19J 2. 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
81 
THE TRUTH ABOUT CAPONS. 
Does it pay to caponize broilers when 
they are selling at 15 cents a pound? IIow 
long does it take to bring them to the mar¬ 
ket weight? Is R. I. Red a favorable 
breed for it? IIow much should they 
weigh ? What is the price they generally 
bring? What is the favorable season to 
dispose of them? v. d. 
Killingly, Conn. 
I would advise no one to go into ca¬ 
pons unless they had already had con¬ 
siderable experience in raising chickens, 
and in case they have to take it up in a 
small way and as a side issue, rather 
than as a business. In most cases, I be¬ 
lieve the hazard and trouble of operat¬ 
ing on the birds and the expense of 
keeping them so long is against mar¬ 
keting them as capons, if they can 
by any means be sold as Spring chick¬ 
ens without decided loss. Under ordi¬ 
nary conditions, selling at wholesale, I 
would rather let them go as broilers at 
15 cents than go to further trouble with 
them. It is a pretty general rule that 
the sooner you can dispose of surplus 
cockerels the better you are off for room 
and cash. Also to pay you for the ex¬ 
tra pains you will have to educate your 
customers to paying more for them than 
the average fowl, and to build up such 
a trade takes time and attention from 
your other work. I should say that for 
a man with some retail trade and with 
a supply of late-hatched chickens to dis¬ 
pose of, capons might pay. Caponizing 
does make a decided change in the qual¬ 
ity and nature of the bird. Their flesh 
remains tender, they grow to a larger 
size, and are easy to manage and feed. 
To do their best, they should be oper¬ 
ated on when they are two to three 
months old. This applies to such 
breeds as Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, 
Wyandottes, R. I. Reds or similar fowl. 
Anything in the Mediterranean class is 
not worth handling for this purpose. 
What is needed is a fairly heavy breed, 
naturally a good table fowl. The opera¬ 
tion itself is not difficult if one has 
steady nerves and unlimited patience. 
It should only be attempted in bright 
sunlight and with birds that have not 
been fed for at least a day. Nothing 
is more annoying than a bunch of late- 
hatched cockerels running all over 
everything and always in the way. This 
method disposes of that trouble since 
the capons are quiet and rather inactive 
and easily kept in bounds, They can 
also be kept in much closer quarters and 
still continue to thrive and fatten. 
Neither are they much trouble to feed, 
as the hopper system for grains and beef 
scraps suits them down to the ground. 
A cabbage or bunch of turnips on . a 
string will keep them moving enough 
for their good. They do not have to be 
kept hustling like pullets, nor are they 
forever fighting and losing flesh like 
cockerels. If you must keep such birds 
through the Fall and early Winter, they 
will do better as capons without doubt. 
Some of the earlier ones may be dis¬ 
posed during the holidays in the place 
of turkeys or geese, which are often too 
large for many town families needing 
something extra and weighing about 
eight pounds or so. It does not pay 
to caponize birds that weigh less than 
eight when ready for Winter market. 
The wholesale prices in Philadelphia, 
for instance, during February and 
March, run from 20 cents to 25 cents a 
pound for capons over eight pounds, 
and 18 cents or less for those under 
weight, which is certainly not enough 
difference for the trouble, when fat, old 
hens of the same weight bring as much 
as 16 cents a pound. Capons sold on 
the market are for the most part con¬ 
sumed by the hotels and restaurants 
rather than private parties, to whom at 
the present high prices for February 
and March fowl, chicken is chicken with 
a disposition to shy at fancy stuff more 
than at fancy prices. Cheaper chicken 
meat, like beef, is more in demand, so 
much so that I believe there is more 
money in cheap chickens on the whole¬ 
sale market than in the more expensive. 
A private trade with customers having 
tastes cultivated to a better article for 
a reasonable price is the kind for ca¬ 
pons. The situation as to capons is 
about this: Is it better to sell your late- 
hatched cockerels at from 30 - cents to 
50 cents apiece or even less as broilers, 
or to caponize them, feed and house 
them for six or eight months and get 
around $2 for them, if they come up to 
weight? The answer depends entirely 
on how busy you are with other things 
and what your accommodations and 
ability are. Going into it on a bigger 
scale you might buy chickens at broiler 
size cheap and handle them for the ca¬ 
pon market, perhaps even finishing them 
off with cramming. If you have long 
experience and sound judgment, this 
might no doubt pay; otherwise I would 
not caponize unless market conditions 
forced me to. r. b. 
