72 PROPAGATION OF WILD BIRDS 



ground, but with bordering woods, with which is connected 

 by gates a larger fenced tract of sixty or seventy acres, 

 mostly woodland. Fences are 9 feet high, made of ordinary 

 sheep-fencing, the wires being close together at bottom and 

 farther and farther apart above. There is a 5-foot strip 

 of this and a 4-foot strip of coarser mesh above. Owing 

 to the poisoning of vermin, he does not have to sink the wire 

 in the ground. 



In the smaller field, on a southerly slope, is a modern 

 poultry-house building, 150 x 15 feet, divided into ten sec- 

 tions, with connecting doors and open-front arrangement 

 with coarse wire before the upper half. There are roosts 

 and a single tier of nests directly on the ground in each one. 

 This is to shelter the stock in winter. During that season 

 he gives the turkeys the range of the entire tract. Toward 

 evening they are driven into the smaller field, and thence 

 into the shed. At times they are reluctant to enter, and a 

 strip of wire is run out to guide them. All breeders and 

 young not intended for liberation are pinioned. They are 

 shut in at night and on stormy days. 



Food for Adults. The food is any grain mixture or scratch 

 feed, and whole corn. Wheat is sowed in the pen for winter 

 use, and corn and millet are planted in the spring. The 

 large enclosure is divided in halves by another fence, which 

 makes it possible to alternate the birds on the land during 

 growing and planting times. Thus in spring and early 

 summer they are kept out of the growing crops till these are 

 matured. 



Laying and Hatching. Plenty of brush-heaps are scat- 

 tered about the four-acre tract, under which the hens lay 

 their eggs. Eggs are collected every day, leaving one in the 

 nest, or a china egg. The eggs are removed with a long- 

 handled spoon, which mode is thought to be less Hkely to 



