Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1916 — SHIPPING DRESSED POULTRY [ARTICLE]

SHIPPING DRESSED POULTRY

After the fowls have been dressed •nd are thoroughly cooled, they will be ready for packing. Poultry dressed for market should be kept off feed at least 24 hours previous to slaughter, and should not be drawn before It Is packed for shipment. The action of the air on the inside (ft the fowl will cause it to spoil and make it impossi ble to keep in good condition. Use a flat box, in which two layers of poultry can be packed. Wrap the head of each bird in paper, so that any blood which may be k.t la the head will not come in contact with the body of the fowl and soil it. In some cases the whole bird is wrapped in wax paper Start a layer in the bottom of the box; take each bird separately and fold the head to one side, and place it in the box with the head up. Contir ue in this way until the bottom layer is filled. Put in the upper layer th<same way, except that the head is in the middle and the side of the breast is up. If this method is followed in packing, either side of the box may be opened when it reaches the market, and a nice uniform lot of poultry will meet the eye of the purchaser. The poultry may be packed in barrels or larger boxes; but small f>at boxes are preferred, because they are easier to handle and there is also less danger of spoiling while they are being shipped. It is a good plan to establish a permanent trade with some commission firm, meat deafer or a large hotel, to supply them with poultry. This will insure a better price than when ship ped only occasionally. Poultry should be sent by express so as to be on the road the least possible time. The cases, when shipped, should be plainly marked to whom consigned and from whom they came; also the number of birds in the case and weight.

Grape Vines, How to Treat Them Those intending to set out grapes should procure strong 1 year old vines or not over two years. The older the vine the more it has to be pruned back and so a younger vine will almost always overtake an older one. As is well understood the fruit of the grape comes from the young shoots of the previous season, so the aim is always to prune the vine in winter or early spring in such a way that while leaving a sufficient number -of shoots of the previous season’s growth to give fruit, some are cut mainly to give growth to be looked to for fruiting the second summer. When the young plants are set they should be cut down within about two or three inches of the ground, when one or two canes should result, which may be let grow at will the whole season. When the winter comes on cut back again as before, to about two or three inches of the last growth. If in good soil, which grapes always demand, there should result canes from which some fruit may be looked for the season following; but many prefer to give them a third cutting back in order to get some really strong canes for fruiting, letting them grow as they will through the summer.

When it comes to letting them fruit the young cane may be cut back partly, say cut off one third of its length When spring comes the shoots that spring out from the canes at the joints are the ones that bear the flowers and the fruit, the flowers coming on every new shoot should the vine be strong. The general practice is to pinch off the end of every bearing shoot at the second or third leaf above the bunch; new shoots 6cvill appear at the ends, and these again should be pinched off. When the winter season comes again, bringing pruning time, the shoots thal bore the bunches should be cut back to the bud behind where the fruit was, which wilt leave on ft, sky, two buds, and these two buds will push forth later giving fruit, and should be treated as the first ones were. The above is one way of pruning a grape vine. Another one is to scT prune that there are every year one or more canes growing right from the ground. This could be managed when the vines are so pruned in the first place that these are two or more canes start from the base of the plant, when one or more could be cut down to near the ground every year, insuring a gOod strong one quite new every season. After fruiting sets in the one to be cut down may be the oldest of those fruiting, so that what are left are always the youngest of the lot.. How to trail grapes Is a matter of choice to some extent. In Europe grapes are grown on stakes almost entirely, so they are in California ; in other places trellises are sometimes preferred, way is adopted the .pruning remains the same, excepting (hat the vines are cut back in winter to fit the height oi what is to support them. But few persons care to have the stake or the trellis taller than can be reached by hand, though there -is no objection on the part of a vine to clitnb to any height desired,, even if a step ladder would be required to tend it. When grown to stakes many set the vines as close as four feet apart, but this is s close that probably six feet would be better. When grown to trellises the vines should be twelve feet apart, to allow of4he horizontal shoots having room to grow without crowding. If a vineyard be contemplated the trellis lines may be eight feet apart. s All successful growers of the grape recognize that spraving miist be done every season, or more, to keep down fupgu< and insects, then, with care to so prune in winter that there is always a good representation of young wood a crop of fruit maj bs relied on every season.