The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-04-05
FED BY MACHINERY.
An Expe ditious Method of Fatten-
ing Fowls for Market.
French Process by Which Chickens and
Ducks Are Speedily Brought co
High State of Perfection for
the Table. --s-'>


There is a poultry-raising establish
ment in Baltimore county at which all
the modern appliances for Matching
and rearing chickens are in practical
operation, says the Baltimore Sun, and |
where the ''stufing" process Of feeding
known for many years in France as en-
graissement, is used in fattening both
chickens and ducks for the market.
About five thousand chickens and as
many ducks are annually fattened by
this process at this place. The owner
of this establishment is an American
who has spent many years Of his life
abroad, especially in France, and he
has made thorough study Of the meth
ods followed Ia the land where gastron-
omy has been reduced to q science and
where the inner man is more assidu-
ously considcred than anything else in
the world And it is because years OF
experimenting in France have proved
that poultry fed by the process de lem
graissement are more toothsome and
less expensive to The grower than poiil-
try fattencd by tba ordinary processes
of nature that he has established this
place in baltimore county upon an al
most French basis. Incubators are
now by no means the curiosities they
were few years ago, when the public
paid an admission fec for the privilege
of seeing one in operation. Many
farmers have improved upon the old
time more or less careless methods Of
raising chicks or duclSlings, but there
is no other place in Maryland where
the ''stuiiing' process sin vcguowith all
its modern, humane and economical ap-
pliances. The process is based upon the
simple principle that a fowl viii grow
fat most rapidly when it is given the
maximum OF food and allowed the min
imum OF exercise. Fowls fed by Pen
graissementn are not only given all the
food they can eat but all they can hold,
and they are not given any exercise
When the work of feeding fowls in
this manner Is being put in practice
which is not the case at this season OF
the year-the interior of the feeding
house is an interesting place. 1t looks
like large prison on a small scale,
with tier upon tier of tiny cells reach
ing from the floor to the ceiling. In
each of these cells is bird being pre-
pared for market. Its quarters are
rather confining, for it hasn't room to
turn around in and scarcely room to
rise to it's feet. Running along in front
~ srIx NM.
pants as if they had been made to order,
is q trolley track, high up near the cell
ing, and from this is suspended the
feeding apparatus proper. 1t may, By
means of weights, be put atany height,
and may be moved along the trolley
track from one end of the building TO
the other, thus enabling the feeder to
put his machine in front of any cell he
may wisn.
The feed, In the form Of soft mush, is
put in reservoir holding gallon or
more, From the bottom of the reser-
voir the food runs through a rubber
tube into another receptacle, the ca
pacity of which is regulated by "a screw,
according to the extent Of the meal
< to be given to the fowls at that special
feeding. From the second receptacle
protrudes tin tube about four inches
long and as thick as lead pencil, and
this tube is thrust down the fowls
throat and into the craw This done
the pressure of q lever empties the con-
tents of the receptacle into the fowl
and 1t settles down 10 rest, digest and
grow fat until meal time comes again.
The fowls do not take kindly to this
method of feeding at first, but after q
day or two of it they seem to relish its
novelty and luxury, and begin to crow
and cacl1le in anticipation as soon as
the feeding apparatus is brought into
use.
Lengraissement has been practiced
in France for many years. Before the
improved appliances were invented the
operation was carried on In several
ways One of these, called cngraisse-
ment aux patons, consisted OF insert
ing little cakes Of dough into the
fowls mouth, and forcing them down.
with the finger. In another case,
engraissement d'lentonnair, the food,
in liquid form, was poured into the
bird through funnel. A third meth
cd, still more primitive, called gavage
a la bouche, consisted in the feeders
filing his mouth with the food and
blowing it down the fowls throat. AS
soon after the Matching as they are
able to determine, the sexes are sep
arated, and when they are three and
one-half months old they are put in the
pens of plenty" Fowls thus treated
have been known to double in weight
during their confinement in the pens.
Their meat is far tenderer and sweeter
than that of fowls raised in the ordi-
nary manners, and is devoid of all OBJ
jectionable stringiness. They are, the
owner OF the Baltimore county estab-
lishment AYERS, more suitable for table
purposes than capons, and do not have
to be fed and cared for more than a
quarter of the time that capons re-
quire.