CHAPTER XXIII. 

 BROILERS, ROASTERS, AND CAPONS. 



The production of poultry for meat offers to the small poul- 

 tryman, the intensive poultry keeper, and the farmer alike a 

 possible source of considerable revenue at slight expense. It 

 offers exceptional opportunities on the farm, for there range is 

 usually abundant and cheap, and the raising of broilers, and 

 especially roasters, can be well combined with the average farm 

 routine. Again, for the production of market eggs many pullets 

 are hatched each year. There will always be surplus cockerels, 

 which if properly handled and marketed will yield a good revenue. 

 There is a steady demand for first-class prime dressed and live 

 poultry at exceedingly attractive prices, the demand being more 

 constant than with other types of meat. The various kinds of 

 dressed poultry have their seasons and corresponding fluctuations 

 in price. It becomes the problem of the poultryman, if he counts 

 on any income from this source, to study seasons and markets 

 and adjust his stock to meet these requirements. 



Types of Market Poultry. — Commercially, market poultry may 

 be divided into the following classifications, which are recognized 

 by all commission houses, retail jobbers, and the trade. Prices 

 are quoted regularly on the basis of this classification: Fowls, 

 broilers, fryers, roasters, capons. 



Fowls. — In the markets the term " fowl " means all female 

 birds one year old or over (Fig. 174). The great majority of these 

 are usually sold in the summer and fall when they have finished 

 their second or third year of laying, and are then disposed of to 

 make room for incoming pullets. Such fowls bring the lowest 

 price in the market, with the one exception of roosters, or old 

 male birds, for which there is little demand, owing to inferior 

 quality. A large number of fowls are sold alive, and shipped by 

 carloads to heavy consuming centres. In the East a leading 

 factor in the control of the live-poultry market is the heavy de- 

 mand during the Jewish holidays which come in the fall of the 

 year. Variation in the selling price of fowls throughout the year 

 is very slight, — less, in fact, than of any other market type. 



Plump, moderately fat fowls are in the greatest demand, thin 

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