42 CAPONS FOR PROFIT. 
mer and early fall, indeed during all mild and open 
weather, is comparatively an easy one to solve. 
Fowls on free range find so much to pick up in nice 
warm weather that small additional rations of grain 
will suffice to keep them in good growing condition. 
The natural advantages seem to me all in favor of 
that climate which allows fowls to be out on pasture 
the greatest number of days during the year; and if 
I were to make it my chief business to raise ‘‘capons 
for profit,’ I think I would try to locate in a country 
with mild, dry, open winters, and on dry sandy soil. 
With us at the north the problem of feeding capons 
grows in degree of complication and difficulty with 
the severity of the winter. When we aim for largest 
size in capons, as we should, we will have to keep 
them until they are about one year 
old. Usually there is little demand 
in our markets for capons until February or 
March. Before that time they would not bring 
much higher prices than ordinary fowls. After that 
time the prices range from 18 cents per pound up- 
wards. In short, if we wish to secure largest pos- 
sible size of fowl, and largest possible price per 
pound, we have to keep the capons all winter and 
perhaps far into the spring. Now anybody who 
has ever wintered fowls on purchased food, knows 
that they eat a great deal, and that the bills for grain, 
even when wheat is only 60 or 65 cents, and corn 50 
cents a bushel, soon run up to a large amount. 
The trouble is that many people think grain is the 
only, or even chief poultry food. This is an error. 
Exclusive grain diet is not only expensive, but also 
unnatural and unsafe. It may do well for a week, 
Winter Feeding. 
