NINTH ANNUAL MEETING. 93 



And yet, with all these facilities, short trip and proper 

 facilities for handling upon arrival, there is something 

 more to be done, and that at this end of the line, otherwise 

 you have your labor for your pains. It must be put up 

 right. 



Now, take it in the matter of chickens. A chicken 

 dressing five and one-half to six pounds readily sell at eighty 

 cents, but the average chickens coming from America 

 weigh only about four and one-half pounds, and sell for 

 fifty-four cents per pair. Small chickens are not wanted 

 in London market. Then there is the matter of dressing; 

 you must never cut the head of the chicken off, as you fre- 

 quently do in this country, as the Englishman will think 

 some animal has killed it. Of course there is a sale for all 

 this inferior stock. After the business of the day is over 

 at seven o'clock in the morning, whatever is left on hand 

 is sold to the costermonger at a reduced rate, whatever can 

 be gotten for it. There is a million of these costermongers 

 in and about London, with their little carts and donkeys, 

 who peddle out this stuff at a small price. It is cut up 

 into small pieces and sold to the small families in the 

 tenement districts. It ".is a sight to see the coster- 

 monger come into Covent Garden in the morning with 

 his small bag of still smaller coins and see him count it. I 

 have seen turkeys sold for a shilling each, and I have seen 

 turkeys sold that same day, from Canada, no better than 

 those that came from America, but put up as the English 

 market requires them, at seven shillings six pence. 

 Turkeys and chickens should not be drawn, but plucked 

 dry, with a little frill of feathers left around the head, 

 which should be left on ; also a bunch of feathers on the 

 tip of the wings and on tip of tail. They should always be 

 killed by breaking the necks; never allow the skin to be 

 broken, as the English are afraid of microbes being intro- 

 duced into places when the skin is broken. Here, in this 

 country, you pack them in barrels; a layer of fowl and 

 then a layer of ice, and so on. In this way it either 

 becomes water logged from the melting ice or else it 

 becomes badly torn or bruised from the ragged edges of 

 the ice. One bright dealer in Boston had discovered what 



