Book VII. 



PINIONING OF POULTRY. 



1041 



mixed together make an excellent mess, but must not be given in great quantities, other- 

 wise it renders the flesh soft and flabby. 



6718. Cramming. Barley and wheat meal are generally the basis or chief in- 

 gredient in all fattening mixtures for chickens and fowls ; but in Sussex, ground oats 

 are used, and there oats are in higher repute for fattening than elsewhere, many large 

 hogs being fattened with them. In the report of that county, the Rev. Arthur Young 

 says, " North Chappel, and Kinsford, are famous for their poultry. They are fattened 

 there to a size and perfection unknown elsewhere. The food given them is ground oats 

 made into gruel, mixed with hog's grease, sugar, pot- liquor, and. milk : or ground oats, 

 treacle, and suet, sheep's plucks, &c. The fowls are kept very warm, and crammed morn- 

 ing and night. The pot-liquor is mixed with a few handfuls of oatmeal and boiled, 

 with which the meal is kneaded into crams or rolls of a proper size. The fowls are put 

 into the coop, two or three days before they are crammed, which is continued for a fort- 

 night ; and they are then sold to the higglers. These fowls, full grown, weigh seven 

 pounds each, the average weight five pounds; but there are instances of individuals 

 double the weight. They were sold at the time of the survey (1809.), at four to five 

 shillings each. Turner, of North Chappel, a tenant of Lord Egremont, crams two hundred 

 fowls per annum. Great art and attention is requisite to cut the capons, and numbers 

 are destroyed in the operation." 



6719. Oakingham in Berks, is particularly famous for fatted fowls, by which many persons in that town 

 and vicinity gain a livelihood. The fowls are sold to the London dealers, and the sum of 150/. has been 

 returned in one market day by this traffic. Twenty dozen of these fowls were purchased for one gala at 

 Windsor, after the rate of half a guinea the couple. At some seasons, fifteen shillings have been paid 

 for a couple. Fowls constitute the principle commerce of the town. Romford, in Essex, is also a great 

 market for poultry, but generally of the store or barn-door kind, and not artificially fed. 



6720. The Oakingham method of feeding is to confine the fowls in a dark place, and cram them with 

 paste made of barley-meal, mutton-suet, treacle, or coarse sugar, and milk, and they are found complete- 

 ly ripe in a fortnight. If kept longer, the fever that is induced by this continued state of repletion, renders 

 them red and unsaleable, and frequently kills them. Geese are likewise fed in the same neighborhood, in 

 great numbers, and sold about Midsummer to itinerant dealers, the price at the time the survey Was made 

 (1808.), two shillings, to two and three-pence each. It appears utterly contrary to reason, that fowls fed 

 upon such greasy and impure mixtures, can possibly produce flesh or fat so firm, delicate, high flavored, 

 or nourishing, as those fattened upon more simple and substantial food ; as for example, meal and milk, 

 without the addition of either treacle or sugar. With respect to grease of any kind, its chief effect must 

 be to render the flesh loose and of indelicate flavor. Nor is any advantage gained, excluding the commer- 

 cial one. 



6721. The methods of cramming by confining in a box the size of the body of the fowl, 

 and allowing its head and vent to project, for intromission and ejection ; of blinding the 

 bird for this purpose ; or of nailing it to the boai-d ; and also the mode of forcing down liquid 

 food by a particular kind of pump, worked by the foot of the feeder, all these and other 

 cruel practices we wish we could abolish in practice, and obliterate from the printed page. 

 6722. Castration is performed on cocks and hens only in some districts, and chiefly in Berkshire and 

 Sussex. The usual time is when they have left the hen, or when the cocks begin to crow, but the earlier 

 the better. It is a barbarous practice and better omitted. Capons are shunneil both by hens and cocks, 

 who it is said will not roost on the same perch with them. The Chinese mode of making capons is fully 

 described and illustrated with cuts in the Farmer's Magazine, vol. vi. p. 45. 



6723. Pinioning of fowls is often practised to restrain them from roosting too high, or 

 from flying over fences, &c. ^ and is much more convenient than the cutting their wing 

 feathers only. But in the ordinary methods of merely excising the pinion, it is frequent- 

 ly fatal ; and almost always so to full grown birds or fowls, by their bleeding to death. 

 To prevent this in the long-winged tribe.s, as ducks, geese, &c., pass a threaded 

 needle through their w ing, close by the inside of the 

 smaller bone, {fig. 719 a), and making a ligature with 

 the thread across the larger bone, and returning it on 

 the outside of all, the principal blood vessels are secur- 

 ed, which could not be accomplished by a ligature con- 

 fined to the surface only. After the blood vessels have been thus secured, cut off the 



portion of wing beyond the liga- 

 ture with scissars or shears. In the 

 gallinacea or short winged tribes, 

 as cocks, hens, &c., the operation is 

 rendered safer, by being performed 

 on the beginning of the next joint 

 (i), making the ligature embrace all 

 the vessels between these two bones 

 by passing it twice through, and se- 

 curing each bone individually, and 

 passing tlie ligature around the whole 

 of that part of the wing generally. 

 In this way also birds which have 

 been accidentally winged in shooting 

 may be preserved. 



6724. Tlie turkey, (Mcleagris galliimvo, L., fig. 720.) is a native of America, and 



3X 



