20 BULLETIN 1385, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
After packing, the poultry is frozen and loaded into ears for ship- 
ment. The transportation, however, must be done without ice, as 
there are practically no refrigerator cars in Europe. This lack of 
refrigerated transportation means that poultry is mainly dressed 
during the fall, when the weather is cold enough to allow them to 
be transported without spoiling. This natural refrigeration has been 
taken advantage of to the extent that one concern, at least, routes its 
cars of dressed poultry to western Europe by way of the Swiss Alps, 
where they are sidetracked and held under natural refrigeration. 
They are then ordered forward as the markets appear to require 
them. This method is not especially satisfactory, because the poultry 
thaws out en route from the Alps to market and arrives in more or 
less bad condition. 
PREPARING THE SURREY FOWL 
The poultry that commands the highest price on the London mar- 
ket is the so-called Surrey fowl. Surrey is a trade name for the 
superfatted chickens prepared and sold by approximately 100 farm- 
ers and small poultry fatteners in southeastern England, mainly in 
the counties of Sussex and Surrey and in the western part of Kent. 
The feeding, fattening, killing, dressing, and packing are done under 
what may be considered farm conditions. By far the greater propor- 
tion of the supply originates in the county of Sussex, with the main 
centers in the towns of Heathfield and Uckfield. 
The product is not made up of mature hens, as understood in the 
United States, but of young cockerels and pullets weighing about 3^ 
to 4 pounds when dressed. Therefore the term " dressed Surrey or 
Sussex chicken " would seem to describe this product more accu- 
rately. 
When displayed on the shelves and counters of the wholesale and 
retail markets in London beside poultry from the United States and 
other countries, the contrast between the Surrey chickens and the 
others is very striking. 
The typical Surrey chicken is white in flesh and skin, white in 
shanks, and covered with white fat. The skin is smooth to the touch 
and the flesh is so soft that it dents readily under the finger. When 
laid on the counter the flesh seems to flow slightly and flatten out at 
the sides of the body. The breast is plump and well filled out, al- 
though this well-rounded appearance is due, at least in part, to the 
custom of breaking the front of the breastbone and cooling the car- 
cass in a squatted position on shaping racks at the 'time of dressing. 
Surrey fowl is displayed in the markets undrawn and with head and 
feet on. 
The only poultry that compares with Surrey fowl is the Poulet de 
Brussels from Belgium, the Poulet de Bresse from France, and some 
fatted poultry from the Netherlands. American milk-fed poultry, 
when displayed side by side with it, affords a decided contrast to the 
Surrey fowl. The American product is usually yellow-skinned, car- 
ries decidedly less fat, is firmer of flesh, and more angular in ap- 
pearance, even when shown in the squatted position. On the other 
hand, the picking, bleeding, and grading of the American poultry is 
considered to be superior to that of the native English product. The 
feathers are more carefully removed, the skin shows fewer rubbed or 
