PBEFACE. 11 



coops (one for each bird), although in Sussex generally 

 several birds are put together. These may be placed 

 in horizontal tiers one above the other, the bottom of 

 the cage, over the tray, consisting of flat bars rounded 

 . at the edges, 2 inches in width at the top, and tapering 

 away beneath, so that the droppings may fall freely 

 into the receptacle below the bars. Here the birds 

 are confined for twenty-one days, the process being 

 begun when they are three months old in summer, and 

 four in winter. For the first week the food should 

 consist of ground oats mixed with milk, in a 

 moderately liquid state ; mutton fat chopped fine and 

 boiled with the milk is an excellent ingredient with 

 the ground oats or buckwheat. During the last fort- 

 night the fowls are crammed, either by machine or 

 hand, with a mixture of barley-meal, oatmeal, and 

 skim milk, together with beef and mutton fat, which 

 is proportionately increased from day to day. The 

 hard trimmings of loins of mutton are first boiled, and 

 the liquid part poured on to the meal, with the scald- 

 ing water, some coarse sand or gravel being added in 

 order to facilitate digestion. Chickens fed in this 

 manner twice a day, for a period of three weeks or a 

 little longer, are then ready for the market. 



To ensure a really presentable appearance, from the 

 salesman's point of view, they should be fasted, i.e., 

 kept without food or water eighteen hours before 

 killing, plucked while still warm, and this without 

 " barking " the skin, and then be tied loosely at the 

 hocks, pressed in the shaping board for four or five 

 hours, packed in baskets or hampers, with some straw 

 or paper between each layer. They may finally be 



