224 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



yolk which they draw into themselves shortly before they come from 

 the shell. Don't start them on hard-boiled egg. It is too rich and 

 indigestible for a new-born babe, and besides a little turk is full of 

 egg when it hatches, and is nothing but an egg walking around on 

 legs, anyhow. Aim at variety, and watch Mother Turkey's style of 

 feeding. 



The lousy, scabby-legged cluck is a gormandizer, and her plan of 

 feeding turkeys is to stuff them to death. But Mother Turkey hands 

 them a mosquito here, a gnat there, a June bug from away across 

 the field, and expects several of them to make a meal off a single 

 grasshopper. Mother Turkey's advice to the turkey raiser, and it 

 ought to be framed: FEED LITTLE BUT OFTEN. 



Thousands of little turkeys are fed to death. The little birds are 

 so cute; they squeal like little pigs and chase the farmer's wife 

 around and make her believe they are starving to death, and she 

 pities them and feeds them a little more, and soon they stand around 

 sleepy, with ruffled feathers; they drag their feed, drop yellow ex- 

 crement, and then off they fly to turkey heaven. 



Select the right feed, handle it with care^ and feed little but often. 



Oats is our best-balanced grain between carbo-hydrates and pro- 

 tein, and is rich in ash, the bone-builder. Feed dry. Steel-cut pin- 

 head oatmeal is a fine turkey-starter, and hulled oats and chipped 

 oats as they grow older. Don't substitute rolled oats for oatmeal; 

 it causes intestinal troubles. After waiting for the yolks to digest, 

 throw them a little oatmeal and fine grit the first two feed days. The 

 third feed day give them fresh cottage cheese and dry sweet bread- 

 crumbs, equal parts. The fourth feed day, give them dry sweet bread, 

 dipped in milk and squeezed almost dry, for breakfast, oatmeal for 

 dinner, and equal parts cottage cheese, bread-crumbs and fine chopped 

 lettuce for supper, and a little oatmeal between meals, but never 

 fill them up. The fifth day, broil an egg, and add equal parts bread- 

 crumbs and fine-chopped tender onion tops for breakfast; one egg 

 to every eight poults. For dinner feed oatmeal; for supper take equal 

 parts cottage cheese, bread-crumbs, and fine-chopped tender dande- 

 lions, and oatmeal between meals. The dandelions is a fine tonic, 

 and the onion tones the liver, disinfects the digestive tract, and kills 

 the intestinal parasites to which turkeys are much subject. 



This menu is not arbitrary, and much depends on the feeder's 

 judgment and he must study his birds and handle them and feel 

 their crops and decide much by the actions and condition of his 

 birds. He must select the right food and then be careful not to 

 feed too much of it at any time. Let oatmeal, old red wheat and 

 hulled oats be the standby grains and give then sour milk often. 

 The little birds need only be fed long enough to get a good start, 

 and then Mother Turkey will take then out where natural turkey 

 food abounds and do the rest. A light feed of red wheat at night, or 

 bread dipped in sour milk will get them in the habit of coming home 

 in the evening, and thus skunks, weasels, owls, and two-legged bird 

 burglars will not have so good a chance at them and you will know 

 how the birds are getting along. 



TURKEY PESTS— LICE 



Lice on turkeys are mostly found on head, neck, thighs, on wing- 

 quills and the fluff. The fluff having highest temperature, is the louse 



