MANAGEMENT OF FOWLS 1 17 



spurs, nor does it crow. If a perfect capon, it remains always 

 soft-meated and may grow very large, though it does not, as is 

 commonly supposed, grow larger than a cockerel within the time 

 it is usually kept before being killed. An imperfect capon will 

 after a time grow a comb and short spurs and, though sterile, 

 becomes harder in flesh than a perfect capon. An imperfect 

 capon is technically called a slip. 



About the first of March some of the earliest pullets may 

 begin to lay. From that time all the pullets that begin to lay, 

 and the slips as they appear, are marketed ; all others are kept, 

 because the grower realizes the largest profit on those that can 



FIG. 115. Petaluma egg farm. (Photograph from Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 United States Department of Agriculture) 



be marketed in June and July, when the price is highest. 

 By the middle of July, at the latest, everything is sold. The 

 poultry keeper then begins to prepare for the next crop of 

 chickens by taking up all his fences, plowing land that is not 

 in grass, and planting it with winter rye or cabbage or some 

 late garden crop. Rye and cabbage are preferred, because the 

 rye will remain green all winter and furnish green food for 

 chickens that have access to it, and the cabbage makes the 

 best of green food for the little chickens in the brooder houses. 

 It is just as good for the others, too, but not many of the 

 poultry keepers grow enough to continue feeding it to them 

 throughout the winter. 



