■J 
4G0 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
for in some districts it is now almost impossible to get hand-milkers 
who will take sufficient trouble to milk the cows properly. 
POULTRY AT LARGE. 
To farm poultry to pay the hen house is not the least item. The 
last farm I leased had no accommodation for anything of the kind, 
and the rent was £3 5s. per acre; my lease being only half run when 
I left, my successor entered upon it and paid me the value of my 
chattels. My laying and feeding house, which was cemented on 
the ground floor, was 16 feet by 8 feet, with a gangway between 
tiers of nests 14 inches square, and a roosting loft above them. The 
feeding houses were 32 feet by 8 feet, 6 feet from floor to roosting 
bulks, well lighted and ventilated. The stock of cocks and hens at 
Martinmas was forty-five, the weekly expenses were 8s. 3 d., and aver¬ 
age weekly cash for eggs during the year 14.?. 9 d. Twenty-six hens 
were set from February, 250 birds being hatched. The deaths by 
the end of March were fifty-three, when I obtained a supply of 
Spratt’s feeding stuff, and dying ceased, and my stud of chicks was 
205, attended hy nine hens having from twelve to twenty-five each. 
I may mention that if a hen has a large family to look after her 
brood generally does best. 
Fif y pairs of chickens were sold at 5s. per pair for the table to one 
customer, the rest of stock Rung sold according to demand, leaving 
£19 10.9.; add this to the profit of eggs for 52 weeks, and the sum is fair 
for a capital of £4 10.?, invested. Eggs were sold at market price to a 
dealer from Id. to 2.?. 2d. per dozen, according to the season of the 
year. I am quite aware that farmers, as a rule do not consider 
poultry profitable, but they are if attended to properly, and at the 
present prices of hutchers’ meat will pay even better than any four- 
footed animal. I have had experience of more than forty years in 
farming, and never had land at less than £2 12.?. 6d. up to £5 Is. &d. 
per imperial acre, and have had five landlords at a time. I have 
Wheat (28 stone to the bole of six bushels) at 25.?. ; Barley, 15.?.; 
Oats, 12.?. 6d. (18 stones), and never lacked a fair balance on the 
profit side on the lease. Pigs I have reared, and sold from 5s. to 
35s. each six weeks old ; beef (prime), 5?. up to 11?. per stone ; and 
kept a regular debtor and creditor sheet of all transactions.— Old 
Farmer. 
P S.—It will be noticed that I kept my breeding stock entire: 
forty-five Dorking hens crossed by Brahma cocks. 
POULTRY-FATTENING IN SUSSEX. 
In the Heathfield district the usual food consists of ground 
oats, suet, and milk—skimmed or unskimmed—to which some¬ 
times a little linseed oil is added, especially in winter. At first 
chickens have to be fed carefully, if not charily. Their greedi¬ 
ness is so intense that they are apt to choke or overfeed them¬ 
selves, and then there is an end of fatting. Allowing them three 
weeks, they are as a rule kept on oatmeal (made into gruel) one 
week ; then suet is added, and the last week they are crammed. 
Milk is highly valued as an addition to the ordinary diet, and one 
poultry breeder, Mr. Olliver, has used as much as £10 worth a week. 
Cramming is a peculiar process not confined to Sussex poultry 
fatting, but here the art is utterly free from the inhuman cruelty 
of the Alsatian practice. It is done with a machine, and the 
chickens have their crops filled twice a day. This process is con¬ 
tinued for about a week, supposing a preparatory course to have 
been gone through. After about a fortnight the food ceases to 
take effect, the fowls “ go back,” and fever is apt to set in, which 
kills them. So long as they are not kept beyond the proper 
period it is surprising how few deaths occur in their ranks. 
Killing and preparing the fowls for the market are operations 
as important as cramming. Carriers send their carts round to the 
various farm houses to collect what fowls are ready, and convey 
them to market, conducting the sale and bringing the proceeds 
home to the fatters after paying themselves for carriage. In 
former times the carriers’ vans used to take the fowls right into 
London, and “journeys” were restricted to one or two days a 
week. When the South-Eastern Railway was built, Ticehurst 
became the collecting station, from which the chicken crates were 
conveyed by rail. Since the opening of the new branch of the 
London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, Heathfield has been 
made the head quarters of the traffic, and in order to accommodate 
customers, the railway company have provided special cars which 
do nothing but carry Sussex poultry. With very few exceptions 
this is sold at Leadenhall Market and in Smithfield. 
When the carriers come round to collect the fowls the latter 
must be fresh killed. Hence it is desirable that they should be 
killed quickly, and men acquire a peculiar knack of despatching 
them “ as fast as you can hand them ” by a sudden wrench of 
the neck. A man can kill and pick about two dozen a day; an 
exceptionally good hand can manage three dozen. The next pro¬ 
cess is the “stubbing,” to remove the stumps remaining in the 
skin. This is done by women with a knife, at piecework, about 
id. being paid fur the dozen. After that the fowls have to be 
“ pressed,” to give them a good square shape. For this purpose 
the fowls are laid in rows in a crib-like frame, with a board placed 
over them, weighted at first with stones. As soon as the fowls 
are “set,” stones and covering are removed, and then, when the 
time comes near for the carriers to call, the birds are packed in 
crates, and in these they are carried to London. A dozen fowls 
will yield on an average something under a pound of dry feathers, 
which sell at about 6d. a pound. In spring the yield is consider¬ 
ably less, in autumn more. The price of feathers varies according 
to the market. Many are sold locally for beds, 60 lbs. being reckoned 
to the bed. Before sale the feathers are dried in an oven, or else 
in an oast-house, like hops. 
