1042 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



was introduced into this country from Spain soon after the discovery of the former 

 country. The color in the wild state is black, but domestication has produced great 

 variety. In a state of nature they are said to parade in flocks of five hundred, feeding, 

 in general, where abundance of nettles are to be found, the seed of which, and of a small 

 red acorn is their common food in the American woods. They get fat in a wild state, 

 and are soon run down by horses and dogs. They roost on the highest trees, and since 

 the clearing of extensive tracts in America, have become rare in many places : their anti- 

 pathy to any thing of a red color is well known. In this country they are supposed 

 to be of a tender constitution, which only applies to them when young, for when grown 

 up they will live in the woods with occasional supplies of food, as is actually the case 

 to a great extent in the demesne lands of the Marquis of Bute in Bute. 



6725. The varieties are few, and chiefly the copper white, said to be imported from 

 Holland, the former too tender for general culture ; and the black Norfolk, esteemed 

 superior to all others. 



6726. Breeding. One turkey cock is sufficient for six hens or more, and a hen will 

 cover according to her size from 9 to 1 5 eggs. The hen is apt to form her nest abroad in 

 a hedge, or under a bush, or in some insecure place ; she lays from eighteen to twenty- 

 five eggs, or upwards, and her term of incubation is thirty days. She is a steady sitter, 

 even to starvation, and therefore requires to be regularly supplied with food and water. 

 Buffbn says she is a most affectionate mother ; but Mowbray observes that from her na- 

 tural heedlessness and stupidity, she is the most careless of mothers, and being a great 

 traveller herself, will drag her brood over field, heath, or bog, never casting a regard be- 

 hind her to call in her straggling chicks, nor stopping while she has one left to follow her. 

 The turkey differs from the common hen in never scratching for her chicks, leaving them 

 entirely to their own instinct and industry, neither will they fight for their brood, though 

 vigilant in the discovery of birds of prey, when they will call their chickens together by 

 a particular cry, and run with considerable speed. Hence, when not confined within 

 certain limits, they require the attendance of a keeper. 



6727. Turkey chicks should be withdrawn from the nest as soon as hatched, and kept 

 very warm by wrapping them in flannel, or putting them under an artificial mother in a 

 warm room or other warm place. Various nostrums are recommended to be given and 

 done at this season, as a peppercorn, and a tea spoonful of milk, immersion in cold wa- 

 ter, &c. Mowbray wisely rejected all these unnatural practices, and succeeded by giv- 

 ing curd and hard eggs, or curd and barley meal kneaded with milk, and renewed with 

 clear water rather than milk, as he found the last often scoured them. A sort of ver- 

 miceli, or artificial worms, made from pulling boiled meat into strings, he found bene- 

 ficial for every species of gallinaceous chicken. Two great objects are to avoid super- 

 fluous moisture, and to maintain the utmost cleanliness, for which purposes as little slop 

 food is given as possible. A fresh turf of short sweet grass should be daily given as 

 green food, but not snails or worms, as scouring, and no oats ; nettle seed, clover, rue, 

 or wormwood gathered, as recommended by the elder housewives. Water is generally 

 preferable to milk. When the weather is favorable, the hen is cooped abroad in the 

 forenoon. During the rest of the day and night, for the first six weeks, she is kept with- 

 in doors. After this the hen may be cooped a whole day externally for another fortnight, 

 to harden the chickens ; and afterwards they may be left to range within certain limits, 

 or tended by an old man or woman, being fed at going out in the morning and returning 

 in the evening. Their ordinary food may be that of the common cocks and hens. They 

 will prefer roosting abroad upon high trees in the summer season, but that cannot gene- 

 rally be permitted with a view to their safe keeping. 



6728. Fattening. Sodden barley, or barley and wheat-meal mixed, is the most ap- 

 proved food ; and the general mode of management is the same as that of the common 

 cock and hen. They are generally fed so as to come in at Christmas, but they may be 

 fattened early or late. Sometimes, though but rarely, they are caponized. Buffbn says, 

 the wild turkey of America has been known to attain the weight of sixteen pounds ; the 

 Norfolk turkeys are said sometimes to weigh twenty and thirty pounds ; but Mowbray 

 says, he never made any higher than fifteen pounds ready for the spit. The living and 

 dead weight of a turkey are as 21 to 14. 



6729. Feathers. Turkeys are sometimes plucked alive, abarbarous practice which ought 

 to be laid aside. Parmentier proposed to multiply the breed of white turkeys in 

 France, and to employ the feathers found on the lateral part of the thighs, instead of the 

 plumes of the ostrich. 



6730. The Guinea hen {Numidia meleagris, L., ,fig. 721.), is a native of Guinea, and 

 found in various parts of South America in a wild state, where it perches on trees, 

 and builds its nest in the palm-tree. It is about the size of a common hen, grega- 

 rious, and often found in large flocks ; active, restless, and courageous ; and will even 

 attack the turkey, though so much above its size. This bird has been said to unite the 

 properties of the pheasant and the turkey j its flesh is more like that of the pheasant 



