Page:A veteran naturalist - being the life and work of W.B. Tegetmeier (IA veterannaturalis00richuoft).pdf/18

LIFE OF TEGETMEIER For many years he was my regular companion at the Bishop's Stortford Flower Show, where a toss" of Homers was a feature of the gathering. It was a great day for Tegetmeier when our late King, at my request, graciously allowed a number of the Sandringham birds to be brought to the Flower Show and thence tossed."

His impatience of shams and impostures went far, I think, to gain for him the name of "Teggy the Fighter," by which he was known to his intimates. Nothing roused his ordinarily placid temper like endeavour to misrepresent or deceive. This trait came out very clearly in his attitude towards so-called poultry farming. He may at one time have thought it possible to make the rearing of poultry, as an independent industry, pay; he never condemned enterprise or experiment without full and impartial investigation; but after long and patient examination he collected an amount of evidence disproving the possibility of making fowls pay on land solely devoted to them; and thenceforward he was merciless to those who might try to mislead the public into putting money into such enterprises. It is due very largely to his remorseless exposures that we hear little nowadays or the poultry-farm myth.

Tegetmeier's services to the poultry interestwould be impossible to over-estimate; and they serve, perhaps more than any other branch of