European Methods 293 



ods of dressing and marketing fowls. The Eng- 

 lish method of preparing young fowls for market, 

 which have been fattened by the cramming pro- 

 cess and which afford a most delicate flesh, is 

 to kill them without bleeding. While in the 

 United States great stress is laid on removing 

 as much blood as possible from the body, the 

 English prefer not to have the fowl bled at all. 

 The operator holds the fowl with his left hand 

 and grasps the head with his right. He gives a 

 forcible, forward pull with his right hand, hold- 

 ing the head at right angles to the neck. He 

 uses enough force to dislocate the neck just be- 

 low the head. This kills the fowl at once and 

 frequently causes considerable blood to settle in 

 the neck, although no blood leaves the body. 

 When dry -picking is practiced the fowls are 

 picked at once after the neck is dislocated. Pick- 

 ers become very expert in dry-picking fowls. As 

 the hand moves back and forth over the body 

 the feathers gradually disappear, and in less time 

 than it requires to describe the operation prop- 

 erly an expert picker will have the feathers 

 removed from a good specimen. While the Eng- 

 lish do not meet our requirements as regards 

 the drawing of blood, yet in some respects they 

 take more pains in preparing the birds for market 

 than Americans do. 



As soon as the birds are picked, they are fre- 



