Dorking and Brahma. They were very 
large and handsome birds ; the pullets had lost symmetry as com¬ 
pared with pure Dorkings, but one of the cocks was the deepest 
bird we ever saw, taking him from the back to the edge of the 
breast-bone. 
Aylesbury Dudes were unusually good : Mr. Shawe took first 
and second prizes; Mr. Harrison the third. Some of Mr.Shawe’s 
ducklings weighed 7-f lbs. each. Mr. Rose was successful in 
Rouen Ducks, and Mr. Iveston in Muscovy. 
The Show ended with a prize of £3, added to a sweepstakes of 
lO^., for the three best pens of poultry. This was awarded to 
the Rev. Mr. Thursby, hard run, however, by Mr. Shawe. 
It will be seen the entries were of Dorkings, Spanish, Game, 
Brahmas, Cochins, and Aylesbury Ducks; and the improve¬ 
ments we have noted from year to year were on this occasion 
fully maintained. We do not believe the awards would have 
been materially altered had the competition been open to 
England. 
Mr. Baily was the Judge. 
CHICKENS WEAKENED BY WAKMTH. 
I hate a flock of Brown-red Game chickens eighteen weeks 
old, bred from a first-rate strain. Most of them are very pro¬ 
mising birds in all points except the feather, which is too long 
and soft. The first three months they sat in a very warm place.. 
I Would that affect their feathering ? and can anything be done 
to improve them ? — A Young Amateur. 
[The very warm place in which the chickens were for a long 
time kept may have had much to do with their soft feathers ; 
feeding, probably, still more. Heating food, such as hempseed, 
canary, &c., all soften plumage. Accustom them by degrees to 
harder living. If it is safe let them roost out of doors, or in an 
open shed. Feed them on ground oats; give them some old 
beans and a few peas. The change must be made gradually; 
and green food be given plentifully.] 
NOTES ON THE CRYSTAL PxLLACE POULTRY 
SHOW. 
I AM a lover of good open criticism, and, therefore, read the 
remarks of Mr. B. P. Brent with interest; but I cannot help 
laughing at his description of two cocks in the class for a Spanish 
cock and pullet. I have been for years a large breeder of Spanish 
fowls, and can assure him, that which he terms “ the curved tail- 
coverts ” are very common, and generally belong to the best 
among my pullets. I also much admire the “ sickly look ” he 
mentions. Surely Mr. Brent ought to know that in Spanish 
nothing is so difficult as to substitute a cock for a hen chicken, 
as no bird shows comb so early, while the pullet is always back¬ 
ward.—X eres. 
EOOT-ROT IN FOWLS. 
Mr fowls have given me a good deal of trouble lately, with a 
complaint of the foot, which they all have had or have now— 
quite an epidemic in its way. The birds begin by standing 
about on one foot, drawing up the other into their feathers, and 
closing the toes spasmodically, when they begin to walk lame. 
On examination the ball of the foot appears hard and swollen, 
the skin scaly and brittle, and a kind of black canker, hard and 
cracked, in the centre. This canker if not attended to soon works 
into the foot, the skin burst and discharges, and the flesh seems 
to rot away. Indeed, the foot assumes quite the appearance of 
sheep’s feet with the rot in them, and smells quite as offensively. 
When I have taken the disease in time, I have easily cured it 
by cutting out the dry cankered skin and flesh, bathing the foot, 
and putting it into a kind of glove of linen. What can the disease 
be, and what can it arise from in a dry, gravelled yard ? Young 
pullets and cocks, old fowls and cocks, all seem to suffer alike.— 
E. C. 
[We should be disposed to attribute the complaint in the feet 
of your Dorkings to injury sustained by flying from a lofty 
perch. In their new abode, do not let them be more than 
twenty-four inches from the ground, and let the flooring be of 
loose gravel. Mere swelling of the foot often arises from wooden, 
brick, or stone floors; but neither of these would cause the 
canker, cracking, or offensive smell you mention. We have had 
but one case this year. The jiatient was a White Cochin cock. 
We poulticed the foot for some days, then wrapped it in leather, 
and put him in a pen on grass. He recovered entirely. 
There is a disease in ferrets called “ foot-rot,” which is really 
an ulceration like that in the sheep, and of your fowls. This 
“ foot-rot ” is cured by applying to the part diseased a mixture 
of two parts of spirit of turpentine, and one part of creosote. 
We should try it upon one chicken first to see if it were effectual. 
If the mixture touches clothes, its offensive smell adheres to 
them for a long time. It causes much pain to the animal at the 
time of application.] 
THE BRIDGNORTH POULTRY EXHIBITION. 
This Exhibition has always been a spirited affair, and the late 
Meeting has proved fully equal to its predecessors. Around 
the neighbourhood are to be found not only a few of our most 
notorious exhibitors, who have always endeavoured to support its 
popularity, but from the offer of a silver cup, of seven guineas 
value, for “the best collection,” much emulation has also been 
evinced among exhibitors who reside in the most distant localities. 
Under these circumstances, Bridgnorth Show is annually looked 
forward to by poultry amateurs as producing a display from the 
yards of most of our principal breeders that is rarely to be found 
at such meetings. Such hopes were not misplaced this year, the 
competition being generally of first-rate chai’acter. With the ex¬ 
ception of Game cocks, the rules enforced that all poultry must 
be birds of this season. 
The Cochins were the first class on the prize list. Among them 
were some of the most excelled of specimens, both in Buffs, 
Partridge-coloured, and White birds; but, although a prize was 
offered for Black ones, not a single pen presented itself. 
The cock in the first-prize pen of Buffs has very rarely been 
excelled, and should he still continue in the truly splendid con¬ 
dition in which he was exhibited at Bridgnorth, lie will be found 
a very troublesome competitor at the majority of our winter Shows. 
The two pens of prize Grey DorJcings , exhibited by Mr. Whit¬ 
tington, were most praiseworthy ; but the majority of the birds 
in this class were certainly not so good as we have seen at former 
Meetings of this Society. 
Neither did we find the Game classes equal to the display of 
former years. 
The Golden-spangled and Silver-pencilled Hnmhurghs were 
very excellent; but the Golden-pencilled and Silver-spangled 
varieties were not nearly so good. 
As on many previous years, some very superior Polands were 
exhibited by Mr. Hazlewood, of Bridgnorth, of several varieties. 
The Spanish chickens were excellent. 
Among the pens of any other variety , was a pen of darkly- 
pencilled Brahmas of great beauty, belonging to Mr. William 
Harvey, of Sheffield. They were one of the best groups in the 
whole Exhibition. 
The Bantams were quite a treat to any amateur, very rarely, if 
ever, have a pen of better Silver-laced Sebrights, than those 
shown by Mr. G. Peters, been exhibited; and the Black-red 
Game Bantams, the White ones, and Golden-laced, were of great 
merit likewise. 
The Aylesbury Ducks were of highest character; the three 
winners weighed 25 lbs.; and in best proof of the excellence of 
this class generally, it may be noted, that a pen weighing 22 lbs. 
could only reach a high commendation. The Rouen Ducks and 
Labradors were also of first-rate quality. 
