METHODS OF CRAMMING. 



IIS 



more than an inch in length and about three- 

 eighths of an inch in thickness. The operator has 

 a supply of these pellets before him, with a bowl 

 of milk ; he sits upon a stool, and, 

 Hand taking a bird from the cage, holds 



Cramming. the tips of a wing and a leg in each 

 hand, and then places the body be- 

 tween the knees. If this is properly done the fowl 

 cannot struggle in the least, as wings and legs 

 are firmly held. He next grasps the head of the 

 bird with the left hand, places a finger between 

 the upper and lower mandibles, holding the 

 tongue down, then taking one of the pellets he 

 dips it into the milk, puts it into the mouth, 

 pressing it down the throat as far as he can 

 with the fore-finger ; next, closing the fingers of 

 his left hand outside the throat, he places a finger 

 and thumb of the right hand above the pellet, 

 which can be easily felt in the gullet, and running 

 these down the throat carries it into the crop. 

 To do this effectively the neck must be straight- 

 ened to its full length, and when that is the case 

 the pellet passes down quite easily. In order to 

 fill the crop, frequently ten or twelve of these 

 pellets must be given, and hence it is a some- 

 what slow process, as, of course, the most skilful 

 fatter cannot handle more than forty to fifty 

 birds in an hour, even if he has someone to 

 lift them from and to the cages. Some of 

 the finest specimens that are placed both upon 

 the London and Paris markets are thus hand 

 crammed, and it is acknowledged that each 

 individual bird can be dealt with to a greater 

 nicety than is possible by quicker methods. 

 The system involves, however, a considerable 

 amount of labour, and it is questionable whether 

 it would pay any fatter to engage enough 

 men to fatten a very large number of birds in 

 this way. It is, however, being adopted in 

 Russia, but in that country labour is very cheap. 



" Another system of hand cramming is that 

 followed in several districts of France, notably 

 the La Bresse country. Here the birds are 

 kept in very dark cages. The fatter first sits 

 down in the way described already. Instead of 

 forming the paste into boluses or pellets, he has 

 a mass of the food before him. Opening the 

 mouth of the bird with the left hand, he takes a 

 piece off the mass of paste, dips it into milk, 

 and places it into the mouth of the bird, and 

 then allows the bird to swallow it. This system 

 is even slower than where pellets are employed, 

 and I have found it is adopted chiefly by those 

 who have only a limited number of birds to 

 fatten, generally women. 



" In Normandy the system of fattening by 

 means of a funnel is very much in vogue. For 

 this purpose the funnels employed are specially 



made. The bowl of the funnel is about 5 in. in 

 diameter, narrowing to about \ in. The spout 

 is 6 in. in length and \ in. in diameter. The 

 spout, as seen by the illustration (Fig. 62), is cut 

 at the end so as to leave a slanting outlet. The 



spout must be well finished and 

 Funnelling. carefully soldered so that no sharp 



edges remain, and must be perfectly 

 smooth to prevent cutting of the gullet, all 

 sharp edges being soldered over. There can be 

 no question that the funnel system of fattening 

 is the most difficult to learn, but when learnt it 

 is quite easy. Some time ago I suggested to 

 one of the makers of these funnels that the 

 spout of the funnel should be much shorter, and 



Fig. 62. — Funnel. 



that a piece of indiarubber tubing should be 

 fitted thereon, as this is softer and less liable 

 to injure the throat. This was found to be an 

 improvement in the hands of those who are not 

 very expert. To introduce the funnel the bird 

 should be held in the same way as described 

 for hand cramming, and the neck elongated to 

 its fullest length ; then the spout is inserted 

 through the mouth, and passes down the gullet 

 into the crop. For funnel fattening the food 

 must be in liquid form, like moderately thin 

 cream, so that it will run freely, and it must 

 be mixed perfectly smooth. In operation, after 

 the funnel is inserted into tlTe throat of the bird, 

 by means of a large spoon or ladle the prepared 

 food is poured into it until the crop is quite full. 

 An experienced operator can cram eighty to a 

 hundred birds in an hour by this system, and 

 therefore it i.s, as a question of labour, more 

 economical than hand fattening. 



" The third system is by means of a machine, 

 the tv/o chief makes now employed in England 

 being Hearson's and Neve's. These machines 

 differ in a few details, but the principle is practi- 



