INTRODUCTION. 23 



value of the trade is not easily determined, for the 

 variation in value, both by reason of size and season, 

 is great. But the salesmen referred to already inform 

 niB that their average for twelve months was 3s. 4d. 

 Allowing the odd fourpence for carriage, commission, 

 and expenses (which is above the actual cost), at 3s. 

 each, this would give us the total of £112,500 for 

 Heathfield, or for the ejitire county, if our approxima- 

 tion be correct, £166,800. And I am certain those who 

 know wiU realise that I am not overstating the case, 

 but rather the reverse. In the Uckfield district the chief 

 villages at which cramming takes place are Hurstwood, 

 Hadlow Down, Buxted, Framfield, Barnett Wood, 

 Eason Green, and Black Boys, and Messrs. Bourner 

 & Co., of Uckfield, who are the carriers thence, inform 

 me that in 1894 they took from these villages, for the 

 rail, 313 tons 16 owt. 2 qr. 13 lb. of chickens, or 

 117,163 birds. 



There is another most important fact which must 

 be stated here, namely, that the commencement of 

 fattening establishments in different parts of the 

 country would have a most beneficial influence upon 

 ordinary poultry keepers, creating a great demand for 

 young birds. It is no uncommon thing in the Heath- 

 field district for the higglers to pay up to 3s. 6d. for 

 early hatched, well-grown chickens, of eight or ten 

 weeks old, and so enormous is the demand for birds 

 during the spring of the year, that something like 

 300,000 Irish chickens are brought over annually, at a 

 cost of about 4-|d. each for carriage, to be fatted and 

 sent out. The complaint in many parts of the country 

 is that chickens cannot be sold at remunerative prices, 



