Vol. IX. No. 210. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



155 



POULTRY NOTES. 



TBE BREEDING AND REARING OF 



TURKEYS. 



Leaflet No. 229 of the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries has Just been issued, under the above 

 title. As il; contains much that is of interest in 

 relation to West Indian conditions, this has been 

 e.xtracted: — 



Although turkeys may be niistd on heavy lanil, the 

 operation is ditlieult, particularly in a wet season, and a.-^ 

 a rule they do better on liglit soils, e.xcept in very dry weather, 

 when there may be some deficiency in ,^he green food. The 

 best results are obtained upon a ricTi soil, which is not 

 absolutely heavy in character. 



The natural instinct of adult turkeys is to roost in trees, 

 but this is not always permissible. Delicacy and disease, 

 however, are the direct result of badly ventilated or over- 

 heated sleeping quarters, and a special form of house is 

 necessary for the proper accommodation of turkeys. Although 

 some special features are essential, the construction of a suit- 

 able house is really very simple. In conmion with all forms 

 of fowl houses, the floor should be dry and the buikling rain- 

 proof and free from draughts. The roof should, if jiossible, 

 be thatched. The arrangement of the perches is important; 

 they should be broad, but not too broad for the birds to griii, 

 and must run from end to end of the building. 



Turkeys always prefer to remain on their perches until 

 let out in the morning, when it is thfir habit to fly straight 

 out and alight on the ground at .some distance in front of the 

 house. For this reason, and to piwent the birds from damag- 

 ing them.selves, the whole of the front of the house must be 

 made to open with folding doors or gates consisting of strong 

 frames, hung on hinges and covered with wire netting. It is 

 only from stock housed in a healthy open-air manner that 

 a healthy progen}' can be expected. An excellent liouse can 

 be made of a thatched shed with walls of wattled furze. 



!Many failures have been primarily due to inbreeding 

 and the use of immature stock wanting.in stamina. The use 

 of well-bred and well-grown cocks for mating is of the first 

 importance, and close breeding should be avoided. Weil- 

 grown birds for breeding are not necessarily of great size. 

 An approximation to 20 fl). in the male.s and 15 It), in the 

 females would be suitable weights for ordinary breeding 

 purposes, other considerations including width of shoulders, 

 contour of breast, and a medium length of leg. The stock 

 birds should be preferably from two to three years okl, and 

 from six to eight hens may be run with a vigorous cock, 

 although a more usual proportion is four or five hens. One 

 service is usually sufHeient for the fertilization of a batch of 

 eggs, but permanent mating is preferable. 



During March, the hens require watching, or they will 

 choose some out-of-the-way spot in which to nest. It is 

 advisable to place boxes or barrels on their sides in sheltered 

 positions, in which the birds may lay. April is the best 

 hatching month, and it is generally inadvisable to continue 

 hatching beyond June: but although late birds have insuffi- 

 cient time to come to full maturity, they may be disposed of 

 as poults. Turkey hens are usually good mothers, but their 

 eggs may also be hatched under ordjnary hens. Artificial 

 methods of hatching and rearing are not recommended, 

 though incubators are frequently used at the time of hatching. 

 A turkey hen will cover fnmi fifteen to si.xteen eggs, and 

 a large barn-door hen from eight to ten. The period of 



incubation is twenty-eight days. The nests should be upon 

 an earth bottom, and the general arrangement should be 

 similar to that in the case of ordinary hens' eggs. 



For the purpose of rearing, the [irinciple of the roost 

 house should, as far as possible, be applied to the ccops, the 

 doors of which should be wire netted, and covered with 

 sacking in severe weather if necessary. The birds should be 

 cooped with their natural or foster mothers upon short turf 

 in a dry, sheltered position; a rich medium soil is the most 

 suitable for them. The coops must be moved a short distance 

 daily to a fresh patch, and the hens allowed out with the 

 young birds when possible. 



TO JUDGE THE AGE OP A FOWL. 



In the case of a pullet, the surface under the wings will 

 always be found interspersed with minute rose-coloured veins, 

 which are totally absent in birds that are more than twelve 

 months old. Again, there will be found, with pullets, 

 a fair supply of long, silky hairs, which disappear directly 

 the first moult is concluded. In the adult hen, the skin will 

 be found to be jjerfectly white, and free from either veins or 

 hairs; hence it is easy, at a single glance, to estimate 

 correctly whether a bird is under or over the age that acts as 

 a line of demarcation between juvenile and adult stock. 

 Additional evidence is forthcoming in the formation of the 

 pelvic bones which, in a pullet, are much closer than in the hen 

 that has passed the pullet age.' At two years they are much 

 wider than at one year, so that birds at this age can be readily 

 distinguished from those of, say fifteen and eighteen months. 

 The third point of ditterence is oliservable in the shanks find 

 claws. In the young bird, the skin of the claw is .supple, and 

 the scales are thin and brilliant. The skin gets coarser and 

 stronger and the scales harder, as the bird grows, and the 

 nail of the first toe, which does most of the work, gets much 

 worn. There is also a difference in the eyelids. These 

 accjuire wrinkles as the bird gets older, and there is also 

 a slightly shrivelled look on the face. This with age, 

 becomes more and more pronounced. Lastly, there is the 

 question of wing feathers — the most infallible test of all. 

 At the co)iclusion of the fir.st complete moult, which takes 

 place when the fowl is exactly twelve months old, the 

 secondaries alter in shape, and bear indisputable evidence as 

 to the dividing line having been crossed. Although the 

 surest test of all, this latter can only be ascertained by those 

 well versed in handling feathered stock. (Farmer and 

 Grazier.) 



A Use for Lemon Grass. 



The Journal d' Agriculture Tropirale, No. 104, contains 

 an account of a use for lemon grass that is under trial by the 

 Government of Uganda. This consists in the cultivation of 

 lemon grass, not merely as a source of essential oil, but as 

 a prophylactic measure against sleeping sickness, which is 

 especially prevalent among the natives who live on the shores 

 of Lake Victoria-Nyanza. This plant, through the vapour of 

 essential oil which it constantly produces, repels the greater 

 number of insects, particularly the tse-tse fly (Glossijia tnorsif- 

 ans), by which the disease is transmitted. 



From the account, it appears that the grass is cultivated 

 as a border, about 300 yards broad, around the margin of the 

 lake. Grown in this way, it improves the sanitary conditions, 

 le.ssens the erosion of the soil, and yields, when cut, a profit- 

 able amount of oil. It is suggested that this use of the 

 grass should be extended to other colonies in tropicab Africa. 



