132 A Few Business Matters. 



nine pounds, would bring no more money and would have cost 

 us nearly double in both care and food ; so I find decidedly 

 more money in growing roasters than I can possibly find 

 in caponizing. " The profit in caponizing seems to come from 

 buying young roosters in the city market at live-weight figures 

 and turning them into capons to feed through the winter. Few 

 think it pays to raise capons from the egg. 



Eggs From Cross-Bred Poultry. Many people are fond of 

 crossing poultry preferring a cross-bred hen to a full-bred 

 fowl. It is claimed that such hens are better layers than either 

 of the breeds that make up the cross. This is an absurd claim, 

 though such crossing does frequently result in a more satisfac- 

 tory egg, in that it is larger than that of one breed while there 

 are more of them than the other breed naturally produces. 

 But these crosses sometimes give unsaleable eggs. At the last 

 New York poultry-show eggs of the different breeds and their 

 crosses were shown. The darkest eggs were from Buff Cochins ; 

 those of Light Brahmas are a trifle lighter, with Dark Brahma 

 eggs almost like the Cochin. The White Leghorn eggs were 

 as white as snow. There was little if any difference between 

 the eggs from Barred or White Plymouth Rocks and a cross of 

 the two gave no apparent change in egg color. The same was 

 true of Wyandottes. A cross of White Leghorn and Light 

 Brahma gave a large egg almost chocolate in color not a good 

 market egg. A Buff Cochin and Light Brahma cross gave an 

 egg almost like the pure Cochin in color, but more like the 

 Light Brahma in shape and size. A White Leghorn and White 

 Plymouth Rock cross gave a muddy-colored egg not prepos- 

 sessing in appearance. The White Leghorn cross could be 

 picked out in every case by the light color it gave the eggs. 

 From many of these crosses the color was bad and would hurt 

 the sale of the eggs. People like pure white or brown an in- 

 termediate, undetermined color is against the eggs. Poultry 

 men who practice cross-breeding should pay attention to this 

 matter. Violent crosses that is, a white-egg breed on one 

 that lays dark eggs gives a bad color while it may increase 

 the egg-yield. 



