428 POULTRY PRODUCTION 



bleeding is not thorough enough to make the birds keep well, 

 and further, it does not fit in with the rest of the dressing 

 operations, as practised commercially. 



For home use it is convenient because there is no spattering 

 of blood. The bird may be held until the spasmodic actions 

 of the muscles have stopped, instead of allowing the fowl to 

 flop about, bruising the flesh. The bleeding is probably more 

 complete than with the old-fashioned methods of wringing 

 the neck or chopping off the head, in both cases bruising the 

 bloodvessels and exposing them to the clotting action of 

 the air, and thereby checking free bleeding. 



For private trade where scalding is practised, the killing 

 is done by severing the principal bloodvessels of the neck 

 (see Fig. 197) and causing the bird to die by bleeding. 



In commercial dressing where dry picking is practised, 

 the birds are killed by "sticking," by which is meant the 

 piercing of the brain with a small-bladed knife, for the 

 double purpose of killing the bird and at the same time so 

 paralyzing the feather muscles that dry picking is possible. 



Sticking may be accomplished " by running the knife under 

 the eye at such an angle that its point will touch the skull 

 midway between the eyes and a little behind them,"' or 

 " by placing the knife about half-way down the groove in the 

 roof of the chicken's mouth, and then thrusting it up until 

 the knife reaches the top of the skull. "^ These two ways 

 of sticking are referred to as "outside" and "inside" sticking, 

 respectively. In both cases the point of the knife should 

 be moved about a little after it is thrust home, in order to 

 destroy enough brain tissue to loosen the feathers thoroughly. 



Bleeding. — Pennington and Betts' report that fully 30 

 per cent, of the poultry received in the New York market 

 is incompletely bled. "Much of it is so badly bled that 

 it results in a loss of from two to five cents a pound, as com- 

 pared with the corresponding carcasses which are well bled 

 and in good order. Aside from the bad appearance of 

 incompletely bled chickens, their keeping properties are 



' Pennington and Betts, Bureau of Chemistry Circular No. 61. 



s Ibid. 



' Bureau of Chemistry Circular No. 61. 



