The Dollar Hen Part 16

In the marketing of poultry carca.s.ses as in other phases of the industry, we really have two systems to discuss. The one is used for the marketing of the product of the farm of the Central West, and the other the product of the poultryman or eastern farmer, who is near a large market and who will be repaid for taking special pains in preparing his poultry for market.

Farm-Grown Chickens.

At the present time almost the entire poultry crop of the Central West is sold from the farm as live poultry. This farm stock is purchased by produce buyers or general merchants and shipped to the nearest county seat or other important town, where there are usually one or more poultry-killing establishments. These establishments may vary from a simple shed, where the chickens are picked and packed in barrels, to the more modern poultry-packing establishment, with its accommodations for fattening, dressing, packing, freezing, and storing.

The poultry-buying stations may be branches of the larger packing establishments, branch houses of large produce firms, or small firms operating independently and selling in the open market.

The chickens as purchased are grouped into the following cla.s.ses: Springs, hens, old roosters and (at certain seasons) young roosters or staggy c.o.c.kerels. Early in the season small springs are quoted as broilers, while capons form a separate item where such are grown.

Chickens are starved before killing, for the purpose of emptying the crop, and, to some degree, the intestines. If this is not done the carca.s.s presents an unsightly appearance and spoils more readily in storage.

The method of picking is not always the same, even in the same plant. Scalding is frequently used for local trade, in the summer season, or with cheap-grade stuff. The greater portion of the stock is picked dry. The pickers are generally paid so much per bird. In some plants men do the roughing while girls are employed as pinners.

Pickers work either with the chickens suspended by a cord or fastened upon a bench adopted to this purpose. The killing is done by bleeding and sticking. The last thrust reaches the brain and paralyzes the bird. The manner of making these cuts must be learned by practical instruction. The feathers are saved, and amount to a considerable item. White feathers are worth more than others. The head and feet are left on the chicken and the entrails are not removed.

The bird, after being chilled in ice-water or in the cooling room, is ready for grading and packing. This, from the producer's standpoint, is the most interesting stage in the process, for it is here that the quality of the stock is to be observed. The grading is made on three considerations: (1) The general division of c.o.c.ks, springs, hens and capons is kept separate from the killing-room; (2) the grading for quality; (3) the a.s.sortment according to size.

The grading for quality depends on the general shape of the chicken, the plumpness or covering of meat, the neatness of picking, the color of skin and legs, and the appearance of the feet and head, which latter points indicate the age and condition of health. The culls consist of deformed and scrawny chickens. The seconds are poor in flesh, or they may be, in the case of hens, unsightly from overfatness. They are packed in barrels and go to the cheapest trade. Those carca.s.ses slightly bruised or torn in dressing also go in this cla.s.s. Although a preference is generally stated for yellow-skinned poultry, the white-skinned birds, if equal in other points, are not underranked in this score. The skin color that is decidedly objectionable is the purplish tinge, which is a sign of diseased stock. Black pin-feathers and dark-colored legs are a source of objection. Especially is this true with young birds which show the pin-feathers. Feathered legs are slightly more objectionable than smooth legs. Small combs and the absence of spurs give better appearance to the carca.s.s.

The following is the nomenclature and corresponding weights of the farm marketed chickens. In each cla.s.s there will be seconds and culls. The seconds of each group are kept separate, but not graded so strictly or perhaps not graded at all for size. The culls are packed in barrels and all kinds of chickens from fryers to old roosters here sojourn together until they reach their final destination, as potted chicken or chicken soup.

Broilers--Packed in two weights. 1st: Less than two pounds; 2d: between 2 and 2-1/2 pounds.

Chickens--Packed in three weights. 1st: between 2-1/2 and 3 pounds; 2d: between 3 and 3-1/2 pounds; 3d: between 3-1/2 and 4 pounds.

Roasters--Packed in two weights. 1st: between 4 and 5 pounds; 2d: above 5 pounds.

Stag Roosters--c.o.c.kerels, showing spurs and hard blue meat, packed in two weights. 1st: under 4 pounds; 2d: above 4 pounds.

Fowls, are hens. They are packed in three sizes. 1st: under 3-1/4 pounds; 2d: between 3-1/4 and 4-1/2 pounds; 3d: over 4-1/2 pounds.

Old Roosters--Packed in barrels. One grade only.

After packing, chickens may be shipped to market immediately, or they may be frozen and stored in the local plant. Shipments of any importance are made in refrigerator cars.

The poultry that is shipped to the final market alive is gradually diminishing in quant.i.ty, as poultry killing plants are built up throughout the country. The live poultry shipments are chiefly made in the Live Poultry Transportation Cars. The following figures give the number of such cars that moved out of the States named in a recent year:

Iowa 645 Tennessee 169 Missouri 630 Michigan 165 Illinois 624 S. Dakota 103 Kentucky 472 Oklahoma 101 Nebraska 395 Indiana 100 Kansas 370 Wisconsin 93 Minnesota 174 Texas 91 Ohio 173 Arkansas 47

The most of this live poultry goes to New York and other eastern cities and is consumed largely by the Hebrew trade.

The Special Poultry Plant.

The special egg farmer of the East should sell his poultry alive to the regular dealer. The exception to this advice may be taken in the case of squab broilers for which some local dealers will not pay as fancy a price as may be obtained by dressing and shipping to the hotel trade.

The grower of roasters and capons will probably want to market his own product. As to whether it will pay him to do so will depend upon whether his dealer will pay what the quality of the goods really demands. The dealer can afford to do this all right, if he will hustle around and find an outlet for the particular grade of goods, for he is in position to kill and dress the fowls more economically than the producer.