TAKING THE COW’S FICTURE. 
I read with much pleasure the article of 
Mr. Jenkins in the November 25 issue on 
“The Camera as a Business Proposition.” I 
fully believe that the camera is to be used 
more and more as the years roll on in the 
buying and selling of purebred live stock. 
I fully agree with Mr. Jenkins in practically 
all that he says in his writing about pic¬ 
tures. But I must disagree with him in 
his posing an animal and calling Fig. 455 
“a cow posed just right.” If that cow is 
posed just right then I have been just 
wrong for many years. As a pose to 
show the udder of the cow he shows as a 
perfect pose. He shows the rear end of 
the cow and her udder perfectly. Take an¬ 
other look at it; as the cow is posed it 
shows the rear of her normally and the 
forepart of her as being abnormally de¬ 
ficient. In case I was a prospective buyer 
of this cow and her owner was to send me 
this picture as an illustration of her, tell 
me. please, how I could tell by the picture 
anything about her chest, whether it was 
prominent or sunken ; whether she was deep 
through the heart; clean in the throttle or 
a thick muscular neck. Every student of 
animal husbandry knows full well that an 
animal must have a strong constitution or 
it soon breaks down whim put to the test 
as a dairy cow. working horse or profitable 
sheep or swine, yet with this pose the 
anatomy of the parts that one must judge 
the animal's true worth by are not shown 
at all under this pose. It is the whole 
animal as far as possible that the admirer 
of good animals desires to see in the pic¬ 
ture of it, and not one end of it. Had I a 
cow on my farm I desired to sell and she 
had a large udder, broad hips and prom¬ 
inent milk veins, yet said cow was a little 
weak in her constitution and my desire was 
to cover up her defects, then I should de¬ 
sire just such a pose as my friend calls a 
perfect one. The points of an animal which 
denote constitutional vigor should be shown 
in every picture, as it is the foundation of 
everything that is truly good in the ani¬ 
mal. Without a strong constitution, no 
matter what the udder development may 
be, we have a cow that goes wrong in early 
life. This is a known fact among prac¬ 
tical dairymen, and as much of the future 
dealings in domestic animals is to be trans¬ 
acted by correspondence and through the 
aid of the camera, i consider it. as does 
Air. Jenkins, highly important that the pos¬ 
ing be such as to show the whole physical 
conformation of the animal. This can onlv 
be done by a square side view of the ani¬ 
mal with the head but slightly turned to¬ 
ward the camera. c. d. smkad. 
LOUDENS Bird-Proof 
Barrv D ooi^gj^ 
No other barn 
Door Hanger 
on the market posit- 
ively and permanently overcomes all 
the troublesof clogging by either birds 
in summer or by snow and ice in 
winter. There’s no opening in the 
Louden Hanger, except a narrow slit. 
Made of one solid piece of s'eel pressed into 
shape. Is rust-proof; will last a life time. 
Louden’sSHanger 
is the only one on the market having 
flexible track which prevents gather¬ 
ing of trash between track and barn. 
If you are going to build a new barn or need 
new hangers for the old one, get the hanger 
that never balks, always easy to operate. 
It will ease your barn work greatly and Save 
you time and money to Loudenize your whole 
barn: Putin Louden’s Tubular Steel Stalls 
and Stanchions, Feed and Litter Carriers, 
Hay Carriers and Balance Grapple Forks. 
See them at your dealers. If he has not our 
line write us for Free catalog and send your 
dealer's name. 
Louden Machinery Co., 
701 Broadway, Fairfield. Iowa. 
“MEN WHO KNOW- 
USE THE 
DE LAVAL 
Cream Separator 
Does it not mean a great deal to YOU, the prospective buyer 
of a Cream Separator, that such men as 
Andrew Carnegie, the great steel magnate 
F. G. Bourne, Pres’t Singer Sewing Machine Co. 
J. Ogden Armour, head of Armour & Co. 
Henry Williams, Pres’t Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. 
John Arbuckle, the great coffee merchant 
J. C. Hoagland, Pres’t Royal Baking Powder Co. 
C. L. Tiffany, of the great New York jewelers 
C. W. Seamans, Pres’t Remington Typewriter Co. 
Gov. W. D. Hoard, publisher of Hoard’s Dairyman 
Hon. Wm. J. Gay nor, Mayor of New York City 
and many others like them, good dairy farmers as well as great 
leaders in every sphere of human endeavor, each of whom is 
posses,sed of much personal experience and a thousand authorita¬ 
tive sources of separator information, are among the 1,375,000 
satisfied users of DE LAYAL Cream Separators ? 
