28 
BULLETIN 1385, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
locked in the wing, the whole carcass is wrapped in a specially 
shaped cloth, which is drawn very tight and sewed. The birds are 
then placed on shelves for cooling. This cooling process is hastened 
by sprinkling the cloths with water. Often the whole line of birds 
is covered with another cloth which has been soaked in water, thus 
cooling by evaporation. The cloths sometimes remain upon the birds 
until they go to the retailer, where they are removed and returned 
to the original shipper. More often the cloths are removed from the 
carcasses upon leaving the farm, and the birds are packed in ham- 
pers with alternate layers of straw and are so shipped. By sewing 
the warm carcasses in these cloths the birds are made to look espe- 
cially compact after cooling, the wings and legs being compressed 
into the body flesh, so that the resultant product looks like a solid 
roll of poultry. 
Fig. 14. — French dressed poultry, packed necks up, single layer. Basket contains 36 
head, weighing about 120 pounds. Ilalles Centrals, Paris 
BELGIAN METHOD OF DRESSING POULTRY 
The poultry exposed for sale in the Halles Central in Brussels is 
probably more extensively manipulated before sale than in any other 
market in Europe. The birds are killed by cutting the throat from 
the outside and the feathers are removed by lap picking. The breast- 
bones are broken with a club, and the feet are cut off about an inch 
below the hock joint. The skin of the neck is slit from between the 
shoulders to the base of the skull, and the head is cut off where it 
joins the neck. The bird is fully drawn from the rear by making an 
incision across the abdominal cavity and removing the intestines, 
gizzard, liver, lungs, etc., through the opening. The crop and wind- 
pipe are then removed and the wishbone taken out. The breast is 
then further broken down by reaching in through the opening from 
the neck and c'utting with game shears the coracoid bones, which 
extend from the shoulders to the sternum or breastbone. The neck 
is then bent around and the head end thrust into the abdominal cav- 
