THE POULTRY AND EGG INDUSTRY IN EUROPE 35 
ing. In the retail markets of Berlin the breasts of the geese are 
often removed for smoking and the rest of the carcass sold in a 
fresh condition. 
PREPARING AMERICAN POULTRY TO MEET FOREIGN DEMAND 
SIZES 
The sizes of fowls and chickens that are most desired in England, 
the largest poultry-importing country in Europe, aside from the 
especially fatted Surrey fowl, are those which weigh from 30 to 42 
pounds per dozen. These sizes comprise our large broilers and small 
roasters, and are the least desirable weights in this country. Because 
of the English demand for this size of stock, this poultry has already 
become known in this country as export poultry, and the flat style 
of package sometimes used for it has achieved the name "export 
box,'' because the dimensions and style of package were introduced 
into this country from England. 
FAT AND COLOR 
American poultry is now the best non-European poultry which 
appears upon the London market, but it can be improved in two 
directions, (1) by increasing the quantity of fat it carries and (2) by 
breeding, feeding, and grading for light-colored flesh. London 
wants a fat, light-colored chicken. Xo changes are necessary in the 
killing, the bleeding, and the cooling of American poultry, if the 
method used is killing by bleeding in the mouth, wrapping the heads, 
and cooling on hanging racks, except those improvements in work- 
manship which are also advantageous for domestic markets. 
SQUATTING 
The English retailer prefers that the birds be squatted — that is, 
the feet folded against the breast — because this is the way he dis- 
plays them in his market. To this end it has been customary in the 
past for some American packers to build special cooling racks on 
which the birds can be cooled in a squatted position, and to pack 
them in what is commonly termed the " squat pack," single layers, 
two rows, six to the row, backs up, breasts to the center, with the 
heads extending between the birds in the opposite row. It is the 
opinion of the London wholesaler, however, that squatting is not as 
necessary as the American packer has seemed to think. They say 
that, other things being equal, the retailer will buy the box con- 
taining the squatted birds, but he prefers quality to posture, and 
the slightest superiority in quality will cause him to take birds 
un>quatted rather than those squatted. These opinions seem to indi- 
cate that it is not worth while for our packers to squat poultry unless 
they know that it is going to be sold abroad. The broiler style of 
package, which i> packed single layer, two rows, breasts up and out. 
heads bent under back, and legs extended between the birds in the 
opposite row, is a fairly satisfactory package for export. It may 
also be claimed that while this method of packing does not show as 
plump a breast nor as broad a back on the chicken as does the squat 
pack, yet the feet are not pressed into the breasts and the true con- 
ditions of the body are more easily judged. 
