REARING COMBINED WITH FATTENING. 



cramming machines, and were glad to hear 

 from us that Mr. Tamlin was putting on the 

 market a simpler pattern at the considerably 

 lower price of £2 17s. 6d. In spite of all, 

 however, the industry still increases even in 

 Sussex, to say nothing of growth in other parts 

 of England. In Mr. R. H. Rew's report of 

 1S95,* it is stated that the total of dead poultry 

 sent from both Heathfield and Uckfield Stations 

 in 1893 was about 1,840 tons. In 1899 there 

 went up from Heathfield alone to London only, 

 the station-master informed us, nearly 2,500 

 tons ; but besides this there had developed 

 recently a quite considerable local trade. 

 Formerly nearly all the poulterers (not quite 

 all) at seaside places ordered their " fed " 

 poultry from London; but in the year iSgq 

 no less than 475 tons had gone from Heathfield 

 to Brighton, Eastbourne, and other resorts. 



Partly to meet this increased demand, and 

 partly to get a little more margin of profit, the 

 number of Irish chickens imported into Sussex 

 has greatly increased. Some of the larger 

 fatters profess to scorn the idea of ever using 

 Irish chickens, and use some fictitious initial 

 for their crates instead of their real names ; but 

 at Three Bridges we traced many crates on 

 their way down to various well-known names. 



Mr. Taylor, alluded to on p. 135, has per- 

 haps now (1910) one of the largest establish- 

 ments ; he collects most of his lean chickens 

 locally, has accommodation for 4,000 fatten- 

 ing birds, and markets in the season more than 

 1,200 weekly. Besides using the milk from 

 twenty cows on his own farm, Mr. Taylor 

 spends about £^ a week on skimmed milk, and 

 uses three tons of Sussex ground oats weekly. 



The local rearing of chickens for table pur- 

 poses has increased greatly owing to a compara- 

 tively recent development of the industry. It 

 has often been stated that those who 

 EeariBg rear do not fatten, and that those 



''"^th ^^ who fatten do not rear, with the ex- 

 Fattening, ception of such cottagers as rear and 

 fatten a small number each. That 

 state of things has been gradually changing, 

 and there is now a large and increasing number 

 of farmers in Sussex who not only fatten, but 

 also rear a considerable number. This is partly 

 owing to the reduction of profits causing a 

 desire to get the double profit upon each bird ; 

 partly to the necessity felt by farmers of finding 

 something that "paid better" than their farming 

 (this motive was stated to Mr. Rew so far back 

 as 1894) ; and partly to the knowledge the Sussex 



* Report by Mr. Henry Rew (Assistant Commissioner) on 

 the Poultry Rearing and Fattening Industry of the Heathfield 

 District of Sussex. Price 3d. London : Eyre and Spottis- 

 woode, 1895. 



farmers have now acquired as to the real value 

 of poultry manure. 



One of the pioneers in this movement was 

 Mr. Nelson Kenward, of Waldron, who was 

 reported by Mr. Rew to be rearing in 1894 

 about 8,000 chickens upon his 200 acres of land. 

 In 1900 we found him still raising about the 

 same, which he regards as about his practicable 

 limit, keeping in view due rotation of other 

 products for sweetening the land ; but he was 

 doing as much as ever, and occasionally realised 

 7s. 6d. for some of his best fowls. Mr. Rew 

 also reported 600 chickens as reared upon 27 

 acres, the same number upon 19 acres, and 

 found 500 at one time (equal to from 2,000 to 

 2,500 during a whole year) upon 56 acres. 

 These were recent developments then ; we 

 found rearing as well as fattening now carried 

 on by many more. On a farm of 80 acres near 

 Uckfield there were (at end of September) 

 about 1,000 chickens of all ages ; some nearly 

 ready for the cages, while the youngest were 

 only just hatched, and destined for the January 

 and February market ; this would equal four or 

 five times as many in the whole year. On a 

 small farm — 22 acres — near Horeham Road 

 about 2,000 eggs were set every year, and as 

 many reared from them as possible, the balance 

 required being purchased. Another fatter in a 

 fairly large way at Warbleton reared for himself 

 about 5,000 on a separate holding of 40 acres, 

 away from his fattening place ; and we learnt 

 from him the simple explanation of what has 

 been so often foolishly laid down as a mysterious 

 law of Nature, to the effect that rearing and 

 fattening " cannot " be carried on upon the same 

 holding. At the present day it often is so 

 carried on ; but, as Mr. Haffenden pointed out, 

 most of the fatters' holdings are small, and held 

 for the express purpose of using up the manure 

 made by many hundreds of birds fed in pens. 

 Hence that land has already what manure of 

 this kind it can possibly stand, and is " sickened " 

 for running chickens upon besides ; if they are 

 to be also reared, therefore, there must either 

 be another holding or a much larger one. 

 Incompatibility from any other point of view 

 there is none whatever, and the system of com- 

 bining both profits is greatly extending. 



The marked appreciation of the value of 

 poultry manure, was another interesting point 

 About 1885, we found no case of any being 



actually sold in the district for cash, 

 Increased and the larger fatters occupied land 

 FowTManure. almost for the sole purpose of doing 



something with it. Its marked effects 

 upon most crops, but especially upon the growth 

 of good grass on poor and scrubby soil, has 



