—The composition of the chicken, turkey, duck, goose, and pigeon as given by König is found in the following table:
| Water. | Protein. | Fat. | Ash. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken (lean), | 76.22 | 19.72 | 1.42 | 1.37 |
| Chicken (fat), | 70.06 | 18.49 | 9.34 | .91 |
| Young cock (fat), | 70.03 | 23.32 | 3.15 | 1.01 |
| Turkey, | 65.60 | 24.70 | 8.50 | 1.20 |
| Duck (wild), | 70.80 | 22.65 | 3.11 | 1.09 |
| Goose (fat), | 38.02 | 15.91 | 49.59 | .48 |
The above data show that with the exception of the goose the percentage of fat given in the flesh of the animals is very much less than that found in our own work. Even in the fat chicken only a little over 9 percent of fat was found. It is believed that the composition of these fowls as given by the work of the Bureau of Chemistry more nearly represents the average composition in this country than the data taken from König.
Importance of Animal Food in the Growth of Poultry.
—Many people suppose that poultry can live upon vegetables alone and this is probably true. Experience, however, shows that poultry does not thrive and fatten well on purely vegetable food. This fact was brought out very prominently in the experiments at the Cornell station where poultry of the same origin and character was fed two kinds of diet, one being partly of animal food and the other purely vegetable foods. The ration of the animal food consisted of Indian corn meal, wheat flour, ground oats, wheat bran, wheat middlings, pea meal, linseed meal, meat, and fresh bone. The vegetable ration consisted of pea meal, linseed meal, wheat bran, ground oats, Indian corn meal, wheat middlings, gluten meal, and skimmed milk. Before the experiment had been long under way it was noticed that the birds receiving the meat food were developing rapidly and evenly while those that received the purely vegetable diet were becoming thin and uneven in size. The authors of the bulletin say that it was sometimes almost pitiful to see the long-necked, scrawny, vegetable-fed birds, with troughs full of abundant good, wholesome food before them, stand on the alert and scamper in hot haste after the unlucky grasshopper or fly which ventured into their pen, while the contented looking meat-fed ducks lay lazily in the sun and paid no attention to the buzzing bee or crawling beetle. The vegetable-fed birds literally starved to death, at least many of them, so that only twenty of the thirty-three with which the experiment was commenced were alive at the close of the fifteen weeks of feeding.
The Forced Fattening of Poultry.
—Allusion has already been made to the forced fattening of poultry secured by injecting food into the craw in larger quantities than would naturally be taken by the fowl if left to itself. There is much to be said both for and against this method of fattening. In favor of this method it may be stated that the birds fattened in this way are more highly prized by the connoisseur, are naturally fatter by reason of the enforced idleness of the birds during the fattening process, thus diminishing muscular activity, and more tender than the birds left at freedom and forced to secure their own food. From the point of view of the seller, also, the birds are heavier and the artificially fattened fowl usually brings a higher price, pound for pound, on the market. Against the method it is urged that it is barbarous, imposing upon the birds a diet far beyond normal capacity and thus tending to damage and injure the organs of the body charged with the assimilation of food and the secretion of the waste products.
The above indictment is doubtless true is almost every respect. In explanation it may be said that the period of forcing food is always a short one, rarely extending beyond three weeks, and, therefore, any injury to the organs which might be induced is not of sufficient duration to establish any real form of disease. In other words, the birds are slaughtered before any lesions of the organs are produced. The livers of the animals, especially geese, thus artificially fattened, take on an extra quantity of fat during this period but it cannot be said that they become really diseased. The fatty livers, as is well known, are used particularly in the manufacture of a mixed spiced meat known as pâté de foie gras.
Upon the whole it is believed that no injury is done the bird by this process of feeding which could in any way be regarded as detrimental to the flesh as a food product. In regard to the apparent barbarity of the process little need be said. The slaughter of animals for human food in itself is a barbarous practice from one point of view but if this practice is justified, as it doubtless is, by the exigencies of human nutrition, the slight degree of force which is employed in artificial fattening cannot be condemned. Moreover the artificial fattening of the fowl is of necessity a somewhat limited operation and confined to those establishments that are devoted exclusively to the production of high-grade and high-priced poultry for the market. The fattening is done by experts and, in so far as the experience of feeding men in the same way is concerned, is not attended with any pain or discomfort other than that incident to a chronically full craw.