14 DECEMBER 1956, Page 37

Country Life

By IAN NIALL THERE was a time when the Christmas turkey or goose provided work for a number of local casual workers in the country, and feathering sheds were occupied by all available hands in the days before the Christmas market. I remember going quite innocently into one of these sheds to find a farmer friend, and, in doing so, engulfed the occupants in a blizzard of down. The wind whipped the door from my hand and I could not get it shut while dimly, in the flurry before me, two Eskimos struggled forward, ejected me and slammed the door in my face! Deep freeze not only enables the birds to go into storage, it makes it possible to spread the labour and save the hands.