They Begin To Drive Them Generally In August,
By Which Time The Harvest Is Almost Over, And The Geese May Feed In
The Stubbles As They Go.
Thus they hold on to the end of October,
when the roads begin to be too stiff and deep for their broad feet
and short legs to march in.
Besides these methods of driving these creatures on foot, they have
of late also invented a new method of carriage, being carts formed
on purpose, with four stories or stages to put the creatures in one
above another, by which invention one cart will carry a very great
number; and for the smoother going they drive with two horses
abreast, like a coach, so quartering the road for the ease of the
gentry that thus ride. Changing horses, they travel night and day,
so that they bring the fowls seventy, eighty, or, one hundred miles
in two days and one night. The horses in this new-fashioned
voiture go two abreast, as above, but no perch below, as in a
coach, but they are fastened together by a piece of wood lying
crosswise upon their necks, by which they are kept even and
together, and the driver sits on the top of the cart like as in the
public carriages for the army, etc.
In this manner they hurry away the creatures alive, and infinite
numbers are thus carried to London every year. This method is also
particular for the carrying young turkeys or turkey poults in their
season, which are valuable, and yield a good price at market; as
also for live chickens in the dear seasons, of all which a very
great number are brought in this manner to London, and more
prodigiously out of this country than any other part of England,
which is the reason of my speaking of it here.
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