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The Poultry Item,
Sellersville, PA, USA
Volume 17 (June, Pages 24 and 25)
A Chat On Sussex
By Art. C. Gilbert, Member of the American Sussex Club and Life Member of the English Sussex Club
Sussex, the finest table fowl in the world; this is the dictum of London, England, the largest and best market for poultry (for consumption) on earth, and although tons of poultry are continually shipped to this market from Russia, France and many other sources, the Sussex fowl reigns supreme, both in price and quality, the latter point naturally accounting for the general heavy demand and consequent average higher prices on the market held and obtained by them. This state of affairs has not sprung up within a few years but has held for centuries as in old English history books of the 16th century, the excelling quality of the flesh of the Sussex fowl is mentioned as the principal reason for their commanding a higher price than other fowl on the market, and for the same reason why they alone of all fowl were served at the King's and certain other folk's tables.
So here we have a breed that is chronicled as the best, centuries back, and without any doubt right up to the present date, it is still the finest table bird in existence, the fact that it has only started its travels, or in other words been taken up by breeders in the U. S. A., France, Germany, Japan and other countries within the last few years, and has hardly ever been
known or heard of outside the British
Isles, is due to the Sussex breeders
of the counties of Sussex, Surrey and
Kent, who, until, say twelve or four-
teen years back, never thought of ex-
hibiting their birds at the poultry and
live stock exhibitions in the same way
that fanciers of all other breeds gen-
erally do, but simply bred to produce
fine table fowl and egg producers for
the great London market as their
forefathers had been doing for ages.
(And you can rest assured they have
produced them; once try them out and
you will always say so, "always".)
As soon as some of the breeders start-
ed showing their birds, then their
beauty as well as their utility points
were quickly recognized by the gener-
al public with the result that orders
for live birds and eggs for hatching
flowed in with a never ending stream
to the Sussex breeders from all quar-
ters of the globe, so that in a very
short space of time they had obtained
world wide recognition, and are going
strong at that.
Having bred Sussex fowls myself
for years in England, and also being
acquainted with and having visited
most of the large breeders' farms,
my own experience in breeding them
and my observation whilst traveling
and visiting showed me conclusively
that the Red Sussex and the Speckled Sussex breed at least seventy-five per cent true to color, the Light Sussex following fairly close on a sixty to seventy per cent, basis, whilst the Browns on this point were something like the cow's tail, "behind." The Red Sussex lays the largest eggs.take the variety right through. The Speckled Sussex are the most active and fertile of the varieties, with the finest flavored meat, this being of a gamery flavour, which no doubt is inherited chiefly from the Spangled Old English Game Fowl, which latter had a great deal to do with the making of the Speckled variety, touching on
which (the origination or making of the several varieties,) the olden-days Sussex, Surrey and Kent farmers had the old Dorking fowl as their main stay and starter.
The Dorking, as its name implies, came from and around the district of the town of Dorking in Surrey, being probably about the oldest known British breed of fowl, it being mentioned in English history of the period of the Roman Conquest, B. C. 400. The Dorking was run or bred in four chief varieties, the Red, the White, the Dark, and the Silver Grey. The Sussex came from continued crossing on to these fowls, in a methodical manner through the century's, just purely for improvement for market usage of the production, until in these
latter years, the four distinct varieties of the breed have been evolved. The Red Dorking and the Spangled English Old Game Fowl are the mainspring from whence have come the Speckled Sussex. The Red Dorking is mainly responsible for the Speckled Sussex of today, Old English Black Breasted Game Fowl being mostly used in this case. The White Dorking and the Light Brahma are the chief ingredients in the production of the Light Sussex.
