VIII 

 SPECIALIST FARMING: HOPS AND FRUIT 



ONCE away from the " hill," as the South Downs are 

 called, Sussex is but a poor country agriculturally. 

 There is a strip of greensand immediately to the 

 north, which grows very good crops and has for some 

 time past been increasingly devoted to dairying ; but 

 the greater part of the Weald contains only poor land 

 indifferently farmed. The neighbourhood of Heath- 

 field, however, possesses one flourishing agricultural 

 industry, that of poultry fattening or cramming, as 

 many as 1200 tons of fat chickens ready for the 

 table being sent away from Heathfield Station alone 

 during the year. The crammers feed the birds in the 

 ordinary way for a time, then for the last fortnight 

 or so they cram them twice a day with a porridge 

 composed in the main of Sussex ground oats, forcing 

 the food in by means of a machine until the crop is 

 just distended. The birds are not raised by the 

 crammers, but are purchased in the country round 

 by "higglers." Poultry keeping and fattening have 

 long been favourite pursuits in the district, but it has 

 only been within the last score of years that the 

 industry has become systematized and has grown to 

 such proportions. It is a small man's business ; 

 indeed, speaking generally, the Weald, both on the 

 low clay plain and on the Forest Ridge, is divided 



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