A GUIDE FOR KEEPERS OF POULTRY 27a 
QUICK FATTENING.—To fatten fowls quickly, ac- 
cording to the American method, shut them in small 
numbers in a place that can be darkened so as to main- 
tain just light enough for the hens to see to walk about, 
except when they are eating. Feed a mixture of ground 
oats, cornmeal, cracked wheat and wheat middlings, 
scalded and made into a dough with hot water. Feed as 
often during the day as they will eat the feed clean. Give 
them all the water they will drink and keep grit where 
they can get it. Do not feed green stuff of any kind. 
Boiled potatoes, rice, cornbread, cracked corn or whole 
wheat, may be fed for variety. By this method fowls 
can be made very fat and plump in from 10 to 14 days. 
They should be disposed of as soon as fully fitted for the 
table, as they will lose their appetites if fed too long, 
after which they will lose weight rather than increase it. 
QUICK-FATTENING METHOD.—A method of fat- 
tening quickly, which appears to work as well as the 
cramming method used in Europe, is to shut the fowls in 
a small run where they cannot take much exercise and 
feed them all they will eat of a mixture of cornmeal, 
buckwheat flour and milk, mixing these just so the mix- 
ture will drop from a wooden spoon but not run. Feed 
all the fowls will eat and remove the feed troughs as 
soon as they have eaten. Give them plenty of water, 
charcoal and grit. Feed in this manner for 10 days or 
two weeks before they are to be sent to market and 
market at once. If fed in this way for more than two 
or three days after they have become fitted for market 
they lose appetite and weight. Some fowls will fatten 
in 10 days while others will not become thoroughly fitted 
for two weeks. Fowls fattened in this way are delicious- 
ly tender and palatable. Chicks fed in this way are 
