TABLE POULTRY 148 
about half as much again, sent up to London by a different route, 
besides the poultry sent to Brighton and Hastings. The estimated 
price of the chicken sent by both routes from Heathfield to London 
is £25,000 per annum. 
“‘When we consider the high price of poultry in London, render- 
ing it a luxury only to be enjoyed on festal occasions, and that no 
one now but the rich can think of such an extravagance as new- 
laid eggs for breakfast, it seems marvellous that chicken-breeding 
should not be carried on elsewhere as in these parishes. Why 
should not every cottager throughout the country add to his own 
wealth and that of the community by keeping fowls? They 
would not interfere, as allotments are sometimes said to do, with 
his regular employment, but could be managed entirely by his 
wife and children. 
“In the Weald they are usually left to the sole charge of those who 
are at home, while the father is at work for his master, or on his 
own twelve or fifteen acres of land. 
‘The chickens have free run on the roadside away from the 
villages, where the breeding coops often stand on the green turf 
under the sunny side of the hedge; or a dozen coops may fre- 
quently be seen scattered about the corners of the many commons 
to be found in these parts, or placed in some warm nook in the 
garden. 
“To industrious, enterprising men chicken-breeding affords a 
means of raising themselves in the social scale. Many of the 
fatters have worked their way up from the condition of small 
farmers, and a smaller proportion from that of labourers. Within 
the last few years a considerable number of the breeders have 
taken to fatting their own chickens, finding it more profitable than 
to sell them to the fatters ; but the number of professed fatters 
has not diminished as the demand has steadily increased.” 
