1166 



Ex-Service Men and Rural Life. 



[Mar., 



Among the Training Centres that have done much to improve 

 not only the prospects but the health of ex-Service men, the 



one at Telscombe, near Newhaven, in 

 Ex-Service Men a , , ^ , Q » 



and Rural Life * Sussex, managed by the East Sussex Agn- 

 Trainin at * cultural Committee for the Ministry, 

 _ _ °, deserves mention. Work there is not yet a 



Telscombe. , , , , rf 



year old, but there are nearly ninety men 



receiving instruction — among them a certain number who 

 suffered badly from shell-shock or lost limbs in the War. The 

 work is varied. Poultry-keeping is the main source of the 

 activities, trap-nesting and egg-recording being practised, but 

 horticultural instruction is carried on extensively, while pigs and 

 rabbits are also kept. 



An experiment is being conducted at the Telscombe Centre to 

 ascertain the relative values for table purposes of certain pure 

 breeds and first cross. The varieties under test are : — Pure 

 Breeds : White Wyandotte, Rhode Island Eed, Light Sussex, and 

 Brown Sussex ; First Crosses : Coucou de Malines — Light Sussex, 

 Indian Game — Light Sussex, Faverolles — Light Sussex, and 

 Barred Plymouth Bock — Light Sussex. 



The chickens reared from these breeding pens will be weighed 

 at different stages, and their relative rates of growth noted. A 

 test will also be made of the comparative commercial results 

 obtainable from the various methods of fattening, i.e., cramming, 

 trough feeding and open pen feeding. 



The rabbits kept at Telscombe are those having pelts of 

 special value. Blue Beverens and Havanas are the favourites, 

 and some are kept in the runs with the chickens — a method that 

 enables them to get more exercise than they could hope to obtain 

 in a hutch. 



The trainees live in army huts during the week, but some 

 come from Brighton, only a few miles away, and go home from 

 Saturday to Sunday night. The skill of one trainee who, having 

 lost an arm yet contrives by means of special appliances to kill, 

 pluck, dress and truss chickens in record time and literally 

 single-handed, has already attracted widespread attention. 



On the horticultural side the teaching deals with garden soils, 

 draining, trenching, digging, ploughing, manuring, enclosing, 

 the treatment of bush fruit and fruit trees, planting and trans- 

 planting, insect and fungoid pests, and the cultivation of all 

 vegetables. Favourable weather is devoted to work on the land, 

 And during the worst of the year, when the land is unapproach- 

 able, lectures are given, or manual work is done in the shops. 



