FEEDING AND FEEDS 139 



marketable size as broilers to the heaviest capons. 

 From the time the capons weighed 5 pounds until 

 they weighed 1016 pounds the total cost of food 

 consumed did not at anj^ time reach half of the 

 market value. Although the cost of every pound 

 added to the weight was greater as the birds ap- 

 proached maturity than it had been for any earlier 

 increase, the prices for the largest fowls were so 

 much higher than for the smaller that the margin 

 over cost of production was always greater with 

 the nearly full-grown capons. On this account the 

 later feeding was justified, so long as there was a 

 regular increase in weight, until the spring months, 

 at which time the greatest demand for capons and 

 highest prices usually prevail. 



One lot of capons was fed for comparison with 

 a lot of cockerels taken from the same flock of 

 chicks. For the whole period that record was kept, 

 nearly six months, the cockerels increased in weight 

 about 50^. faster than the capons, but the rate of 

 growth was much more irregular. At the average 

 weight of 6 pounds the capons had cost for food 

 12% more than the cockerels; but more food was 

 required on the average b}^ the cockerels, so that at 

 9 pounds weight these had cost over 8% more than 

 the capons. As the cockerels grew faster and 

 larger than the capons, they averaged about io>4 

 pounds before the capons had reached the weight 

 of gyi pounds, and at the heaviest weights had cost 

 no more for food. 



At the average prices then existing in New York 

 state markets the cockerels could have been sold 

 at the greatest profit at about 6 pounds weight, and 

 the capons not until they had reached the weight 

 of 9 pounds, at which weight the difference be- 



