CHAPTER IX 

 AMERICAN FATTENING METHODS 



THE big Kansas City and Chicago packing houses 

 are going into tlie chicken fattening Ijusincss in 

 a wholesale manner. One of them proposes to 

 start branch feeding estal)lis]iraents to collect and 

 fatten chickens for the main concern. Lean chickens, 

 it is claimed, can l)e made to gain two pounds each in 

 two weeks at a cost of two cents per pound, while the 

 specially fattened bird will sell for three and four cents 

 more per pound than the unfattened one. The fat- 

 tened flesh is softer, richer and also lighter in color. 

 At present only a part of the 10,000 f(3'n-]s Ivillcd 

 daily are specially fattened, but cage accommodations 

 are furnished for about that number. Long rows of 

 continuous coops are piled one on top of the other in 

 a huge room. The chickens are kept in a dark room. 

 Just before feeding time huge shutters wliich obscure 

 the light are opened. These shutters are liigh on the 

 sides of the building. The chickens, with ihe light 

 turned on them, become active. Three times a day the 

 chickens are fed and are permitted to eat for a half 

 hour only. Long troughs run the entire length of each 

 row of coops. The spaces between the laths are just 

 large enough to permit the chicken to thrust his head 

 out of them into the trough. Six chickens are confined 

 in each coop and there is an opening for each chicken. 

 It has been discovered that a chicken will eat twice 

 as much if fed regularly three times a day as if per- 

 mitted to feed all day long. Just as soon as the half 

 hour's stuffing is concluded the room is once more 

 darkened and the troughs taken down. The chickens, 

 thoroughly satisfied, become almost dormant. For 



