30 PROFITABLE POULTRY PRODUCTION 



the Boston market. The fowls are mariceted in 

 spring and early summer when they have reached 

 the heaviest weights and before their flesh hardens. 

 They command prices ranging as high as 30 cents 

 a pound, but the bulk of the stock is marketed at 

 about 25 cents. The district has a present output 

 of 75,000 to 100,000 roasters annually. This indus- 

 try, while it employs much the same equipment 

 that the special broiler business requires, is, in the 

 main, more successful and profitable than broiler 

 raising. It is the only line in which pullets have 

 been used for market instead of for producing eggs. 



In the production of these roasters, the incubators 

 are started in early autumn and kept busy until 

 spring. The chicks are kept in brooder houses 

 until past the critical age, when they are moved to 

 colony houses and fed from hoppers. They also 

 have more or less green feed, beef scrap, etc. The 

 cockerels are generally caponized but not marketed 

 as capons. The early hatches are generally of Light 

 Brahma fowls ; later ones are of Plymouth Rock. 

 It is the opinion of dealers and growers that the 

 Brahma has been decreasing in size until the fowls 

 no longer average larger than the Plymouth Rock, 

 which is a better layer and matures quicker, the 

 White variety of which is even more popular than 

 the Barred. 



Many of the growers buy their eggs of farmers 

 and cottagers who make a business of producing 

 these eggs for hatching. The ruling price is 50 

 cents a dozen. As the medium sized Light Brahma 

 cockerels are more active and vigorous and the 

 medium-sized hens are better layers, the size has 

 not been kept up by the breeders. The roaster 

 growers are, therefore, confronted with a necessity 