I have never been able to study out why the average writer upon agricultural subjects is always advising the farmer to attempt to do difficult work for which special firms already exist. In the case of fattening just referred to, there is reason why the farmer may be able to do the work more successfully than the special establishment, but why any one should urge the farmer to turn the woodshed into a temporary poultry packing establishment I can hardly see. If the farmer has nothing to do he had better get a job at the poultry killing house where they have ice water and barrels in which to put the feathers.

I do not think it worth while in this book for me to attempt to describe in detail the various methods of killing and packing poultry for the various retail markets. The grower who contemplates killing his own stuff had better spend a day visiting the produce houses and market stalls and inquire which methods are locally in demand.

Suggestions from Other Countries.

In European countries generally, and especially in France and England, great pains is taken in the production of market poultry.

Each farmer and each neighborhood become known in the market for the quality of their poultry, and the prices they receive vary accordingly. In these countries more poultry is fattened and dressed by the growers than in the United States where we have greater specialization of labor.

In countries that have an export trade different systems have originated. In Denmark and Ireland co-operative societies are organized to handle perishable farm products. These, however, deal more with eggs than with poultry. In portions of England the fattening is done by private fatteners. The country being thickly settled, the chickens are collected directly from the farms by wagons making regular trips. This allows the rejection of the poor and immature specimens, whereas a premium may be paid on better stock.

The greatest fault of poultry buying as conducted in this country is the evil of a uniform price. After chickens are dressed the difference of quality is readily discerned, and the price varies from fancy quotations to almost nothing for culls. The packer pays a given rate per pound for live hens or for spring chickens. The price is paid alike for the best poultry received or for the scrawniest chickens that can be coaxed to stand up and be weighed. The prices paid is the average worth of all chickens purchased at that market.

All farmers who market an article better than the average are unjust losers, while those who sell inferior stock receive unearned profits. The producer of good stock receives pay for the extra quant.i.ty of his chickens, but for the extra quality no recognition whatever is given. To the deserving producer, if quality was recognized, it would result in a greatly increased stimulation of the production of good poultry. Any packer, if questioned, will state that he would be willing to grade chickens and pay for them according to quality, but that he does not do so because his compet.i.tor would pay a uniform price and drive him out of business.

The man who receives an increased price would say little of it, while the man who sells poor chickens, if he failed to receive the full amount to which he is accustomed, would think himself unjustly treated and use his influence against the dealer. A recognition of quality in buying is for the interest of both the farmer and the poultry dealer, and a mutual effort on the part of those interested to put in practice this reform would result in a great improvement of the poultry industry.

Cold Storage of Poultry.

The growth of the cold storage of poultry has been phenomenal.

Poultry is packed in thin boxes that will readily lose their heat and these are stacked in a freezer with a temperature near the zero point. The temperature used for holding poultry are anywhere from 0 degree up to 20 degrees. Poultry is held for periods of one to six weeks at temperature above the freezing point.

Frozen poultry will keep almost indefinitely save for the drying out, which is due to the fact that evaporation will proceed slowly even from a frozen body. The time frozen poultry is stored varies from a few weeks to eight or ten months.

The usual rule is that any crop is highest in price when it first comes on the market and cheapest just after the point of its greatest production. Thus, broilers are high in May and cheap in September. In such cases the goods are carried from the season of plenty to the following season of scarcity. This period is always less than a year. The idea circulated by wild writers, that cold storage poultry was kept several years is an economic impossibility.

The interest on the investment alone would make the holding of storage goods into the second season of plenty, quite unprofitable, but when the costs of storage, insurance and shrinkage are to be paid, storing poultry for more than one season becomes absurd. The fowl that has been once frozen cannot be made to look "fresh killed"

again. For that reason packers like to get a monopoly on a particular market so that the two cla.s.ses of goods will not have to compete side by side. The quality of the frozen fowl when served is very fair, practically as good as and some say better than the fresh killed.

Cold storage poultry is best thawed out by being placed over night in a tank of water. Poultry prejudice prevents the practice of retailing the goods frozen, though this method would be highly desirable.

Drawn or Undrawn Fowls.

Within the last two or three years there has been a great hue and cry about the marketing of poultry without drawing the entrails.

The objection to the custom rests upon the general prejudice to allowing the entrails of animals to remain in the carca.s.s. If a little thought is given the subject, however, it is seen that human prejudice is very inconsistent in such matters. We draw beef and mutton carca.s.ses, to be sure, but fish and game are stored undrawn, and as for oysters and lobsters we not only store them undrawn but we eat them so.

The facts about the undrawn poultry proposition are as follows: The intestines of the fowl at death contain numerous species of bacteria, whereas the flesh is quite free from germs. If the carca.s.s is not drawn, but immediately frozen hard, the bacteria remain inactive and no essential change occurs. If the carca.s.s is stored without freezing, or remains for even a short time at a high temperature, the bacteria will begin to grow through the intestinal walls and contaminate the flesh.

Now, if the fowl is drawn, the unprotected flesh is exposed to bacterial contamination, which results in decomposition more rapidly than through the intestinal walls. The opening of the carca.s.s also allows a greater drying out and shrinkage.

If poultry carca.s.ses were split wide open as with beef or mutton, drawing might not prove as satisfactory as the present method, but since this is not desirable, and since ordinary laborers will break the intestines and spill their contents over the flesh, and otherwise mutilate the fowl, all those who have had actual experience in the matter agree that drawing poultry is unpractical and undesirable.

As far as danger of disease or ptomaine poison is concerned, chances between the two methods seem to offer little choice.

The Bureau of Chemistry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has conducted a series of experiments along the line of poultry storage.

So far as the results have been published, nothing very striking has been learned. From what has been published, the writer is of the opinion that the somewhat mysterious changes that were observed in the cold storage poultry were mostly a matter of drying out of the carca.s.s.

Poultry Inspection.