The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1921-11-03
OUR POULTRY
DEPARTMENT
Conducted by s. p. Porter
Mallet Creek, Ohio
Dressing Poultry fer Market

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The time is drawing near when
dressed poultry will be on sale at all
markets, ard, Of course the consumer
will always seek a nicely, cleaned
fowl What is a nicely dressed fowl
-one that is killed when its crop is
full, bled, and feathers removed, leay-
ing the unsightly bloody head on and
the crop bulging out with fermented
grain, growing darker every hour the
fowl hangs? Well, we should say not.
Yet we have seen a long row Of So
called dressed chickens hanging in a
market not 1853 miles from Medina.
Why, this sight almost makes a fell
low lose his liking for chicken pie.
Now take lot Of chickens, starve
them "a, yes 48 hours, so there is not
a particle offood left in body or crop;
remove feathers, and after removing
the head push the skin Of the neck
back toward the body and cut off an
inch or so of the neck, then draw the
skin over the neck ard tie with small
string; hang this bunch of chickens
along side the first mentioned and
they will bring premium and nice
one over the others. In fact, the
dealer could not sell one Of the for
mer as long as there were any Of the
latter left. But the farmer is not
always to blame, ard we might say
seldom is, for the dealer prefers to
buy the chickens alive. Then remove
the blood and feathers only and sell
at dressed weight prices. But if the
producer will offer the consumer
direct, poultry dressed as described,
he would soon get the trade to the
extent that the dealer would have to
dress poultry that way in order to
sell his goods.
Dressing Fouls for Home Use
1t is fact, old and well known,
that meats, especially beef, is not fit
to cut until it has hung in the quarter
for several days, which softens the
muscles and tissues of the meat, max
irig it more tender. Now why not
chickens? AS soon as weather con-
ditions will permit, just dress, say
hen one or two years old if you like.
in the manner spoken Of above, only
that the bird must be drawn and.
crop removed then hang it up in a
cool place with fly netting over it, if
flies bother. Let it hang "a hours,
Their cook it, and you will declare that
you made mistake and caught a
young chicken. This plan also makes
lit convenient for a small family to
use a big fowl, by cooking only part
at time, thus giving them a fresh
ly cooked portion instead of partaking
of warmed over dish for the second
meal. And let us say right here that
a hen one or even two years old
treated in this Mariner, if fat, beats
any young chicken you can trot out.
, The difference is about the same as
between a young growing beef and
one that is matured and, fat.
Soft Shelled Eggs
/. /. C. writes: Last winter as
soon as we shut our hens in for win
ter we began finding occasionally a
soft shelled egg. We kept oyster
shells before our hens all the time,
but they did not eat it much. What
can we do to stop or prevent this.
Answer: More than likely I. I. c.
fed plenty of shell, but provided no
grit for his hens while confined. in
the coops. We must remember that
shells do not take the place Of grit
Of some kinds any more than does
milk quench the thirst Of fowls irf
place Of water. We venture guess
that this is the trouble in this case.
If our correspondent will write
again and say if he provides grit
for his fowls or not, it might help to
solve the problem. G
BWmble Foot
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