AGRICULTURE 



The Rocks, Uckfield ; David Mutton, Triangle Farm, Plumpton ; Captain 

 A. B. S. Fraser, Withdean Farm, Brighton ; F. Freeman-Thomas, Ratton, 

 Willingdon ; Admiral the Hon. Thomas S. Brand, Glynde Place ; Viscount 

 Gage, Firle Place ; H. H. Pownall, Ades, Chailey ; S. Austen Leigh, 

 Alfriston. The Duchess of Devonshire keeps a select herd of Dexter Kerrys 

 at Compton Place, Eastbourne. 



For grazing Welsh Runts used to be bought in considerable quantities, 

 both for use as working oxen and to be fattened off on the marsh or brook 

 land. Fewer runts, however, appear every year at the fairs, and those sent 

 do not seem to be so well bred as formerly, many being manifestly crossbred and 

 now having a second or third cross. Irish cattle are forwarded from Bristol, 

 and find a sale since the stock rearing has been so largely dropped, but grazing 

 has largely given way to the dairy, and now even on much of the brook land 

 one sees nothing but cows, where a few years back the land was all farmed 

 for grazing and fattening. 



A few polled Angus herds are kept, notably by his Grace the Duke of 

 Richmond and Gordon, Goodwood; and by Sir James Duke, bart., Laughton. 



The milk industry, which is, as we have said, a very large one, is now 

 carried on all over the county, particularly on farms near a town, a railway 

 station, or a dairy factory, but in some cases even at a considerable distance 

 we know of cases as far as seven miles from a town or railway station. The 

 milk after being cooled over a separator is sent by road to the station or 

 factory ; some of the smaller farmers combine for this purpose, one of their 

 number carrying his neighbours' milk with his own, and making a charge 

 per gallon for the accommodation. There are several dairy factories in the 

 county, two of the largest being at Glynde and Sheffield Park. The first of 

 these was started by the late Lord Hampden as a private venture in 1887, 

 and has, since his death, been turned into a limited liability company, and 

 does a large business. Milk is received from the neighbouring farmers, and 

 also by rail from producers at a distance ; it is separated by machinery, and 

 the cream is either sold or made into butter. The cream and butter are sold 

 wholesale with other dairy produce at the shops held by the company in 

 London and elsewhere. The whole of the work is carried out under the 

 best system, every operation is done by machinery worked by steam. Payment 

 to the farmers is made monthly, and contracts are entered into half-yearly. 



When butter is made the cream separator is largely in use, hand separa- 

 tors being used on many of the smaller farms, although a good deal of butter 

 is made from skimming ofF the cream in the old-fashioned way. Butter- 

 making, throughout East Sussex particularly, has been greatly improved during 

 the last few years by the action of the County Council, who sent round to 

 the country districts an instructress with a van, fully equipped with dairy 

 utensils, to give practical lectures. These lectures were largely attended by 

 farmers' wives and daughters, and were of great benefit ; practically the 

 whole of the Weald of East Sussex was visited, but the lectures have now 

 been dropped. The lectures and teaching were of undoubted benefit, butter- 

 making in East Sussex, at all events, is better understood, and the butter a 

 more saleable article in consequence. 



The Sussex pig is now nearly extinct as a breed ; formerly it existed as 

 a large black pig with very little hair and very large ears hanging down over 



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