New York AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 959 
Cockerels and Capons. 
One lot of cockerels was fed at the same time with these lots of 
capons. These cockerels, Buff Cochins, were entirely comparable 
with the lot of the same breed selected for caponizing, being of 
the same parentage, age and previous treatment, with the excep- 
tion that, as no pen large enough was available at the time the 
lot for caponizing was separated, the cockerels were allowed to 
run for a few weeks longer before special feeding began. The 
feeding trial with the capons began in August and with the 
cockerels in September. | 
The proportion .of skim-milk in the ration was about the same 
for each during all the time after special, feeding of the cockerels 
began, except the last two weeks. With the cockerels during 
eighteen weeks the skim-milk supplied over forty-nine per cent. 
of the total food and eleven and one-half per cent. of the water- 
free food, and with the capons during the same time over forty- 
seven per cent. of the total food and nearly eleven per cent. of the 
water-free food. The ratio of protein to total carbohydrates was 
nearly the same in each ration. 
The growth made by the cockerels was more rapid than that of 
the capons, but much less regular. Although on September 
twenty-sixth the «ockerels averaged nearly six-tenths of a pound 
3 lighter than the capons, they averaged on February thirteenth 
nearly nine-tenths of a pound heavier. The cockerels consumed 
more food, however, than the capons, so that at nine pounds aver- 
age weight the cockerels had cost seven-tenths of a cent per 
pound live weight more than the capons. At the average weight 
of six pounds, a few weeks after the operation of caponizing, the 
cockerels had cost less, having cost at this weight six cents per 
: pound, and the capons having cost six and seven-tenths cents per 

pound live weight. 
The Cochins were caponized at the average weight of 4.3 pounds. 
The loss from fasting and the operation was 10.8 per cent., but 
_ during the week in which caponizing was done the average gain 
was 1.8 per cent. 
: The following tables give the results of feeding for the Buff 
q Cochins, cockerels and capons, but for a brief way of comparison 
