FASTING AND KILLING. 



119 



spring and autumn — such birds as have com- 

 menced to fatten at these hours should be 

 finished without variation. In one or two places 

 on the Continent I have found that the fowls 

 are fed three times a day, but this is exceptional, 

 and there appears to be no advantge whatever 

 in doing so. When the food is given either 

 from the funnel or by the crammer, the 

 operator feels the crop of the bird before 

 feeding, and if food remains therein from the 

 previous meal it is usual not to give any at all 

 that time. This would be a sufficient sign to 

 an expert crammer that the bird was unable to 

 assimilate the quantity which he had previously 

 given. As a rule, fatters can gauge to a nicety 

 the amount of food which birds can assimilate, 

 and much of the success of the work will depend 

 upon judgment in this direction. Of course, 

 with trough feeding it is not at all important, 

 because the birds themselves will not eat unless 

 they are hungry. 



" It is frequently found during tne process 

 that fowls appear a little sickly, and go off their 

 food. When this is so, it is useless continuing 

 the process. If they are fairly well fatted, the 

 wisest thing is to fast them at once and kill ; 

 but during the earlier stages the usual plan is 

 to remove such birds from the pens, put them 

 into an outside run for a day or two, giving 

 them very little food and that hard corn, and 

 when they have recovered they may then be 

 returned to the pens for fattening. In the 

 warmer months of the year a difficulty frequently 

 arises, due to the blood of the birds becoming 

 heated, as a result, of course, of the artificial 

 conditions under which they are living. To 

 prevent this many fatters add a little flowers 

 of sulphur to the food, nothing more than a 

 mere sprinkling or dusting ; but the best thing 

 for this purpose is to boil nettles, chop them 

 fine, and mix them, with the liquid in which 

 they have been boiled, in the food. Some fat- 

 ters do this regularly as a matter of course, 

 finding it very beneficial indeed in keeping the 

 birds in a healthy state. 



" When it is determined that the birds shall 

 be killed, they should have no food whatever for 

 at least twenty-four hours before an end is put 

 to their existence. In all districts where the 



production of table poultry is carried 

 Fasting Qy); systematically, such a plan is 



KiUine adopted, but in districts where the 



work is not so thoroughly under- 

 stood, there is great neglect as to this precaution. 

 With larger stock it is always carried out by the 

 best feeders. Many people imagine that it must 

 be a cruel thing to keep any bird or animal with- 

 out food for such a length of time, but there is 



no cruelty whatever involved. The fact is that 

 a well-fatted specimen could live for a week 

 upon its food reserves without any positive 

 cruelty. The reasons for fasting previous to kill- 

 ing are obvious, and need only be mentioned. 

 In the first place, starving ensures that the crop 

 and intestines shall be emptied of food. In 

 some districts where this precaution is not 

 carried out we see birds exhibited for sale with 

 crops full of food, and decomposition takes 

 place very speedily, reducing the value of the 

 birds considerably. Therefore, upon this ground 

 alone the recommendation is one which ought 

 always to be insisted upon. It is a recognised 

 fact that birds starved in this manner will keep 

 much longer than if the food remains in the 

 crop and intestines. Secondly, the flesh of 

 fowls so fasted eats much better. It is less liable 

 to hardness, and we suppose that the arrestation 

 of the process of digestion and assimilation has 

 some influence upon the flesh throughout the 

 body. What that influence is, however, has 

 never been satisfactorily determined. A further 

 point in this connection is that a fowl so starved 

 is much more easily drawn, and certainly is not 

 nearly so offensive during the operation. If 

 people take the trouble to draw two birds, one 

 which has been fasted and the other not, they 

 will be surprised at the difference between the 

 two. In the latter case the intestines are moist, 

 and do not come away cleanly, whilst in the 

 former they are dry and compact. We cannot 

 too strongly impress upon those who are pre- 

 paring fowls for sale, that this question of pre- 

 vious fasting is of very great importance. 



" In all countries where birds are fatted they 

 are never sent alive to market, but killed where 

 they are fatted. At one time, in many districts, 

 there was considerable opposition on the part of 

 poulterers to this system. They preferred to 

 buy the birds alive, and kill them as lequired, 

 which can be understood where the demand for 

 poultry is small. Such a plan, however, causes a 

 large amount of the gain from fattening to be 

 lost. To send away fatted birds alive in crates, 

 exposing them to cold and draughts, and stop- 

 ping the regular supply of food, causes a re- 

 action, and it has been found, as a matter of 

 practical experience, that a bird will lose in 

 twenty-four hours as much flesh as can be 

 added in a week. Poulterers in various parts 

 of the country who sell fine specimens now 

 generally understand this, and the difficulty re- 

 ferred to has been felt less of late years than 

 formerly. All the fatted birds produced in 

 Surrey, Sussex, and west Kent, and in the 

 best districts of France and Belgium, are killed 

 upon the spot and marketed dead. 



