TABLE POULTRY 141 
Weald of Sussex from the methods of forty-five years ago I give a 
cutting from Golden Hours of 1871: 
“In the south-eastern portion of the Weald, taking the parishes 
of Heathfield, Warbleton, and Waldron as a centre, a large pro- 
portion of the labourers and small farmers keep from eight to 
sixteen brood hens, and breed chicken for the fatiers. Their special 
aim is to obtain large broods early in the spring, in preparation 
for the London market ; the price of spring chicken being twice or 
thrice as much as can be obtained at other seasons. They live 
chiefly in remote places away from the villages and hamlets. 
The light dry soils of the commons, and higher grounds clothed with 
heather and fine short grass, are favourite spots both with breeders 
and fatters. 
“The chicks are collected from the cottages by men called 
‘ higglers,’ who go about with large round coops on their backs, 
or sometimes in light carts, and are sold by them in quantities to 
the fatters. 
“When bought by the fatters the chickens are from ten to twelve 
weeks old, and the process takes from a fortnight to four weeks. 
‘They are fed naturally for a week or ten days on oatmeal and 
water. For another week or ten days on oatmeal and milk and 
suet, and for the remainder of their imprisonment are crammed 
with the latter material. The mixture is made up into small 
sausages—each roll is dipped into some liquid oatmeal, and slipped 
down their throats by hand. 
«A machine has been invented by which the operation is per- 
formed with tenfold speed. An iron cylinder, six inches in dia- 
meter, and eighteen inches long, is filled with the prepared food 
of the subsistence of oatmeal porridge. A long galvanised india- 
rubber tube is screwed into one end of the cylinder, tapering to the 
thickness of half-an-inch. The taper end is passed into the chick’s 
crop. A piston inserted into the other end of the cylinder is moved 
forward by an assistant. The principal official placing his fingers 
under the crop cries “hold” when the crop is full. Another 
victim is then submitted to the process, and one or two hundred 
