ROASTERS, BROILERS AND CAPONS 



them that they can only get warm underneath the hovers. 

 This plan means a little extra work when the brood is first 

 taken from the incubator, but it pays, as the chicks are much 

 less likely to huddle outside the hover a"nd become chilled. 



CRACKED YELLOW CORN AND BEEF SCRAPS THE COMMON 

 GROWING FOOD 



When the little chicks are three or four weeks old it is com- 

 mon practice to begin to wean them from the chick food by 

 gradually adding a little cracked yellow corn and small wheat 

 to their food, or feeding a mash of yellow corn meal, wheat 

 bran, middhngs and beef scrap. This is increased gradually 

 and the proportion of chick food fed reduced until the chick 

 food is stopped altogether. In the same manner less and less 

 wheat is fed until the birds get very little but cracked corn 

 and beef scrap. Some flocks are grown altogether on cracked 

 yellow corn and beef scrap fed from a hopper. 



The amount of freedom given the birds differs with the 

 individual breeders. Some allow practically free range, while 

 others grow their birds in very cramped and limited quarters. 

 It is no uncommon sight to see from 50 to 80 half-grown to 

 full-grown birds occupying a yard not over forty feet square 

 with a small house about 6 by 9 feet. In such crowded quarters 

 the birds apparently do well, but undoubtedly require more 

 attention and more careful feeding than those allowed more 

 liberal accommodations. 



ALL COCKERELS ARE CAPONIZED 



Both the pullets and cockerels are sold as soft roasters. 

 It is customary to caponize all the cockerels as soon as they 

 are big enough. Plymouth Rocks are usually ready to caponize 

 when they reach from two to three pounds live- weight, while 

 from three to four pounds is about the right weight for Brahmas. 



Like all fancy market poultry, soft roasters must be grown 

 quickly and should be sold as soon as they are "ripe." They 

 should be plump and soft meated, with breasts well rounded. 

 Shps and pullets are sold off first since they are the first to 

 go by the ripe age. This is usually when the pullets are from 

 four to six months old. Much depends on the birds themselves 

 and any evidences of maturity are considered indications for 

 marketing. If puUets are permitted to come to laying or other- 

 wise "go by" they make a less desirable dressed product and 

 lose much of the "soft meatedness" desired. An experienced 

 ■dealer or marketman can tell birds which have "gone by" al- 

 most at a glance. For capons the best selling age is usually 

 from six to nine months. 



The best selling weights are from eight to ten pounds per 

 bird when prices are highest, while at moderate prices the 

 larger the roaster the better it will sell, as a rule. 



OVER $4,ooo FOR ONE MAN'S OUTPUT ONE SEASON 



As an example of the prices paid to growers by the dealers 

 who collect the birds, the following will prove interesting, al- 

 though the names are withheld by request. A certain dealer 

 has been regularly drawing on a carpenter who lives near the 

 town of Rockland, Mass., and who makes a business of grow- 

 ing soft roasters. For several weeks in 1905 this dealer paid 

 him over $200 a week in cash at the door of his home for live 

 soft roasting chickens, and one day in May the dealer took on 

 a load of about 150 roasters, for which the carpenter received 

 $376 in cold cash. Allowing that the birds averaged ten pounds 

 each, and that the live weight price was 25 cents per pound. 



this was an average of $2.50 per bird. Many fanciers who 

 advertise extensively would be glad to sell as large an order 

 for the same money, particularly as in such a sale there are no 

 culls for off color eyes, faulty markings or other fancy points. 

 The only essential points are a prime, plump, well rounded, 

 yellow skinned carcass; quickly grown, soft meated and of 

 good market weight. 



The dealer assured us that this man had at that time over 

 $1500 worth of stock visible that was nearly ready to market, 

 and said further that by the close of the season beginning Feb- 

 ruary 1st and ending July 1st, he would have paid this grower 

 between $4,000 and $4,500 for Uve chickens. How much of 

 this was profit to the grower he could not say, but believed that 

 it would be fair to say one-half could be considered profit to 

 pay the grower for his labor. This is only one of many cases, 

 too numerous to mention in this article. 



HOW THEY ARE DRESSED 



All soft roasters are dry picked. The method of killing is 

 to bleed the bird by severing the blood vessels in the throat and 

 then sticking it in the brain to paralyze the bird and thus loosen 

 the feathers. As shown in the illustration, the picker sits while 

 working. All feathers except the stiff quills are saved and 

 sorted by the picker while at work dressing the birds. The 

 picker has two tubs close at hand and places the white feathers 

 in one and the colored ones in another. The feathers are sold 

 to bedding manufacturers in the city and net the dealer several 

 hundred dollars annually. 



All South . Shore soft roasteis, whether slips, capons or 

 pullets, are dressed clean; all the feathers except the smaE ones 

 on the tips of the wings are removed. Where the birds are to 

 be marketed as capons the Philadelphia style of dressing, is 

 sometimes practiced as shown in the illustration showing South 

 Shore capons dressed Philadelphia style. These three pairs of 

 capons were most attractive specimens of the Plymouth Rock- 

 Brahma cross. The center pair weighed ISJ pounds, the pair 

 on the right 16 pounds and that on the left 16 pounds. After 

 the roasters have been stripped of their feathers, which is quick- 

 ly done, they are thrown into a tank of cold water to cool them 

 thoroughly and get rid of all animal heat. At the close of the 

 day the pickers take the chickens from, the tank and hang them 

 in carefully sorted pairs from wooden racks, where they are 

 left to dry over night. 



In the morning before the expressman arrives for the day's 

 shipment the birds are packed in boxes having lids which fasten 

 on strong bolts. Clean burlap is the only packing used. The 

 weights are carefully ascertained and a record kept of the gross, 

 net and tare weights. A copy of this record with a bill for the 

 goods accompanies each shipment inside of the box. 



Certainly this branch of the poultry business pays and is 

 worthy of careful development in other sections of the country. 

 Boston surely has no monopoly on the buyer who will pay high 

 prices for fancy chicken meat. There must be others in our 

 many large cities who are simply waiting to be educated up to 

 what the prime soft roaster really is as a table delicacy so that 

 the clamor of their palates will result in a loosening of purse 

 strings. 



Something has been done to develop this trade in the 

 neighborhood of our large cities other than Boston, but up to 

 date there are plenty of opportunities for building up a business 

 in new territory and creating a demand. 



Enterprising poultryrrien are sure to recognize a good thing 

 and help to push it along, and it is to be hoped that there soon 

 will be many more soft roaster centers that will rival the famous 

 "South Shore" in the production of this desirable table deUcacy. 



149 



