426 , POULTRY PRODUCTION 



jPEEPARING POULTRY. 



Most of the poultry produced on general farms is sold 

 alive and is prepared for consumption by the packer. The 

 tendency appears to be for home killing for general consump- 

 tion to be less and less practised and for the preparation to 

 be made by some one other than the producer. In some cases, 

 however, home preparation is profitable and for private 

 trade is usually necessary. It consists of dressing and pack- 

 ing if intended for general consmnption, and may consist 

 of dressing, packing, trussing, and, infrequently, boning 

 if intended for private trade. 



Dressing. — ^A fowl is said to be "dressed" when it has been 

 killed and plucked. For convenience, the operations inci- 

 dent to dressing will be discussed under the topics of (1) 

 killing, (2) bleeding, (3) picking, and (4) cooling and shaping. 

 If any part of the process is not carefully and thoroughly 

 done, deterioration of the product follows promptly. The 

 function of dressing is preservation, or rendering the poultry 

 less perishable, as well as putting it in edible form. 



Before the actual dressing operations are begun, the birds 

 should be kept from all feed for twenty-four hours, allowing, 

 however, a liberal supply of fresh water. This will serve to 

 empty the crop of all food. A full crop not only means wasted 

 feed, or selling the feed at the rate per pound received for 

 the carcass, but that spoilage will set in in the vicinity of the 

 crop very much quicker than it ordinarily would or than 

 it will in other parts of the body. The intestines will also 

 be partially emptied, which will generally preclude post- 

 mortem defecations caused by handling, and which frequently 

 soil an otherwise attractive carcass. 



packing industry on the one hand and cooperative marketing associations 

 on the other, this, however, is becoming less true. The real packer needs 

 and pays for the very best products he can get, and takes care that they 

 do not deteriorate in his care. In cooperative marketing, the relation 

 between the producer and consumer is made closer, and any benefit derived 

 from marketing superior goods reverts at once to the producer. 



In a broad way, however, the statement made above is true even at the 

 present time, and the better the products, the wider will be the consumption 

 and the higher will be the price level. 



