78 CRAMMING PRICES. 



coarse sugar, and milk, and they are found com- 

 pletely ripe in a fortnight. If kept longer, the fever 

 that is induced by this continued state of repletion, 

 renders them red and unsaleable, and frequently 

 kills them. GEESE are likewise bred in the same 

 neighbourhood, in great numbers, and sold about 

 Midsummer to itinerant dealers; the price at the 

 time the survey was made, two shillings to two and 

 threepence each. I must presume to repeat, it ap- 

 pears to me utterly contrary to reason, that fowls 

 fed upon such greasy and impure mixtures can pos- 

 sibly produce flesh or fat so firm, delicate, high 

 flavoured, or nourishing, as those fattened upon 

 more simple and substantial food, as for example, 

 meal and milk ; and I think lightly of the addition of 

 either treacle or sugar. With respect to grease of 

 any kind, its chief effect must be to render the flesh 

 loose and of indelicate flavour. Nor is any advan- 

 tage gained, excluding the commercial one, as I con- 

 fine myself entirely to the consideration of home use, 

 by very quick feeding : for real excellence cannot be 

 obtained but by waiting nature's time, and using the 

 best food. Besides all this, I have been very un- 

 successful in my few attempts to fatten fowls by 

 cramming they seem to loath the crams, to pine 

 and to lose the flesh they were put up with, instead 

 of acquiring fat ; and where crammed fowls do suc- 

 ceed, they must necessarily, in the height of their 

 fat, be in a state of disease. 



The price of poultry in London perhaps had 

 never been so high, as in May 1827 ; to be attributed 

 to an unfavourable season and the extreme fulness 



