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THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



however had effect, and a great deal is now 

 sold ; but the curious thing is, that the nearer 

 the customer, the less is realised. The fact is 

 that those who can use it, prefer to do so on 

 their own ground, while those who sell to neigh- 

 bours, are small men who have no land and 

 must get rid of it, but have not enough to be 

 worth sending away, while their immediate 

 neighbours, of course, are already supplied with 

 as much as they can well use. We found various 

 fatters of this smaller class who sold it at from 

 3s. to 7s. 6d. per cart-load, the latter the highest 

 price we met with of this kind. A large fatter 

 had told us before this, however, that he had 

 himself been offered 20s. per ton, and had 

 refused it ; and we found one fatter who had 

 sent his away at 1 5s. per cart-load, though he now 

 preferred to use it himself But we ascertained 

 more which somewhat surprised us. Near 

 Worthing and Angmering we heard of poultry 

 manure in railway trucks ; and at once came to 

 the conclusion (as yet only supposition) that 

 this was connected with the large and special 

 cultivation of tomatoes and grapes under glass, 

 which distinguishes that neighbourhood. Re- 

 serving that point for the present, we traced 

 those truck-loads of manure back to Heathfield ; 

 and through the railway authorities there learnt 

 that they came from a very large fattening 

 establishment at Warblcton, which has been 

 often described by past writers on this subject. 

 We did not learn what price was paid for these 

 consignments, but the very next day visited 

 another fatter in a smaller but still considerable 

 way of business, who told us that a year or two 

 before he had sent his own manure away by 

 rail at the price of £2 los. per ton ; until his 

 customer supplied himself elsewhere, and so he 

 had lost that market. And upon this same 

 fatter's farm, now, we found seven glass-houses 

 recently put up, under which he was himself 

 now growing tomatoes. We need not point 

 the practical conclusion ; and will only add that 

 we regarded the upshot of this particular in- 

 vestigation as one of the most suggestive in 

 several ways. 



Increase in rearing, naturally leads to the 

 question of the local stock. We regretted to 

 find that the fowl once known as the "Surrey" 



breed, a kind of Dorkingised barn- 

 sulsex' '^°°''> which made the finest market 



Fowls. fowls in former days, had practically 



died out. This breed, as we knew 

 it, had delicate white legs with, as a rule, only 

 four claws, was very broad and square, and of 

 varying colour, but chiefly brown or bay, more 

 or less speckled with white and black. Un- 

 fortunately, exhibition breeders (so often decried) 



had never taken up this fowl seriously, and thus 

 it has almost vanished. Mr. C. E. IBrooke told 

 us that of all the thousands of birds he purchased 

 for his pens at Baynards, not five per cent, were 

 of this race. Other fatters told us the same ; 

 some said there were none at all to be had, and 

 in all the sheds we saw, there were scarcely any. 

 The very few we could find alive, were on the 

 holdings of those who reared as well as fattened, 

 but they did not seem now to be very specially 

 valued. On one farm already mentioned, where 

 2,000 eggs were set — that of Mr. R. Roger, High- 

 lands, Horeham Road— we found about ten 

 really fine hens and pullets, and learnt that a 

 few years back they were kept up, but lately he 

 had taken a fancy to breed lighter colours and 

 whites, and rather let them go. We did our 

 best to impress upon him (and one or two 

 others) the value that was being now set in 

 many quarters upon this old breed, and that 

 perhaps even selling sittings of eggs might be 

 remunerative ; and made so much impression 

 that in this case at least, an effort was promised 

 to breed the stock again, in view of supplying it 

 if required. But there could not be a better 

 illustration of the need there is for the work and 

 enthusiasm of the genuine breeder. 



In place of this old breed, a new local race 

 was manifest everywhere, truly indigenous 

 throughout wide districts. The hens are very 

 light buff or wheat-colour, approaching some- 

 times almost to white, the cockerels much 

 darker, of red and black colour. The colour, 

 and the full fluff behind, and the character of 

 feather, show unmistakable Cochin foundation, 

 which in most of them also appears in scanty 

 leg-feather ; but the breasts are deep and long, 

 and the legs have become white, partly owing to 

 selection by the farmers, who choose white legs, 

 and partly to soil and food, which have unmis- 

 takable eftect that way. All the fatters told 

 us that they preferred these birds to any others 

 now procurable, as they were " good doers," and 

 shaped well ; and the fact is a curious proof 

 that although the Cochin cross worked havoc 

 in table poultry when first introduced all over 

 England, a foundation of it has since gone to 

 form, when better tempered together, some of 

 the best table birds. The lightest of these birds, 

 with crosses of whites, have been developed by 

 Mr. Godfrey Shaw and others into the Albions 

 (now White Orpingtons), which is therefore 

 originally a Susse.x fowl. Of all the sheds 

 visited, we should say that roughly about one- 

 third of the pens were occupied by these light 

 Sussex fowls, which are generally ascribed to 

 Kentish origin, one-third by crosses with Ply- 

 mouth Rocks, and one-third by crosses of the 



