S/L VER- GRE V D OR KINGS. 
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the birds were fed out of troughs, as already described ; but in other and yet longer sheds, still 
however constructed at the sides of bushes and faggots, they were finished off by the cramming 
machine, of which we have given a figure ; the food thus given being composed of the thin ground 
oats and milk as before, but with the addition of some mutton suet chopped very fine. All the 
coops were raised a considerable height from the ground ; and loose, dry mould being placed undei 
to receive the droppings, which are regularly removed, the place was entirely free from any 
unwholesome smell. The cramming machine was found a great success, cramming on an average 
about twenty dozen birds per hour, with the aid of two persons. The establishment was stated to 
turn out regularly, “in the season,” from 700 to 1,000 fatted birds per week, and the collecting-staff 
alone numbered some twenty men and boys, with horses and carts, whose business it was to go 
round the district and collect chickens of an age suitable for the fattening coops. All these, 
Mr. Crook was informed, “had regular districts allotted to them, in which every man knew where 
he was likely to have chickens ready for him, the distance they travelled being about thirty miles , 
and these neighbourhoods had to be regularly looked up, or else the men employed by other 
fatters were likely to call and pick up any produce that might be ready.” Perhaps nothing could 
show better than this last remark the systematic manner in which the chicken-raising and fattening 
business is carried on in the Sussex and Surrey district, to an extent few people have the remotest 
conception of, and which will be ample reason for giving these particulars of a branch of national 
production so closely connected with the Dorking fowl, and which, if carried on in the same 
thorough manner, might be introduced into other parts of England with the greatest advantage to 
all parties concerned. 
SILVER-GREY DORKINGS. — When the somewhat lighter-coloured hens whose plumage 
was represented in Fig. 75 were generally bred, and even the old grey colour of the original 
Dorking was not unfrequently seen, very beautiful clear-grey hens were often produced ; and by 
judiciously selecting these the breed was finally established which is now termed Silver-grey, and 
breeds fairly true to colour. Something of the massiveness of the Coloured Dorking is no doubt 
wanting in this beautiful fowl ; but if it be remembered how much of this has been owing to the 
foreign blood introduced by Mr. Douglas, it will be evident that the Silver-grey has not been really 
degraded in size through “ breeding for colour,” as some writers through want of consideration have 
remarked, but has simply lacked the help which the other has received from a more massive cross. 
The following notes on this beautiful variety of the Dorking were furnished us by Mr. O. E. 
Cresswell, then of Early Wood, Bagshot, Surrey, well known as a careful breeder and successful 
exhibitor of Silver-greys : — 
“ Silver-grey Dorkings have now a class or classes to themselves at almost every noteworthy 
show. The Grey Dorking of ten years ago was often what would now be called a bad Silver-grey, 
the so-called ‘Coloured’ and Silver-grey having both sprung from the same ancestry of the old 
Grey Dorking. In the one case it has been the fashion to breed for the darkest, in the other for 
the lightest shades of colour. 
“ The chief distinctive exhibition-points of Silver-greys are as follows : — The cock should have 
a pure silvery-white neck-hackle, back, saddle-hackle, and upper wing-coverts ; the black under 
feathering of the back being entirely covered by the silvery-white feathers of the neck, and the 
wing-coverts entirely free from chestnut patches. The tail, thighs, and breast, on the contrary 
should be perfectly black. Perfection in the latter point is becoming very difficult of attainment, 
the extremely light shades now sought in the hen having in my opinion injuriously affected that 
great beauty in a cock — a pure glossy black breast After the second or third moult the best 
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