326 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1905 



Feeding Geese by Machine for Foies Gras 



beautiful metallic luster on the head, back and wings, weighs 

 only two or three pounds. 



The duck called the Barbotteur (" Dabbler "), which has 

 a greenish-yellow bill, bright green head and neck, a ruddy 

 gray back with fine black and white stripes, and brown wings 

 crossed with bands of velvety blue or black, is a descendant 

 of the wild duck and retains the plumage of its progenitor, 

 modified somewhat by numerous crossings with other breeds. 

 This duck is as widely extended as the common goose, with 

 which it is often found consorting in the ponds of French 

 poultry yards. 



The distinctive marks of the Toulouse goose are size, 

 corpulence, a great accumulation of fat under the abdomen 

 and a sort of dewlap, or wattles, at the throat. It fur- 

 nishes a liver (foie gras) of the highest excellence and 

 reputation. 



Let us now examine the methods of fattening which are 

 most generally employed. Hand or machine cramming is 

 practised, according to local usage and the size of the flock; 

 but whatever be the method used, the fowls are first placed 

 in dark pens in which they can not move. With this object 

 some farmers merely restrict the space allotted to the birds 

 in a closed poultry house and force them to eat large quan- 

 tities of easily digestible food. Beginning with boiled and 

 mashed potatoes they add successively boiled beets mixed 

 with wheat or barley bran, turnips and cabbage, also cooked 

 and mashed with buckwheat or maize flour. The fattening 

 is completed with chestnut porridge, wet maize flour or such 

 other foods of the kind as are cheaply obtainable in the 

 respective localities, potatoes being always given in the morn- 

 ing as an aperient. 



After two weeks of such fare our " Gargantuas " are 

 ready to begin the last part of their agony, in which the ex- 

 traordinary enlargement of the liver is accomplished. The 

 fowls are confined in special cages called epinettes, some 

 of which hold as many as twelve birds. There are 

 also circular epinettes, which accommodate two or three 

 hundred fowls. In these narrow stalls the poor creatures 

 can move about, but they can not stand erect. They are fed 

 in the following manner: The attendant fills the pump of 

 the feeding machine with soft food and raises the piston to 

 the top of the barrel. An iron weight attached to a cord 



(concealed by the machine in the illustration) exerts a pres- 

 sure on the valve which expels the semiliquid contents 

 through a rubber tube which terminates in a nozzle. The 

 feeder lifts the patient's head and opens its bill with his left 

 hand, and with his right inserts the nozzle into the bird's 

 throat. 



In this way the required ration is administered to each 

 fowl in succession. All kinds of domestic fowls are fattened 

 by this method, but it is used principally for ducks and geese, 

 which become ready for the table in two weeks. According 

 to the calculations of experienced poultry farmers the fat- 

 tening of a young bird costs thirty cents and adds sixty cents 

 to its value — which is a very pretty profit. The operation, 

 however, must be stopped at the proper point, for it is pos- 

 sible to fatten fowls to death. 



In Normandy and in the vicinity of Toulouse food is 

 often administered through a funnel with a tube large enough 

 to permit the passage of whole maize boiled in salt water. 

 Three times a day a man takes each bird in succession be- 

 tween his knees, introduces the end of the funnel into its 

 mouth and pours in the paste with a spoon, after which he 

 offers his unhappy guest a drink. 



Boiled potatoes, or barley or buckwheat flour mixed 

 with curdled milk are sometimes substituted for the whole 

 corn. These foods are made up into pellets, which the 

 feeder, with his right hand, forces into the gullet of 

 the patient, after opening the bill with the index finger 

 of the left hand. 



The very primitive method of feeding known as " billing " 

 is now almost entirely obsolete. The feeder filled his mouth 

 with the semiliquid paste and applied his lips to the mouth of 

 the bird. This very unappetizing practice required a special 

 lingual dexterity which was very difficult of acquisition. 



A Pen of Crested Dutch Fowls 



