314 THE RURAL EFFICIENCY GUIDE STOCK 



range to recuperate. It takes from ten days to two weeks to fatten poultry. 

 Fowls brought up in confinement are much better for the table than those off 

 the range. 



Feeds for Quick Fattening. 



1. Oats, Wheat, Middlings and Cornmeal. Feed a mixture of ground 

 oats, cracked wheat and wheat middlings, cornmeal, scalded and made into 

 a dough with hot water. Feed as often during the day as the chrckens will 

 eat the feed clean. 



2. Cornmeal, Bran and Sour Milk. Equal parts of cornmeal and bran 

 mixed to a thin batter with buttermilk or sourmilk makes a good fattening 

 ration. Give little first day ; after that give all they can eat in twenty minutes. 



3. Buckwheat Flour, Cornmeal and Milk. Make a mixture of buck- 

 wheat flour, cornmeal and milk. Mix these to a batter that will just drop 

 from a spoon but not run. Feed all they will eat. Remove troughs after 

 feeding. Fowls fattened this way are deliciously palatable and tender. 



4. Barley, Oats, Corn, Beef Scraps and Buttermilk. Take equal parts 

 of finely ground barley, finely ground oats (with hulls sifted out), finely 

 ground corn. To this mixture add 10% of beef scraps. Use buttermilk if 

 possible, if not, skim milk for moistening. Feed at regular intervals. 



5. Corn, Oats, Flour and Tallow. A fine ration may be made as fol- 

 lows : 100 pounds ground corn, 100 pounds ground oats, 50 pounds flour and 

 4 pounds tallow. 



Cramming. 



If some of the fattening stock does not eat all they should they can be 

 crammed to good advantage as follows: Make the feed into balls about one- 

 half inch in diameter and two inches long. Have from fourteen to eighteen 

 balls for each bird. Sit down on a box or stool, grasp the bird firmly between 

 the knees, elongate the neck, grasping the head in the left hand, and placing 

 the first finger in the mouth to keep it open. Then dip one of the balls in 

 skim milk or water and force it into the bird's mouth, pressing it down the 

 throat with the finger. Next grip the neck above the ball with the thumb 

 and first finger; run them downward along the neck and force the ball into 

 the crop. It will take fourteen to eighteen to fill the crop of one bird. Cram- 

 ming is done just before roosting time. One can soon learn to cram the birds 

 easily and readily. 



MARKETING POULTRY AND POULTRY PRODUCTS. 



(Including Systems of Marketing, Employed by People All Over the Country.) 



The average farmer and poultryman can generally figure out that he is 

 making a profit from his chickens, but it cannot be denied that with better 

 methods of preparing fowls for market and better systems of marketing, the 

 profit made from them would be much greater. In the far East where more 

 care is taken in the marketing and in localities farther west where system is 



