76 TUBKEY CULTURE. 



KILLING AND PICKING. 



* 



Poultry shrinks about one-third in dressing. If you 

 make your own prices, bear this proportion in mind. Live 

 turkey at twelve cents a pound is nearly the same as six- 

 teen cents dressed, not reckoning the cost of labor in 

 dressing. If you market your turkeys where you get 

 eighteen cents dressed, you cannot afford to sell them 

 alive for less than thirteen and one-half cents a pound, 

 unless you deduct cost of dressing, which is worth about 

 eight cents per head. 



Deprive the birds of food and drink for twelve hours 

 previous to killing,, This length of time is sufficient to 

 empty the crop, which is necessary to have the dressed 

 turkey keep well. If starved for more than twelve hours, 

 the birds begin to pine, or shrink in flesh, giving them 

 more or less of a woody appearance. The length of time 

 they are confined without food beyond twelve hours, 

 will affect the appearance of the stock. Kill by bleed- 

 ing in the mouth or neck, and pick clean, but do not 

 attempt to stick poultry in the mouth unless you under- 

 stand it, because, if not properly done, they will only 

 half "bleed out," and when being picked, the blood will 

 follow every feather, giving the bird a bad appearance, 

 and rendering it almost unsalable. Never stun them by 

 knocking on the head or pounding on the back, as it causes 

 the blood to settle, and injures the sale of the stock. If 

 you sell the birds with the heads removed, kill them by 

 beheading; leavnig the neck as long as possible. 



Have two stout cords hang from a joist or horizontal 

 pole overhead, with a loop in the lower end of each. 

 Place a loop over each foot of the turkey, and have the 

 body hang at a convenient hight for you to pick, stand- 

 ing. After killing, hang the body quickly, and remove the 

 feathers before the body gets cold ; pull out tail and wing 

 feathers clean. Practice will soon perfect you in this, so 



