9G POULTHX FEEDING AND FATTENING 



in pens without talking them out, the liquid flowing 

 when the spring is released. In this case the nozzle 

 only is placed in the mouth, not pressed down the 

 throat. The head miist be held well up and the neck 

 stretched to allow of easy swallowing. 



French Methods — ^Without exception, the food in 

 rranee is alwaj's prepared from finely ground meal, 

 hard corn never being employed. Buckwheat meal, 

 maize meal and barley meal are used. With one or 

 other of these is used skimmilk, but in several districts 

 of France the whey of curdled milk is preferred, and in 

 the La Bresse country the latter is thought to give better 

 perfection in fattening and improve the quality of the 

 flesh. Some of the fatteners are content to mix hot 

 water with the meal, but all acknowledge that milk or 

 whey is better. In some cases, boiled potatoes are 

 mixed with the food. In some parts of Prance, fat is 

 mixed with the food. It is customary when the older 

 birds are to be fattened to divide them in accordance 

 with their sex and kind. See Figure 15 for illustration 

 of fattening and killing sheds. 



English Chicken Fattening — In England a number 

 of people make a business of fattening chicks for the 

 market. These chicks are bought of farmers when 

 weighing three to four poimds and then prepared for 

 market. Professor Eobertson, commissioner of agricul- 

 ture for Canada, thus describes a visit to a chicken 

 fattener in Sussex, England : He began life as a farm 

 laborer and is now doing a prosperous business. I 

 would not like to say how much the fattening business 

 brought him in, but I should not be surprised to learn 

 that his annual net income was about $5000. 



He has on an average 4800 chicks fattening at his 

 place. In approaching the house I went down a lane, 

 lined on both sides with coops in which there were 

 chicks. Other coops were placed about the place. The 



