SlLX'ER-GREY DoRKIXCS. 32 1 



the birds were fed out of troughs, as already described ; but in other and yet longer sheds, still 

 however constructed at the sides of bushes and faggots, they were "finished off" by the cramming 

 machine, of which we have given a figure ; the food thus given being composed of the thin ground 

 oats and milk as before, but with the addition of some mutton suet chopped very fine. All the 

 coops were raised a considerable height from the ground ; and loose, dry mould being placed under 

 to receive the droppings, which are regularly removed, the place was entirely free from any 

 unwholesome smell. The cramming machine was found a great success, cramming on an average 

 about twenty dozen birds per hour, with the aid of two persons. The establishment was stated to 

 turn out regularly, " in the season," from 700 to 1,000 fatted birds per week, and the collecting-staff 

 alone numbered some twenty men and boys, with horses and carts, whose business it was to go 

 round the district and collect chickens of an age suitable for the fattening coops. All these, 

 Mr. Crook was informed, "had regular districts allotted to them, in which every man knew where 

 he was likely to have chickens ready for him, the distance they travelled being about thirty miles ; 

 and these neighbourhoods had to be regularly looked up, or else the men employed by other 

 fatters-were likely to call and pick up any produce that might be ready." Perhaps nothing could 

 show better than this last remark the systematic manner in which the chicken-raising and fattening 

 business is carried on in the Sussex and Surrey district, to an extent few people have the remotest 

 conception of, and which will be ample reason for giving these particulars of a branch of national 

 production so closely connected with the Dorking fowl, and which, if carried on in the same 

 thorough manner, might be introduced into other parts of England with the greatest advantage to 

 all parties concerned. 



SILVER-GREY DORKINGS.— When the somewhat lighter-coloured hens whose plumage 

 was represented in Fig. 75 were generally bred, and even the old grey colour of the original 

 Dorking was not unfrequently seen, very beautiful clear-grey hens were often produced ; and by 

 judiciously selecting these the breed was finally established which is now termed Silver-grey, and 

 breeds fairly true to colour. Something of the massiveness of the Coloured Dorking is no doubt 

 wanting in this beautiful fowl ; but if it be remembered how much ot this has been owing to the 

 foreign blood introduced by Mr. Douglas, it will be evident that the Silver-grey has not been really 

 degraded in size through " breeding for colour," as some writers through want of consideration have 

 remarked, but has simply laeked the help which the other has received from a more massive cross. 



The following notes oii this beautiful variety of the Dorking have been kindly furnished us 

 by Mr. O. E. Cresswell, of Early Wood, Bagshot, Surrey, well-known as a careful breeder and 

 successful exhibitor of Silver-greys ;- - 



" Silver-grey Dorkings have now a class or classes to themselves at almost every noteworthy 

 show. The Grey Dorking of ten years ago was often what would now be called a bad Silver-grey, 

 the so-called 'Coloured' and Silver-grey having both sprung from the same ancestry of the old 

 Grey Dorking. In the one case it has been the fashion to breed for the darkest, in the other for 

 the lightest shades of colour. 



" The chief distinctive exhibition-points of Silver-greys are as follows : — The cock should have 

 a pure silvery-white neck-hackle, back, saddle-hackle, and upper wing-coverts ; the black under 

 feathering of the back being entirely covered by the silvery-white feathers of the neck, and the 

 wing-coverts entirely free from chestnut patches. The tail, thighs, and breast, on the contrary, 

 should be perfectly black. Perfection in the latter point is becoming very difficult of attainment 

 the extremely light shades now sought in the hen having in my opinion injuriously affected that 

 great beauty in a cock — a pure glossy black breast. After the second or third moult the best 

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