82 



The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 



the main part of the machine consists of a large cylinder, which is filled with food, and furnished 

 witli a mouth or nozzle at one end, whilst the contents are forced out by means of a piston. In 

 the French machines this is usually worked by a treadle, and the whole method of management is 

 very clearly shown in Fig. 45, one person managing the machine, and another removing the birds 

 from and to the pens. 



Various minor improvements as regards the management of fowls thus treated have 

 been made from time to time, but the most perfect system yet developed appears to be that 

 carried on at the town of Cussct, by M. Martin, whose method of procedure is so superior that the 





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J'ig- 45- 



Agricultural Society of AUier published in 1870 an official report upon the plan and apparatus 

 of his establishment. 



The food employed by M. Martin consists of fine maize and barley-meal, mi.xed in about 

 equal quantities ; to this is added a portion of lard, and the whole is then mixed smoothly 

 with milk, so thin as to be almost liquid. The feeding-house is a large airy building on the summit 

 of a hill, and is furnished with three revolving octagonal stands, which, as they turn on their upright 

 axes, present each side in succession to the operator, precisely in the same manner as the revolving 

 show-stauds so often seen in shop-windows. Each side of the stand contains five perches for 

 the fowls ; and as each perch roosts five birds, the stand accommodates 200 fattening birds. The 

 perches are arranged over each other, and under each perch is a board sloping backwards, which 

 throws all the droppings into the centre of the machine, and effectually prevents them falling on 

 the birds below. Every morning a little straw chaff is thrown upon them, and the whole taken 

 away in a barrow running under, by which means the fowls are kept perfectly clean. 



