48 THE COMPLETE POULTBT BOOK. 



not gone on properly ; the fowl must miss a meal, and have rather a smaller al- 

 lowance next time. If too much food be forced upon the animal at first it will 

 get out of health, and have to be set at liberty. 



" The fatting process ought to be complete in two or three weeks, but for extra 

 fat poultry twenty-five or twenty-six days are required; with good management 

 you may go on for thirty days ; after this the creature becomes choked with ac- 

 cumulated fat, wastes away and dies. A fowl usually takes more than a peck 

 of buckwheat to fatten it. The fat of fowls so managed is of a dull white color; 

 their flesh is as it were seen through a transparent, delicate skin." » 



In another French method of fattening, quoted by Tegetmeier from Le 

 Povlarler, a treatise- by M. Jacque, the'f ood is given in a liquid state by means of 

 a funnel, the lower part of which is cut diagonally, and the edges of the tin 

 turned back to prevent injuring the mouth of the fowl. The food given is bar- 

 ley-meal mixed with milk and watc» to the consistence of thiri gruel. 



In England still another process has been used, the food actually fceing forced 

 down the poor fowl's unwilling gullet by a machine resembling a sausage-stufier, 

 having a long, syringe-shaped nozzle, made of India rubber, a mao- turning the 

 wheel of the machine, while a boy places the fowls at the spout with such ra- 

 pidity that three hundred birds could be crammed in an hour. 



These operations may be profitable in England and France, and possibly to a 

 very limited extent in preparing fowls for the tables of the gourmands of some 

 of our largest cities, but before they can come into general use there must be a 

 wider margin between the selling price of the fatted fowl and the cost of the 

 food required to fatten it than there is at present. As a preparation tor the fat- 

 tening process the French consider caponising, or castrating, a necessity. For 

 ourselves we do not believe this any more profitable than the cramming process, 

 but for the benefit of those who may wish to experiment with it we give' the fol- 

 lowing directions for performing the operation : - 



The best birds for capons are the large breeds, Asiatics or Dorkings. They 

 should be two or three months old. Before the operation they should be de- 

 prived of food for from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, so as not to have their 

 bowels distended. The bird to be operated on must be fastened down'on his 

 left side to a board or bench through an auger-hole ; the wings should he drawn 

 together over his back and well secured ; the legs drawn backward, the upper 

 one drawn out furthest and secured. The feathers must be plucked from the 

 right, or upper side, near the hip joint, on a line with and between the joints.of 

 the shoulder. The space uncovered should be about one and a half inches'in 

 diameter on an ordinary sized bird. Draw the skin of the part backward, so that 

 when the operation is finished the skin slides back to the natural position and 

 covers the wound in the flesh, and does not, when neatly done, require sewing. 

 Make an incision with a fine, sharp penknife (a proper instrument is best) be- 

 tween the last rib and hip, commencing about an inch from the back-bone ; 

 extend it obliquely downward, from an inch to an inch and a half, just cutting 

 deep enough to separate the flesh ; take great care not to wound the intestines. 

 The wound must be kept open with an instrument with a spring, called a retract- 

 or, or with something answering the same purpose, stretching it wide enough to 

 afford room for the work. Then carefully cut the membrane covering the in- 



