548 
FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 

should not have quoted so much, but for fear Mr. Burnham 
might accuse me of injustice—should in this paper be written 
on that point, and dreary columns and columns more in 
other articles, and other papers too, will appear to English 
readers almost incredible; but it is so; and I don’t wonder 
‘that an American humorist should, after reading a little of 
it, feel somewhat overcome, and write as follows (of his 
lucubration, too, however, I can only quote a portion), 
under the title of ‘‘The Song the Brahma Sings: a pome, 
by Wart Wiltman.”’ 
Say Doctor—why did’st thou thus ? 
Examine this form—these points—these limbs—these noble 
proportions—this clear gray color—pure black and blue 
and white! These fire-lit eyes—this courage, volition, 
nonchalance, suberb, entire tout ensemble! Look a-heah! 
Behold what you have made me! 
“ BRAHMAPOOTRA !’? 
O, blatant, blathersome, blundering, beastly, blatherskity, 
Billingsgate balderdash ! 
O, where was your English pronouncing dictionary—Web- 
ster’s unabridged—with its 1,349,467 human words, when 
you conceived this blarsted silly. pagan ‘ Bother-’em- 
povtrum ”’ chicanery ? ; 
O, in what had we sober barnyard Chinese birds offended, 
that we should thus have been made your victims ? 
O, why—tell us why—was this villanous epithet fastened 
upon our humble Chinese race? Was not ‘‘ Shanghai”? 
bad enough ? 
Au! On! Way? 
Could you find naught less foul or owtre, 
But you must coin it ‘‘ Brahmapootra ?”’ ' 
Where was the ‘* Wot Is It ?’’ in those times ? 
This was a name that brought in the dimes. 
No! You threw aside “Shanghai,” and you clung to your 
‘¢ Brahma.” 
Ah, a nice lively mess you made with this call ! 
And although ’twas so slangy, spite of friend, foe, or farmer, 
You won, I admit it. You euchered them all! 
But we submit, and swallow it, 
Though all unfit and void of wit— 
Without one bit of sense in it. 
Yet, we'll admit what’s writ, is wRIT! 
O, Doctor! O, Cornish-man! O, State of wooden nut- 
megs! O, Barnum! O, Burnham! O, resurrected ‘‘ Knox!” 
O, Plaisted, Weld & Co.! O, Bother ’ems! O, Wright! 
O, bosh! O, fuss and feathers! O, chicken pedigree. 
Ob, BrauMa! Oh git out! 


I confess this very much expresses my own feeling. It 
is the best thing I have seen yet on that part of the subject; 
and, in hopes that it may serve to give a little interest to 
this wearisome discussion—something like the half dozen 
oysters or the nip of brandy before a long dinner—I will 
leave the very little I care to say about it for another time. 
* L. Wricur. 
P.S.—Since the above was hurriedly put together, I have 
to thank those who have, in response to my request of last 
week, kindly placed copies of the original ‘‘ Poultry Book ”’ 
at my disposal. They amount to no less than eleven; and I 
shall henceforth be a more firm believer than ever in the 
efficacy of advertising! JI have also been kindly supplied 
with what I confess I little hoped to obtain—a copy of 
Burnham’s Hen Fever, which is of the greatest value to the 
controversy, and I hope may make it more amusing than it 
might otherwise be, 

Epiror Fanciers’ JOURNAL: 
‘¢ Why do Leghorns pluck and eat one another’s feathers 
more than any other fowls?” In answer to this query of 


your correspondent “A.” in No. 83, allow me to say, first, 
that Leghorns are no worse in this respect than other fowls 
when properly fed. I have bred Leghorns for the past five 
years and never have had any feather-eating ones, nor have 1 
seen the vice developed to any greater degree in this variety 
than in others, in the yards of my neighbors, so that what- 
ever may have been the case in the Boston show, the state- 
ment will not hold when applied to the Lreed in Bucks 
County, Pa. 
Secondly. If, however, I were to attempt-a speculative 
answer to ‘ A.,”’ I should say that the known prolificness of 
the Leghorn fowl might furnish the clue to a possible solu- 
tionsof the problem. A fowl that lays as abundantly as the 
Leghorn must be supplied with nitrogenous, that is, animal, 
food. If this is not supplied it will get it where it can, and 
as the pinfeathers of fowls contain considerable nutritive 
matter the heus will ‘‘go for them’’ when they have once 
had a taste, if the necessary variety is not furnished them in 
the diet supplied. 
I can conceive conditions under which the Leghorn or any 
other breed will eat each other’s feathers, and have seen the 
vice highly developed in different breeds when they were 
closely confined and improperly fed. If I should discover 
the vice in my own yards I should find the offending ones 
and separate them. If they should persist in it after a trial - 
to break it up, I should send them to pot without ceremony, 
One fowl will soon teach others the habit, and when it is 
once fairly established it is seldom, if ever, corrected. It is 
very objectionable, and should always be stamped out on its 
first appearance. 
Where Leghorns have good runs and are fed as any hens 
should be, there will not be much trouble with them in this 
respect, at least no more than with any other breed. 
My Leghorns are confined to close quarters during the 
cold weather of winter. I have kept thirty-five head in a 
house 12 by 27 feet and 10 feet high for three months at a 
time, and procured an average of twenty-one eggs per month — 
per hen during the coldest weather. 1 fed some chandler’s 
scraps, some sour milk, some vegetables, some oyster-shells, 
and some grain, with all the clean fresh water they wanted, 
every day, but never had, as before stated, a feather-eating 
Leghorn. 
Let me sum up, then, by first denying that Leghorns are 
worse than any other fowls in respect to feather eating ; and, 
secondly, that when properly fed they will not do it at all. 
A. M. Dickiz, M.D. 
DoyLestown, Pa., August 14th, 1874. 

—_e 

(For Fanciers’ Journal.) 
GREASED EGGS. 
I aM not at all surprised at Dr. Munroe’s report of ‘re- 
ports” from his greased eggs. 
It is barely possible that eggs that have been greased 
and afterwards thoroughly washed with some alkali may 
hatch, but my advice is to keep all eggs intended for ineuba- 
tion free from grease. Several years ago I received a lot of 
eggs from Ireland, some of which I put out to hatch. One 
lot was intrusted to a hen that seemed very much inclined 
to “sit schtandin.’’ An examination by her owner proved 
that the cause was lice, and as a remedy he applied grease to 
the hen, which not only destroyed the lice and brought the 
hen down to business, but, aided by the process of incuba- 
tion, destroyed the vitality of the eggs, The rest of the im- 
