158 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



In shipments of live poultry, returnable slatted coops are used, the express companies return- 

 ing the coops free of charge. 



Methods of Killing and Dressing Poultry. 



Poultry sold to a private or special trade may be dressed any way the trade will take it. 

 Poultry to be sold dressed to the general trade, should be killed and dressed to suit the market 

 to which it goes. As far as I am informed, all the more important markets want fowls with 

 heads and feet on, and undrawn. There are good reasons for this; the undrawn fowl if 

 properly starved before killing, keeps better than one that is drawn and the air thus admitted 

 to the cavity of the body. The head and feet left on a fowl serve to show more of its age and 

 condition than the average customer would discover without them. In selling dressed poultry 

 to private or special trade, heads and feet are often removed, and occasionally fowls are drawn, 

 though this is rarely done except for customers who request it. If one is selling fowls both 

 ways, the best way to arrange the prices is to weigh all fowls undrawn and charge those whose 

 fowls are drawn the price for undrawn plus a small charge for drawing. When selling 

 dressed poultry to private trade I used to weigh and tag all carcasses singly or in pairs as 

 required, after they were cooled. Then for customers who wanted them drawn we selected 

 the weights wanted, and charged on the original, not on the weight after drawing. I don't 

 think it would be found satisfactory to attempt to make a price for drawn poultry and one 

 for undrawn. 



Ratio of Prices for Drawn and Undrawn Poultry. 



If a poultryman is selling his poultry all drawn, and wanted to know what to make his 

 price with relation to the price for undrawn poultry, the best way to arrive at it is to weigh 

 an average lot of undrawn poultry, draw and weigh again. Then take the value of the poultry 

 undrawn at the market price, add to it the charge for drawing, divide by the number of pounds 

 the lot weighed drawn, and the resulting figure is the price per pound for the drawn poultry. 



Scalding or Dry Picking? 



Poultry to be sold in the eastern markets should be dry picked, for dry picked poultry 

 usually sells better and brings a few cents more per pound than scalded poultry. For western 

 markets scalded poultry is preferred for home consumption, but the surplus ihut is shipped 

 east works out better if dry picked. The method of picking therefore will be determined by 

 where the poultry is to be consumed. 



Poultry dressed for private trade will go just as readily scalded as dry picked, unless scald- 

 ing is badly botched, and as picking after scalding is much easier than dry picking, it is quite 

 generally the practice of those who sell direct to consumers even in this vicinity, unless they 

 have enough to require the services of an expert picker, or to keep themselves in practice dry 

 picking. 



How to Kill. 



If fowls are to be sold with heads off they may be killed by cutting off the head, in the good 

 old fashioned way. 



If the head is to be left on, they should be killed by bleeding through a cut made generally 

 into the roof of the mouth, and penetrating the brain. The method of making the cut has 

 been often described, and some descriptions of dressing fowls have been quite profusely illus- 

 trated with photos of different stages of the operations of killing and plucking. The practical 

 value of either words or pictures in teaching such operations seems problematical. When we 

 consider how much practice with expert personal instruction it takes to make a skillful picker, 

 we cannot make a very high estimate of the value of such instruction as it is possible to 

 give on paper. I would advise every one who wants to learn to dress fowls or to learn 

 another or better method than that with which he is familiar, to go to an expert picker for a 

 practical demonstration, if it is at all possible for him to do so. I give herewith several state- 

 ments of killing methods as given by different experts, and those who must learn by the book 

 may take their choice. 



