56 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



shoulders: hence the greatest depth is still through the 

 shoulders and breast. The same is true of the pheasant, and 

 of every good table fowl ; and an application of this simple rule 

 will show the serious deficiency of many Langshans upheld as 

 the " true type " by some injudicious writers. 



2. The breast must be broad. On this depends the number 

 of slices it will yield. Internally, this depends upon the width 

 of the flat parts of the breast-bone. Externally, it is seen on 

 looking at the front of the fowl. The true type of the Brahma, 

 when it is not bred to Cochin models, most often fails here. 

 The breast is deep, and often long ; but it is apt to be narrow. 

 Hence the need of carefully choosing birds selected as a cross. 



3. The breast must be long. On this depends the length 

 of the slices cut from it. Here the Cochins are very apt to 

 fail ; very few Langshans we have seen had this fault ; it has 

 been lately more and more common in Cochin-bred Brahmas. 

 Some turkeys are particularly bad or short in breast, a fact 

 showing that careful selection has the matter in perfect control. 



Stock of the varieties chosen always can be found, except 

 perhaps amongst Cochins, sufficiently free from the faults here 

 pointed out ; and by thus using judgment, a good table model 

 can be secured. The ideal model is seen in the breast of a 

 well-reared pheasant ; and next to that, perhaps, in that of a 

 fine Dorking or old-fashioned Game fowl. 



There are various modes of killing all of them very 

 effectual in practised hands. One is to give the birds a very 

 sharp blow with a small but heavy stick behind the neck, 

 about the second joint from the head, which will, if properly 

 done, sever the spine and cause death very speedily. Another 

 is to clasp the bird's head in the hand, and give the body a 

 sharp swing round by it a process which also kills by parting 

 the vertebrae. M. Soyer recommends that the joints be pulled 

 apart, which can be effected by seizing the head in the right 

 hand placing the thumb just at the back of the skull, and 



