POULTRY-RAISERS' OPPORTUNITIES 163 



tunities for the ' small ' man in England, especially when 

 one thinks of those 650 tons of live birds which must be 

 brought over to Heathfield from Ireland every year, 

 not because Irish birds are preferred, but simply and 

 solely because England cannot, or will not, produce all 

 that are wanted. 



What I have here said in regard to the Heathfield 

 and Uckfield industry refers, of course, to poultry 

 specially prepared for the market with the help of the 

 ' cramming ' machine. But though these birds may 

 command the best market prices, especially as com- 

 pared with ill-fed chickens with which no pains at 

 all have been taken, there is a big market open for 

 an intermediate type of bird, superior to the poor 

 specimens, but less costly than those that have been 

 artificially fattened. Nor are the possibilities of such 

 a market being entirely neglected. On the contrary, 

 there are certain districts, at least, where poultry pro- 

 duction of this type has made considerable advance ; 

 and, as a case in point, I should like to place on record 

 what was said to me by a gentleman at Exeter as being 

 more or less significant of the awakening that is really 

 going on in the country, notwithstanding the difficulties 

 experienced by the Sussex fatters in getting the quantities 

 they want : 



There is (said my authority) no comparison between the poultry 

 in Devonshire to-day and the poultry of twenty years ago. We 

 have a lecturer who goes through the county to explain the proper 

 breeding, rearing, and feeding of poultry, and the farmers them- 

 selves are taking a great deal of interest in the matter, and are no 

 longer leaving it entirely to their wives and servants. They see to 

 getting the right sort of stock, and, instead of allowing the fowls to 

 run about always in the immediate neighbourhood of the farm 

 buildings, they buy portable houses, which can be moved half a 

 mile off on to a stubble field or elsewhere, and then moved again, 

 as necessary, so that the fowls have a good healthy run. In the 

 result the birds get into excellent condition without any need for 

 resorting to artificial fatting ; indeed, in my opinion they are even 



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