2l8 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



Those breeds which mature much earUer, hke the Leg- 

 horns, should be operated upon much younger, while 

 a Brahma could possibly be caponized when five or six 

 months old, and not have much danger attending the 

 work. 



"As soon as caponized the chicken should be given 

 all the ground feed and drink it wishes, for it is hun- 

 gry, since, in order to facilitate matters, the cockerel 

 should be fasted about thirty hours previous to the 

 operation ; in three days' time the wound should be 

 healed over, and in two or three weeks it would be 

 quite difficult to find even a scar. 



"Now we have a bird that will put on flesh at a 

 surprising rate, the meat is of a delicious flavor and 

 very tender and juicy, and with the same amount of 

 feed, a capon will weigh about a third more at a given 

 age than if left as a rooster. It is well worth the 

 trouble to have the noisy young cockerels transformed 

 into quiet, lazy birds, even if we were recompensed in 

 no other way, but the price to be obtained for capons 

 is what pleases the grower of them most of all, as the 

 regular quotations range from six to ten cents above 

 the ordinary chicken. I well remember the first year 

 I engaged in this department of my poultry work, 

 when I sold twenty capons averaging eight pounds 

 each at twenty-five cents per pound, one of which 

 dressed nine and one-half pounds, and a well-known 

 lawyer paid me $2.37 for the same. So we see the 

 advantages are threefold — a better price, a larger bird 

 and a quiet bird. 



"The question usually comes up, What is the best 

 breed for capons? All breeds. That is, whatever 

 variety of fowls one has, by all means caponize your 

 surplus cockerels ; but for market purposes the larger 

 breeds are of course preferable. The Plymouth Rock, 

 for instance, is as good as the best ; I, at least, am 



