October 7, 1S69. ] 



JOUBKAIi OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



293 



breeders are not falters of chickens, but the falters jonrney 

 round at stated intervals, and collect the chickens of an age 

 fitting them for the fatting-coop. The falters are not those who 

 send the chickens to the London market, they only fat, kill, 

 and pick them, ready on a stated day for the higgler to fetch 

 them, pack them, and send them to London. The productive- 

 ness of this district of chickens is evidenced by the fact, that 

 two higglers in the village of Heathfield send between them 

 one hundred dozen of chickens three times a-vreek to London 

 —that is, 3600 chickens weekly. One of these higglers alone 

 once sent to London all at one time, 105 dozen of chickens. 

 This was the largest consignment ever known there to have 

 been made by one man. 



The variety of fowl universally bred here, and popularly 

 known as " Sussex fowU-," are Dorkings in form, minus the 

 extra claw, and neither entirely dark nor entirely white- 

 feathered. The ground colour of the plumage is white, but 

 thickly and irregularly marked with feathers black and brown. 

 They are white or grey-legged, and with a very large develop- 

 ment of muscle on the breast — that is, as was expressed by my 

 informant, "the breast's very meaty." They are a hardy breed, 

 bat it is a hardiness arising from robust health, for I saw on 

 the 2oth of September a Dorking hen drafted from Lady 

 Holmesdale's celebrated stock, with a brood, all from her own 

 eggs, of sixteen. They were six weeks old, all white speckled 

 with black and brown ; she had sat upon seventeen eggs, their 

 sire was a Sussex cock, and not one had died. On the same 

 day at a cottager's by the roadside I saw a brood of twelve not 

 a week old. 



Hatching goes on all the year round ; but they generally like 

 to have a brood at the beginning of February, which may be 

 caUed the first of the season, and as long as eggs can be ob- 

 tained, and hens are broody, hatching proceeds, and even at 

 Christmas small chicks are quite common. At this season the 

 hen and chicks are kept in a dry and warm place, a waggon 

 lodge being considered as preferable a place as can be found. 

 The great thing is to let them have plenty of room and air. 



The ordinary silting is thirteen eggs, and fifteen is very com- 

 mon ; but ten and twelve are the usual numbers. It is pre- 

 ferred to have the nest on the ground, but if a hen has selected 

 one elevated from the earth, the eggs are sprinkled with water 

 daily when she leaves the nest, and a little fresh grass placed 

 under them. 



How long the hen is confined under a coop depends on the 

 season ; during fine weather, and in the height of summer, 

 about four or five weeks. 



The chickens are fed three and four times a-day, and oftener 

 whilst small. Whilst small chicks they are fed at six o'clock 

 in the morning. The food given them is ground oats made into 

 a thick paste with water. 



The hens and chickens under coops by the roadside, and 

 elsewhere, are left out all night. The coops are uniformly of 

 this shape, are about 2i feet long, 2 feet wide and the same in 



height. They are close-boarded at each end and at the back, 

 and partly so at the top in front, so as to form a sheltering 

 roof. A board is put in during wet weather for the hen to 

 brood the chickens on. 



The falters of chickens have them in an enclosed shed, and 

 there in coops down its two sides and one end — coops formed 

 entirely of rails, and so narrow that when their heads are in 

 the feeding trough outside the coop their tails press against 

 its back — they are fatted in about ten days. They are fed twice 

 daily on ground oats made into a thick gruel with milk. 



Under this system of management from the nest to the 

 fatting coop the deaths are so few as not to be noteworthy. 

 Why does this result stand oat in such enviable contrast to the i 



mortality usual in the poultry-yard of the amateur ? I have no 

 doubt it is because the parents are more healthy and vigorous 

 than those kept in confined, stufiy enclosures, and because the 

 chickens breathe nothing but pure air, and have healthful 

 exercise in their search for insects and other food. The 

 chickens reared by amateurs, like the children reared in London 

 courts and alleys, have a diseased or sickly parentage, and have 

 to breathe air" contaminated by the exhalations and excreets 

 from many bodies. 



The soil about Heathfield is clayey, and, therefore, not snob 

 as is most conducive to animal health ; but most of the springs 

 are chalybeate, which may have a tonic influence over the fowls. 

 These facts enforce the importance of keeping very few in a 

 small space ; to have that space ventilated as much as possible ; 

 cleaned thoroughly daily ; fresh gravel spread over the surface 

 frequently ; some rusty iron to be in the drinking water, and 

 that water changed daily. 



