94 



THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



to break the breast-bone down, but not splintering it. The 

 vent has first been emptied as far as possible by pressure, and 

 the hocks tied loosely together. The fowl is now taken in 

 both hands with thumbs across the back, the stern knocked 

 or jammed square against the wall, so as to flatten and 

 square it, and placed in a trough or press of two boards (Fig. 23) 

 meeting almost at a right angle, of which three are generally 

 arranged in one frame, as in Fig. 24. The width of the 



Fig 24. Stand and Troughs. 



boards or size of trough depends upon the size of the fowls, 

 and large fatters have various sizes in any case, a trough 

 should be filled by one size, the necks hanging over in front. 

 The first bird is pressed hard against one end of the trough, 

 and a heavy brick or a weight jammed up to it ; the next is 

 pressed hard up to this one, and so on, always keeping a 

 weight jammed close up to the last, or till the trough is full, 

 all being thus tightly wedged together. A board as long as 

 the trough and four inches or so wide is then laid all across 

 the backs of the row, at the forward or shoulder end of the 



