72 Capons and Poulardes. 



and the crop be gently pressed with the fingers until the 

 hardened mass has become loosened so that the gizzard can 

 grind it. 



The food chiefly used in France for " cramming " fowls 

 is buckwheat-meal bolted very fine and mixed with milk. 

 It should be prepared in the following manner : Pour the 

 milk, which should be lukewarm in winter, into a hole 

 made in the heap of meal, mixing it up with a wooden 

 spoon a little at a time as long as the meal will take up the 

 milk, and make it into the consistency of dough, keep 

 kneading it until it will not stick to the hands, then divide 

 it into pieces twice as large as an egg, which form into 

 rolls generally about as thick as a small finger, but more 

 or less thick according to the size of the fowls to be fed, 

 and divide the rolls into pellets about two and a half inches 

 in length by a slanting cut, which leaves pointed ends, that 

 are easier to " cram " the fowls with than if they were 

 square. The pellets should be rolled up as dry as 

 possible. 



The operation of caponising as performed in England is 

 barbarous, extremely painful, and dangerous. In France 

 it is performed in a much more scientific and skilful 

 manner. But the small advantage gained by this un- 

 natural operation is more than counterbalanced by the 

 unnecessary pain inflicted on the bird, and the great risk 

 of losing it. Capons never moult, and lose their pre- 

 viously strong, shrill voice. In warm, dry countries they 

 grow to a large size, and soon fatten, but do not succeed 

 well in our moist, cold climate. They are not common in 

 this country, and most of the fowls sold in the London 

 markets as capons are merely young cockerels well 

 crammed. If capons are kept they should have a separate 

 house, for the other fowls will not allow those even of their 

 own family to occupy the same roosting-perch with them. 

 The hens not only show them indifference, but decided 

 aversion. Hen chickens, deprived of their reproductive 

 organs in order to fatten them sooner, are common in 

 France, where they are styled poulardes. 



Fattening ought to be completed in from ten to twenty 



