150 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



Ing to the point of view. What our markets require for first class poultry is poultry fat 

 enough to cook well in its own fat, but not so fat that much of the fat still remains after the 

 cooking. Comparatively few people here have any taste for an overfat fowl. To most people 

 poultry fat, except in small quantities, is nauseating, and, of course, the internal fat removed 

 when the fowl is drawn is of no special advantage to the consumer. What the consumer 

 wants is a suitable amount of fat, properly distributed next the skin and through the tissues, 

 so that in cooking, its oil penetrates to every part of the meat, but yet the fat is not anywhere 

 in such quantities that it remains after the cooking, and gives its taste to the meat. To accom- 

 plish this, a fowl, especially for a roasting fowl, must be quite fat much fatter than our aver- 

 age good poultry. Hence we may say that there is little danger of making young poultry over- 

 fat by any ordinary means unless the process of fattening is protracted far beyond what is 

 necessary. With old fowls it is different; many of those seen in our markets are excessively 

 fat, and the fat not at all well distributed, but the greater part of it waste fat which adds to 

 the weight of the fowl without increasing the quantity of edible meat, or improving its quality. 

 From what has been said I think it will be clear that fat in market poultry is valuable chiefly 

 as an accessory quality. The fat itself, except as it occurs in small quantities in the muscular 

 tissues, is eaten by comparatively few people, but people want their poultry quite fat because 

 the lean meat of the fat fowl is, other things being equal, superior to the lean meat of a lean 

 fowl. There is another reason for this besides the effect of fat in the cooking, which has 

 already been referred to. The lean fowl is lean because of insufficient nourishment, or because 

 its activity hardens the muscles and prevents the accumulation of fat. After maturity the fat 

 fowl may begin to fatten because of a constitutional tendency that way, even on a very moder- 

 ate amount of nourishment, (though while growing, few will fatten unless conditions are 

 especially favorable^, but the subsequent accumulation of fat depends on whether the natural 

 tendency to fatten is aided or discouraged by the poultry keeper. 



The stock that is to be kept for laying and breeding purposes should be allowed to accumu- 

 late but little fat. Stock that is to be marketed the grower generally wants to have ready for 

 eale at the most convenient or most favorable time. If he has stock all of the same breeding, 

 and well bred, he is likely to find it much the same all through. If a part of the chickens quit 

 growing early and begin to fatten, it is likely that most of the stock will do so. Generally such 

 stock is best fattened and disposed of at once, though sometimes it pays to hold it for a special 

 market and high prices, for, as a rule, stock that begins to fatten young under ordinary con- 

 ditions and diet does not grow much more frame or muscle. It is the fowls that grow the 

 frames first, then round them out with muscle, and then begin to lay on fat that make the 

 largest and finest poultry at maturity. Such stock a grower often wants to fatten a little in 

 advance of its natural tendency, and to accomplish this he resorts to various artificial means, 

 some very simple, others more difficult. 



Beginners generally, and a surprisingly large number of poultry keepers of some experience 

 overrate the importance of special food in fattening, and attach too little importance to con- 

 ditions and inherited tendencies. The latter question in particular is almost neglected, and in 

 consequence in this country poultry grown especially for the table is too apt to come from stock 

 which is considered suitable for producing market poultry only because it is plainly not suitable 

 for anything else. As a result of the general use of many birds not at all satisfactory from a 

 market poultry standpoint, far too large a proportion of our poultry can never be fattened 

 properly, no matter what foods are used, and not a little of it cannot be fattened profitably, 

 the process requiring too long a time, too much food, and too many individuals falling out by 

 the way because the digestive organs will not stand the heavy feeding and close confinement 

 necessary to make them lay on fat. 



To fatten quickly, easily, and profitably a fowl or chicken must first of all be plump. A 

 chicken that is plump at any age can generally be fattened at any age. A chicken that has a 

 " lanky " period during its growth it is almost impossible to fatten during that period. The 

 best illustration of this is seen in the Asiatics, especially the Light Brahma. Under three 

 months of age they may be fattened quite readily. From three to six or seven months they 

 tend to put everything given them into frame, bone, and muscle, and cannot be fattened, even 

 in close confinement in such a short period as suffices after the frame is developed. Shut 



