Dressing Fowls. 231 



fastened tightly down over it, by means of tapes tied round the 

 bottom board. When kept in this way for twelve hours, the 

 flesh is firm and the whole appearance shapely, with no 

 loose flabby flesh to repel the sight. This shaping of the 

 birds accounts for the great difference between French fowls 

 <md our owu, and there is no doubt but that the trouble 

 involved is amply repaid. The method offers other advan- 

 tages, as well as that of mere appearance. When the cook 

 gets the bird, she cuts the string which fastens the legs, for 

 the shaping-boards and cloths are not sold with the fowl, 

 and forces these down again, which brings the meat out on 

 the breast without the bone rising. When on the table, the 

 carver does not meet with the pieces of bone which obstruct 

 the passage of the knife in an English dressed fowl, and 

 it is a pleasure to be able to cut slice after slice off the 

 breast. This is one reason why French fowls appear to 

 have so much meat on them, but, it is also a fact, that they 

 are fed up to greater weights than are fowls in America. 

 We have seen a statement, that at one of the great Paris 

 shows, the first prize pair of La Fleche fowls weighed 

 twenty pounds, plucked and dressed, whilst the pullets of 

 the same breed turned the scale at sixteen pounds the pair. 

 It may not be possible to adopt the French system, as 

 just described, in its entirety in this country, but, at the 

 same time, we do not see why a portion of it might not be 

 grafted on to our own plan, or plans. For instance, there 

 would be no difficulty, either as regards expense or trouble, 

 in using the shaping-boards and cloths, by which means 

 the birds would be braced upland made shapely, and thus 

 do away with the soft appearance which is so objectionable. 

 In all our principal markets it is found that birds well 

 dressed bring more money than those sent in a careless 

 manner, and labour spent in this way is never lost. It i? 



