BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 5 



the greater part of the year weigh, when dressed, plucked, 

 but undrawn, and with head and feet on, from two to 

 two and oneAalf pounds to the pair. They may weigh 

 less or more, but this is the desirable range of weights ; 

 that is, a pound to a pound and a quarter apiece. 



The desirable average weights for large broilers are 

 three to three and one-half pounds to the pair ; that is, a 

 pound and a half to a pound and three-quarters apiece. 

 They may go two pounds or more each, but when the 

 desirable weights are exceeded they will not, as a rule, 

 bring as high prices per pound, so that there is seldom 

 gain, and may often be loss, by marketing these larger 

 chickens as broilers. 



Squab broilers have been in general demand for only a 

 few years. They are small broilers weighing f a pound and 

 a half to two pounds to the pair, three-quarters of a pound 

 to a pound each. The demand for them is mostly confined 

 to the latter half of the winter. The call for squab 

 broilers seems to have begun with the willingness of 

 caterers who found it difficult to get suitable game for 

 banquets and like occasions to use broilers smaller than 

 had previously been considered fit for the table, as a sub- 

 stitute for game. It is worth recording, as an item of 

 interest to those engaged in producing squab broilers, that 

 for some years there was a good deal of sentiment preju- 

 dicial to slaughtering chicks at that tender age expressed. 

 It is also noteworthy that after the popularity of the squab 

 broiler became assured, there arose for a little while some 

 demand for still smaller chickens, and chickens only a few 

 weeks old were served to epicures in search of novel 

 edibles, but the public would have none of them. 