Some time back it was calculated that in a year not less than 
£70,000 was realised by the sale of chickens in this small district. 
The traffic is, indeed, so considerable that the enterprising London 
and County Bank at one time contemplated the establishment of 
a branch office in the small village of Heathfield. The facilities 
offered by the carriers, who act as bankers, have hitherto made 
such a step superfluous. But the traffic is growing. The sum¬ 
mary of the yearly balance sheet, prepared previous to a dissolu¬ 
tion of partnership by Mr. Bean of Heathfield, and his late 
partner, shows that that firm in 1876 carried £24,130 17.?. 10<A 
worth of chiclceus to market, receiving therefor £255 14.?. 11 d. 
for carriage, at the rate of 20?. a ton. Allowing one-eighth for 
packing-cases, the nett weight conveyed is found to be 224 tons, 
representing something like 125,440 chickens sold at 3.?. 10 d. a 
head on an average. This was the traffic of one firm only. Since 
1876 the sale has increased. 
Fowls or chickens are fattened up to all weights, 2 lbs., or 5, 
or 8, or more. Mr. Olliver once produced one weighing 13 lb3. 
Fatting is also practised on all scales. There are farmers who 
lay themselves out for this as a speciality, fatting all the year 
round, and keeping their coops full. Among this class Mr. Joseph 
Olliver takes the lead, keeping about two hundred dozen always 
in hand, and killing forty dozen at a time, in the busy season 
even six times a week. He uses nearly seven hundred sacks of 
oats a quarter, £130 worth of milk, and 700 stone of suet. He 
keeps six men constantly employed, and about twenty women. 
His fattening is all of a wholesale character, supplemented at 
times by thirty dozen or so of Ducks. O.ber fatters again pro¬ 
ceed on more modest lines, killing fifteen dozen a “journey.” 
Others fatten only when the market is favourable, a few dozen, 
or ten or twelve dozen at a time.— (Sussex Advertiser.') 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Turkeys not Thriving (C. //.).—In all probability the young birds have 
either had too wide a range, or have been allowed to frequent a damp position. 
We have seen many young birds fail in the limbs by being dragged through 
long grass and herbage for hours together before they had strength for such, to 
them, violent exercise. You give no indications of the treatment to which 
your birds have been subjected. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden square, London. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8 0 W.; Altitude, 111 feet, 
DATE. 
9 A.M. 
IN THE DAY. 
% j ci 
Hygrome- 
a . 
© T3 
fl 
oti • 
. 33 -*-> 
Cl.'— o 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
6 
1882. 
g CO ^ Ol 
ter. 
perature. 
Temperature. 
a 
go£ 
1>CG h 
May. 
In 
On 
pa £ c! 
Dry. 
Wet. 
NJ o 
Ph 
Max. 
Min. 
Bun. 
grass. 
Inches. 
dee. 
dee. 
dee. 
dee. 
dee. 
deg 
deg. 
II. 
Sun. 21 
29.881 
57.1 
52.2 
S.E. 
54.8 
68.8 
45.8 
118.1 
40.0 
— 
Mon. 22 
29.873 
63.4 
57.3 
N.N.E. 
5 
73.5 
46.9 
119.2 
42.3 
0.092 
Tues. 23 
29.60.3 
64.3 
58.6 
E. 
5"> 5 
70.6 
58.2 
116.6 
47.2 
0.013 
Wed. 24 
29.481 
58.4 
52.3 
s. 
55.6 
66.8 
51.1 
121.7 
46 7 
0.119 
Thurs 25 
29.405 
52.8 
51.6 
E. 
55.5 
62.5 
51.3 
78.7 
45.9 
0.248 
Friday 26 
29.800 
598 
53.8 
S.E. 
54.8 
67.6 
51.2 
122.4 
45.7 
— 
Satur. 27 
30.023 
64.0 
55.8 
S.W. 
55.1 
69.2 
51.7 
120.3 
46 8 
— 
29.724 
60.0 
54.5 
55.2 
68.4 
50.2 
113.9 
44 9 
0.472 
REMARKS. 
21st.—Calm, fine, and warm. 
22nd.—Cloudy morning ; slight shower in forenoon ; afternoon fine ; very warm. 
23rd.—Warm and close; threatening thunderstorms at times. 
24th.—Cloudy morning ; shower 1.30 p.m. ; afternoon fine and breezy. 
25th.—Wet morning ; fine latter part of day. 
26th.—Fine, bright, and breezy 
27th.—Slight shower in forenoon ; generally fine and bright. 
Temperature above the average, with variable wind, lower barometer, and rain 
on several days.—G. J. Symons. 
