Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1874-12-04
Preparing and Packing Poultry.

Poultry should be fat and kept twenty
four hours from food before killing to have
the crop empty. Food in the crop sours
blackens the skin, Injuries the sale of poul-
try, and buyers will not pay for this use
less weight Opening the vein in the neck
or bleeding in the mouth is the proper
mode of killing. If bled inside the throat
! the bill should be pried open with piece
of chip and the poultry be hung up by the
feet on'a line This makes bleeding free
and prevents bruising. The head and feet
should be left on and the entrails in.-
| (Others advise drawing the entrails). The
flesh should not be mutilated in any man
ner. Turkeys and chickens dry -picke ed
keep much longer and sell higher than the
scalded. If the picking is done by scald-
ing, the water should be heated Just to the
boiling point, and the poultry held by the
feet, dipped in and out the water four or
FIVE times, counting three each time in or
out The work should be done quickly,
! neatly, and thoroughly
After picking, hang up the poultry by
the feet in cool, dry place, till all animal
heat is out and the poultry thoroughly
cold and dry. Avoid freezing. as poultry
will not keep long after thawing Wrap
in thin, light, strong paper Brown and
dark, heavy paper, having too much acid
in it, Injuries the poultry. The head should
be wrapped separately. Always pack head
downward. This throws the soft cntrails
on the breast bone. the poultry keeping
longer in this position. Pack in clean.
dry, tight flour barrels.
Geese and ducks, after being killed,
should have all the feathers picked Off
then rubbed all over thoroughly with fine
rosin, after which dip them in boiling hot
water in and out seven or eight times, then
rub off the pin feathers, after which wash
off the fowl with warm water, using soap
and hand brush immediately after
rinse them well in cold water, then hang
them up by the feet in a cool, dry place
till they are thoroughly dry, when they
can be wrapped and packed as before sug-
gested. Poultry thus dressed and packed
will, in moderately cold weather. keep
sweet and fresh for fifteen or twenty davs
and can he shipped from the extreme est
with safety, by freight.
Never pack poultry in straw as in damp
or in warm weather it causes it to sweat
or heat. Game, deer. rabbits, coons, op
possums, and squirrels should be opened
all the entails taken out, leaving only the
kidney fat; then the insides should be
wiped perfectly dry with a soft clean cloth
after which wrap the small game in paper
packing back downward. Wild turkeys
ducks, geese, grouse, pheasants, quails
pigeons, and birds of all kinds should al
ways have the entrails left in them. anC
the head and feet left on. They should
never be mutilated in any manner. Drawn
birds sour in short time. and sell for les:
than the undrawn, even if sweet. Wral
the head separately in paper, then the
body. Pack head downward in tight
clean barrels, the same as poultry. Ship
pers should remember we'll that all game
and poultry should be thoroughly cold
before being packed, otherwise it will soor
sweat and heat. Barrels are the best pack
ages that shippers can ship in.--Narytond
i Farmer