84 PROFITS IN POULTRY. 



liver from the gall. Take the gizzard to the pail and 

 open and skin with another knife. Cut off the head and 

 legs, putting these in a pile. When cold, cut them up 

 and put them into the pail for your hens. This refuse 

 thus disposed of is worth at least one cent per fowl. By 

 scalding one can dress about six in an hour, while dry 

 picking is much slower." 



SAVE THE FEATHERS FEATHER-BONE. 



Few persons are aware that the coarse wing-feathers 

 of turkeys and ducks, which cannot be used for dusters, 

 and are generally a nuisance about the farm-yard, are of 

 any value. Large poultry-raisers especially will be glad 

 to learn that a recent invention of Mr. E. K. Warren 

 of Michigan has created a demand for these hitherto 

 worthless feathers, and that a company is now manu- 

 facturing, out of the quills of feathers, an excellent 

 substitute for whalebone, which, by the way, is becom- 

 ing scarce and dear. 



The feathers are first stripped of their plumage by re- 

 volving shears, then the quill is divided into halves by 

 delicate machinery, after which the pith is removed to 

 be used as a fertilizer. Analysis has shown it to be 

 rich in nitrogen, and therefore very valuable on the 

 farm. The split quills are cut into narrow shreds and 

 braided into strong strands by machinery. These 

 strands are in turn combined until there is produced a 

 firm elastic band so strong that great power would be 

 required to break it. This is sewed lengthwise many 

 times through with colored threads, the feather-bone 

 taking various colors from the kind of thread used. 

 Though the business is only a few months old, a hun- 

 dred persons are employed, and it is daily increasing. 

 Patents have been secured in the leading European 



