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FANCIER S’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
mittee. "When the time comes round for a future promised 
official hearing, strange to say there is no quorum in com- 
mittee ! Who turned that grindstone? Did nobody have 
an axe in this? Perhaps not. I don’t say they had, be- 
cause I don’t know. But I am told “ the other cock won ” 
after all at the final hearing ! 
And here is a good joke ; it isn’t mine , I only repeat it at 
second-hand. A worthy and dignified President of a cer- 
tain leading fanciers’ association some time ago offered a 
$100 prize at a show for the best Dark Brahma hen entered. 
He obtained a sockdolager himself , and went in as a com- 
petitor for his own offered prize. He “had ’em all foul,” so 
he fancied ; for his hen was a good ’un, and cost him heavy. 
But a sweet beauty round the corner that he hadn’t heard 
about cleaned out the dignified and his colleagues, and won 
his $100 and his hen, with all the others entered in this 
heat ! The skilful standard-makers differed on this single 
hen’s qualifications 14 to 16 “points.” Was there any axe 
ground here? Guess not. 
A New England Light Brahma breeder who don’t have 
the middle-toe feathering upon his strain, maintains that 
our last standard is correct in this particular, because you 
can’t get toes thus ornamented without 33 T ? ¥ ths per centum 
of hocks on your chicks (I think this is the exact propor- 
tion). But he has only “ pedigree ” strains, I believe ; and 
the hock being a. British invention, he don’t want it. I 
suppose it hides the pedigree upon the shanks. But I should 
be willing to bet four dollars and a half that this man never 
had “ an axe to grind ” in his life ! 
Speaking of pedigrees reminds me of a funny thing that 
recently happened out in Westchester County. A very nice 
fancier in the Light Brahma line, not a hundred miles from 
Harlem, started out on this dodge. He saw a big axe in 
the pedigree fowl enterprise, and he forthwith went to a 
breeder just over the State border, who had some large 
mixed light colored fowls that looked very well, but which 
both men knew were not over three-quarters blooded, which 
our pedigree hero bought, and took home to Westchester 
County. Within a month eleven of them were named and 
“ recorded ” duly. And now he is selling this stock’s prog- 
ency for pedigreed fowls of the first water, warranted not to 
cut in the eye ! “ Bob, take a turn at this grindstone, while 
we read the following letter received by the editor of this 
paper during the past week 
Berlin, Wis., Aug. 31st, 1874. 
Joseph M. Wade, Esq. 
Dear Sir: One of my neighbors has some mongrels 
hatched from $6 eggs of “ pedigree stock,” and don’t like to 
hear much about them. I asked him how they got along, 
and he said they reminded him of the man’s horse “ that was 
sired all right, but damned by all who knew him.” 
Very respectfully, E. Basset. 
A very clever fancier of Light Brahma stock in Penn- 
sylvania, who turns out some right good ones, too, is a quiet, 
flower-y man in his address, but he, too, has got middle- 
toe feathers on the brain. He want’s them on his fowls’ 
toes, however, but finds it hard to make ’em stick there 
often! He declares he “ will have ’em if it takes a leg.” 
When he gets them regularly without the hock, I hope he 
will tell us how he did it. Meantime, he makes a good many 
nice axes and hatchets, but doesn’t grind them, I believe. 
In a certain poultry paper eastward appears, from month 
to month latterly, a long-winded “History of Light Brah- 
mas,” by the “oldest breeder” of this fowl (?) in America. 
He goes for the Cornish-Chamberlin strain (which a New 
York editor supplied him with originally, while residing in 
North Carolina). This stock was obtained by said editor 
in 1851 from Dr. Couterier, who got all his Light Brahma 
fowls, as “ Gray Shanghaes” I hear, first from Burnham, 
in Massachusetts. This new writer on Light Brahma his- 
tory says nothing of the Dark Brahmas, but goes for the 
Chamberlin strain fearfully. I shouldn’t wonder if a 
thundering broad axe should tumble out of this account of 
the Brahmas in 1874, sooner or later. But as I don’t breed 
these monsters I have very little interest in this wordy war, 
and take no stock in any of these fresh “ histories.” Do you 
think it likely that this writer has any axe to grind in his' 
tiresome new treatise ? It can’t be. Surely he, or his pub- 
lisher, is no such man ! 
At the late New York meeting I watched for these axe- 
grinders, and among them all (who seemed to have brought 
their hatchets along with them) I noted but one man who 
didn’t appear to have any tools there to sharpen. This was 
your spicy contributor, Mr. Burnham, of Massachusetts. I 
noticed that he and Mr. Bestor, of Connecticut, rather main- 
tained their positions in that crowd. But I could not dis- 
cover that they were turning any grindstones for themselves. 
Still, I couldn’t say they were not like many of the past of 
our prominent fanciers, and it is barely possible they too 
carried their hatchets in their sleeves. I shouldn’t wonder ! 
Certes, they carried their points in that Convention. 
New York, September, 1874. 
WILD GEESE TAMED. 
These well-known and migratory birds move to their 
summer and winter home through the air in a V-shaped 
form, the male boss of camp taking the lead, occasionally 
sounding his musical (?) call of “ honk, honk,” to his faithful 
followers. Though generally esteemed a foolish bird, it dis- 
plays wonderful courage in the defence of its young, and 
instances of attachment and remembrance have proven that 
it is not deficient in these sentiments. 
It was held sacred by the Romans, because it is said, on 
account of its cackling at night, to have alarmed the senti- 
nels of the Capitol upon the invasion of the Gauls, and thus 
to have saved the city. 
It feeds on vegetable substances along the borders of salt 
as well as fresh waters. Large quantities are raised in Eng- 
land, kept in a tame state ; vast numbers, by the thousand, 
are driven annually to the markets. The liver is considered 
a favorite morsel by epicures, so much so, that means have 
been invented to enlarge and improve the quantity and 
quality of that organ. The feathers also are a considerable 
article of commerce, the plucking generally pays their keep. 
During the breeding season the birds are often lodged in the 
same house with the herdsmen, even in their bedchambers, 
which sometimes have rows of coarse wicker pens, placed 
one above another, each bird having its separate division, 
which it retains during the sitting season. Twice a day the 
herd is driven to the water, and brought back to their proper 
places. They are plucked five times a year ; first for feathers 
and quills, which are still in use in many places, and the 
same is renewed four times between Lady Day and Michael- 
mas for feathers only. The old geese submit quietly, but the 
young ones are not so easily managed. The first operation 
performed on the latter is the pulling of the tails, to accus- 
tom them to the beginning of future operations ; but by a 
long course of plucking the goose becomes dry eating. It 
lives to the age of seventy or more. 
