Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-11-22

NEW York in small consignments ana
represents part of the industry of the
hard worked women on the small
farms in the. New England and the At
iantic states. Such birds are the very
| best to be had and command higher
prices than birds prepared with less
care and sent from longer distances.
| They reach our dealers by express or
fast freight. and their keeping quail
ties in cold weather are excellent
'Out west things are run on slightly
: different plan. AS in the east, the bulk
of the poultry is raised on small farms,
but in the fall and early winter months
the poultry buyers drive around the
country and purchase the live stock ct
usually from four to six cents pound.
The buyer shuts his birds up in coopS
and carts them of TO his killing house,
where they meet the inevitable emu.
They are then plunged into boiling hot
water. their feathers are stripped off,
and after they have become thoroughly
cooled they are packed in boxes and
barrels, placed on board refrigerato:
ears and forwarded TO the large cities,
Usually, they are consigned TO commits
sion houses. the buyers taking the risk
poultry is short one 1t begins in late
October and continues until the very
cold weather sets in. when many Of
the roads in the west are simply i'm
pasSable for weeks at time
rs not the loss on western poultry
in transit considerable"
mo. 1t is only when the birds so
shipped are not allowed to cool thor
r1,.,r
spoil on the way, and this seldom hap
pens. y great deal of the poultry from
the west is frozen after it reaches New
York, and is kept throughout the win.
ter, and sometimes into the summer
months. being removed from the freeZ-
ers as it is required. The ice is never
permitted to touch the flesh, and the
packed barrels and boxes are removed
from the refrigerator cars the moment
they arrive and placed in the cold stor-
age houses, where they are rapidly
frozen to state of solidity, and in this
way they are preserved almost in
definitely. When wanted for use, the
birds are easily thawed out. There is
another sort which is known to the
trade as iced poultry. This is far diff
ferent. for the birds are packed in ice
i'll the barrels. First layer of poultry
is put in, then a layer of ice. This
method is principally employed when
the birds are shipped from the west
during the summer months and the re-
frigerator cars do not generate suth-
cient GOODNESS to keep the poultry
sweet for a long journey across the
country. Its deleteriOus effect on the
stock consists in causing the flesh TO
RI
change color as the ice melts. Very |
often birds so shipped have a soaked |
appearance, and direct contact with |
the ice impairs the taste more or less.
This western poultry business is |
conducted on an immense SCALE" con- |
tinued the dealer impressively, land |
there are many great firms with for
tunes back of them engaged in it. Out |
in Kansas there is one firm which |
ships every fall and winter hundreds |
Of carloads of chickens, ducks, turkeys |
and geese to New York. During the
ten days preceding Thanksgiving this
concern will send here from 20 to %
,arlOads n day, and for the same time
prior to Christmas the shipments from
this firm will run much larger.
Turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens
asst on account of the early closing of
the fall, which restricted the birds
supply of natural food and compelled
the raiSerS to feed them sooner than |
Usual However, this will insure the
'etail purchasers plumper and more
;ucculent birds. From II to IL cents
pound will be asked in all likelihood |
or the best dry picked turkeys, but at
such prices the prime Jersey and Penn
;ylvania birds may be had. Such
stock is the best that reaches this
market At retail chickens will bring
bout - or IS cents Il pound. The
western stock will sell for from to 4
.entS n pound less.
Zone thing which we poultry men
AVE noticed in recent years with some
interest as well as profit is the growing
popularity of the goose during Thanks
diving or the holidays. Formerly the
demand was almost exclusively con-
ined to the Irish. English and He
,rews, but nowadays all nationalities
eem to subscribe to the undoubted
.astronomic virtues of the bird. Geese
re raised with the other poultry by |
he ordinary farmers and come to |
market with the always popular duck
q the same boxes and barrels which
ontain chickens and turkeys"