64 _ DUCK DOLLARS 
Lime in In the picking room there should be a barrel or box 
Picking of lime, air-slaking. This air-slaked lime is sprinkled 
Room around the picking room on the blood on the floor, to 
keep the place sweet. 
The picker who makes a slip and cuts the skin of the duckling, or 
rips it, must sew it up. For this purpose each picker has a needle and 
a spool of thread, and if he makes a cut or rip he quickly sews it. When 
he has done this it is almost impossible to find the place. 
The professional picker generally strops his knife by turning it on 
the strop on the edge, not on the back, as a razor is stropped. How- 
ever, each man has his own way of keeping his knives sharp. 
A good picker should pick from forty to fifty ducks 
— in a day. More than fifty a day is above the ordinary. 
— HE Often a skilful picker is found who will average sixty- 
y 
five a day. 
Each picker has a counter or tally device like a baseball umpire’s 
counter, and as he finishes a bird he turns the counter. 
He puts the bird, when he is done with it, into a tank filled with 
water. This tank is made with compartments, eight or ten of them. 
Each picker has his own compartment for the birds 
which he picks, so that his work can be checked by the 
foreman. The foreman, who is generally the man who 
ties up the birds and carries them forward to the shipping boxes, takes 
the birds one at a time from the picker’s tank and washes them to get 
the blood off, and the dirt off the feet. The washing is done in an 
ordinary pail. It is finished in cleaner water in a second pail. The fore- 
man then puts the duckling into another tub of water, not ice-water, 
but ordinary faucet or spring water, to get the animal heat entirely out 
of the carcass. This saves ice when the ice is used later on in the process. 
The foreman then ties up the bird, and this is an interesting process, 
as it makes a handsome, compact duckling. There are one or two 
details about this work of tying which should be noted 
carefully. The head of the duckling is bent around and 
back and put under the wing. A trade-marked tape is 
then passed around the entire bird at the middle of the body and a 
common hard knot made at the wing. The feet are allowed to stick 
straight out. The tape confines the head and wings. A forming box 
or press such as is Sometimes used in tying fowls is not necessary for 
ducklings. The operator works on top of a table with 
J Teede: his hands alone. If string instead of is used, th 
Mark: "Tape : 2 g instea of tape is used, the 
string should not be fine, like harness thread, for 
instance. Such fine string or thread, although it may be strong, will 
prove a nuisance because it will cut the fingers of the operator. The 
string should be a good-sized white kind which ean be handled easily and 
rapidly by wet fingers without cutting them. After the knot has been 
made the operator cuts the string with his picking knife. Be sure that 
the knot is on the side at or below the wing. Ducklings 
are often seen in the markets with the knot of their tying 
string directly over the center of the breast, just the 
Washing the 
‘Carcass 
How to Tie 
up a Duck 
How Not to 
Do It 
