150 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Chap. I. 



the express charges may amount to four or five cents a pouud, and all the 

 weiglit of tliebox counts equally with the contents. 



It is a practice with some — and a very foolish practice it is— to stuff fowls 

 just before they are killed, thinking to sell corn at the price of meat. Better 

 give no food for twenty-four hours previous to killing. Food in the crop is 

 "liable to sour, and always injures the sale, for it looks to purchasers as though 

 there was a design to cheat. 



You may pick turkeys and fowls dry if you will not tear the skin, and 

 then scald them afterward by dipping them suddenly in and out of boiling 

 water. Geese and ducks must always be scalded. Do not scald the legs too 

 much, M-hether you ]nck first or afterward. Be careful of that. You must 

 pick them clean, and the after-scalding makes them look plump and good. 

 Well-packed boxes of well-prepared birds will keep sweet a long time in 

 cool weather, and may be transported by express from Ohio for three cents 

 a pound ; from Chicago and most of Illinois for five cents ; from Iowa for 

 six or six and a half cents, and arriving in good order, will be sold at good 

 prices, and your money remitted to you, less 10 per cent. Now, following 

 these directions, and getting these prices, if it is better for you Ohio, Indiana, 

 Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan farmers to send your poultry East- 

 ward for sale, you know how to do it ; and if it opens to you a new and im- 

 proved market, it Avill be M'orth more to you than the whole cost of this 

 volume upon every box of poultry sold. In fact, these directions, given iu 

 part heretofore to the public, have been the means of saving great sums of 

 money to the poultry producers. 



After boxes are packed, if there is any chance of not getting them imme- 

 diately into market, or if a change in prices makes it desirable to hold back, 

 it will be a good plan to place them where the contents will freeze solid ; 

 then they Avill stand a long spell of warm weather, such as makes badly- 

 packed poultry slimy. If you could be sure of cold weather, so that the 

 birds would remain frozen, very little straw would be requisite in packing ; 

 but as a general thing, a liberal allowance of straw will more than pay its 

 cost of transportation in keeping the birds in good order. 



When packages are frozen before shipment, it will be well to advise con- 

 signees of the fact, as we have known a thaw to come on gradually, until 

 very warm, and have then seen packages opened in perfect order that were 

 frozen up two or three months before. In fact, we knew one such that got 

 mislaid and covered with empty boxes in a cellar, that kept sweet till it was 

 accidentally discovered in May. 



Water for scalding any kind of poultry should be as near to the boiling 

 point as possible, without actually boiling ; the bird being held by the legs, 

 should be immersed and lifted up and down in the water three times ; the 

 motion helps the hot water to penetrate the plumage and take proper effect 

 upon the skin. Continue to hold the bird by the legs with one hand while 

 plucking the feathers with the other without a moment's delay after taking 

 it out ; if skillfully handled in this way, the feathers and pin-feathers may all 



