1. Bleeding. 2. Preparing for the stick. 3. 



Completion of the stick. 4. The first handful of feathers. 

 6. Almost ready for the pinners. 



5. Plucking the fluff. 



KILLING AND DRESSING POULTRY 



DRY PICKING AND HOW IT IS DONE— COMMENTS ON SCALDING AS A METHOD 

 OF DRESSING— THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WELL DRESSED AND POORLY DRESSED 

 POULTRY MAKES A WIDE DIFFERENCE IN PRICES— CARE MEANS MORE PROFIT 



p. T. WOODS, M. D. 



MILLIONS of dollars worth of poultry intended for 

 market is wasted every year through carelessness, 

 mismanagement or ignorance of proper methods of 

 preparation, handling and shipping. In an effort to stop 

 this great waste, the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture has put a corps of experienced workers, investigators 

 and lecturers in the field to determine the best methods of 

 preparing poultry for market, killing, dressing and shipment 

 of same. Dr. E. M. Pennington, one of these experts, recent- 

 ly, before the Missouri Carlot Shippers Association in con- 

 vention at St. Louis, Missouri, said inrpart as follows: 



"Three great food staples, poultry, eggs and butter, are 

 represented here today, and I think it may honestly be said 

 that a determination on the part of producer, packer, car- 

 riers, warehousemen, commission men and retailers to work 

 for better poultry in the market, would soon mean a revolu- 

 tion in the quality from the viewpoint of birds bred to be 

 good, and dressed to keep good until they are eaten. 



"That better poultry may reach the consumer, that the 

 millions upon millions of dollars wasted each year may be 

 saved, the Department of Agriculture has been studying the 

 dressing and handling of poultry in relation to keeping 

 quality. Whether this quality will keep for a short or long 

 period, whether the bird shall go to the consumer in fine, 

 sweet flavor, or flat and tasteless, or with an unpleasant 

 flavor, is frequently demonstrable before it is killed, since 

 food in the crop means food in the intestines, and such a 

 condition lowers the keeping quality. 



"Again, the killer makes a miscut, all the blood does not 

 escape, and the chicken leaves the packing huose so un- 

 attractive in its appearance that it is rated 2c a pound lower 

 than its well-bled fellow. The haul is harder on the bird 

 incompletely bled than on that which is well bled, and so is 

 every step of its journey to the consumer, especially if that 

 journey includes the halt in cold storage. This is one of the 

 reasons that the sam? carlot, after its storage period, varies 

 so widely in individuals, especially if bad bleeding is not 

 closely graded out when packing first quality stuff. The 

 killer who gets just the same price for a bird badly bled as 

 for one in perfect condition, and who is paid by the piece, 



does not take the time to set the knife properly, and some- 

 times it goes back beyond the skull, when there comes a great 

 bruised looking ring, caused by the blood settling in the 

 loose tissues just below the head; or he holds the bird's neck 

 between his thumb and finger while he sticks to bleed, and 

 the mark of the pressure, even though it is of such short 

 duration, shows when the bird begins to age. Or, worse 

 than all, to save time he tries to bleed and brain with one 

 cut and generally succeeds in missing the large vessels in 

 the neck altogether. 



"The keeping time for a badly bled fowl, even under 

 good conditions, is much shorter than where the tissue has 

 been well drained. 



"Torn skins or rubbed skins are another inducement to- 

 prompt decay, especially when they are dragged about over 

 a dirty surface, as when bench roughed or laid on racks, in- 

 stead of being hung to cool, or piled high on grading tables, 

 or packed in unlined barrels or boxes. The unbroken dry 

 skin of a chicken is a great protection against decay. When 

 it is wet, or broken, the flesh underneath is at the mercy of 

 the environment. The muscle just under the skin of a well 

 bled, sound skinned bird contains very, very few bacteria, 

 and the deep muscle practically none. But the rubbed 

 skinned bird has generally a good starter less than 24 hours 

 after killing and a fair crop after the first haul, and an over- 

 whelming number by the time it gets to the retailer. So' 

 numerous are these tiny things that they have made marked 

 differences in the chemical composition of the fiesh before 

 any odor is noticed. But the flesh does not stand up; it is- 

 not a clean, bright color, and the sweet, fresh flavor is gone. 

 Then, if we put that chicken into cold storage, it goes down 

 rapidly. We cannot keep a frozen bird from marked deter- 

 ioration if it goes into the freezer in anything but the pink 

 of condition. Compare the late storage bird after three 

 months in the warehouse with the one that went in promptly 

 and see for yourselves the loss in appearance. And the loss 

 in flavor is just as pronounced. After six or nine months 

 the differences are still wider. So it is going to pay you to 

 get rid of these rubbed skins, and if rubs are bad, you can. 

 see how much worse tears are — even little ones. 



