368 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Poultry Raising and Caponizing. 



Mr. Geo. Morton, Schenectady, N. Y. — Having seen a statement 

 in the Farmers' Club once that hens did not pay, I thought that I 

 would let you know my experience. I kept twenty-three hens the 

 last year, ending November 30 ; I got 2,904 eggs, which is a little 

 over 126 for each hen. I don't know exactly what it cost me, as I 

 raised some corn myself; but last April I bought twelve bushels of 

 corn, and it lasted six months, with some young ones eating with 

 them. I fed them on corn all the time, except once a week, when I 

 gave them a mess of scalded bran, with some sulphur in it, and in 

 the fall potatoes once, and sometimes twice a week. They got no 

 scraps from the table, as other animals got all of them. I also raised 

 thirty-five chickens, and they used about one hundred weight of meal. 

 Some men say that hens, to lay good, must have flesh, but I never gave 

 them any, and they are shut in a small barn-yard from the time I 

 begin to work in the garden until the grapes are picked. I think my 

 whole cost is not over twenty-eight dollars. Counting the eggs at 

 twenty -four cents a dozen, gives fifty -eight dollars and eight cents. 

 The chickens were worth at least seventeen dollars and fifty cents. 

 Their manure was worth at least five dollars, which makes in all 

 eighty dollars and fifty-eight cents ; taking twenty-eight dollars cost . 

 from that, leaves fifty-two dollars as profit of twenty-three hens, which 

 is, I think, very good. 



Dr. J. M. Crowell — This writer says nothing of breeds. As I 

 was on the ferry-boat this morning a lady said she was going in the 

 spring to begin to make a business of poultry, and asked me what 

 breed she should select. I told her I would seek wisdom of the Club 

 on this point. 



Mr. F. D. Curtiss — She cannot get far wrong on the white 

 Brahma ; the Brahma, white or dark, is gentle, domestic, and bears 

 confinement. The hen is a good mother, and the chicks will eat more 

 and grow faster, and go through more wet and cool weather without 

 loss, than the young of any other sort. * 



Dr. J. M. Crowell — The Brahma is admitted to be the best for 

 producing spring chickens, but their flavor is not remarkable. The 

 Dorking is a more tender and game bird, but I am surprised that so 

 few farmers understand the advantages of capons. They grow a third 

 larger. A capon will sell for twenty-eight cents in the market when 

 a common fowl brings but twenty-one cents. Most of our capons 

 came from Berks county, Pa., and from Burlington county, N. J. 



