SUCCESS WITH POULTRT^ 



95 



showed signs of roup, which soon developed into the most 

 malignant form of that dreaded contagion, and sixty-five of 

 them gave up the struggle for life before I succeeded in 

 stamping it out. Of the remaining thirty-five, some of fhem 

 escaped the roup, others h*d it and recovered. These were 

 put into good, . dry, comfortable quarters, and were well 

 oared for, but it was impossible to get them heavy or to be 

 anything like good capons. 



They were shipped January 20, by freight, to a commis- 

 sion house in New York, and on arrival I received the fol- 

 lowing: "Can't sell your guinea feathers at any price." 

 To which 1 replied: "Mistake; no guinea feathers shipped. 

 Please remit at once for capons." 



In a few days I received the account of sale: 

 One box poor chickens, 125 lbs., at lie. . .$13.75 

 Charges 1-85. 



CAPONS AND OAPONIZING. 



Actual Experience (Recited-7-Weight of au Eleven-Montlis 



Old Plymouth Eock Capon— Profits on 



a Barrel of Capons. 



Check $11.90 



"Those who want capons want capons, and want them 

 to weigh from seven to nine pounds each. No capon dealer 

 would buy these at any price; too thin and poor." 



A check for $11.90, which by dividing the hundred into 

 three or four flocks and properly caring for them, might 

 have been increased to $125 at least; as capons were wanted 

 at eighteen and twenty cents. That one mistake cost me 

 not less than $100. 



Bo not let this statement make the impression that 

 capons are delicate and will more readily contract disease 

 than other fowls, for this is not true, and I am convinced 

 from my three years' experience with about five hundred 

 capons, kept in various ways, that they are hardy, and if any 

 difference, will surpass in thrift other fowls given the same 

 care. Do not overcrowd your fowls of any kind, for if you 

 do your profits will be on the wrong side of the ledger. 



Out of 175 caponized for my neighbors, I received 130, 

 as per contract, at twelve and one-half cents per pound. As 

 they, averaged seven pounds (nearly), the average price was 

 eighty-nine cents each. They averaged, dressed, six and 

 one-half pounds (nfearly). A capon will dress away about 

 one-eighth. They were shipped at different times from 

 January 15 to l?,st of March, to New York and Buffalo. The 

 average price received was eighteen cents per pound — the 

 highest being twenty cents, and a few pounds of very un- 

 desirable birds going at eight cents, the lowest. 



The farmers were well satisfied with the eighty-nine 

 cents "apiece" for their "chickens," and no particular ef- 

 fort had been put forth to have the cockerels early hatched 

 or to produce anything more than the common farmyard 

 mongrels, except one or two families that have been stimu- 

 lated up to produce early "full-blSod" Barred Plymoutn 

 Eoeks. This year a few specimens of this breed reached 

 ten pounds, and brought their owners $1.25 each. 



A house and yard stocked with a cross of the large 

 breeds for capons alone might be had on every farm and the 

 profits herein given would be doubled, for it is the heavy 

 capon that sells for the highest price. Farmers in almost 

 any district can ship their own capons and other poultry, if 

 they care to take the risk, and save all the money the mid- 

 dleman gets. I do not recommend any particular commis- 

 sion merchants, but there are some that make a specialty of 

 capons. ^ 



By DR. RICHARD SCHMIDT, BREEDER. 



In answer to your request I give you my experience in 

 regard to capons. I read about capons in Poultry Keeper 

 and decided to try my hand. I was then breeding Light 

 Brahmas, Plymouth Bocks, 8. C. B. Leghorns and Houdans, 

 and had started with a sitting of Cornish Indian Games. 



I bought a caponizing spoon and hook from W. H. Wig- 

 more, and with assistance of a scalpel, a pair of dressing 

 forceps and a nagal speculum (used for a dilator of the inter- 

 costal incision) I went to work. 



My hired man built a table for the purpose, boring two 

 one-inch holes about ten inches apart on one side of the top 

 for the purpose of making the cockerel secure. We attached 

 a piece of manilla twine about eighteen inches long, to a nail 

 on the right hand side of each hole, allowing the string to 

 pass down through the hole, and fastened a brick to each 

 lose end Of the string. K ow, taking a cockerel from my as- 

 sistant, I passed both legs through the loop made by the 

 string from nail to hole, and found my brick was heavy 

 enough to hold the legs. The cockerel being on his left side 

 with his back .toward me I- now took the right wing and 

 passed the loop of the other string with a suspended brick 

 attached, over it, and I had my fowl foul. 



Making an incision between the last and next rib about 

 one-half inch from the backbone, I etxended it about one 

 inch toward the median line. • Now, by using my nasal spec- 

 ulum for a dilator I found that the right testicle was in full 

 view with only a thin serous membrane intervening. With 

 the hook on the small end of spoon I tore open the mem- 

 brane and said. Eureka! [ removed the right testicle and 

 then looked for the left, which, after much diligent search 

 I found on the other side of the spinal column. The exces- 

 sive manipulation , to which the delicate membranes were 

 subjected in my search for testicle No. 2 (left) caused me 

 in future to designate left testicle No. 1 and right (or eas- 

 iest one to get at) N6. 2. 



My first prospective capon died of uncontrollable "hem- 

 orrhagica interna" in about forty seconds. 



My next one wa:s a Plymouth Rock^ (I neglected to say 

 my first was a Light Brahma) of the barred variety. I went 

 through the same operation with him, except that I removed 

 the left testicle first and made a brilliant success of it. He 

 was out of a ten-pound cock and an eight and one-half 

 pound hen, and at seventeen months old (I must tell it, for 

 murder will out,) he defeated a Light Brahma cock, the 

 preporty of a farmer of Marion County, Mo., by name Snod-' 

 grass, at Marion County, Mo., in September, 1892, by taking 

 the blue ribbon given to the largest cock exhibited. My 

 capon at fifteen and one-half pounds defeated a fifteen-pound 

 Light Brahma cock. "Eureka" two times!! 



In the spring of 1891 I caponized IfiT cockerels, ate a 

 good many, treated several of my friends to a capon dinner 

 that Christmas, and shipped a barrel of capons to New York 

 City, from which I realized $31.50 net profit. There were 

 twenty capons in the barrel and they dressed two hundred 

 and ten pounds at about eleven months old. Theye were in- 

 cubator and brooder raised and fattened like pigs, in a row 

 of coops, each 18x18 inches and 2% feet high, giving all the 

 corn and wheat they could clean up. 



The mortality of capons in 1891 was 1.67. I lost two out 



