PREPARING POULTRY PRODUCTS 463 



With frame picking, the head is held exactly as in bench 

 picking, but the shackle holding the feet, conies from 

 above and is weighted in such a way as to hold the bird's 

 body up off the bench, thus giving the benefit of both 

 methods. 



The question of the relative merits of these methods 

 of dry picking is one upon which packers and investigators 

 are not agreed among themselves. The bench has grown 

 in popularity rapidly, because somewhat faster work can 

 be done on it than on the string, and the feathers more 

 easily sorted and saved. The bird is seldom smeared witli 

 blood, as in the case of string picking. On the other hand, 

 the government investigators have found that even when the 

 bench is padded, the carcass is more or less bruised during 

 the convulsions that follow the sticking and in flop]:)ing a 

 l)ird over on its breast to pick its back. It is claimed that 

 these bruises are not noticeable at first, but that if the 

 carcass is held or stored they become breeding places of 

 bacteria which bring about deterioration. Some of the 

 largest packers in the country, however, whose pack of 

 poultry stands at the very top for quality, use the bench 

 method. With string picking, there is, of course, little chance 

 for bruising, though the picker and the carcass are often 

 covered with blood, and the method does not appear so 

 sanitary. In just how far the frame picking \\i\\ displace the 

 otiier two, remains to be seen. 



With either method, the greatest care must be used not 

 to tear or even scuff the skin. In the superficial nuiscles of the 

 breast taken from a carcass whose skin was neither torn nor 

 rubbed there are very few bacteria. In both the superficial 

 and deep breast muscles of a fowl with a torn or even a 

 rubbed skin, such numbers of bacteria will l)e found within 

 twenty-four hours, that a marked change in the chemical 

 composition will already have taken place. 



In a well-organized conunercial ])icking room the work of 

 picking is divided between roughers and ]>inners. The 

 roughers bleed and brain the bird and remove the wing, tail, 

 and larger body feathers. The pinners finish tlie jilucking, 

 carefully removing all pin feathers. 



