46 BAISING FOWLS AND EGGS 



like the other arrangements on this huge chicken-farm. There 

 are erected within it eight round, upright wooden " feeding- 

 machines," each having five tiers of small boxes, pigeon-hole 

 shaped, for the accommodation of a single fowl in a' box, and 

 each machine will hold in the five circles running around this 

 upright drum, two hundred and ten birds, when deposited 

 there for fattening, or forcing flesh upon them for marketing. 



It requires but fifteen to eighteen days of this cramming to 

 put the fowls taken from the runs in ordinary trim, into the 

 very best pcJssible condition for the table. The extra flesh thus 

 put upon them through this process, is not literally fat, but 

 good sound, solid meat ; and old birds, too, are, by this means, 

 rendered tender, juicy and palatable, to a surprising degree. 

 There can be so prepared in this building, thirty thousand 

 chickens per annum. This place is kept dark and cool dur- 

 ing the " forcing ; " it is carefully ventilated, and its success 

 as an auxiliary to Mr. Baker's general plan, has proved won- 

 derful. The mode is similar to that in use in France, but Mr. 

 Baker's plan is an improvement upon the French method in 

 many of its details. The process of forcing, as adopted at 

 Cresskill, is to confine eacli bird by him'self in one of the boxes. 

 The legs are strapped to the sides, and the head and neck only 

 protrudes from an opening in front. The front of the boxes 

 shows like the drawing on page 50. 



Each box holds one fowl. The feeder takes it by the head 

 and, thrusting a pipe into its gullet, forces from a mess-tub 

 near by, through a flexible tube, the boiled, mashed food pre- 

 pared for this purpose. With a single movement the crop is 

 tilled, and the next bird is similarly served. In less than three 

 weeks the weight of fowls or chicks thus treated can be nearly 

 doubled ; and although they are never released (except to be 

 slaughtered), after going into harness in this apartment, they 

 quickly become accustomed to this queer mode of feeding, and 

 rather enjoy it. Their food is of the most delicate and nutri- 

 tious kind, mixed with milk (not water), and they thus fatten 

 very readily and kindly. Mr. Baker is now enlarging this house, 

 and expects to be able another season to force, say, fifty thousand 

 cocks and hens by this well-conceived and really profitable plan. 



From his two thousand laying-fowls Mr. Baker can get but a 

 tithe of the eggs he desires, witli which to supply the require- 

 ments of his immense incubating-establishment. He uses them 

 all, however, as fast as they are laid, and he gets a greal many 

 in a year, of course. But he remarks : " I am not a seller, I am 



