68 Fattening-houses. 



the stables and other refuse, with perhaps some small 

 regular feeds ; but at threshing time they become fat, and 

 are thence styled barndoor fowls, probably the most deli- 

 cate and high-flavoured of all others, both from their full 

 allowance of the finest corn and from the constant health 

 in which they are kept, by living in the natural state, and 

 having the full enjoyment of air and exercise ; or secondly, 

 they are confined during a certain number of weeks in 

 coops ; those fowls which are soonest ready being drawn as 

 wanted." " The former method/' says Mr. Dickson, " is 

 1 immeasurably the best as regards the flavour and even 

 wholesomeness of the fowls as food, and though the 

 latter mode may, in some cases, make the fowls fatter, it is 

 only when they have been always accustomed to confine- 

 ment ; for when barndoor fowls are cooped up for a week 

 or two under the notion of improving them for the table, 

 and increasing their fat, it rarely succeeds, since the fowls 

 generally pine for their liberty, and, slighting their food, 

 lose instead of gaining additional flesh/' 



To fatten fowls that have not the advantage of a barn- 

 door, Mowbray recommends fattening-houses large enough 

 to contain twenty or thirty fowls, warm and airy, with 

 well-raised earth floors, slightly littered down with straw, 

 which should be often changed, and the whole place kept 

 perfectly clean. " Sandy gravel, 7 ' he says, " should be 

 placed in several different layers, and often changed. A 

 sufficient number of troughs for both water and food 

 should be placed around, that the stock may feed with as 

 little interruption as possible from each other, and perches 

 in the same proportion should be furnished for those birds 

 which are inclined to perch, which few of them will desire 

 after they have begun to fatten, but it helps to keep them 

 easy and contented until that period. In this manner 

 fowls may be fattened to the highest pitch, and yet pre- 

 served in a healthy state, their flesh being nearly equal in 

 quality to the barndoor fowl. To suffer fattening fowls to 

 perch is contrary to the general practice, since it is sup- 

 posed to bend and deform the backbone ; but as soon as 

 they become heavy and indolent from feeding, they will 