The Brown Sussex of later date was made up of the Red Sussex, the Dark Dorking and the Silver Grey Dorking which crossings account for the size some of the Browns go to, as some of the females of this variety have been weighed out at over 13 pounds each, and the males correspondingly heavy. Their Plumage color, however, is not taking to the eye like the three first mentioned varieties, with the consequence, they are not so generally popular, although of good sound utility quality, and so for market purposes all that can be desired.
https://books.google.com/books?id=6...e&q=breeding sussex subject:"poultry"&f=false
Sellersville, PA, USA
Volume 17 (June, Pages 24 and 25)
A Chat On Sussex
By Art. C. Gilbert, Member of the American Sussex Club and Life Member of the English Sussex Club
Sussex, the finest table fowl in the world; this is the dictum of London, England, the largest and best market for poultry (for consumption) on earth, and although tons of poultry are continually shipped to this market from Russia, France and many other sources, the Sussex fowl reigns supreme, both in price and quality, the latter point naturally accounting for the general heavy demand and consequent average higher prices on the market held and obtained by them. This state of affairs has not sprung up within a few years but has held for centuries as in old English history books of the 16th century, the excelling quality of the flesh of the Sussex fowl is mentioned as the principal reason for their commanding a higher price than other fowl on the market, and for the same reason why they alone of all fowl were served at the King's and certain other folk's tables.
So here we have a breed that is chronicled as the best, centuries back, and without any doubt right up to the present date, it is still the finest table bird in existence, the fact that it has only started its travels, or in other words been taken up by breeders in the U. S. A., France, Germany, Japan and other countries within the last few years, and has hardly ever been
known or heard of outside the British
Isles, is due to the Sussex breeders
of the counties of Sussex, Surrey and
Kent, who, until, say twelve or four-
teen years back, never thought of ex-
hibiting their birds at the poultry and
live stock exhibitions in the same way
that fanciers of all other breeds gen-
erally do, but simply bred to produce
fine table fowl and egg producers for
the great London market as their
forefathers had been doing for ages.
(And you can rest assured they have
produced them; once try them out and
you will always say so, "always".)
As soon as some of the breeders start-
ed showing their birds, then their
beauty as well as their utility points
were quickly recognized by the gener-
al public with the result that orders
for live birds and eggs for hatching
flowed in with a never ending stream
to the Sussex breeders from all quar-
ters of the globe, so that in a very
short space of time they had obtained
world wide recognition, and are going
strong at that.
Having bred Sussex fowls myself
for years in England, and also being
acquainted with and having visited
most of the large breeders' farms,
my own experience in breeding them
and my observation whilst traveling
and visiting showed me conclusively
that the Red Sussex and the Speckled Sussex breed at least seventy-five per cent true to color, the Light Sussex following fairly close on a sixty to seventy per cent, basis, whilst the Browns on this point were something like the cow's tail, "behind." The Red Sussex lays the largest eggs.take the variety right through. The Speckled Sussex are the most active and fertile of the varieties, with the finest flavored meat, this being of a gamery flavour, which no doubt is inherited chiefly from the Spangled Old English Game Fowl, which latter had a great deal to do with the making of the Speckled variety, touching on
which (the origination or making of the several varieties,) the olden-days Sussex, Surrey and Kent farmers had the old Dorking fowl as their main stay and starter.
The Dorking, as its name implies, came from and around the district of the town of Dorking in Surrey, being probably about the oldest known British breed of fowl, it being mentioned in English history of the period of the Roman Conquest, B. C. 400. The Dorking was run or bred in four chief varieties, the Red, the White, the Dark, and the Silver Grey. The Sussex came from continued crossing on to these fowls, in a methodical manner through the century's, just purely for improvement for market usage of the production, until in these
latter years, the four distinct varieties of the breed have been evolved. The Red Dorking and the Spangled English Old Game Fowl are the mainspring from whence have come the Speckled Sussex. The Red Dorking is mainly responsible for the Speckled Sussex of today, Old English Black Breasted Game Fowl being mostly used in this case. The White Dorking and the Light Brahma are the chief ingredients in the production of the Light Sussex.
The Brown Sussex of later date was made up of the Red Sussex, the Dark Dorking and the Silver Grey Dorking which crossings account for the size some of the Browns go to, as some of the females of this variety have been weighed out at over 13 pounds each, and the males correspondingly heavy. Their Plumage color, however, is not taking to the eye like the three first mentioned varieties, with the consequence, they are not so generally popular, although of good sound utility quality, and so for market purposes all that can be desired.
https://books.google.com/books?id=6...e&q=breeding sussex subject:"poultry"&f=false
