Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1918 — HOW TO CUT AND DRAW A CHICKEN [ARTICLE]

HOW TO CUT AND DRAW A CHICKEN

Simple Method Is Outlined That Makes the Best of a Very Unpleasant Task. REAL ART IN PREPARATION i Housewife’s Everlasting Bugaboo Loses Half Its Terrors When Plan Shown In Illustration Is Followed Carefully. Cleaning chickens—the housewife’s everlasting bugaboo—loses half its terrors when done by this qulck-and economical method. There is a real art in drawing and cutting up a chicken for cooking or canning. By carefully following the directions given here, the entire digestive tract is removed without coming in contact with the meat; and the flesh and bones from a whole bird nlay be fitted neatly into a quart jar. The bird should not be fed for 24 hours before killing. It should be killed by sticking in the roof of the mouth and picked dry. When the feathers have been removed and the pin feathers drawn, the bird should be cooled rapidly. As soon as it has been properly cooled it should be singed and washed carefully with a brush and light soap jsuds, if necessary. Cutting Up and Drawing. 1. Remove the wings after cutting off the tips at the first joint. 2. Remove the foot, cntting at the knee joint 3. Remove the leg at the hip or saddle joint 4. Cut through the connecting Joint to separate the thigh from the leg. 5. Cut through the neck bone at the head with a sharp knife, being careful not to cut the windpipe or gullet With the index finger separate the windpipe and gullet from the neck, and cut through the skin to the wing opening. Leave the head attached to the windpipe and gullet and loosen these from the neck down as far as the crop. 6. With ■ a sharpened knife cut around the shoulder blade, pull it out of position and break it 7. Find the white spots on the ribs and cut along them through the ribs. Cut back to and around the vent and loosen it. 8. Leaving the head attached, loosen the windpipe, gullet and crop, and remove the digestive tract from the bird, pulling it back toward the vent. Remove the lungs and kidneys with the point of a knife and cut off the neck close to the body. 9. Cut through the backbone at the joint or just above the diaphragm and remove the oil sack. 10. Separate the breast from the backbone by cutting through on the white spots and break. 11. Cut in sharp at the point of the breastbone, cutting away the wishbone

and also taking with It the meat. 12. Cut the fillet from each side of the breastbone. Bend In the bones of the breastbone; Packing for Canning. Use a quart jar; Pack the saddle with a thigh inside; the breastbone with a thigh Inside; the backbone and ribs with a leg inside, the leg large end downward, alongside the breastbone; the wings; the wishbone; the fillets; the neckbone. Do not pack the giblets with the meat. Directions for the home canning of chicken, meats, soups, fruits and vegetables may be fpund in Farmers' Bulletins of the United States department of agriculture, and will be supplied free of charge to anyone writing for them to the division of publications.

Ducks for Meat and Eggs. The Pekin breed is kept almost exclusively by producers of green ducks, and also on many farms where they are grown for meat. They fatten rapidly and may be fed on rations recommended for chickens, but better results are usually secured by feeding more green and vegetable feeds and a larger proportion of mash. • . For the general farmer who is more interested in obtaining eggs than producing meat the Indian Runner is a good breed. This duck holds the same relative position in the duck family that the Leghorn does in the chicken family. It lays a good-sized white egg considerably larger than a hen’s egg, and is declared to be a small eater, a good forager, and hardy. The Introduction of this breed Is helping to build up a trade of first-class duck eggs. These eggs should be marketed frequently, as they depredate in quality more rapidly than hens’ eggs. Cull ths Flocks. Much of the poultry now raised on the farm and in the back-yard flock is not as profitable as it sboifld be. The estimated .production of the average hen is not over 85 eggs per year. During 1915 about 2,000 hens under close observation in contest in this country laid on the average 151 eggs. Since these hens varied from nothing to 814 in their production, it is evident that the 151 eggsare not the maximum obtainable. All pbultry raisers should cull their flocks and keep only the best layers. A study of the prindples of breeding, care and feeding will enable poultry keepers to accomplish this result