No. 5. - -rv^PARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 223 



sands of big birds die in the fall ; it is excess of carbo-hydrates. The 

 little fellows are stuffed with cornmeal, and the big birds go into 

 the corn fields and stuff with deadly green corn and they wade into 

 the buckwheat; for buckwheat is a fattener, also, and in the end, 

 that's the end of them. 



Towards Thanksgiving the farmer drives his flock in, off the 

 range, where they have exercised after every little bit of food they 

 got, and the tidbits were mostly protein, and he proceeds to fatten 

 them by the allopathic corn process, instead of finishing them by the 

 better, safe and sane milk-moist mash. A lot of them kick the 

 bucket. Then the neighbors and the horse doctor pronounce it tur- 

 key cholera, — black bead,— and the death of the big birds is shrouded 

 with myster3^ All you have to do is cut one of the victims open, and 

 there you will find an over-sized, mushy liver, covered with spots. 

 That solves the puzzle. The turkey's weak spot is the liver, and corn 

 sooner or later hits the spot. 



The farmer's big birds taken off range are not accustomed to grain, 

 to food in large quantity, and especially to rich, concentrated food 

 like corn, which breaks down the digestive system. A reasonable 

 amount of grain is good, if so mixed that protein and carbo-hydrates 

 are balanced, but the trouble is the majority of those who have failed, 

 tried to build turkey skeleton and make blood, muscle, organs and 

 feathers out of grease-maker. 



Farmers don't follow this plan with hogs. When Mother Sow pre- 

 sents a litter of pretty pigs, does the farmer start right away to 

 feed them corn, the great fattener? Not by a long shot. He depends 

 on Dame Sow to start them on high protein sow's milk, and when 

 they are weaned, he tries to mix a substitute of milk and by-products, 

 high in protein, to build a big hog. Indeed, he starts this Ijefore they 

 are born. He feeds this great essential, protein, before their birth, 

 for he knows the mother's system demands it, and he feeds it after 

 that her milk may be rich with it, and he knows that sows that are 

 deprived of protein, have such a great craving for it, that they often 

 will eat their pigs without any compunction of conscience. After 

 the hog raiser has built a big hog skeleton and covered it with mus- 

 cle and meat, and butchering time approaches, then he begins to 

 throw in corn, the great grease-maker to cover that hog with a thick 

 layer of lard. 



Now, if a farmer can't build a hog out of corn, why does he try it 

 with the turkey? Look over the list of farmers' wives who are con- 

 firmed turkey pessimists, and you will find the vast majority of them 

 mixed up a batch of cornmeal and slapped it down before Mother 

 Turkey's coop, and there it soured in the sun. This was flavored with 

 red-hot pepper, — a remarkable concoction for brand-new babies. 



For feeding little turkeys, first select the right feed and then han- 

 dle it with care. You must not just feed, but feed to build. You 

 must select a ration strong in ash, to make bone, and strong in pro- 

 tein to make blood, muscle and organs, for this is a natural turkey 

 grower, and the turkey is a big bird, the giant of the turkey tribe. 



FEEDING TURKEY POULTS. (See Fig. 9.) 



Let the poults sleep and keep warm for thirty or forty hours after 

 the hatch. That gives them time to digest and assimilate the egg 

 15 



