The American Agriculturist. Vol. II. No. XI, December 1843 / Designed to Improve the Planter, the Farmer, the Stock-breeder, and the Horticulturist

Agriculture is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most noble employment of Man.— Washington.
VOL. II.
NO. XI.
NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1843.
A. B. Allen, Editor.
Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway.

As Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, are fast approaching, when the demand for poultry is at its greatest height, and the quality of it is more curiously considered than at other seasons of the year, in order to obtain something choice for the festive days, we have thought a few words upon the fattening and preparation of it for market might now very appropriately be given, and perhaps interest our readers more than at another time.
The fowls being in good condition a fortnight to one month previous to the time they are wanted for killing, shut them up in a roomy, dry, well-ventilated, and warm building, with either a ground, stone, or plank floor, as is most convenient. This should be cleaned every day, and straw several inches thick spread over a part of it, especially where geese and ducks are shut up, for the purpose of giving them good beds to sit in. As often as the litter gets soiled, remove it, and put clean straw in its place. A constant supply of food and water should now be kept before them, allowing the fowls to eat and drink as often and as much as they please. Gravel is indispensable for their health, and charcoal, together with a little lime or ground bones, is beneficial. Fowls fat better when they can get at their food as often as they please, and are not so apt to gorge themselves and become surfeited.
For feed we prefer corn mostly; a little wheat, rye, or barley, is also very well as a change; oats have rather too much husk about them. In addition to these, boiled potatoes, sweet apples, pumpkins, and sugar beet, are excellent food, especially when mixed with a due proportion of mush or hasty pudding. Where sweet potatoes abound, they are an excellent substitute for the last. To the above, add daily a little lean meat, that which is cooked is preferred; and the last week of their fattening, for a finishing process, rice boiled in milk and sweetened with molasses, is very excellent. This may be called an expensive method; but our readers may be assured that the fowls will be enough better to pay for it. Meat derives much of its taste from the kind and quality of food that the animals consume; hence gross, fatty substances, fish, or anything that is disagreeable to the taste should be avoided in the food given to fowls during the fattening process, as these invariably impart more or less of their disagreeable flavor to the flesh of the poultry fed upon them. It is well known that the celebrated canvass-back duck derives its delicacy of taste from feeding on the bulbous roots of a peculiar grass growing in the Chesapeake bay, and that other kinds of ducks are scarcely eatable, in consequence of their living almost entirely upon fish. These remarks will hold good to most kinds of birds, both of the water and land, and, indeed, of all animals; accordingly as their food is good or bad, so will be the quality of the milk, meat, or eggs.