754 



The Sussex Chicken Industry. [march, 



embodied in a report made in June, 1894, by Mr. R. H. Rew to 

 the Royal Commission on Agriculture. The area mapped out 

 for the inquiry twelve years ago still holds good. It was then 

 noted that the rearing of the chickens brought into the Heath- 

 field District to be fattened extended over a considerable part 

 of Sussex and into the borders of Kent and Surrey, the trade 

 lying within an easy radius of Heathfield and Uckfield railway 

 stations. The fattening establishments have considerably in- 

 creased in the latter neighbourhood, but there has been no 

 very material expansion of the local rearing limits, the in- 

 creased output of the finished article (the fattened fowl) 

 being principally provided by additional imports of the raw 

 material (the lean fowl) rather than by local production. The 

 extension of the industry to the western division of the county, 

 which would appear to be the natural tendency, still awaits 

 accomplishment, and while the fatteners of East Sussex are 

 drawing increasing supplies from all available outside sources, 

 the neighbouring farmers of West Sussex apparently fail to 

 realise the opportunities afforded by the demand in the adjacent 

 districts. 



At the date of Mr. Rew's report the annual output of fattened 

 fowls from Heathfield and Uckfield stations was 1,840 tons 

 (estimated to represent 1,030,40c chickens). According to the 

 information placed at my disposal by the Railway Company 

 and the local carriers, the output has now increased by some 

 360 tons per annum. In other words, the fatteners of East 

 Sussex are fattening over 200,000 chickens more per annum 

 now than twelve years ago. As an indication of the increased 

 imports from Ireland of lean chickens, it may be mentioned 

 that during 1893 there arrived at Heathfield station 1,014 

 " tops " or crates full ; but that in the one month of March, 

 1904, no less than 863 " tops" were received. During the same 

 period the trade in lean birds with Wales and many English 

 counties has been very considerably increased. 



Prices have been slightly, but perceptibly, lower, a result 

 probably traceable to the cheapening of first-class goods owing 

 to increased imports from abroad of cheap second and third- 

 grade foreign fowls. Even under present conditions, . however, and 

 at prices recently ruling, there is a reasonable margin of profit. 



