RAISING TURKEYS. 195 



pens for a few days until they are strong enough, to fly 

 over a board inclosure one foot high. He feeds fre- 

 quently with coarse corn -meal and sour milk until four 

 o'clock in the afternoon. He found in his experience 

 that he lost a good many chicks from the food hardening 

 in the crop. There is danger from over-feeding. As 

 the chicks grow the sour-milk diet is increased, and 

 during the summer it is kept constantly in a trough for 

 them. They are exceedingly fond of sour-milk and 

 buttermilk, and they grow very rapidly upon this diet. 

 An incidental advantage, and a very important one, he 

 thinks, is that the young birds are prevented from stray- 

 ing very far from the house. They return many times 

 during the day to the buttermilk trough for their favor- 

 ite food. This, with Indian meal, constitutes their 

 principal food until midsummer, when insects are more 

 abundant, and they wander farther from the house. 

 This method can easily be tried on dairy farms. 



TURKEY ROOSTS. 



The turkey instinctively goes to roost at nightfall, 

 and in its native haunts takes to the highest trees, in 

 order to be safe from numerous enemies. The domes- 

 ticated bird has the same instinct, and prefers the 

 roofs of buildings, or the branches of trees, to any perch 

 under cover. Yet, if taken in hand when the broods 

 are young, turkeys can be trained to roost in almost any 

 place not under cover. For safety the roost should be 

 near the house or barn. If left to roost upon fences or 

 trees at a distance from the house, they are liable to be 

 disturbed, or carried off by foxes, or by poultry-thieves. 

 The roost should be some fifteen or twenty feet from the 

 ground. Poles of red or white cedar, from three to five 