There is no exaggeration in my statement of the non-mor- 

 tality among the Sassex-bred chickens, for I especially pressed 

 the inquiry, and the last hen-wife inquired of seemed staggered 

 at the question when asked how many chicks she lost out of a 

 hundred hatched. A latent smUe played about her lips as she 

 Btuttered out, "How do you mean, sir?" On repeating the 

 question more explicitly, as she appeared not quite to compre- 

 hend the first form of it, she replied, " Well, I don't know as 

 ever I lose any, sir." " How many have you reared this year 

 since spring?" "Over two hundred." "And how many of 

 them did you lose?" " I think I did lose one, but it was always 

 weakly." She added that through the winter chickens require 

 a little more looking after, by keeping them in a dry and 

 "warmish" place, which means a cart-lodge or some such 

 shelter. Chickens, she observed, want to be often moved on 

 the ground, and they should never be allowed to remain long 

 enough for it to become " slenchy." Too much food should 

 never be given at a time, but little and often ; and they should 

 always have "cleared out" before more is given. — G. 



OSWESTRY POULTRY SHOW. 



Perhaps one of the chief features of tlia Oswestry Show, which took 

 place on the 1st inst., was the class for Dark Bralimas ; and this is 

 the more remarkable, as this nseful variety of poQltry has_ hitherto 

 been comparatively nnknown in the district. Grey Durl-in/js were 

 especially good, bnt it was a matter of regret to find a pen of fearfully 

 ronpy White Dorkiogs entered in this class. Very properly the birds 

 were at once repacked by the Committee and returned to their owner. 

 They had evidently been diseased for a considerable time, and it is a 

 pity they should have been forwarded at all. for it is well known no 

 ailment of poultry is so easUy communicated by infection, or so very 

 difficult to eradicate. A glance at the names of the competitors in the 

 Aylesbury Duck class will convince our readers that it was one of the 

 best in the show tent. Many of the Game fowls well maintained the 

 high reputation which the district enjoys for this breed of poultry, and 

 the condition in which they were penned was faultless. The weather 

 was bright and sunny, and the meeting moat successful. 



CHICKENS. 



GA5IE fBlack or Brown-breastod Redl.— 1, Vf. Perrin, Nontwich. 2, S. 

 White, Oswestry, he, P. A. Beck. GuilsSeia. c. Eev. P. G. Bentley: 



Game (Duckwing Grey and White or Piles).— 1, Mrs. E. Wiuwood, 

 Worcester. 2, T. Dyson, Halllax. „ „ _. 



DoRKruGS.— 1, Rev. E. Bartrum, Great Berkhampstead. 2, E. Shaw 

 Plaa Wilmot, Oswestry. , „ ,„ , „„ 



CoCHii!-CHn.-A (Brown or Partridge).— 1, C. Sidftnck. Eyddleaden HaU. 

 Keighlev. 2, Miss Story, Lockiogton. he, J. K. Fowler, e, E. Shaw. 



Cochix-China (White or Buff.- 1, C. Sidgwick. 2, C. Banbury, Pen- 

 Qel'is, Wolverhampton, c, J. L. Williams, Llansilin. 



Spanish.— 1, Tonkin & Tuckey, Bristol. 2, F. James, Peckham Rye. 

 he, H. & S. Cooper, Walsall, c, J. Clews, Walsall. 



Ebahma Pootea (Dark).— 1 and 2. H. B. Morrell, Caemawr, Clyro. he, E. 

 Leech, Rochdale ; W. B. Etches, 'ttTutchurch ; C. Leyland, Momsbrook, 

 Warrinqton ; W. Gamon, Chester. 



Brahma Pootra (Light).— 1, L. H. Ricketts, Banwell. 2, T. A. Dean. 



HAjtEURGHS (Silver or Gold-pencilled).— 1, A.Woods, Sefton, Liverpool 

 (Silver-pencilled). 2, W. Speakman, Nantwich (Golden-pencilled), c, H. 

 Worthington, Aigburth (Silver-pencilled). 



Hambcbghs (Silver or Gold-spangled).— 1, E. Brierley, Heywood, Man- 

 chester. 2, T. Blackman, Tettenhall. e, S. & E. Ashton, Mottram ; T. 

 May (Gold-spangled). 



Cr£ve-C<eubs.— 1, Mrs. M. Seamons, Hartwell, Aylesbury. 2, t. 

 Williamp, Henllys, Berriew. 



HoUDANS.- 1 and 2, W. O. Quibell, Newark. 



AST cTHEn Distinct Vaeiett.- 1, C. Sidgwick. 2 and he, Vf. Gamon 

 (Polands). -.« -r, t-x t 



Game Bantam.— l.J.Atkins.jun., Walsall. 2, T.Dyson. c.W.B. Etches. 



Bantam (Any other variety).- 1, Rev. G. F. Hodson, North Petherton, 

 Bridgwater (Gold-laced). 2, H. Yardley. Birmingham (Sebrights). c, S. 

 and R. Ashton: Miss N. Piatt, Dean, Bolton. 



Turkeys. — Prize, E. Leech. 



Geese.— 1, M. Seamons. 2, E. Leech. 



Ducks (Aylcslnry).— 1. S. H. Stott, Rochdale ; 2, J. K. Fowler, he, E. 

 Leech ; M. Seamons; J. K. Fowler. 



