258 



Poultry Rearing and Fattening. 



[AUG., 



square body, weighing four and a-half to five and a-half pounds, 

 (2) plump, well-turned breast, (3) white skin and flesh, (4) short 

 white legs, (5) light coloured head and neck feathers. 



The production of chickens to meet these requirements would 

 not seem to be difficult, but only those who have tried it know 

 how hard it is, and I have found from experience that it is almost 

 impossible to build up an industry of this kind on new ground, 

 which will give as good results as it does in the south-east of 

 England, where it has been carried on for generations. 



The poultry-keepers of certain parts of Ireland, however, are 

 now engaged in strenuous efforts to produce as good fowls as the 

 famous " Surreys," and by this means to find a way into the 

 London and other British markets and supply some of the 

 demand which exists for high-class table poultry. 



The idea of introducing and promoting the industry of fatten- 

 ing fowls in Ireland for the English markets was suggested by 

 the fact that large numbers of live chickens are annually ex- 

 ported from the south-eastern counties of Ireland to the fatten- 

 ing centres of Kent and Sussex, where they are fatted for a few 

 weeks preparatory to being killed and placed upon the London 

 market as " best Surrey fowls." 



In 1897 the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society sent the 

 writer over to Kent and Sussex to investigate the conditions of 

 the chicken raising and fattening industries in these counties. 

 The direct result of the investigation was that the Irish 

 Agricultural Organisation Society undertook the organisation 

 and establishment of co-operative societies for the fattening and 

 marketing of table poultry, and advised those poultry societies 

 which were already engaged in the egg trade, as well as the 

 dairy and co-operative agricultural societies to include in their 

 work a special department for the encouragement of the raising 

 of birds specially adapted for table use. Instruction was given 

 in the use of appliances for fattening the fowls so produced in 

 the most approved and up-to-date manner. 



It was realised that a radical change from the production of 

 eggs to the raising of table poultry would be neither possible nor 

 advisable, and the production of eggs was still encouraged in 

 those counties in which few table fowls had hitherto been bred. 

 The counties of Kilkenny, Wexford, and Waterford, with parts of 



