18 
BULLETIN 1385, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
country, are practically unknown as yet in Europe. In northern 
Italy, at Codogno, is a feeding and dressing station having a capac- 
ity of about 10,000 birds. It is not equipped, however, with artifi- 
cial refrigeration (Fig. 11). Hungary and Yugoslavia each has 
one dressing plant equipped to feed about 10,000 birds, and to kill, 
cool, and pack similar to the American methods, although their effi- 
ciency of operation has not reached the average American standard. 
Feeding and dressing of poultry by the farmers and small feeders 
in England, Belgium, and France is much more extensive than any- 
thing known in the United States, and the finest qualit}' dressed 
poultry produced in Europe is the farm-fattened and farm-dressed 
fowls in England, Belgium, and France. The practices used by 
the larger plants and the farm methods are so widely variant that 
it is well to discuss each of them somewhat in detail. 
Fig. 12. — Buildings used in poultry feeding station, Subatica, Yugoslavia. The 
feeding cratea are arranged In aisles inside the building 
THE CONTINENTAL POULTRY PLANT 
A description of the methods used in one of the continental 
poultry plants is typical of the others known to exist. The poultry 
on arrival at this plant is placed in feeding batteries made entirely 
of wood, similar to the old-type wooden batteries used in this coun- 
try (fig. 11). The sections are about 6 feet long, 20 inches deep, 
and 18 inches high. The slats on the front are vertical. The feed- 
ing trough is of wood, V shaped, and is supported by notched boards 
at each end. The bottom of the crates is slatted, the droppings 
being caught upon boards placed underneath. These dropping 
boards are cleaned once a day and are kept covered with about one- 
fourth inch of loam. The crates themselves are stacked one above 
the other, from four to seven crates high. A stepladder is required 
to feed the birds in the upper crates. Each crate contains from 8 to 
12 birds, depending upon their size. 
The feeding crates are placed in a shed or large room and main- 
tain their position through the feeding season (fig. 12). Batteries 
