The Illustrated Book of Poultry. 
without leaving, and water being supplied at the same time. When the feeding is done the canvas 
covering should be drawn down, and the birds left in darkness till an hour before the next meal. 
The times of feeding must be observed with the greatest punctuality, or the fowls will fret and lose 
condition. The best food will be a mixture of barley-meal and oatmeal, or buckwheat meal with 
the husk sifted out, and mixed with milk. A little suet or lard added is recommended by 
some good authorities', and increases the fattening, but only to the advantage of the basting- 
ladle. The process will be completed in from fifteen to twenty days, and should be carefully 
watched, as when the proper point is once reached, the chickens if not immediately killed rapidly 
decline again. 
In Surrey and Sussex, as well as some other parts of England, fowls are regularly crammed ; 
but it is to France that we must go for the best information on this method of fattening, cramming 
being there carried on upon a system and to an extent which almost elevates it into a fine art. 
In the better French markets, in fact, an unfatted fowl is almost unsaleable ; and the keen 
competition has probably brought the two processes chiefly employed as near to perfection as 
possible. From the best French authorities we shall extract a full description of both, viz., the 
artificial administration of solid food, and of nutriment in a semi-fluid state. 
Of the former method the best description is given by Mdlle. Millet-Robinet, in her treatise 
called “ Oiseaux de Basse-Cour,” published at Paris under the authority of the Ministry of 
Agriculture. We adopt a translation made for the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
by Mr. Frere, only adding that the poultry fatted by Mdlle. Robinet in this manner are of the 
La Fleche variety. 
“ In this method of cramming it is necessary to provide sparred coops, in which each fowl 
has its own compartment. The coop is a long narrow box in white wood, set on legs one foot and 
a half high ; the outer walls and partitions are close boarded, and the bottom only is made with 
rounded spars one inch and a half in diameter, running lengthways of the coop, on which the fowls 
perch, their dung falling through the bars. The top consists of a sliding door, nearly as wide as 
the compartment, by which the chickens are taken in or out. The partitions are eight inches 
apart, so that the fowl cannot turn itself round. The length of each box may be regulated by 
circumstances, care being taken that the attendant has room to pass along and to sit down ; 
and furthermore, that cocks, capons, and pullets, or the lean and the fat lots, be not mixed up 
indiscriminately. If fowls of different sexes are in close proximity, though nothing beyond vocal 
relations be established between them, the fattening process will be delayed ; or again, fowls of 
different degrees of fatness should not inhabit the same box, because their rations will differ, and 
the new-comers will disturb the old settlers by their noise. 
“Young cocks will fatten, though not so readily as capons; their flesh is somewhat inferior in 
delicacy to that of capons, and yet more so to that of pullets. 
“ The floor below the boxes is covered with ashes or dry earth to catch the droppings, which 
are removed every two days with a scraper. The dung is equal in value to guano, and should be 
preserved from waste and moisture in old casks. 
“ q'he best food for fatting fowls is buckwheat meal, ‘ bolted ’ quite fine. This is kneaded up 
with sweet milk till it gets the consistency of bakers’ dough ; it is then cut up into rations about 
the size of two eggs, which are made up into ‘rolls’ about the thickness of a woman’s finger, but 
varying with the sizes of the fowls ; these are subdivided by a sloping cut into ‘ patons’ (pellets) 
two and a half inches long. 
“ A board is used for mixing the flour with the milk, which in winter should be lukewarm. It 
