9 BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 



cracked corn for grain. Cockerels so treated before sex- 

 ual characters are strongly developed will, if they have 

 grown steadily and well from the start, make as fine and 

 tender meat as can be produced, and cockerels of slow 

 maturing stocks will be soft meated until quite full grown. 



52. Difficulty of Fattening in Hot Weather. — In 



very warm weather it is sometimes impossible to fatten 

 chickens by ordinary feeding methods because the chickens 

 either will not eat a heavy ration freely, or are almost 

 immediately upset by it. It is in such emergencies that 

 the grower is led to consider special fattening by the use 

 of the cramming machine. These occasions have been so 

 scattering and so rare that no extended interest in special 

 fattening methods has yet developed among growers of the 

 best grades of market poultry, and I consider it altogether 

 improbable that European methods of fattening will obtain 

 in this country within our generation, except to improve 

 poultry not properly grown by the growers. 



