POULTRY SCRATCHINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1905, Page 7

POULTRY SCRATCHINGS.

Fowle that are getting aged are made more tender and the flesh more juicy by being confined in close, clean quarters for a week or two before being killed, and having nothing to eat but corn and pure water. Chicks should be confined the same way, with the same food, but a week is sufficient if in good order when shut up. Confining in this way, with nothing but clean, pure food and clean water to drink, gives the flesh, a sweet and toothsome flavour that is surprising. It makes not the slightest difference how good a breeders stock may be, nor how long he has been breeding, part of each year's hatch will not be up to standard, and ought to be disposed of for food. As a rule, this is the final destination of fowls after they reach the age of two or three years. This being so, it is of importance to pay attention to getting them in proper shape for table. Some will argue that thi3 is unnecessary trouble, but if we endeavour to furnish the market with the best it will pay us. There is no single production marc fruitful than an egg. It is the eentrelisation of the most wonderful vitality. If left to the hen, there is blood, hone, feather, tissue, and fibrous substance that come from the egg as a thing of life at the end of incubation. To the invalid there are comfort, strength, and returning vigour in an egg. To tbe housewife, the egg embodies richness and lightness in her cakes, and a dish of special quality and good flavour for the table when perhaps meat has run short. The chemist finds use for the egg in his business, and th"c wine-maker also requires it. Applied to a scald or bum, the white of an egg is cooling and healing, and brings relief to the sufferer.