86 



2. Suspend the fowl by the feet at a convenient height with 

 a soft cord, the upper end of which is secured to a hook or nail in 

 the ceiling or beam over head. 



3. Lock the wings together behind the back, to prevent flap- 

 ping. Do this carefully, so that they will hot be dislocated. 



4. Take the tip of the wings in the left hand, and with the 

 right strike the fowl a smart blow on the head with a stick or 

 cudgel. Strike hard enough to produce concussion of the brain 

 and unconsciousness. 



5. Grasp the fowl by the comb or by the feathers at the back 

 of the head with the left hand, and with the right insert the blade 

 of a sharp knife in the neck just back of the ear lobe, on the under 

 side of the neck bone and parallel with it. Run the blade clear 

 through the neck. When you withdraw the blade twist it to right 

 angles with the neck bone, severing the artery in the throat, and 

 causing the blood to flow profusely. 



6. Begin to pluck immediately. Pluck up the breast and sides 

 to tail. Remove tail feathers. Unlock the wings, and strip them 

 of long feathers. Remove feathers from around vent. Pluck 

 the feathers from back. Finish plucking. If done quickly the 

 feathers will come out easily and the skin will not be torn. The 

 bird should be entirely denuded of feathers in 10 minutes. In 

 case rents are made sew them up neatly with white thread. 



7. If the fowl is to be drawn, with a sharp knife cut a slit 

 about an inch long back of the vent and parallel with it, through 

 which insert index finger, hooking it into the intestines. Remove 

 intestines. The lower end of the intestines and the egg sac may 

 be removed by enlarging the slit in the shape of a half circle, until 

 it joins the ends of the vent. This will make a round hole about 

 the size of a silver half dollar. After removing the intestines cut 

 off the fowl's head, then draw back the skin and take off about an 

 inch of the neck bone, pull the skin forward and tie. 



8. "For the Boston and New England markets the poultry 

 should be picked perfectly clean. For the New York markets the 

 tip feathers of the wings are left on. Do not singe the bodies for 

 the purpose of removing any down or hair, as the heat from the 

 flame will give them an oily and unsightly appearance." 



9. "Plumping is recommended by some dealers, and consists 

 in dipping the carcass as soon as thoroughly picked for 10 seconds 

 in water nearly or quite boiling hot, and then immediately into 



