THE POULTRY AND EGG INDUSTRY IN EUROPE 21 
torn places, and grading is much more uniform. Birds with crooked 
breastbones, which would be thrown out as second grade in the 
United States, are accepted as first grade in the London markets, 
provided they are otherwise well fleshed and fat. Furthermore, the 
American custom of grading closely for size and uniform quality is 
greatly appreciated by the English retailer, as he can buy certain 
well-known brands without the necessity of personal selection on the 
wholesale market. 
The peculiar quality and appearance of the Surrey fowl on the 
London market is due to several factors. The finest product is 
obtained from the native Sussex breed, which has a white skin, 
white legs, and is about the size of the American Wyandotte. Other 
white-skinned breeds, such as the Dorking and Orpington, are also 
used. Crosses from these breeds by the use of English Game and 
Cornish males are often recommended. The chief requirements for 
poultry to be fed into the highest grade of Sussex fowl are white 
flesh, soft meat, quick growth, large frame, and strong vitality. In 
other words, they are the same characteristics that are desired in 
American feeding stations, with the exception of the color of the 
flesh and skin. The American breeds of chickens — Plymouth Rocks, 
Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, and Jersey Black Giants — are 
equal, if not superior, to the English birds as regards quickness of 
growth, size of frame, and strength of vitality, but possibly a ques- 
tion might be raised as to whether they had the initial tenderness of 
flesh. 
The other differences between the Surrey and American milk-fed 
poultry, such as softness of meat and fatness, are largely questions 
of management and climatic conditions. The practices in manage- 
ment, as used by the f atteners of Surrey fowl, vary greatly from the 
customary methods of commercial fattening stations in the United 
States as to rations fed, arrangement of crates or batteries, methods 
of feeding, length of time of feeding, cramming, individual atten- 
tion to each bird, dressing, shaping, cooling, and shipping. 
The crates in which the poultry is fed are the old-style wooden 
crates as first introduced into the LTnited States and Canada from 
England approximately a generation ago. Each crate is about 6 
feet long, 20 inches wide, and 18 inches high, with slatted sides, ends, 
tops, and bottoms. A partition in the center makes two sections 
holding from four to six birds each, depending upon their size. The 
fronts have vertical slats, so that the birds may extend their heads 
and eat from a V-shaped wooden trough hung or supported along 
the front of the entire coop. The floors are made of slats extending 
length Avise of the crate. These slats are about seventh-eighths inch 
thick, 1 inch wide on top, and spaced about 1 inch apart. The bot- 
toms of the slats are narrowed to approximately three-fourths inch, 
so the slit between them is wider at the bottom than at the top. 
This prevents the droppings which fall through from lodging be- 
tween the slats. The doors usually slide up and down and are made 
from slats cleated together and held in place by a cleat along the 
top of the crate. 
Steel feeding batteries mounted on casters and holding from 80 
to 190 chickens, so common in American poultry-feeding stations, 
are practically if not entirely unknown to English poultry fatteners. 
