MARKETING POULTRY CARCASSES 
The fowl that has been once frozen cannot be made to look 
“fresh killed” again. For that reason packers like to get a 
monopoly on a particular market so that the two classes of 
goods will not have to compete side by side. The quality of 
the frozen fowl when served is very fair, practically as good 
as and some say better than the fresh killed. 
Cold storage pouliry is best thawed out by being placed over 
night in a tank of water. Poultry prejudice prevents the prac- 
tice of retailing the goods frozen, though this method would 
be highly desirable. 
Drawn or Undrawn Fowls. 
Within the last two or three years there has been a great 
hue and cry about the marketing of poultry without drawing 
the entrails. 
The objection to the custom rests upon the general preju- 
-dice to allowing the entrails of animais to remain in the 
careass. If a little thought is given the subject, however, it 
is seen that human prejudice is very inconsistent in such 
matters. We draw beef and mutton carcasses, to be sure, 
but fish and game are stored undrawn, and as for oysters and 
lobsters we not only store them undrawn but we eat them so. 
The facts about the undrawn poultry proposition are as fol- 
lows: The intestines of the fowl at death contain numerous 
species of bacteria, whereas the flesh is quite free from germs. 
If the carcass is not drawn, but immediately frozen hard, the 
bacteria remain inactive and no essential change occurs. If 
the carcass is stored without freezing, or remains for even a 
short time at a high temperature, the bacteria will begin to 
grow through the intestinal walls and contaminate the flesh. 
Now, if the fowl is drawn, the unprotected flesh is exposed 
to bacterial contamination, which results in decomposition 
more rapidly than through the intestinal walls. The opening 
of the carcass also allows a greater drying out and shrinkage. 
If poultry carcasses were split wide open as with beef or 
mutton, drawing might not prove as satisfactory as the 
present method, but since this ig not desirable, and since 
ordinary laborers will break the intestines and spill their con- 
tents over the flesh, and otherwise mutilate the fowl, all those 
who have had actual experience in the matter agree that draw- 
ing poultry is unpractical and undesirable. 
As far as danger of disease or ptomaine poison is concerned, 
chances between the two methods seem to offer little choice. 
The Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture has conducted a series of experiments along the line 
of poultry storage. So far as the results have been published, 
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