12G POULTRY FEEDING AND FATTENING 



neck; hang by the feet until properly bled. Leave 

 head and feet on and do not remove intestines nor crop. 

 Scalded chickens sell best to home trade^ and dry-picked 

 best to shippers, so that either manner of dressing will 

 do if properly executed. For scalding chickens ihe 

 water should be as near the boiling point as possible 

 without boiling; pick the legs dry before scalding; hold 

 by the head and legs and immerse and lift up and down 

 three times; if the head is immersed it turns the color 

 of the comb and gives the eyes a shrunken appearance, 

 which leads buyers to think the fowl has been sick; the 

 feathers and pinfeathers should then be removed imme- 

 diately very cleanly, and without breaking the skin; 

 then "plump" by dipping ten seconds in water nearly 

 or quite boiling hot, and then immediately into cold 

 water; hang in a cool place until the animal heat is 

 entirely out of the body. To dry pick chickens prop- 

 erly, the work should be done while the chickens are- 

 bleeding; do not wait and let the bodies get cold. Dry 

 picking is much more easily done while the bodies are 

 warm. Be careful and do not break and tear the skin. 



Packing, and Shipping — Before packing and ship- 

 ping, poultry should be thoroughly dry and cold, but 

 not frozen; the animal heat should be entirely out of 

 the body; pack in boxes or barrels; boxes holding 100 

 to 800 pounds are preferable, and pack snugly; 

 straighten oiit the body and legs, so that they will not 

 arrive very much bent and twisted out of shape; fill 

 the packages as full as possible to prevent moving about 

 on the way ; barrels answer better for chickens and ducks 

 than for turkeys or geese ; when convenient, avoid 

 putting more than one kind in a package, mark kind 

 and weight of each description on the package and mark 

 shipping directions plainly on the cover. 



Icing Poultry for Shipment — On this subject a 

 Chicago commission dealer writes: "There is but one 



