PREPARING TURKEYS FOR MARKET 547 



To grow the best is more expensive than to grow the poorer 

 grades, but the profits to be gained are almost double. 



After the turkeys are ready for market quite as much care 

 should be given to the kilHng, ■ dressing and shipping, not to 

 forget grading, as to the growing. If these conditions cannot 

 be obtained, it is better to sell the birds alive to someone who 

 makes a business of handling such stock. 



Kill Nothing but Well-fattened Stock. — It never pays to send 

 poor stock to market. Skinny, gawky, crooked-breasted car- 

 casses are undesirable. Keep the stock away from food or water 

 for at least twelve hours before killing, preferably for twenty- 

 four hours. The food tract must be emptied, otherwise there is 

 danger of discoloration or spoiling. Full crops and full entrails 

 may increase the weight slightly, but they discount the price 

 so heavily, there is nothing to be gained, only disappointment. 

 Crops distended with food are sour, sometimes tainting the 

 flesh, but in any event they are uninviting to the careful buyer. 



There are several methods of killing, but the most popular 

 way is to suspend the fowl by the shanks, head down, and cut 

 or stick it in the roof of the mouth with a sharp, narrow-bladed 

 knife. This severs the arteries, causing a hemorrhage, and at 

 the same time pierces the brain, causing insensibility. The flow 

 of blood should be copious, for poorly bled fowls are likely to 

 be purplish- tin ted. 



Dislocation. — Another method is to dislocate the neck by a 

 sudden twist and jerk. The disjointed part of the neck is then 

 pulled away, so as to form an open space' into which the blood 

 may settle. Dislocation is claimed by some to be the only sani- 

 tary, up-to-date method of killing, since there is no opening by 

 which air can get into the body. It is used more for chickens 

 than for turkeys, and requires considerable practice to do it 

 well. Then there is the old-fashioned method of beheading 

 with an ax, which should never be used, except on birds intended 

 for home use, and even then it is a very poor mode. 



Dry-picking is the only way to pluck poultry for a fancy 

 market. As soon as the bird is stuck, and while the blood is 



