FATTENING POULTRY. 47 



three or four times a day. As soon as the fowls are fat they should be marketed, 

 as they will immediately begin to lose flesh if kept beyond the proper time. 



In France this fattening process is carried through still another stage, by cram- 

 ming the fowls. Cramming consists ia forcing pellets of dough down the throaifi 

 of the fowls, after they have been induced to eat as much as possible in tli" 

 natural way. The following account of this unnatural, and, in our estimatioji, 

 unprofitable process, is taken from Tegetmeier : 



" The food used for fattening fowls in France is chiefly buckwheat-meal bolted 

 quite fine. This is kneaded up with sweet milk till it acquires the consistenrfy 

 of baker's dough ; it is then cut up into rations about the size of two eggs, which 

 are made up into rolls about the thickness of a woman's finger, but varying wiih 

 the size of the fowls; these are subdivided by a sloping out into "patons," oi 

 pellets, about two and a half inches long. 



"A board is used for mixing the flour witl?the milk, which in winter should 

 be Inke-warm. It is poured into a hole made in the heap of flour, and mixed up 

 little by little with a wooden spoon so long as it is taken up ; the dough is then 

 kneaded with^he hands till it no longer ad^ieres to them. 



"Some say that oat-meal, or even barley-meal, is a good substitute for buck- 

 wheat-meal; but Mdlle. Millet Robinet (from whose work, 'Oiseanxde Basse 

 Cour,' this account is quoted by Tegetmeier) is not of that opinion. Indian corn 

 may do, but it makes a short, crumbly paste, unless mixed with buckwheat, when 

 it answers well if cheap enough, but buckwheat is a hardy plant, which may be 

 grown anywhere at small cost. 



"The food is thus administered : The attendant puts on an apron which will 

 stand being soiled or torn, and having the pellets at hand, with a bowl of clear 

 water, she takes the first fowlfrom its cage gently and carefully, notby thewings 

 nor by the legs, but with both hands ; she then seats herself with the fowl upon 

 her knees, putting its rump und'er her left arm, by which she supports it ; the 

 left hand then opens its mouth (a little practice makes this very easy), and the 

 right hand takes up a pellet, dips it in the water (this is essential), shakes it on 

 its way to the open mouth, puts it straight down, and carefully crams it with , 

 the tore-finger well into the gullet; when- it is so far settled down that the fow^l 

 cannot eject it, she presses it down with thumb and fore-finger into the crop, 

 taking care not to fracture the pallet. 



" Other pellets follow the first till the feeding is finished in less time than one 

 would imagine. It sometime happens in feeding that the trachese is pressed to- 

 gether with the guUet ; this causes the fowl to cough, but it Is «iot of any serious 

 consequence, and with alittlecare is easily avoided. The fowl when fed is again 

 held with both hands, and replaced in its cage without fluttering, and so on with 

 each fowl. 



" The chicken should have two meals in twenty-four hours, twelve hours apart, 

 provided with the utmost punctuality ; if it has to wait it becomes uneasy, if fed 

 too soon it has an indigestion, and in either case loses weight. On the first, day 

 of cramming only & ievr pellets are given at each meal ; the allowance being 

 gradually increased till it reaches twelve or fifteen pellets. The crop may be 

 filled, but at each meal you must make sure that the last is- duly digested, which 

 is easily ascertained by gentle handling. If there be any food in it, digestion has 



