CAPONS 



"Does Caponizing Pay?" We will consider the matter fully and 

 from different points of view. 



In Philadelphia and New York, in London and Paris, capons are 

 considered a great delicacy, and as we, in California, become more 

 metropolitan, capons will be more and more in demand. Eleven or 

 twelve years ago when I had capons for sale I could not get more 

 per pound for them than for the uncaponized fowls, as the Ange- 

 lenos had not been educated in taste to the excellency of capon 

 meat- 



Capons are undoubtedly a more delicious dish at a year old than 

 an uncaponized male bird of the same age. I had been led to sup- 

 pose that a capon would be immensely heavier and larger than an 

 uncaponized bird of the same age. This I found was not the case, 

 the capons being rarely more than from half a pound to a pound 

 heavier, if at all. My chief reason for caponizing was the desire to 

 train capons for foster mothers of chicks. I wanted mothers that 

 would not commence to lay as my hens did when chickens were 

 two, or at most, three weeks old and then desert them. In this I 

 was thoroughly successful. The trained capon will mother chicks 

 just as long as the chicks will stay with him, and after a little rest 

 will take another brood and mother it again, clucking to the chicks, 

 feeding them, defending them, hovering them better than the hen. 



"Does caponizing pay?" Careful experiments have proved that 

 the increase in weight is by no means so great as the public has 

 been led to believe. It takes capons at least a month to sufficiently 

 recover from the operation to catch up with their former mates in 

 size and when they come to a marketable age they seldom weigh 

 a pound more than the uncaponized birds of the same breed and 

 age. The gain, however, in price is in their favor, for it about 

 doubles that of the other. This sounds like a strong argument on 

 the side of the capon, but again the cost of production is an essen- 

 tial factor in the study of the question. It will cost as much to pro- 

 duce a ten-pound capon as to produce three or four young chicks 

 of the same combined weight ; in fact with food at the present price 

 I really think it will cost more. 



"Does caponizing pay?" I knew a lady about three years ago 

 who sold four capons for sixteen dollars. She was so much en- 

 couraged by this, for they averaged 38 cents a pound, that the fol- 

 lowing season she drove around the country buying up little cock- 

 erels and caponizing them. She was very successful in operating, 

 rarely losing any, but as she only stayed in the business one year, 

 I think she did not consider it very remunerative. 



Easy to Learn 



The art of caponizing is simple and easy to learn. In France 

 the farmers' wives and daughters have done the caponizing for cen- 

 turies and practically without instruments except a sharp knife. 

 In this country and age, we can buy a case of the best instruments, 



