The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-14
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
FEEDING CHICKENS WITH SAND
 PASTE TO MAKE THEM 7 WEIGH MORE sy
Consumers Paying for From 150, 900 to S0O,OOo Pounds of Sand and Artificial Weighting sub-
 stances in Poultry Each Week Sss

A s5-a asx5e
 Washington, Jan, E l 4 From 150,-
 Oe0 to 300. .000 pounds of sand ana
 rock and other Weighty material are
 sold weekly to New York people in
 DO ultry ,, accor ding to the Greater Now " ork Live Poultry Dealers Protec-
 tive Association. AS a result of this
 practice, Abraham Loewenstein, sec retary of this association, E. B. Good
 man, special investigator, and Her man EYeck, an inspector of the asso- citation asked that the Department of EsAgriculture take steps to stop this practice among shippers of live pouI- try.
 ton brought with them a large num-. Der of chickens which had been sand | ed, and otherwise stuffed by special feeding to addto their market weight. They also brought samples of the sanded food obtained from the actual car in which the chickens were ship ped This wei ghting food consisted Of a paste. composed of two handsful of wheat nniddlings, one handful of san a and coarse gravel, and one hand full of meal. According to these men the chickens are stuffed for 24 hours before the time of their arrival in New York City. Two or three hours before they are sold this paste made up of sand. stone and gravel is fed to them, The chickens, eat it greed I when it goes into the crop it forms a lplaStic-1ike mass that cannot be di- gested for several days. It acts in fsuch way that the chicken then lcannot eat normal food and conse- quently loses weight from starvation ! while it is kept by those who buy it from the shipper Several of the chickens had crops
 as large as agood sized orange. Wflicfr showed plainly under the neck fter
 
 lever, do not show so plainly before the feathers are picked and these chickens are sold usually unpicked I and then slaughtered. In theecasefof one small chicken the crop was found | to contain sand and large stones run and weighed ounces. or these 8 ounces not more than ounces could Ibe charged to the 1egff ffifda ate weight soY the cflickenss crop, as itswas a5 small bird, weighing with the overloaded crop, only about 2 1-2 pounds, oun- ces was pure weighting to add to the selling price of the chicken When it was dressed it was found that zt weighed only 2 pounds, 2 ounces, neI, Sd that there was Weighting of abuift
 Is per cent. of the a1ndressed chick
 Some of the chickens were so lweighted and with such distended lcrops that the poultry dealers said i that when they were alive they had to bend their heads over on account I of 4he weight.
 According to the poultryrn men. the i weekly shipment of live chickens to fNew York ranges from one million 10 ltwo1 million pounds and all gof these Iare weighted just before being sold I Ito the New York Tniddlenen Indi- cations are that this feedingss a dds an 1 1iHigetimate weight arnountfng to E5 lper cent. of the total weight of the Ichiclen. sp that I5os0oO to 3 3o0. .00g 1 pounds of sand, gravel and artificial l stufing which has no food value are Eunloaded weekly on the New York I consumer.
 The poulfrynen,s protective assae ciation state that they are forced to | take the chickens as they come and sell them but that there is loss and
 no proflt to the fh from the weighing. The Jewish ana Italian women and sI Ithe Chinese who are the chief buyers lsof live chickens have grown wise to
 the practice, and require the poultry man to naak concessions in the case
 q tof&chickenSeaWith prominent crops, 'I Those who are not wise to the prac- tice buy chickens and suffer the loss f of all added 1nateria1s In addition, the poultrynlen state, that as they Il have to keep the stuffed chickens alive Enot eat owing to the solid mass in
 Etheir crops, they lose all falling off in eI IWeight of chicken ] 4s X & ssEs /
 The, practice is possible in New .I York for the reason that New Fork Dis the only city which has no regula- sEtions prohibiting the feeding of chick
 Tens within 24 hours before they are
 IsoId fors killing The poultryfnen gl glh0wever, 4be1ieUe that shippers should slbe prohibited from using this sand Igravel and food paste even prioir te
 24 hours, because it weights tthe sfchfcken and causes loss in net weighi Il while it is being kept for killing.
 sI To stop these practices the poul. sitryInenssa association state that thes
 lhave in connection with the Humane 7ISociety caused 5 persons engaged iI 'l lWetghting poultry in New Y orlx ra El- .froad yards to be brought before mag.
 ! jstrates by the Cruelty to Animals As
 sociation- Of these three have beer
 held for Special Sessions and tive ssI have asked For adjournment one sl larrest was made in Hudson County j for similar practices in the New T CT. al lsey railroad yards and the Justice 6. 1.-the Peace in Hoboken fined him S16t
 and costs. The Department of Agriculture sIlas I promised to investigate this rnatfei
 T and also to take up the question o1
 proper feeding of chickens in transit si In this work The Office of Marlze cts 5slas
 I the Division of Animal Husbandrry wi I si cooperate. t4 I THIRTEEN BUILDINGS
 I ARE DESTROYEn IN.