REFRIGERATION OF DRESSED POULTRY IN TRANSIT. 5 
SHIPMENT OF POULTRY. 
PREPARATION. 
The dressed poultry used in this investigation was prepared for 
shipment in modern poultry packing houses equipped with mechanical 
refrigeration. The birds varied in size, some being broilers, some 
roasters, and some fowls or stewing chickens. Killing was done by 
cutting the jugular vein in order to drain the carcass of blood, then 
puncturing the brain to paralyze the feather muscles and destroy life. 
The poultry was dry picked according to the usual commercial 
methods, special care being taken to select only those birds with 
sound skins to obviate the nonuniformity which might be introduced 
by torn and rubbed skins. Immediately after dressing, the birds were 
placed in chill rooms cooled by means of mechanical refrigeration to 
32° F. (0° C), where they were held for 24 hours to remove all of the 
animal heat. A thermograph registered the temperature changes 
during chilling. The birds, chilled to 32° F. (0° C.) or less throughout, 
were then packed in boxes, one dozen to the box. The packing was 
done in a chilled room, where the boxes remained until they were 
loaded into the refrigerator car with the usual commercial carload 
shipment of dressed poultry. 
LOADING. 
The cars were iced 24 hours before loading, the percentage of salt 
added varying from 5 to 15 per cent, depending upon the weather. 
The temperature of the car midway between the door and the end 
was recorded at that time and again when the loading was finished 
and the car closed. Records were also kept of prevailing atmos- 
pheric conditions. Thermographs, or self-registering thermometers, 
which made a complete record of the temperature during the entire 
transit period, were placed in the car, one near the floor next to the 
bunker to record the air temperature in the coldest part of the car, 
and another at the top of the load near the center of the car to furnish 
a similar record for the warmest part of the car, that is, warmest in 
warm weather, but, on account of loose doors and poor insulation, 
perhaps not as warm as some other parts of the car in extremely cold 
weather. The boxes of poultry to be examined chemically were in 
juxtaposition to one of these thermographs. The period of transit 
varied from 5 to 10 days and in almost every case was concluded in 
New York City. 
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 
When the car was opened for unloading, a sample from three fowls 
was selected from the experimental packages and subjected to the 
laboratory examination. This consisted in estimating the amount 
of ammoniacal nitrogen * in the muscle tissue, which is an index of 
i Pennington and Greenlee. An application of the Folin method to the determination of ammoniacal 
nitrogen in meat. J. Amer. Chem. Soc, 1910, 82 (4): 561. 
