THE AET OF POULTET FATTENING 77 



Impose upon us. If we can produce a good article the 

 world wants it, but it will not do for us to try to force 

 them to accept our false standard of excellence as theirs, 

 at the same time knowing in our hearts that ours is not 

 the proper, but simply a convenient one. We supply 

 the world with the best beef; we finish our cattle up 

 to the highest degree of perfection, and the quality 

 governs the price. If we had refused to do so and tried 

 to sell Europe our grass-fed steers and insisted that 

 such were the best we could produce, they would have 

 none of it, and our home market would be our only 

 outlet. 



The reader may form some idea as to the quality 

 and appearance of the best dressed poultry produced 

 in England by the following. At the Smithfield 

 (London) table poultry show held in December, 1901, 

 the first prize winners shown and weighed in couples 

 were : 



Buff Orpington pullets, 21 pou.nds 4 ounces; 

 Dorking cockerels, 20 pounds 8 ou.nces; farmyard cock- 

 erels, 23 pounds 13 ounces; farmyard pullets, 17 

 poimds 10 ounces; Pekin ducks, 15 pounds 3 ounces; 

 turkej^ cocks, 59 pounds 3 ounces; turkey hens, 49 

 pounds 10 ounces. 



There is nothing in the above that we cannot 

 duplicate and even excel in weight and quality. We 

 have only to adapt the necessary methods. The cram- 

 ming machine produces the maximum results, but 

 trough feeding will add from two and one-half to three 

 pounds of flesh to a four -pound bird in twentj'-one days 

 by the use of proper feed, which of course is the 

 foundation. A live three-pound pullet as it comes from 

 the farm carries about six ounces of bone, twentj'-one 

 ounces of offal, and after cooking about eighteen ounces 

 of edible meat. Here the percentage of waste to edible 

 portion is excessive. The bird is now in its best con- 



