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TEE AGBTOULTUBAL JOURNAL. 



Caponising. 



SEVERAL times lately, says Mrs. Lance 

 Rawson in the Queenslander, I have 

 been asked to say something on this 

 subject, which, apparently, is now be- 

 ginning to interest Queensland poultry- 

 keepers for the first time. Some years 

 ago I had an article on caponising in 

 these very columns, and though I have 

 learned a great deal more about the 

 matter since then, I am afraid I am not 

 so keen an advocate for it— except under 

 certain conditions — as I was then. How- 

 ever, there are, I am convinced, great 

 possibilities for anyone who would go in 

 systematically and on a large scale for a 

 capon farm. The time will come when 

 we will no more think of killing a 

 cockerel than a ram, or, I should say, 

 of keeping cockerels in preference to 

 capons. In many of the poultry farming 

 districts of China professional caponisers 

 go round four times a year for the pur- 

 pose of caponising the stock as they come 

 on, and in other parts yonng capons are 

 sold to the fatteners directly they have 

 been operated upon. 



Many people have said that it is too 

 soon to go in for the practice, that very 

 few know the difference between a capon 

 and a cockerel. To which I say, they 

 will never know it unless someone 

 teaches them. The public will not accept 

 any reform until they are taught and 

 understand its meaaing. 



We would be very much disgusted if 

 we found that our butchers were killing 

 rams for mutton instead of wethers, or 

 bulls for beef, and we have some idea of 

 what the meat of such animals would be. 

 Then why should we not have capons ? 

 For the difference in the flesh and the 

 flavour is just as marked in the cockerel 

 and the capon as between the ram and 

 the wether, though in perhaps a lesser 

 degree. The fact that I have lately pro- 

 cured three sets of caponising tools for 

 people living in the far bush proves that 

 the idea has to some extent taken root. 

 It remains now to see whether it will 

 continue or die out after a while like so 

 many other things. There must be a 

 beginning to everything, and the sooner 

 the better when the question is one of 

 reform. 



In reply to those who make the asser- 

 tion that a cockerel is as good eating as a 

 capon, I say it is nothing of the kind, and 

 those who say so can never have eaten 

 capon. The farmers would no doubt take 

 up the practice of caponising if they 

 could be sure of getting an advanced 

 price for the birds in the market ; but 

 that is not the view to take. We can and 

 must educate the housewife and the cook 

 to a preference for capons. It would not 

 be a difficult matter to get a few customers 

 among the better-off people, and gradually 

 others would follow as they found that 

 the capon was a larger and better bird. 

 There is another reform in the poultry 

 trade that is badly wanted, and one that 

 would come with the sale of capons in 

 the regular market— I mean the sale of 

 poultry by weight instead of per pair or 

 bird. And to encourage a more generous 

 use of poultry meat I would suggest that 

 even half -a-bird, or a smaller quantity, be 

 sold. In Paris and some of the larger 

 cities in the older countries of the world, 

 every part of a fowl is utilised, and can 

 be bought. For instance, a student who 

 lives alone in Paris can buy the wing 

 or breast of a fine fat capon for her 

 Sunday dinner or breakfast, and cook it 

 in her own way over her own little gas 

 stove. Or one can buy the head, legs, 

 and side bones all nicely cleaned, and 

 make a cup of good chicken-broth. In 

 this way the full value of a bird is got. 

 In a well-fattened capon the waste is 

 almost nil. Unfortunately I have mis- 

 laid or lost the letter in which I had the 

 detailed particulars of the system followed 

 by the market women in the lower-class 

 parts of Paris ; but, so far as my memory 

 serves me, nothing but the intestines are 

 lost, and they are not discarded until 

 stripped of every particle of fat, fowls' 

 fat being one of the most paying producta- 

 from the industry ; it is sold to the 

 chemists for making a complexion oint- 

 ment. 



This pare of the world is far too young 

 and prosperous as yet to have recourse to 

 such economies, though the day will 

 come. At present, and for many a year 

 yet, our capons — when we have raised 

 them— are not likely to be equal to the 



