SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 699" 



them and to keep rid of them. Kerosene is quick death to them and can 

 easily be applied with an oil can such as is used around farm machinery. 

 There is no reason why any poultryman should be seriously troubled with 

 red mites. 



HOW TO RAISE TURKEYS ON THE FARM. 



C. E. Matterson of Pewaukee, Wis., Gives his Experience in Breeding and 

 Caring for Young Poults in Twentieth Century Farmer. 



Raising turkeys is purely an American industry and dates back to the 

 first discoveries of America. The Cabbot brothers, under King Henry 

 VII, sailing from Bristol, England, in the year 1497, discovered a portion 

 of this country. Upon their return to their native country they took 

 with them three Indians and two turkeys. These, the first turkeys ever 

 seen in Europe, must certainly have excited a great deal of curiosity. 



It is very important that we have good, strong, vigorous, breeding 

 stock, selecting the females from our earliest hatches. Be sure and get 

 those that have always been free from disease and whose ancestors have, 

 likewise, for if we start with diseased stock we may rest assured the same 

 weakness will show in our young stock afterward. Then in selecting the 

 male be sure to get one that is not related in any way for we cannot 

 even interbreed with turkeys. I do not like a great big overgrown bird, 

 but one of medium size, with well rounded body, broad and deep through 

 the breast, which means good, strong vital organs. Being half the flock 

 he is sure to transmit this vigor to his get. 



A great mistake that a large majority of our farmers make in select- 

 ing their breeding stock is that they generally have some small, inferior, 

 late-hatched stock, and being a littla greedy for money, a fault we all 

 have, we are almost sure to sell off our largest and best birds, keeping 

 the late hatched, inferior stock for our breeding stock the coming season. 

 This means that we are going to have weak stock all the way through. 



EGGS FOR HATCHING. 



Now, assuming that we have good, strong stock to begin with, let us 

 see that we do not get them too fat during the winter season. In fact, 

 I will say that we want them to come through in the spring in a rather 

 thin condition, commencing to feed them up a little about March 1, 

 so as to get them to laying about the first day of April or the last of 

 March. 



Accumulating the eggs at this season of the year is not a little con- 

 cern to the most of us, for the weather is usually a little chilly and 

 the turkey hen is rather shy and sometimes is given to wandering 

 quite a distance. To obviate this difficulty I have simply wired off vay 



