54 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



of high feeding from the very shell. The secret of rearing 

 chickens profitably is, to get them ready for the table at the 

 earliest possible period, and not to let them live a single day 

 after. Every such day is a dead loss, for they cannot be kept 

 fat ; once up to the mark, if not killed they get feverish and 

 begin to waste away again. To make poultry profitable, even on 

 a small scale, everything must go upon system ; and that system 

 is, to kill the chickens the very day they are ready for it. 



What may be called even feeding from the shell is of the 

 greatest importance, as the want of it is the cause of a 

 most common defect. If an ordinary English fowl badly 

 fed is examined, there will be found to be hardly any meat on 

 the back ; indeed, many people have an idea there never is any 

 meat there ! Now the effect of even several weeks' good 

 feeding upon a thin chicken is to deposit either flesh or fat 

 in places, but not to produce that even clothing with meat all 

 over, which is the perfection of chicken-rearing. Moreover, 

 fat so deposited is gross and disagreeable, whereas, even 

 feeding rather deposits it infiltrated amongst the muscle, 

 giving tenderness and juiciness to the whole, as is seen on a 

 larger scale in well-marbled beef. So well understood is this 

 in France, that it is usual, as Mr. T. Christy has again and 

 again pointed out, to expose the poultry there with the backs 

 uppermost, the exact contrary of English practice, though the 

 representations of this gentleman have lately caused some 

 imitation of French practice at the better West-End shops. 

 If the back is well and evenly covered with flesh, the breast 

 must carry as much meat as the build of the fowl admits of ; 

 but the converse is by no means the case. Whether or not 

 better knowledge shall lead to a general reform in the matter 

 of shop display, this method of judging cannot be too widely 

 known by purchasers ; and the raiser should never be satisfied 

 till he can produce chickens with the back nicely covered to a 

 smooth surface. This is to be done by an ample supply of 



