i9o6.] 



Sussex Poultry Methods. 



^73 



grass runs, is found conducive to the perpetuation of the 

 hardiness which distinguishes the local breed of fowl. 



This method of rearing, with the feeding of Sussex ground 

 oats, which forms almost the entire diet during the rearing period, 

 matures the birds sufficiently for the fattener's purposes in 

 from twelve to sixteen weeks. 



When the chickens are of a sufficient size, they are collected 

 from the rearers and transferred to the coops of the fatteners, 

 where they remain from three to four weeks, according to the 

 rapidity with which they individually respond to the fattening 

 process, and " ripen " for killing. The diet during this finishing 

 period is still composed primarily of Sussex ground oats, with 

 the addition of skim milk and fat ; it is fed in a more liquid 

 state than to the running birds, during the first part of the time 

 in troughs, and finally mechanically by means of a cramming 

 machine. 



The Sussex poultry producer does not suffer from the dis- 

 advantages of many poultry keepers elsewhere in being more 

 or less isolated and at a consequent disadvantage as regards 

 foodstuffs, transport, freightage, and markets. On the contrary, 

 he enjoys not only the reputation that attaches to an old- 

 established localized industry, but the benefits derived from the 

 existence in one neighbourhood of a large proportion of skilled 

 persons engaged in the same occupation. This factor tends to 

 fixity, as no equal advantages are obtainable by migration. 

 The natives grow up into a kind of natural efficiency which is 

 never so fully acquired by others from outside, and the demand 

 for the produce being constant and increasing, there is a regular 

 market for the labour of both sexes, without sufficient fluctua- 

 tion to produce serious or widespread periods of depression. 

 The traffic by road and rail has necessarily become fully 

 organized, with a consequent reduction of the charges and the 

 duration of transit. There has also been a corresponding 

 growth of such supplemental trades as the special mode of 

 milling, coop and crate making, &c. All these considerations, 

 in conjunction with the renown of the district for its special 

 kind of produce, obviously tend considerably to reduce the cost 

 of production and to increase the marketable value. 



The innate suspicion with which so many English agricul- 



