The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-01-18
Fattening Chickens for Market,

A"Ao VI Oily uiSt-C1dSS uOG61 anu res
taurant in large cities. And they are
the finest eating yet produced from
the fowl. The flesh is white, and
tender, yet firm and sweet.
These chickens are fed by men who
make a business of fattening fowls
for market. They buy up all the best
big chickens to be had-the thinner
the better because the price paid is
SO much per pounding frame and
little meat are wanted for this style of
feeding.
The average price paid for chickens
OF this kind is between 80 and IS cents,
and the average is about three and
one-half pounds. The chickens when
bought are first put in pens until it is
| seen whether any of them are sickly
Or injured. These are either sold for
what they will bring or put in a pen
by themselves and doctored. The re-
naming chickens are put in crates
made of lath. For convenience in
feeding the crates are raised several
feet from the ground on wooden
horses.
| Along the outside of the crates
there is a wooden trough. In this
trough three times a day a fattening
mixture is poured, the quantity being
as much as the chickens will eat.
Nothing is left over from meal to
meal, as the constant sight of food
has the same effect on many chickens
as on many people in destroying the
appetite.
The fattening mixture is composed
of cornmeal, ground oats, enid
dlings," a little oil meal and bran and
butchers scraps ground up, and the
whole mixed with skinned or sour
milk. The cost of this mixture is
about a cent and a third a pound,
and four pounds of it will put a
pound of flesh on chicken.
The fattening period usually lasts
for four weeks after the chickens are
put in the crates. Chickens will not
stand more than four weeks feeding
in crates without the excessively fat
tening diet having bad effect on
their indigestion and general health.
After the chickens are fattened they
sell for twice as much as unfattened
chickens. Even at this price they are
as cheap to buy, as the amount of
edible flesh on a fattened chicken is
twice as much as that on chicken
fed in the ordinary way.
Experiments at one of the Western
agricultural stations showed that out
of flock of similar chickens, two that
were killed without being fattened
weighed six pounds eight ounces, of
which one pound ten ounces were
unedible. After having been crate
fed for less than month the remain
ing chickens of the same lot averaged
ten pounds and twelve ounces a pair.
The edible meat was five pounds, the
bones eighteen ounces, and the en-
trails four pounds ten ounces. Thus
the edible part of the unfattened
chickens cost half as much more than
for the fattened chickens, although
the market value of the fattened
chickens per pound is estimated con-
siderably higher than the unfattened.
No farmer thinks of sending steers
or hogs or sheep to the market with
out fattening them and getting the
profits for himself, but except in few
neighborhoods, the chickens are ship
ped to the market when the snow
comes without the farmer making that
profit from his corn and skinned
milk which he could feed at greater
returns to chickens than any other
domestic animals, since the price per
pound of chickens is higher than that
OF beef, mutton or pork. Very likely it
will not be long until there will be so
many milk-fed chickens in the market
that they can be had in other than the
most expensive restaurants and clubs.
Some fatteners finish the chickens
the last week by forcing food into
them. They have what is known as a
examining machine, - built somewhat
on the principle of sausage machine.
The fattening mixture is put in a hop
per to which are attached tube and
forcing apparatus worked by foot
pedal. The fattener takes the chick
ems one by one, and, putting the tube
in their mouths, forces their crops full
OF the fattening mixture. This process
will pile on all the weight that a
chicken will stand, but it has to be
done carefully and only for short
time, or it will kill the chicken.
Dairy Record.
Three little babes were nestled in bed,
Jpn name William, Willie and Bill, !"
| mother said;
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