114 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



the experience of many amateurs, who thought 

 it was only necessar}' to obtain a fattening cage, 

 put some birds in, and have Surrey fowls ; but 

 frequently they find that instead of weight 

 having been gained, it has really been lost. 

 The skilful fatter understands his work so 

 completely that he is able to overcome this 

 difficulty, and by cramming compels the bird 

 to digest as much food as he thinks necessary. 

 Where several birds are together there is un- 

 doubtedly a strong competition in eating, and 

 this fact must be taken into account. We find 

 the same influence with larger stock. Given a 

 proper supply of suitable food, two or three 

 animals together will feed off better than if 

 each were isolated. But when, say, half-a-dozen 

 fowls are confined in one cage, there is greater 

 danger of fighting and of feather picking, the 

 latter one of the chief troubles fatters have 

 to contend against. This would be minimised 

 if only two or three birds were kept in each 

 compartment. 



"As already stated, in England and Belgium 

 the inside cages are only placed one tier high, 

 which permits of a good circulation of air, and 

 at the same time greatly minimises the work of 

 cleaning. In some cases the ground below the 

 cage is covered with either loose earth or sand, 

 and the droppings are taken away daily. In 

 other cases there is a drop-board about two feet 

 wide, sloping down to the front, below the cages, 

 covered with a thin sprinkling of lime or earth, 

 and thus easily cleaned. The accumulation of 

 manure, especially such as is produced under 

 these artificial conditions, would very speedily 

 cause disease amongst the birds, and all good 

 fatteners realise the importance of absolute 

 cleanliness. In fact, in many of the best-con- 

 ducted poultry fattening establishments it is a 

 surprise to see how beautifully everything is 

 kept. The sheds themselves are regularly 

 lime-washed, and the cages treated in the same 

 way as soon as one lot of birds is removed, 

 before another is placed therein. The work 

 of thus lime-washing the cages is greatly 

 facilitated if a long trough, about a foot in 

 depth, and wide enough to permit of the cage 

 being dipped in, is kept full of lime-wash. 



" Before dealing with the actual methods fol- 

 lowed in the cramming of poultry, it may be well 

 to inquire whether the system is a cruel one, 

 because many charges have been made against 

 it on this ground. With ordinary care there 

 is not the slightest cruelty involved. A careless 

 or inexpert operator, especially one who seems 

 to think that the work must be done in a hurry, 

 might hurt or injure the birds, and if this results, 

 in consequence of the highly artificial state of 



the body, inflammation takes place and the bird 

 speedily dies. This fact, in itself, is the greatest 

 preventive of cruelty that can be desired, be- 

 cause the loss would be a very serious one. It 

 must be borne in mind that the gullet of all 

 animals, and especially of birds, is very flexible, 

 and that in the case of birds mastication does 

 not take place in the mouth, but whatever is 

 swallowed passes down the tliroat the same in 

 size as when entering the mouth. The chief 

 danger in cramming, when either funnel or tube 

 is employed, is that as the neck naturally is 

 bent, unless it be straightened out, the pressure 

 of the end of the funnel or tube would injure it 

 if forced down. Another danger is lest injury 

 to the tongue should take place when passing 

 the funnel or tube into the throat. But a 

 little care prevents any difficulty, and it may be 

 taken, that so far as pain is concerned, there is 

 no cruelty whatever in the cramming system. 

 Whether the compelling of any animal to eat 

 more than it might otherwise be disposed to 

 take comes under the term cruelty, we need not 

 discuss. 



" The systems of cramming usually followed 

 vary considerably, and may be divided into four 

 sections. We do not call trough-feeding cram- 

 ming, because there is no force or 

 Systems of compulsion whatever when that 

 Cramming. method is employed. It is generally 

 conceded that trough-feeding alone 

 does not give the same results in weight gained, 

 as when the birds are finished by actual cram- 

 ming; but in some cases I have met with it 

 was claimed that equally good results could be 

 obtained without any cramming at all. In 

 Belgium, for instance, very few birds are 

 crammed ; they are fed from the troughs 

 during the whole period of three weeks; 

 fatters, however, find it desirable to finish 

 individual birds by a little hand cramming. 

 It must be acknowledged, also, that Belgium 

 table poultry have not the same finish as 

 our best English or the finest French speci- 

 mens, and this may be put down to the 

 fact that they are not crammed. Recently I 

 was informed by a gentleman, to whom I had 

 given advice as to the preparation of fowls for 

 the table of a well-known noble family, that 

 they had never crammed the birds, and yet in 

 some cases the weight had increased by as 

 much as 2\ lbs., entirely as the result of trough- 

 feeding. 



" There are two methods of hand cramming. 

 In one of these the food is made into a stiff 

 paste,and then formed into pellets or finger pieces, 

 varying in size with the birds for which they are 

 intended. As a rule, these pellets are a little 