It’s always good policy to profit by the experience of others. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO SEATTLE 
WRITE FOR SPECIAL TERMS 
For a Short Time 
Farmers’ Favorite 
FEED COOKERS AND 
AGRICULTURAL BOILERS 
are ottered on unusual terms. Sizes range 
from 25 Gal. to 100 Gal. Send us your 
name and address at once. 
LEWIS MFC. CO., Box C., Cortland, N. Y. 
A 
BEFORE YOU BUY WRITE FOR 
NEW CATALOG DESCRIBING THE 
iUARANTEEO MONEY-SAVING 
i8 INTERNATIONAL 
§P SILOS 
jlli ?! 
strongest built, simplest to put up and easiest operated 
on the market. Adjustable automatic take-up hoop- 
continuous open-door front—air-tight door and per* 
manent ladder are some of the unusual features. The 
International Slla *•«*« U3 Sain St.. Ltnesrilla. Bb 
Licensed under Harder Patent on Round Silos. 
TAT 17 T f drilling 
Tt LLLmachines 
Over 70 sizes and styles, for drilling either deep or 
shallow wells in any kind or soil or rock. Mounted on 
wheels or on sills. With enginesorhorse powers, .strong, 
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easily. Send for catalog. 
WILLIAMS BROS., Ithaca. N. Y. 
DON'T HOLD THAT PLOW 
Use a Winner 
Plow Truck 
With or without seat. Avoid 
the jerking that 
makes you lame 
and tired. Easier 
on the horses, too. Pays 
for itself in better work 
and more of it. Gauges 
width and depth of furrow 
With Seat It 
Makes a Sulky ol Your Walking Plow 
A success on eastern stony farms equally as well as on western 
prairies. Thousands pleased. It will please you, too. Order 
direct. Don't ask your dealer. He’ll tell you it’s “no good;” 
there’s more for him in something costing five times as much, 
see ? Send for money-saving Introductory offer. 
L. R. LEWIS, Box 12, Cortland, N. Y. 
SKUNKS and ALL 
OTHER FURS 
We want them. If you have 
never written to us for a price 
list, do so at once and he kept 
posted throughout the season" 
We want Furs from the East¬ 
ern States and Canada only. 
CHARLES A. KAUNE 
K-1465, Montgomery, N. Y. 
successful r nr-r- 
Poultry Lessons V" It C E 
—to Every New 
BENI) A POSTAL. Get Gilcre»t’B big 
book FREE and also his facts about his 
SUCCESSFUL Poultry Lessons given to 
buyers of 
Successful 'brooders 5 
Start right for biggest profits. Write to 
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The only 
Incuboto- 
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recommended by Government 
experts in their official report," 
i Bulletin No. 236—double walls with ,, 
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r hatch INCUBATOR CO., 
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;m» ciuep 
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#OULTf?r 
ip.; _ ; . V'lfc’FT; 
fountain 
h';y[ 
More than half your poultry troubles are caused 
by not properly protecting their drinking water 
from the contamination of the chickens them¬ 
selves. You can end all your water troubles by 
equipping your poultry yards with 
Moe’s Top-Fill 
Drinking Fountain 
It always supplies just enough pure water— 
won’t slop over—dead air space keeps water COOL 
IN SUMMER, WARM IN WINTER. Simple in 
construction—just remove cover and fill from top— 
water ceases to flow when cover is removed—no 
valves to get out of order. One gallon capacity. 
If not at your dealers, sent direct on receipt of 
price. $1.25, Satisfaction guaranteed, 
p OTIS & MOE. 540 S. Dearborn St,. Chicago 
MAKE BIG MONEY 
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Y OU don’t need experi¬ 
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hatches the largest possible percentage ’ ’ 
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“Raising Poultry for Pleasure and Profit.** 
Explains why .STAHL’S EXCELSIOR with its 
many exclusive ftp*"res is the one you want. 
Ooo.II. Stahl. 442 Oak 8L, Quincy, Ill. 
1877-1912 
100 Eogs-98 Chicks. 
Write for FREF ^ook 
telling bow to obtain *une 
results. Book pictures and 
describes the Galvn lien—a 
galvanized steel incubator that 
will not crack, wurp or rot. Contains 
other valuable information. Get it. 
qc:ncy hatcher co. 
AO York St. 9 Quincy, III. 
