[ CHAPTER IX ]
POULTRY FLESH AND POULTRY FATTENING
The poultry flesh which is used for food may be grouped into three divisions.
First: Poultry carcasses grown especially for market.
Second: Poultry carcasses consisting of hens and young male birds that are sold from the general farms where the pullets are kept for egg production.
Third: The cockerels and old hens sold as a by-product from egg farms.
The third class hardly needs our consideration in the present chapter. This stock, usually Leghorns, like Jersey veal, is to be disposed of at whatever price the market offers.
The cockerel will, if growing nicely, be fairly plump and the hens, if on hopper rations of corn and beef scrap, will be about as fat as they can be profitably made, and to waste further effort upon them would not pay. Leghorn cockerels and hens are a wholesome enough meat, but will never command fancy prices nor warrant extra pains.
In class two we find the great mass of the poultry flesh of the country. This stock consisting chiefly, as it does, of Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes, is well worth some extra pains toward increasing its quantity and quality.