22 g Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



made of buckwheat meal mixed with milk, to which a little 

 suet or fat is added. This is fitted into a square cage in 

 which the feeder stands, and in the larger machines he can 

 elevate this cage to any tier he wishes to be at. As soon as 

 the revolving cylinder is turned, and one of the compartments 

 thus brought opposite to him, he seizes hold of the inmate 

 with the left hand, deftly opening its beak at the same time, 

 and holding in his right hand the brass nozzle of an india- 

 rubber tube connected with the machine, inserts this into the 

 throat of the bird, then with his foot presses a treadle, and 

 sufficient of the liquid for one meal is forced into the crop of 

 the fowl. The process is repeated with each bird four or five 

 times a day, and they are in prime condition in three or four 

 weeks. Many think the process a cruel one, but we have 

 watched it repeatedly, and can vouch for the fact that the 

 fowls are always eager for their turn to come. 



In some parts of Sussex, England, and in France also, 

 really the same system is adopted, though the method 

 employed is rather varied. Cages line the room, in the 

 centre of which an attendant is seated on a bench, having 

 a cramming machine with a short nozzle pointing towards 

 him. Another attendant hands him a fowl, into the mouth 

 of which he inserts the nozzle of the crammer, and, pressing 

 a treadle with his foot, the foodls injected into it. Mean- 

 while, another bird has been brought and is exchanged 

 for the one fed, so that no time is wasted. "We have seen 

 it stated, that a couple of active men can feed two hundred 

 birds in an hour in this way. 



Where cramming is preferred, and we ourselves see no 

 objection whatever to it, perhaps the best plan is that 

 adopted by Madame Aillerot, a great French poultry 

 breeder and fattener, famous for the excellence of her 

 stock, and who has for several years taken first prize for 

 dressed poultry at the great Paris exhibitions. Buckwheat 



