212 
THE POULTRY .BOOK. 
shoulders large ; it should be in good condition when put up to fatten.” Mdlle. 
Robinet considers cramming the most effectual and economical means of 
fattening. This requires the use of coops, in which each fowl has its own 
compartment. The coop is a long narrow wooden box, set on short legs : the 
outer walls and partitions are close boarded, and the bottom is made with rounded 
spars 1^ in. in diameter, running lengthways of the coop : on these spars 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. 
Fowls of different degrees of fatness should not inhabit the same box, because 
their rations will differ, and the new comers will disturb the older settlers by 
their noise. 
Young cocks will fatten, though not so readily as capons ; their flesh is some- 
what inferior in delicacy to that of capons, and more so than that of the poulardes. 
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. 
The food used for fatting fov/ls in France is chiefly buckwheat meal, bolted quite 
fine. This is kneaded up with sweet milk till it acquires the consistency of baker’s 
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 ^‘ptons,” or pellets, 
about two-and-a-half inches long. 
A board is used for mixing the flour with the milk, which in winter should be 
lukewarm. It is poured into a hole made in the heap of flour, and mixed up little 
by little with a wooden spoon so long as it is taken up ; the dough is then kneaded 
by the hands till it no longer adheres to them. 
Some say that oatmeal, or even barley-meal, is a good substitute for buckwheat- 
meal ; but Mdlle. Millet Robinet is not of that opinion. Indian corn may do, 
but it is dear, and makes a short crumbly paste, unless mixed with buckwheat, 
when it answers well if cheap enough ; but buckwheat is a hardy plant, which 
may be grown anywhere at small cost. 
The food is thus administered : — The attendant puts on an apron which will 
stand being soiled or torn, and having the pellets at hand with a bowl of clear 
v/ater ; she takes the first fowl from its cage gently and carefully, not by the 
wings or the legs, but with both hands under the breast ; she then seats herself 
with the fowl upon her knees, putting its rump under her left arm, by which she 
supports it ; the left hand then opens its mouth (a little practice makes this very 
easy), and the right hand takes up a pellet, soaks it well in the water (this is 
essential), shakes it on its w^ay to the open mouth, puts it straight down, and 
