FANCIER S’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 
585 
without change of text or punctuation. This document will 
explain itself. But I venture the prediction, that Mr. 
Wright will never permit that “entire letter” to see the 
light! Yours truly, George P. Burnham. 
Melrose, Sept. 1st, 1874. 
Jos. M. Wade, Esq. 
Dear Sir: Inclosed I send you an advertisement for the 
exchange column, and twenty-five cents to pay for one in- 
sertion, and will send you a card for the regular advertising 
columns soon. Your Journal has become one of the neces- 
sities in our family, and its coming is always a source of 
pleasure. I do not see how any fancier can afford to be 
without it. I hope to send you a club this fall. 
I have a pen of five Dark Brahma pullets, that have laid 
from December 3d, 1873 (when the first one began to lay), 
five hundred and seventeen eggs, and in twelve days, in 
February (7th to 18th, inclusive), fifty-seven eggs — a “shell- 
ing out” that I think hard to beat. 
With best wishes for the success of the Journal, I am, 
Yours truly, T. J. Black. 
Canonsburg, Pa., August 24, 1874. 
Office of the East Pennsylvania Poultry Association, 
Doylestown, Pa., Aug. 28th, 1874. 
Jos. M. Wade, Esq. 
Dear Sir : All of the committee are hard at work, in 
view of our coming exhibition. Specials are coming in, and 
in a few days our premium list will be ready for distribu- 
tion. The Association have purchased from Mr. Halsted 
his handsome and very convenient rabbit hutches. Special 
pains will be taken to make this a prominent feature of the 
show. The new hall is rapidly approaching completion, 
which will give us fine accommodations. Arrangements 
will be made with the North Pennsylvania Bailroad to 
carry fowls at reduced rates, and also visitors to the fair, at 
excursion rates ; add to this the fact, that competent and 
disinterested judges have been procured, and we feel war- 
ranted in saying, that we can and will give good satisfaction 
to exhibitors, and also feel warranted in saying, that we 
mean to make this one of the best, if not the best exhibition 
in the country. We have the consent and authority of 
announcing the following names as judges: A. M. Halsted, 
Bye, N. Y. ; P. W. Hudson, North Manchester, Conn. ; D. 
A. Upham, Wilsonville, Conn. ; L. Burlingame, New 
York; Isaac YanWinkle, New Jersey ; John Clapp, Phila- 
delphia; and probably George P. Burnham, and others. 
Bespectfully, Thomas H. Walton, 
Corresponding Secretary. 
CALIFORNIA QUAILS. 
Editor Fanciers’ Journal. 
Sir: In answer to many inquiries, California quail, either 
valley or mountain, breed only in pairs. They can be 
reared with precisely the same treatment as the Virginia 
quail ; but are more easily tamed, and thrive better, and 
generally lay well in confinement, but a hen will hardly 
make a nest and incubate her eggs unless the enclosure be 
so large that the nest can be hidden away. If the eggs be 
hatched by Bantams, or other small hens, the young act 
about the same as Guineas, and require nearly the same 
treatment. Let me repeat that they pair, and extra hens 
should not be purchased any more than one would buy a 
trio of pigeons. M. Eyre, Jr. 
August 27, 1874. 
SjWA^LL PEJ 
Xgj-All communications and contributions intended for this depart- 
ment should be addressed to HOWARD I. IRELAND, 318 Stevens Street, 
Camden, N. J., or care of Joseph M. Wade, 39 North Ninth St., Philada. 
MAKE YOUR CATS USEFUL. 
One of the most serious drawbacks we have ever experi- 
enced in rearing chickens has been the depredations com- 
mitted upon our young broods by rats. In former years we 
have frequently lost whole broods in a single night by these 
pests. We tried various methods to exterminate them, using 
poison, steel-traps, and other modes of destroying them ; but 
after awhile they would return again to repeat the slaughter. 
Finally we resolved upon a plan which has proved both effi- 
cient and satisfactory. It was simply to wage a war against 
the rats with cats. Accordingly, when it was discovered 
that old Tabby had a litter of five kittens, instead of drown- 
ing them all as we had previously done, we kept two, much 
to the delight of poor Tabby. The good effect of our plan 
began to manifest itself at once. Tabby having a family to 
provide for, set herself to work at catching the young rats 
with a vigor that rendered their increase very uncertain. 
When our first brood of Light Brahmas was hatched this 
spring the kittens were about four months old, and had 
begun to hunt a little for themselves under the guidance of 
their mother. We had some misgivings as to what they 
would do on seeing the young chicks. Placing the hen and 
her brood in a coop, we provided ourself with along switch, 
and quietly awaited the result. Soon one of the kittens 
espied one of the little downy chaps, and stealthily com- 
menced to crawl towards it. We allowed him to proceed 
until he crouched for a spring; then, quick as a flash, we 
gave him two or three stinging cuts with the switch. The 
effect can better be imagined than described ; with a yowl 
and a spit he hounded off. In a few minutes the other one 
came round, and the same manoeuvres were gone through, 
and he received the number of lashes prescribed by law for 
his offence. After this we had no further trouble with either 
of them so far as the chicks were concerned ; but the one 
called Topsy (which by the way was a misnomer, as he was 
was not that kind of a cat), having been detected in the act 
of appropriating sundry pieces of beefsteak and stealing the 
baby’s milk, was condemned to a watery grave. The day 
of his departure was at hand, but we were loth to part with 
him. Aside from his thieving propensities he was a good 
fellow, and a first-rate rat and mouse catcher. So, after 
much deliberation, it was decided to commute his sentence 
to imprisonment for life. Accordingly a light strong cord 
was fastened around his neck, and he was tied in one corner 
of the hen house, the cord being sufficiently long to allow 
him to reach the drinking fountain. After he had been tied 
up several weeks, it was noticed that Sambo, his brother, 
was in the habit of visiting him daily, and spending two or 
three hours at a time with him. One morning recently 
Sambo was seen with a bird in his mouth ; as he showed no 
disposition to eat it, we resolved to see what he did with it. 
Judge of our surprise when we saw him carry it into the 
hen house, and give it to his imprisoned brother. Now, 
here is a question. Did Topsy tell Sambo that game was 
scarce in his locality, or did Sambo understand the situation 
himself? We have seen Sambo lying on his side near a coop 
of young chicks, which were picking and scratching all 
around him, yet he never appears to molest them ; but let a 
